The Dark Matter trilogy is finished! I'm happy to have revisited them after all these years, even if I'm not quite as in love with them as I was back in the day. There's still some really cool ideas and vibes in these games, and Kirby 64 is probably the peak of the slower, more puzzle-y flavor of Kirby that characterized the Dark Matter trilogy in opposition to the faster, more beat-em-up flavored Sakurai games.
The Crystal Shards' central copy ability gimmick is probably the most memorable aspect of it, and it is REALLY fun to experiment with combos to see what you get. Some abilities are more practical and/or fun than others, which I feel is sort of an inevitability when you implement this many options... but it is kind of weird when you end up seeing an ability that got so much more love than anything else. It's definitely wild how crazy they went with Cutter/Rock! Like, they put in all the animal buddies from 3 as statues, even if they don't show up in person! That's sick. I love it.
There's also a weird... well, I don't know if it's a hidden mechanic or not, but it's kind of a weird bonus that doesn't really have much practical use outside of being Kind of Neat. You can hold an enemy above your head instead of swallowing them once you've got them in your mouth, and some of them have weird effects that you can use if you do that. Like, holding one of the little pterodactyl guys over your head will let you glide pretty quickly, while when you're holding one of the anemone guys it will shoot projectiles the whole time. Maybe they're used in some crazy speedrun strats, but I think they're mostly just a neat thing to mess around with.
I think I'm not as fond of the stage design as I am of the actual concepts here, though. 64 kicks it up a notch from 3 by hiding three collectibles in each level, and more often than not they involve babysitting a combo ability through a stage. I think the abilities aren't too difficult to use for the most part, but some of them can be a real pain in the ass to use (lookin at you, rock+bomb). It doesn't help that the abilities you'd need for the combo might not always actually be in the stage they're needed for. I don't think 3 was quite as bad about this? I know there was a level or two where you'd need to bring in an animal buddy from another level, but they usually had some sort of hint in the level select suggesting which animal you might need. 64 doesn't have anything like that, unfortunately, so a lot of it is trial and error. I also feel like while there's different dev DNA involved, 64 could've benefited from a "stage" like Superstar had with all the copy abilities that you could combine at your leisure.
Anyway, the cutscenes and story are extremely cute. Waddle Dee and Dedede are perfect, and I wish Ribbon and Adeline had more appearances outside of, like, this game and Star Allies... and of course, you get things going absolutely insane and bizarre at the end. Admittedly, Shiver Star has its own wild vibe to it, with a sort of proto-Forgotten Land feeling. The factory level is a pain in the ass but damn, the music and that one segment with the critters floating in the vats, though. I love that shit. I marked out extremely hard when the music showed up again in Canvas Curse.
Also, you really gotta pour one out to 02, because what in the fuck. I love it. I'm so glad Kirby goes so hard on having nightmarish horrors for its secret final bosses.
The Crystal Shards' central copy ability gimmick is probably the most memorable aspect of it, and it is REALLY fun to experiment with combos to see what you get. Some abilities are more practical and/or fun than others, which I feel is sort of an inevitability when you implement this many options... but it is kind of weird when you end up seeing an ability that got so much more love than anything else. It's definitely wild how crazy they went with Cutter/Rock! Like, they put in all the animal buddies from 3 as statues, even if they don't show up in person! That's sick. I love it.
There's also a weird... well, I don't know if it's a hidden mechanic or not, but it's kind of a weird bonus that doesn't really have much practical use outside of being Kind of Neat. You can hold an enemy above your head instead of swallowing them once you've got them in your mouth, and some of them have weird effects that you can use if you do that. Like, holding one of the little pterodactyl guys over your head will let you glide pretty quickly, while when you're holding one of the anemone guys it will shoot projectiles the whole time. Maybe they're used in some crazy speedrun strats, but I think they're mostly just a neat thing to mess around with.
I think I'm not as fond of the stage design as I am of the actual concepts here, though. 64 kicks it up a notch from 3 by hiding three collectibles in each level, and more often than not they involve babysitting a combo ability through a stage. I think the abilities aren't too difficult to use for the most part, but some of them can be a real pain in the ass to use (lookin at you, rock+bomb). It doesn't help that the abilities you'd need for the combo might not always actually be in the stage they're needed for. I don't think 3 was quite as bad about this? I know there was a level or two where you'd need to bring in an animal buddy from another level, but they usually had some sort of hint in the level select suggesting which animal you might need. 64 doesn't have anything like that, unfortunately, so a lot of it is trial and error. I also feel like while there's different dev DNA involved, 64 could've benefited from a "stage" like Superstar had with all the copy abilities that you could combine at your leisure.
Anyway, the cutscenes and story are extremely cute. Waddle Dee and Dedede are perfect, and I wish Ribbon and Adeline had more appearances outside of, like, this game and Star Allies... and of course, you get things going absolutely insane and bizarre at the end. Admittedly, Shiver Star has its own wild vibe to it, with a sort of proto-Forgotten Land feeling. The factory level is a pain in the ass but damn, the music and that one segment with the critters floating in the vats, though. I love that shit. I marked out extremely hard when the music showed up again in Canvas Curse.
Also, you really gotta pour one out to 02, because what in the fuck. I love it. I'm so glad Kirby goes so hard on having nightmarish horrors for its secret final bosses.