It’s absolutely wild that I had no idea how foundational this game was to the further Kirby series and especially Super Star, though I suppose it shouldn’t be so surprised how much it has in common with the latter. I did play the GBA remake back in the day, though at the time I had the incorrect impression that was spruced up in specific ways to resemble the anime. I was quite wrong! Or rather, I suppose the anime took a lot more from Kirby’s Adventure than I initially expected. Also the Kirby’s Avalanche soundtrack. This is where all those tracks were from…
It’s a little weird playing this after Dream Land 2 and 3, because while the copy abilities feel pretty fragile compared to later in the series on account of Kirby losing them after one hit, they feel a lot more geared towards faster-paced action than my experience with those two games. Perhaps… too geared towards faster paced action, as this bad boy causes the NES to chug. I’m told this isn’t a quirk of the NSO emulator but accurate to the hardware, which doesn’t really surprise me. This game has a LOT going on for a NES game, between the variety of abilities and the quality of the spritework.
I gotta say, I LOVE all the cute little copy ability status indicators and, generally, how quirky everything is. It was fun seeing the origins of some of the later minigames even if some of them have been altered, like how Quick Draw has been reimagined as Samurai Kirby. The stage designs are really striking, too, and I cannot fucking BELIEVE they got away with making a nostalgia love letter level to the first game back on the NES. It wasn’t even that old! But it made me grin with delight anyway, because holy shit. Well played.
I did not feel remotely compelled to get all the secrets, but I do appreciate that they’re there for people to track down if they like. I think if it had more modern control I’d give it a shot, but I feel pretty confident in being done with the game for now.
Despite my effusive praise, I do have one pretty strong criticism that I’m not sure was relevant on the NES or if it’s a result of the controller I’m using to play on the Switch, but hitting the up button on the D-pad causing Kirby to float rather than tapping double jump made the game a lot more frustrating than it needed to be. Initially it was just muscle memory from later games tripping me up when I wanted to glide, but more often I found myself accidentally pressing up and sending Kirby into a float when I didn’t want to because I needed to attack. It caused the otherwise Pretty Fun boss fights to be a lot more frustrating than they needed to be.
Still, in spite of that big point of frustration, I’d probably say that from my experience giving honest to god NES games without any reworks from later re-releases the old college try because Why Not, They’re There and Free (Kind Of), this is probably my favorite of the ones I’ve played. It’s just good shit! God I love Kirby man.
It’s a little weird playing this after Dream Land 2 and 3, because while the copy abilities feel pretty fragile compared to later in the series on account of Kirby losing them after one hit, they feel a lot more geared towards faster-paced action than my experience with those two games. Perhaps… too geared towards faster paced action, as this bad boy causes the NES to chug. I’m told this isn’t a quirk of the NSO emulator but accurate to the hardware, which doesn’t really surprise me. This game has a LOT going on for a NES game, between the variety of abilities and the quality of the spritework.
I gotta say, I LOVE all the cute little copy ability status indicators and, generally, how quirky everything is. It was fun seeing the origins of some of the later minigames even if some of them have been altered, like how Quick Draw has been reimagined as Samurai Kirby. The stage designs are really striking, too, and I cannot fucking BELIEVE they got away with making a nostalgia love letter level to the first game back on the NES. It wasn’t even that old! But it made me grin with delight anyway, because holy shit. Well played.
I did not feel remotely compelled to get all the secrets, but I do appreciate that they’re there for people to track down if they like. I think if it had more modern control I’d give it a shot, but I feel pretty confident in being done with the game for now.
Despite my effusive praise, I do have one pretty strong criticism that I’m not sure was relevant on the NES or if it’s a result of the controller I’m using to play on the Switch, but hitting the up button on the D-pad causing Kirby to float rather than tapping double jump made the game a lot more frustrating than it needed to be. Initially it was just muscle memory from later games tripping me up when I wanted to glide, but more often I found myself accidentally pressing up and sending Kirby into a float when I didn’t want to because I needed to attack. It caused the otherwise Pretty Fun boss fights to be a lot more frustrating than they needed to be.
Still, in spite of that big point of frustration, I’d probably say that from my experience giving honest to god NES games without any reworks from later re-releases the old college try because Why Not, They’re There and Free (Kind Of), this is probably my favorite of the ones I’ve played. It’s just good shit! God I love Kirby man.