There's a moment at the end of world 2 where a cutscene plays, with the whole crew in a desert as Kirby lags behind, desperate for food as they then imagine their friends as said items. Of course, Adeleine makes food for everyone with her paintings and they have a nice picnic right there.

It's that kind of heartwarming, powerful energy that runs through the whole experience. This friendly, childlike pleasantry as you go across the galaxy with fun poplike music playing through the speakers, as your friends join you in a great amount of the levels to assist you. Whether that be sledding with waddle dee to king dedede himself helping you across lava chasms there's always a strong aura that feels like one very warm hug. If anything the only small issue is just that sometimes the game reminds you that it's a little old and shakes your attention by forcing you to grab a powerup twice from a completely different area for the true ending. But even still, the whole playthrough is rather forgiving, in that you can actually get a powerup mid-level, quit out of the level, and still have that powerup on you, including all the crystals you got in the level so far!!

Crystal Shards is very much a nostalgic, but also genuine fav of the kirby games for me. I'll always think about that final level where The Squad helps you out one final time before Ribbon carries you as you rail shoot an utterly corrupted angelic entity that bleeds while the game pleads with you to Tough It Out!!!

A step down from Mega Man 2 in my opinion. The improved controls and the addition of sliding weren't enough to make up for the flaws of this game. The stages were frustating, some of them were actually Mega Man 1-tier annoying.
Furthermore, the new powers are a lot worse than the Mega Man 2 powers. Both in terms of effectiveness and in terms of how good they felt to use.
The Proto Man fights were pretty lame as well and holy shit the amount of lag in this game. Hard Man's and Gemini Man's stages might also be two of the worst stages I have encountered in a Mega Man game. I also did not enjoy the Doc Robot section which basically boiled down to replaying four stages just to defeat a recycled Mega Man 2 boss. After that point with Doc Robot we get the Wily stages and these stages were a lot better than the ones before in my opinion. Some decent bosses too, except for that motherfucker Yellow Devil. Not sure why they've brought the worst Mega Man 1 boss back for a sequel. Well now that I think about it they do recycle a lot of content in these games...
Even though I didn't enjoy the fights with Proto Man, I did enjoy seeing his first appearance in the series. His tune is pretty good too. The whole soundtrack is pretty good actually. Also, I loved Rush. Such a good boy. Rush Jet is sooo good in this game that they (sadly) nerfed it later.

It Takes Two has some of the most imaginative platforming sections I've ever played in a game. Each section had me saying "Wow that was a cool idea," or "That was some of the most fun platforming I've ever played!" The co-op puzzles are always smart without ever becoming too difficult, and the smattering of boss battles also toe the line between challenging without being too frustrating. The music is whimsical, and each section's music is always appropriate to the setting. The story isn't the highlight of the game, although the performances of the two main characters are good throughout. Some sections go on a tad too long, but otherwise this is an easy recommendation for anyone who loves great platforming games (and also has someone along for the ride). This makes me look forward to the next game this studio has in the works!

A shockingly smooth transition for the pink puffball, Forgotten Land is everything you'd want a 3D Kirby game to be. Its distinct post-apocalyptic setting gives it an aesthetic flavor setting it apart from the rest of the series, and Mouthful Mode as well as evolving copy abilities add enough mechanics that the game really doesn't feel like it's just banking on the transition to 3D being enough to sell it- this is definitely a fully realized game. The level design, while easy as always, is pretty damn solid, and I love the creative ways it implemented structures from our everyday lives all throughout the game without ever being samey. The soundtrack was also a pleasant surprise for me.
There are two big issues I have though. For one, copy abilities are extremely unbalanced; some are fantastic like most variations of hammer and gigant sword, while others are extremely situational and useless outside of those situations, like ice and drill. The gap hasn't been this polarizing since Kirby 64. Secondly, the game hides objectives from you until you beat levels. You'll get to the end having found all the hidden waddle dees and then it'll be like "oh but you didnt make the tulips bloom" or "oh but you didnt destroy the wanted poster". These are optional, but completionist that I am, I am irritated.