I played it. I loved it.

Kirby games aren't really the kinds of games that you overanalyze and meticulously pick apart. Not because there isn't anything of substance, or that they are perfect, but because the focus of the games tends to veer away from mechanical depth, and into aesthetics.

In that regard, KDL3 is easily the game that sticks out the most on the entire SNES. The visuals are genuinely impressive by today's standards, not necessarily in fidelity, but in art direction. Kirby always has striking character designs, but they are amplified here by the pseudo-hand drawn art mimicked by the pixel art. As someone who literally just played KDL3 for the first time, I don't have to consider the context of when the game was made when determining a lot of the aesthetics, which is something I can't say for many titles on the SNES. Genuinely great stuff here, which really amplifies the whole vibe of the game.

I've tried playing other Kirby games, but have only really enjoyed my time with this and Kirby 64. I hope that I can like the other games at some point too, but I think I can directly credit my disinterest in the other games to their lack of focus. Kirby doesn't really compete with other games in the same genre when it comes to raw gameplay, so the focus shouldn’t be on the gameplay, at least in my opinion.

This isn’t to say that Kirby has bad gameplay, but it's far from the most interesting thing the games offer, mostly due to Kirby being a franchise aimed for less experienced players. The other titles I’ve played seem to get right into the action and neglect building atmosphere. You can see the shift in focus directly in the power-ups as well, which have far more moves in the other games. Kirby controls tighter, the general speed of gameplay is increased, the list goes on and on of other small changes. In other 2D platformers, I would welcome those changes, but from what I’ve played of these other titles, they don’t have as engaging second to second gameplay, or as varied level design. Once again, Kirby is aimed at kids, so it makes sense that they can’t ramp up the difficulty, but this is precisely why I’ve found myself falling head over heels for KDL3 and K64.

Genuinely great games that don’t overstay their welcome, have enough interesting ideas to fill out the whole run time, and leave a lasting impression on me are few and far between. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is able to achieve this with a much shorter run time, the unique gameplay gimmick inherent to all Kirby games (his copy ability), and the incredible atmosphere the game builds. I’m glad KDL3 turned out so great, and I look forward to playing the third and final game directed by Shinichi Shimomura in the future.

Black Bird isn’t a substantial game by any metric, but that doesn’t mean it's not worth your time. There are a lot of games with smaller scope that don’t get a lot of attention because they aren’t the “next big thing.” Most people’s favorite game isn’t a short 30 minute indie game, and I’m not here to say it should be otherwise. But I do think that games with a scope as large as Black Bird’s do get overlooked in favor of something more substantial.

Black Bird is charming to an extent that few games are. I would almost put it up there with games like Earthbound and Katamari Damacy in how charming it is. The pixel art is gorgeous, the color palettes are subdued in a way that makes such vastly different environments feel cohesive to one project. The character designs are as charming as ever, most of Onion Games stuff has a distinct look to it, and it's not absent here. The music is great too, ranging from old classical music, to new tracks in the same vein. It acts as a nice background since so many goofy and wacky sound effects layer over the music.

The gameplay isn’t noteworthy, but it doesn’t have to be. I heard someone recently talking about how Shmups have almost become synonymous with Bullet-Hells, and it really struck me how few Shmups are slower paced. It's refreshing to see something that isn’t as intense in the same genre. It allows the player to focus on the presentation more and fits better with the tone of the game.

I think Black Bird understands that it's not a monolithic title, and it's all the better for it. Onion Games really honed in on what their vision for the game was, and it turned out great.

I really enjoyed my time with ZeroRanger. I don’t quite have the lexicon built up to talk about Shmups (I haven’t played that many), but I feel pretty confident that ZeroRanger excels in comparison to most of its competition. The structure of the game gives a large focus to elements that often feel tacked on in these types of arcade-y games, namely the scoring and continue systems. It should be noted that it's not just that these elements are incorporated in a way that incentivizes players to engage with them, but they are also used in interesting narrative ways. It feels elegant in a way that most games' core design isn’t.

It's especially noteworthy that these changes are implemented so well because of how many games simply copy older games’ design. Lots of old games have systems built in place because they were common at the time. This isn't a shocking revelation, but a whole lot of design trends have become outdated. Yet at the same time, if you were to make a modern Shmup, you would be heavily criticized if you didn't include a score system, or a limited continue systems, etc. ZeroRanger sidesteps both of these grievances by being cleverly built to accommodate the best parts of arcade-y games, while still feeling modern with its approach by elevating each aspect.

My favorite part (to no one’s surprise) was the presentation. Such a bold color palette is used expertly to create vastly different atmospheres throughout the four levels. Really incredible stuff visually. But it's not just that it's well executed, it's that it's unique. A lot of games can have excellent visuals by most metrics, but they don’t tend to stand out in my mind the way that a Green and Orange color palette does. It’s bold, and it’s all the better for it.

The music is of course the highlight. Sky XXXX Days, The Sea Has Returned, It May Be Greenish, Despair, the list goes on. I couldn’t do justice talking about them here, just listen to them. A lot of the music hit especially close to home after playing Void Stranger, since the games share a lot of motifs.

I couldn’t recommend ZeroRanger enough. I tried not to touch on the spoiler stuff because you should play it for yourself. Between ZeroRanger and Void Stranger, System Erasure has solidified themselves as one of my favorite developers. I heavily anticipate whatever they release next.