Pros: The Copy Ability mixing gimmick is a fun novel concept, and seeing what two elements combined together creates, is a fun sensation. Bomb + Fire = fireworks, Cutter + Stone = carved statues, Electric + Ice = a literal refrigerator. Just seeing what these things create, based on intuition even, is satisfying. The graphics are also pretty charming, 3D constructed worlds with stages built around a moving camera, so it has a nice visual flair to it, despite the gameplay still being on a 2D plane. There's also cute little cutscenes of Kirby interacting with other characters. It's delightful. The gameplay itself, more like Kirby's Dreamland 3, does the job, it's a 2D platformer with hidden trinkets in each stage, many of which require specific combinations of copy abilities to obtain. I will say, that mode of gameplay is more fun than the "missions" in each stage for KDL3 anyway... But...

Cons: The game has even slower and less fluid movement than KDL3 (can't even fly for very long), and especially less fun without the animals to help shake things up. Nor is there co-op anymore... And, considering the copy abilities (by themselves or mixed) still only provide one attack each, they get old fast, especially after the novelty of combining abilities loses its luster. This is when the series felt like it lost its way to me, that it forgot everything that Kirby Super Star did... and to me, this was the dark ages for Kirby.

What it means to me: I liked Kirby, and so I really wanted more games like Super Star... this wasn't that, I still played it and tried to enjoy what I could, but I found myself quickly going back to Super Star afterwards. This just wasn't the direction I wanted for the little pink creampuff. Middle of the road game, in my opinion, not terrible, but disappointing.