Played on the NES Classic
Add 1/2 - 1 star to the rating if you play this game on better hardware (or the enhanced remake)
Kirby’s Adventure is an absolute delight, the kind of hidden gem I was always hoping to find on the NES. Released at a time when the SNES was not doing that great in sales, it remains a potent example of how pure dedication can push outdated hardware to its fullest potential.
What do I mean by this? Well, I’m so glad you asked. You guys remember how, in Super Mario Bros., Mario had a floaty jump, a slide to his landing zone, and no facial expressions whatsoever? How in Zelda the sound was irritating, environments bland, and enemies basic? Or in Final Fantasy, how you had to contend with difficulty spikes whilst casting spells with little visual variety between them?
Imagine a game that had none of those problems and you’ve got Kirby’s Adventure. Released back in 1993, it (unsurprisingly) feels more akin to a SNES analog than anything that came before, and while the 10-year time gap obviously made a difference, I feel a large part of the game’s advancements owe fealty to developer HAL Laboratory’s prowess. See, prior to the Wii, these guys were responsible for some of the deepest releases of their respective generations, from Earthbound to of course Super Smash Bros., and it’s a shame that Nintendo’s seemingly relegated them to pointless Kirbyware when they clearly have the talent to do so much more.
Kirby’s Adventure shows the inception of HAL’s adeptry in just about every category, chief among these being the graphics. The first thing you’ll notice are the pink puffball’s expressions - they’re absolutely incredible. From his eyes to his mouth, this is a sprite capable of multiple demeanors, and what’s amazing is how HAL combined this facet with a diversity of character models contingent on damage: whether you’re getting zapped, burned, tossed, sumoflexed, sucked, or outright knocked down a hole, you can expect a unique countenance shortly before Kirby’s recovery/demise. That aptitude for spritework extends to the bosses, all of whom are wonderfully-designed and stand head-and-shoulders above their counterparts in A Link to the Past, let alone any NES correspondent.
If you know who Kirby is, chances are you’re well aware of his signature copy ability, and while specific models weren’t built for each of the replicas the way they were in Smash Bros., what you do get instead are some beautifully-handcrafted cards hearkening back to Nintendo’s karuta days (all of which DO show a special variant of the adorable globe+).
My last major bastion of praise goes to the background design of levels; a spectrum of auras ripe with chroma galore. Considering the limitations of the NES’s color palette, I was consistently amazed whenever the game would throw in a visual extravaganza of purples, blues, and greens, the darker shades contrasting well with Kirby’s rosa figure. Unfortunately, the developers weren’t quite able to remove that brown tint that seemingly plagued all Famicon releases, and, on a more negative note, I ultimately wasn’t a fan of the vast majority of enemy designs. I don’t mean to make accusations, but they genuinely came across as discount versions of standard Super Mario enemies: goombas, cheep cheeps, bullet bill cannons, lava bubbles, and more exist in Kirby’s Adventure albeit in a heavily-diminished aesthetic (it being clear the lion’s share of artistic merit went towards the aforementioned bosses).
On the topic of bosses, let’s shift to the gameplay - Kirby’s Adventure is a platformer, meaning your goal is to get from point A to point B amidst a slew of threats. The aforementioned vortex ability is your gimmick, its power enabling you to vacuum 99% of enemies and either imbibe their talent or (if they possess none/you so wish) redirect them as star-shaped projectiles. While this could’ve easily made for some interesting puzzle design, HAL, for better and for worse, opted to stick to pure combat; yes, certain secrets require certain assets to unlock, but that’s less deductive reasoning and more just copying the specially-placed enemy in your immediate or preceding vicinity.
Regardless, the endeavor never gets tiring, and a large part of that has to do with the breeziness of the levels, most of which can be completed in under 7 minutes. When you’ve got short stages combined with brand new power-ups, it goes a long way towards refreshing the experience each time the player engages with it. As far as the design of the levels themselves, they’re admittedly not the most memorable, often rehashing standard video game skins we’ve seen time-and-time again: you know, ice, amphibious, castle rock, etc….It’s not bad, but won’t leave a lasting impression on you the way other platformers of this era did.
Objectively, I think the biggest issue Kirby’s Adventure has is they may have made the Mascot a bit too overpowered. What I mean is you can, as stated before, siphon the vast majority of critters, and the reach of Kirby’s air tunnel not only exceeds the range of their attacks, but outright negates them once in proximity. There were times where I was able to cheese the game by having Kirbs suck-in someone at a different elevation, and, even when you enter a body of water, inhaling is replaced with a water spout attack that instakills anyone in your proximity.
To add onto this, Kirby’s infinite floating outright breaks the game at times. You guys remember how, in Demon’s Crest, Firebrand could fly over a good chunk of the game’s obstacles? Well, I have to believe Capcom took inspiration from Kirby’s Adventure in light of it ailing from the exact same problem: see, there’s no stamina, no cap on midair recoveries, and the better part of Dreamland’s minions (including bosses!) just can’t reach you. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the game throws aerial enemies your way (and they do add a challenge), but all too often I found myself scratching my head wondering why someone bothered placing platforming rungs when it was far easier for the player to just simply glide over it all. And if that weren’t enough, exhaling any drawn-in air gives you infinite pellets to shower adjacent foes with.
I wouldn’t call the game easy by any means; however, if you’re not rushing things, it’s admittedly hard to die in. Thankfully, even when you do collapse, Kirby’s Adventure is very forgiving courtesy of an astute checkpoint system. This is one of those old-school titles where I genuinely didn’t have to save scum, and I was eternally grateful for that in light of my less-than-satisfying experiences with SMB and ALTTP. Every completed level is conserved, and even when you do lose all your lives, you’re merely placed back where you left off albeit with five new tokens(++).
No, subjectively-speaking, my biggest criticisms with KA’s gameplay come down to three flaws: first are the respawning enemies, who quickly reform when you move the screen back even a little. Sometimes this is helpful as far as allowing you to absorb a specific minion that you missed/accidentally killed, but more-often-than-not it becomes annoying having to reface someone you just slayed (i.e., hitting a swordsman on a ledge above you, falling down slightly, and having to encounter him yet again when you jump back up).
Second is the lack of boss/miniboss variety -- it shouldn’t be surprising that a large chunk of these brawls consist of simply redirecting conveniently-forged projectiles, and while things do get spiced up towards the end, I wish there’d been more creativity from the get-go given the plethora of powers available to Kirby throughout. To add insult to injury, a lot of these fights are not only rehashed throughout the escapade, but rendered outright cakewalks when initiated with certain abilities (a facet the game unintentionally encourages, though more on that later+++).
Thirdly, in terms of level secrets, Kirby’s Adventure comes across as a bit too unintuitive. You’ll see a lot of extras and hidden areas during your excursions, but, with respect to getting to them, the pathway is not really clear. You may catch stones arranged in a certain way that don’t lead anywhere, concave gaps between daises that appear to hold some treasure only to be pits of death, and howitzer-style artillery that’s seemingly-impossible to ignite in time. In many ways, it reminded me a lot of the first Donkey Kong Country, which, as much as I love, was also confusing as far as making it clear where you had to go to get a concealed gem (Kirby’s Adventure, to its credit, at least informs you if you got everything ala turning the level door white).
That said, retrieving all these secrets isn’t necessary for completing the title, their collection simply unveiling hidden doors of their respective overworld. Some lead to minigames, others power-ups, and still more prior boss fights that reward maxim tomatoes (HP restoration). But again, none of these end up being significantly helpful: minigames grant lives/points that are dispensable in view of the forgiving nature of the game; every level already comes with all the requisite power-ups you’ll need to glean everything; and health restoration falls under the same caveats as the aforestated forgiving nature.
Don’t mistake me, you’ll definitely have fun playing Kirby’s Adventure; these critiques are, moreso, small setbacks in an otherwise great game. If you want further proof of its quality, we need only look at the music by Hirokazu Ando, who pulls a miracle via making the NES audio chip…actually sound good. Part of this has to do with his score deliberately avoiding the kind of drawn-out melodies you (unfortunately) had to hear in Metroid and Zelda, but part of it’s also due to his inherent virtuosity as an artist. Ando further deserves props for composing A LOT of music for the title: each of the seven worlds boasts its own theme, and an additional two tunes were synthesized for the 4-6 stages within (not to mention the plethora of other jingles for end completion, dying, the abovementioned minigames, etc…etc…). Though I would’ve appreciated individual leitmotifs for each of the boss figures, I can’t deny the OST, as a whole, is an incredible achievement amidst its third-generation compatriots.
SFX maintains that same degree of diversity. Whilst Kirby’s inhalation din does get vexing over time, it’s more than offset by every single ability containing a unique sonar. Combined with great collision crashes, excellent boss grunts, and the fact that a low HP bar beeps only ONCE per a screen (cough cough Zelda cough cough) and you’ve got a solid package overall, a saying that honestly sums up Kirby’s Adventure as a whole -- it’s a solid package overall….albeit with ONE major flaw I experienced: the sheer tech problems.
Yes, playing on the NES Classic, Kirby’s Adventure was unfortunately ripe with hicks and higans. On the lower end, you get jittery screen tear on the right & left sides whenever you progress in the opposing direction. On the higher end, you’re privy to some awful lag, particularly whenever Kirby begins respirating amidst a myriad of on-screen foes. If you opt to play this game (which I highly recommend), I strongly suggest you do so on modern hardware (there are plenty of official ports you’re welcome to peruse on Wikipedia, as well as of course the official remake, Nightmare in Dreamland).
So yeah, what’re you waiting for? Go add this game to your backlog!
NOTES
+You also get unique cards whenever Kirby is: attacked, in midair, or normal.
++Four lives, but here 0 counts as a life.
+++Because boss stages are their own level, you can prep by grabbing one of the power-ups unlocked on the overworld and consequently blitz them.
-At first I thought the story was stowed away in the in-game manual, and perhaps it was, but what’s interesting is that the game DOES divulge it to the player, albeit in the pre-credits scene AFTER you’ve completed everything. Due to an interesting twist, I won’t say anything more other than that it involves Kirby trying to retrieve the Star Rod from King DeDeDe; however, the ending does beg the question of whether the prior bosses to DeDeDe were working for him or independent (Meta-Knight, in particular, remains an enigma).
-Speaking of Meta-Knight, he has the most annoying mini-encounters in the game, entailing him summoning a bunch of henchmen in a Mario Bros.-style field that you need to repeatedly axe.
-Was not a fan of the developers putting extra lives and HP restores behind heavy traps. It begs the question of why the player would engage with that when they risk losing more than they gain?
-Every world has a food-themed layout to it, but I can’t say the graphics expanded upon them in an efficient manner (i.e., they don’t look as delicious as they should!).
-It seems like every single one of Kirby’s base abilities from Smash Bros. originated in this game: the hammer swing, boulder drop, and sword slash to name a few.
-Tell me the laser ability card wasn’t a homage to Star Wars Episode IV’s OG poster?
Add 1/2 - 1 star to the rating if you play this game on better hardware (or the enhanced remake)
Kirby’s Adventure is an absolute delight, the kind of hidden gem I was always hoping to find on the NES. Released at a time when the SNES was not doing that great in sales, it remains a potent example of how pure dedication can push outdated hardware to its fullest potential.
What do I mean by this? Well, I’m so glad you asked. You guys remember how, in Super Mario Bros., Mario had a floaty jump, a slide to his landing zone, and no facial expressions whatsoever? How in Zelda the sound was irritating, environments bland, and enemies basic? Or in Final Fantasy, how you had to contend with difficulty spikes whilst casting spells with little visual variety between them?
Imagine a game that had none of those problems and you’ve got Kirby’s Adventure. Released back in 1993, it (unsurprisingly) feels more akin to a SNES analog than anything that came before, and while the 10-year time gap obviously made a difference, I feel a large part of the game’s advancements owe fealty to developer HAL Laboratory’s prowess. See, prior to the Wii, these guys were responsible for some of the deepest releases of their respective generations, from Earthbound to of course Super Smash Bros., and it’s a shame that Nintendo’s seemingly relegated them to pointless Kirbyware when they clearly have the talent to do so much more.
Kirby’s Adventure shows the inception of HAL’s adeptry in just about every category, chief among these being the graphics. The first thing you’ll notice are the pink puffball’s expressions - they’re absolutely incredible. From his eyes to his mouth, this is a sprite capable of multiple demeanors, and what’s amazing is how HAL combined this facet with a diversity of character models contingent on damage: whether you’re getting zapped, burned, tossed, sumoflexed, sucked, or outright knocked down a hole, you can expect a unique countenance shortly before Kirby’s recovery/demise. That aptitude for spritework extends to the bosses, all of whom are wonderfully-designed and stand head-and-shoulders above their counterparts in A Link to the Past, let alone any NES correspondent.
If you know who Kirby is, chances are you’re well aware of his signature copy ability, and while specific models weren’t built for each of the replicas the way they were in Smash Bros., what you do get instead are some beautifully-handcrafted cards hearkening back to Nintendo’s karuta days (all of which DO show a special variant of the adorable globe+).
My last major bastion of praise goes to the background design of levels; a spectrum of auras ripe with chroma galore. Considering the limitations of the NES’s color palette, I was consistently amazed whenever the game would throw in a visual extravaganza of purples, blues, and greens, the darker shades contrasting well with Kirby’s rosa figure. Unfortunately, the developers weren’t quite able to remove that brown tint that seemingly plagued all Famicon releases, and, on a more negative note, I ultimately wasn’t a fan of the vast majority of enemy designs. I don’t mean to make accusations, but they genuinely came across as discount versions of standard Super Mario enemies: goombas, cheep cheeps, bullet bill cannons, lava bubbles, and more exist in Kirby’s Adventure albeit in a heavily-diminished aesthetic (it being clear the lion’s share of artistic merit went towards the aforementioned bosses).
On the topic of bosses, let’s shift to the gameplay - Kirby’s Adventure is a platformer, meaning your goal is to get from point A to point B amidst a slew of threats. The aforementioned vortex ability is your gimmick, its power enabling you to vacuum 99% of enemies and either imbibe their talent or (if they possess none/you so wish) redirect them as star-shaped projectiles. While this could’ve easily made for some interesting puzzle design, HAL, for better and for worse, opted to stick to pure combat; yes, certain secrets require certain assets to unlock, but that’s less deductive reasoning and more just copying the specially-placed enemy in your immediate or preceding vicinity.
Regardless, the endeavor never gets tiring, and a large part of that has to do with the breeziness of the levels, most of which can be completed in under 7 minutes. When you’ve got short stages combined with brand new power-ups, it goes a long way towards refreshing the experience each time the player engages with it. As far as the design of the levels themselves, they’re admittedly not the most memorable, often rehashing standard video game skins we’ve seen time-and-time again: you know, ice, amphibious, castle rock, etc….It’s not bad, but won’t leave a lasting impression on you the way other platformers of this era did.
Objectively, I think the biggest issue Kirby’s Adventure has is they may have made the Mascot a bit too overpowered. What I mean is you can, as stated before, siphon the vast majority of critters, and the reach of Kirby’s air tunnel not only exceeds the range of their attacks, but outright negates them once in proximity. There were times where I was able to cheese the game by having Kirbs suck-in someone at a different elevation, and, even when you enter a body of water, inhaling is replaced with a water spout attack that instakills anyone in your proximity.
To add onto this, Kirby’s infinite floating outright breaks the game at times. You guys remember how, in Demon’s Crest, Firebrand could fly over a good chunk of the game’s obstacles? Well, I have to believe Capcom took inspiration from Kirby’s Adventure in light of it ailing from the exact same problem: see, there’s no stamina, no cap on midair recoveries, and the better part of Dreamland’s minions (including bosses!) just can’t reach you. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the game throws aerial enemies your way (and they do add a challenge), but all too often I found myself scratching my head wondering why someone bothered placing platforming rungs when it was far easier for the player to just simply glide over it all. And if that weren’t enough, exhaling any drawn-in air gives you infinite pellets to shower adjacent foes with.
I wouldn’t call the game easy by any means; however, if you’re not rushing things, it’s admittedly hard to die in. Thankfully, even when you do collapse, Kirby’s Adventure is very forgiving courtesy of an astute checkpoint system. This is one of those old-school titles where I genuinely didn’t have to save scum, and I was eternally grateful for that in light of my less-than-satisfying experiences with SMB and ALTTP. Every completed level is conserved, and even when you do lose all your lives, you’re merely placed back where you left off albeit with five new tokens(++).
No, subjectively-speaking, my biggest criticisms with KA’s gameplay come down to three flaws: first are the respawning enemies, who quickly reform when you move the screen back even a little. Sometimes this is helpful as far as allowing you to absorb a specific minion that you missed/accidentally killed, but more-often-than-not it becomes annoying having to reface someone you just slayed (i.e., hitting a swordsman on a ledge above you, falling down slightly, and having to encounter him yet again when you jump back up).
Second is the lack of boss/miniboss variety -- it shouldn’t be surprising that a large chunk of these brawls consist of simply redirecting conveniently-forged projectiles, and while things do get spiced up towards the end, I wish there’d been more creativity from the get-go given the plethora of powers available to Kirby throughout. To add insult to injury, a lot of these fights are not only rehashed throughout the escapade, but rendered outright cakewalks when initiated with certain abilities (a facet the game unintentionally encourages, though more on that later+++).
Thirdly, in terms of level secrets, Kirby’s Adventure comes across as a bit too unintuitive. You’ll see a lot of extras and hidden areas during your excursions, but, with respect to getting to them, the pathway is not really clear. You may catch stones arranged in a certain way that don’t lead anywhere, concave gaps between daises that appear to hold some treasure only to be pits of death, and howitzer-style artillery that’s seemingly-impossible to ignite in time. In many ways, it reminded me a lot of the first Donkey Kong Country, which, as much as I love, was also confusing as far as making it clear where you had to go to get a concealed gem (Kirby’s Adventure, to its credit, at least informs you if you got everything ala turning the level door white).
That said, retrieving all these secrets isn’t necessary for completing the title, their collection simply unveiling hidden doors of their respective overworld. Some lead to minigames, others power-ups, and still more prior boss fights that reward maxim tomatoes (HP restoration). But again, none of these end up being significantly helpful: minigames grant lives/points that are dispensable in view of the forgiving nature of the game; every level already comes with all the requisite power-ups you’ll need to glean everything; and health restoration falls under the same caveats as the aforestated forgiving nature.
Don’t mistake me, you’ll definitely have fun playing Kirby’s Adventure; these critiques are, moreso, small setbacks in an otherwise great game. If you want further proof of its quality, we need only look at the music by Hirokazu Ando, who pulls a miracle via making the NES audio chip…actually sound good. Part of this has to do with his score deliberately avoiding the kind of drawn-out melodies you (unfortunately) had to hear in Metroid and Zelda, but part of it’s also due to his inherent virtuosity as an artist. Ando further deserves props for composing A LOT of music for the title: each of the seven worlds boasts its own theme, and an additional two tunes were synthesized for the 4-6 stages within (not to mention the plethora of other jingles for end completion, dying, the abovementioned minigames, etc…etc…). Though I would’ve appreciated individual leitmotifs for each of the boss figures, I can’t deny the OST, as a whole, is an incredible achievement amidst its third-generation compatriots.
SFX maintains that same degree of diversity. Whilst Kirby’s inhalation din does get vexing over time, it’s more than offset by every single ability containing a unique sonar. Combined with great collision crashes, excellent boss grunts, and the fact that a low HP bar beeps only ONCE per a screen (cough cough Zelda cough cough) and you’ve got a solid package overall, a saying that honestly sums up Kirby’s Adventure as a whole -- it’s a solid package overall….albeit with ONE major flaw I experienced: the sheer tech problems.
Yes, playing on the NES Classic, Kirby’s Adventure was unfortunately ripe with hicks and higans. On the lower end, you get jittery screen tear on the right & left sides whenever you progress in the opposing direction. On the higher end, you’re privy to some awful lag, particularly whenever Kirby begins respirating amidst a myriad of on-screen foes. If you opt to play this game (which I highly recommend), I strongly suggest you do so on modern hardware (there are plenty of official ports you’re welcome to peruse on Wikipedia, as well as of course the official remake, Nightmare in Dreamland).
So yeah, what’re you waiting for? Go add this game to your backlog!
NOTES
+You also get unique cards whenever Kirby is: attacked, in midair, or normal.
++Four lives, but here 0 counts as a life.
+++Because boss stages are their own level, you can prep by grabbing one of the power-ups unlocked on the overworld and consequently blitz them.
-At first I thought the story was stowed away in the in-game manual, and perhaps it was, but what’s interesting is that the game DOES divulge it to the player, albeit in the pre-credits scene AFTER you’ve completed everything. Due to an interesting twist, I won’t say anything more other than that it involves Kirby trying to retrieve the Star Rod from King DeDeDe; however, the ending does beg the question of whether the prior bosses to DeDeDe were working for him or independent (Meta-Knight, in particular, remains an enigma).
-Speaking of Meta-Knight, he has the most annoying mini-encounters in the game, entailing him summoning a bunch of henchmen in a Mario Bros.-style field that you need to repeatedly axe.
-Was not a fan of the developers putting extra lives and HP restores behind heavy traps. It begs the question of why the player would engage with that when they risk losing more than they gain?
-Every world has a food-themed layout to it, but I can’t say the graphics expanded upon them in an efficient manner (i.e., they don’t look as delicious as they should!).
-It seems like every single one of Kirby’s base abilities from Smash Bros. originated in this game: the hammer swing, boulder drop, and sword slash to name a few.
-Tell me the laser ability card wasn’t a homage to Star Wars Episode IV’s OG poster?