this game is so funny

many people credit nintendo for making kirby games, yet this is the only one they actually developed in-house

and I'm just here like "yeah I can tell"

As a kid I had Yoshi Topsy Turvy for the Gameboy Advance, which was a solidly mediocre game where the gyroscopic controls really felt like a gimmick. So I went into this with low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised to find a really solid game. It reminded me a lot of playing with those wooden marble labyrinths as a kid. The gameplay is simple but solid, with a handful of little optional challenging sections to get the collectables. This is probably way easier to play on the switch than it was on the Gameboy Color though, what with having to bend around to still be able to see the screen and all.

I personally didn't end up having a good time, but it's not a bad game. It's actually a really creative exploration of tilt mechanics, quickly switching from one high-concept level to the next Donkey Kong Country-style without giving any one mechanic time to grow stale. Given how much of a novelty this type of game design was, such that the cartridge would have used a custom gyroscope, I have a lot of respect for what they were going for.

Where it fell apart for me was with the port to Switch. Ironically, it's because of how much technology has improved; the Switch port leverages the Joy Cons' built-in gyroscopes, which are worlds ahead of what Hal Labs was able to stuff into the GameBoy Color carts. Because it's so sensitive, you have to have much more precise control over your movements than you ever needed in the original. Plus, if you're playing the game docked (which I was, since I was streaming my playthrough), there's an additional degree of abstraction and separation from your play that just makes it that much harder to wrap your head around. This is absolutely not a fault of the game itself, and I have in fact played a good chunk of the Japanese cart on original hardware for comparison; the base game is hard, but not quite as hard as it is the way I played it. My recommendation to you is to absolutely play it in portable mode, if you're trying out the Switch port.

Still, I do think some of those levels are designed to be annoying time sucks, and I'm not keen on that. Several levels are "walls" that will halt your forward momentum until you can solve them. Some of these I think are okay - 3-1 is a huge time sink, but it's very forgiving and specifically designed so the player can recover and try again while they learn. But other levels are endurance runs, and those really wear on me. I hold particular distain for 3-4, 5-2, 7-3, 7-4, and 8-4. I'm generally not a fan of any sequence where you're waiting for something to happen, whether that's the dumb bridge-building robots, the dumb conveyor belts bringing you back to the room's entrance, or anytime you're bouncing off a single bumper and trying to turn all sparkly. I know these are just how the challenge is designed and represent normal difficulty progression and scaling; maybe it's be better to say that I didn't enjoy the process of getting good enough to master the particular challenge this game had to offer.

For that matter, while all the sub-games are cute, there's a persistent issue that you MUST leave a high score in order to gain 1ups from them. Not a big deal at first, but it's quite easy to screw yourself over in, say, Kirby's Chicken Race by scoring really well the first time, then being unable to surpass that as the game difficulty scales. And Do The Kirby is another example of the game wasting time to get to a certain point. I like Simon-type games well enough, but a 3up is not a strong enough incentive to spend ten minutes per attempt trying for a new high score.

This is one of the earliest games to give Kirby voice acting, after Super Smash Bros. and Kirby 64. This is Makiko Ohmoto, who would become his regular voice actress, but you can kinda tell that everyone was still figuring out what the little guy should sound like. There are all sorts of early bits of weirdness, like Kirby cheering "Yatta!" when he collects a red/blue star, or his horrifying anguished groan when he drowns. All things that would be ironed out, but funny to run into here.

This would be Kirby's very last 8-bit outing, notwithstanding throwbacks like NES Remix and 3D Classics Kirby's Adventure. The game almost feels like a back-to-basics title, trimming its ensemble most of the way back to its Dream Land cast (with some exceptions, like Mr. Frosty and Starman), taking out Copy Abilities, and reintroducing a Mint Leaf-equivalent. A consequence of all this is that the game feels a bit sentimental, like it's an accidental send-off to Classic Kirby. By coincidence, this would be the last title before Kirby's rough patch, where progress on a mainline GameCube title stalled out and Kirby mostly got by on its anime and handheld outings - not unilaterally bad things, but inconsequential enough in the broad gaming market that Kirby fell from its B-list status among Nintendo properties to C or D-list. On a personal level, this would have been the last Kirby game to come out before I got into the series with Nightmare in Dream Land - so finally getting to play it really felt like I was putting a bow on my full series playthrough.

I have pretty mixed thoughts on the game, as you can see, but I'm willing to accept that that's largely a me-problem. Still, do try to play it in handheld mode, if you're playing it on Switch.

I had an Atomic Purple Game Boy Color back in the before times and I loved this game. I never beat it because it's a difficult one. And my Game Boy eventually melted on the dashboard of a car in the desert Sun. Tilt 'n' Tumble would remain a fond, uncompleted, memory for nearly two decades.

While browsing one day, I (s)tumbled over a ROMhack for the game that gave it d-pad controls. While it definitely isn't the true Tilt 'n' Tumble experience, it was a way to revisit this long lost memory. And one of my Chinese retro game handhelds is Atomic Purple. I just had to.

D-pad definitely takes a bulk of the challenge away, yet also removes some of the finest finesse. It's a massive net gain towards easy, but it changes the feel too. It's hard to explain unless you've played both.

But the game is still Kirby. It's still full of charming sprites and ideas. And yeah, it's fun. I played it through and got to see all of the game I never got to before. It's cool to read that it is available on the Switch these days too. While it's a difficult one, it really was something special. It deserves to be played.

My higher rating admittedly reflects me scratching a personal nostalgia itch. Plus I'm a huge sucker for novelty features in general. I will still definitely have to experience that gyro novelty again some time and play it again "right". Always itchy..

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

One of the rare cases where the obvious tech demo for the accelerometer try actually to build a game instead of being a mere showcase. The idea of doing each level with a unique concept like Mario (and funnily enough, unlike Kirby platformers) is neat! But their choice of going for the most frustrating and punishing level design they could think make the game a chore (what is really like 90s Kirby games!). Sometimes the game also prefer the weird tech instead of the better design options. Particularly the jump, which is not functionable at all.

I'm glad that this exist but is a very passable game

Kirby Tilt N Tumble is a game where you play as Kirby except you tilt the Gameboy Colour (the tilting hardware was specifically designed for the GBC so it doesn't work on other hardware that well) and try to avoid obstacles reaching an end goal.

This game can be seen as a spin off of sorts to Kirby's Dream Course, except it's single player and more designed like a traditional game where you reach the end.

The game is good at being not too easy, but not too hard though it can be easy to get frustrated from this game.

The game is pricy now a days (October 2020) and I don't really think it's worth more than $15 at most.

It's a game made for a gimmick and it uses that gimmick okay enough, though jumping can be a bit tricky sometimes.