Kirby's Adventure blows almost every other 8-bit platformer out of the water. I mean, I get it. It was 1993, so HAL had all the know-how and in-cartridge chips to make a game this good for NES, but still.
Copy Abilities debut here, and the system is done quite well for its first iteration, with a good variety of them and puzzles designed to keep you playing around with what they can do. World maps with secrets entice you to thoroughly explore levels for things you might've missed. Gorgeous pixel art and great music make the presentation something special.
One of the last big games on the NES, Kirby's Adventure is quite the note to go out on.
Copy Abilities debut here, and the system is done quite well for its first iteration, with a good variety of them and puzzles designed to keep you playing around with what they can do. World maps with secrets entice you to thoroughly explore levels for things you might've missed. Gorgeous pixel art and great music make the presentation something special.
One of the last big games on the NES, Kirby's Adventure is quite the note to go out on.
Was it a good idea to give Kirby copy abilities? From a sales perspective, maybe so; but from a game design perspective, I'm not so sure.
I grew up with Kirby 64, and I always felt cheated when I'd bring in a copy ability to a midboss, and curb stomp it before its health bar had even loaded. Those poor developers had to design traditional boss attack patterns, and enemy projectiles for players to exhale back at them in case little Timmy enters a boss arena without a copy ability, and here I am, ignoring all that by spamming some brain dead copy ability. It also wasn't fun in the slightest to have to bring copy abilities from other levels in to break the color-coded blocks hiding crystal shards. It didn't test my skills or ingenuity, only my patience.
Last year, I picked up Kirby's Dream Land, which was a revelation. THIS is the game I suspected was buried underneath the incongruous copy ability mechanic! I really enjoyed the ebb and flow of inhaling, exhaling, and actually having to learn and accommodate for Kirby's slow, unorthodox movement system.
Instead of copy abilities, more traditional power-ups are available for the developers to design the level around; I found these sections - like the bullet hell-like boss Kabula - to be much more engaging and memorable than traditional Kirby fare.
The game is a little on the simple side without the wrinkle in game design that copy abilities provide, sure, but I think its simplicity compliments its handheld pick-up-and-play format; and I doubt many of Dream Land's detractors have really engaged with its criminally overlooked extra mode.
But this is a review of Kirby's Adventure. Most everyone sees it as an unqualified upgrade from Dream Land - it added Kirby's signature copy abilities, how could it not be? Not surprisingly, I see it as a downgrade.
In my opinion, Adventure is a much more bloated and haphazardly designed game. It feels like they stretched each level from Dream Land into an entire world, without adding anything engaging to make up for the increased length.
Many sprites, enemies and music tracks are recycled from Dream Land. Instead of funnelling the player into enemies and obstacles, levels are much more open, and Kirby takes up much less space on the screen; I found myself able to simply fly over obstacles much more often this time around.
Performance is rough, too. Slowdown in retro games doesn't really bother me, but here, it leads to temperamental controls. At first, I thought something was wrong with my NES controllers, but it's definitely the game's fault. Every tenth or so button input simply doesn't register, which was especially frustrating on this game's harder extra mode.
I can't help but feel that many of this game's problems result from squeezing in Kirby's copy abilities. The level design has to accommodate for whichever ability you might have, leading to bigger, blander spaces. Less tightly designed, engaging obstacle courses, and more empty rooms in which to experiment with copy abilities.
Level segments are occasionally designed around nearby enemy copy abilities. But the one hit loss of abilities often led to times where I'd be slowly walking along a long stretch clearly designed for the wheel ability, or slowly flying over a dozen trees laden with exploding coconuts clearly designed for the parasol, thinking, "Wow, this might have been kind of fun..." The punishment for losing the copy ability is...being forced to easily beat the level in a less interesting way?
And just as in Kirby 64, bosses were unengaging pushovers if I didn't challenge myself by tossing my copy ability in the garbage beforehand. Of course, the exceptions are Meta Knight and the secret final boss, which force power-ups on you that ignore the usual one hit ability loss rule. And of course, these were the most engaging moments of the game for me, especially the tonally discordant spectacle of the Nightmare.
Was it a good idea to fracture Kirby's moveset via copy abilities? My experience so far says no. I tend to believe these games would have been better going the traditional power-up pick-up route. It's possible that the execution has simply been lacking in the games I've played so far, so I'll withhold final judgment.
Overall, not a bad game, just underwhelming. I'm interested to hear any feedback on my ruminations. Next is Super Star.
I grew up with Kirby 64, and I always felt cheated when I'd bring in a copy ability to a midboss, and curb stomp it before its health bar had even loaded. Those poor developers had to design traditional boss attack patterns, and enemy projectiles for players to exhale back at them in case little Timmy enters a boss arena without a copy ability, and here I am, ignoring all that by spamming some brain dead copy ability. It also wasn't fun in the slightest to have to bring copy abilities from other levels in to break the color-coded blocks hiding crystal shards. It didn't test my skills or ingenuity, only my patience.
Last year, I picked up Kirby's Dream Land, which was a revelation. THIS is the game I suspected was buried underneath the incongruous copy ability mechanic! I really enjoyed the ebb and flow of inhaling, exhaling, and actually having to learn and accommodate for Kirby's slow, unorthodox movement system.
Instead of copy abilities, more traditional power-ups are available for the developers to design the level around; I found these sections - like the bullet hell-like boss Kabula - to be much more engaging and memorable than traditional Kirby fare.
The game is a little on the simple side without the wrinkle in game design that copy abilities provide, sure, but I think its simplicity compliments its handheld pick-up-and-play format; and I doubt many of Dream Land's detractors have really engaged with its criminally overlooked extra mode.
But this is a review of Kirby's Adventure. Most everyone sees it as an unqualified upgrade from Dream Land - it added Kirby's signature copy abilities, how could it not be? Not surprisingly, I see it as a downgrade.
In my opinion, Adventure is a much more bloated and haphazardly designed game. It feels like they stretched each level from Dream Land into an entire world, without adding anything engaging to make up for the increased length.
Many sprites, enemies and music tracks are recycled from Dream Land. Instead of funnelling the player into enemies and obstacles, levels are much more open, and Kirby takes up much less space on the screen; I found myself able to simply fly over obstacles much more often this time around.
Performance is rough, too. Slowdown in retro games doesn't really bother me, but here, it leads to temperamental controls. At first, I thought something was wrong with my NES controllers, but it's definitely the game's fault. Every tenth or so button input simply doesn't register, which was especially frustrating on this game's harder extra mode.
I can't help but feel that many of this game's problems result from squeezing in Kirby's copy abilities. The level design has to accommodate for whichever ability you might have, leading to bigger, blander spaces. Less tightly designed, engaging obstacle courses, and more empty rooms in which to experiment with copy abilities.
Level segments are occasionally designed around nearby enemy copy abilities. But the one hit loss of abilities often led to times where I'd be slowly walking along a long stretch clearly designed for the wheel ability, or slowly flying over a dozen trees laden with exploding coconuts clearly designed for the parasol, thinking, "Wow, this might have been kind of fun..." The punishment for losing the copy ability is...being forced to easily beat the level in a less interesting way?
And just as in Kirby 64, bosses were unengaging pushovers if I didn't challenge myself by tossing my copy ability in the garbage beforehand. Of course, the exceptions are Meta Knight and the secret final boss, which force power-ups on you that ignore the usual one hit ability loss rule. And of course, these were the most engaging moments of the game for me, especially the tonally discordant spectacle of the Nightmare.
Was it a good idea to fracture Kirby's moveset via copy abilities? My experience so far says no. I tend to believe these games would have been better going the traditional power-up pick-up route. It's possible that the execution has simply been lacking in the games I've played so far, so I'll withhold final judgment.
Overall, not a bad game, just underwhelming. I'm interested to hear any feedback on my ruminations. Next is Super Star.