At this year’s E3, Nintendo’s biggest announcement was naturally the 3DS. But it’s also an announcement we expected. For me, Nintendo’s biggest unexpected announcement was that quality 2D platformers on consoles were not dead. Certainly the sales of New Super Mario Bros. Wii were a big wake-up call for them, and suddenly gamers were looking forward to a new Kirby and Donkey Kong Country on the Wii.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn stood out to me because it is the first console Kirby experience since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (although having never owned a Nintendo 64, my last console Kirby was Kirby’s Dream Land 3), and it is a series I have many fond memories of. But while that’s all fine and good, Epic Yarn was also prepared to shake up the Kirby formula a bit. Maybe that’s not a shock, since Kirby was delving into pinball, golf, and block stacking games even in his early years. But what would it mean for a platformer?

In Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the eponymous Kirby eats a tomato which turns out to be a magic Metamato belonging to the evil sorcerer, Yin-Yarn. As punishment, Yin-Yarn warps Kirby to Patch Land, a world where everything is made of yarn and patches (including Kirby himself, once he arrives). As Patch Land has already been ripped apart and conquered by Yin-Yarn, Kirby rescues and teams up with Prince Fluff to restore Patch Land to normal. In the meantime Yin-Yarn sets his designs on Dream Land. Pretty much what you’d expect from any Kirby storyline.

The major changes in Epic Yarn come in the mechanics. Since Kirby is “hollow” now, the air just goes through him when he tries to inhale. So instead, Kirby slings a whip-like length of his own yarn at enemies. A quick tap of the attack button causes Kirby to rip an enemy to shreds (!) but holding the button down for just an instant longer will make Kirby grab and bundle up the enemy into a projectile that can be thrown.

This actually gives Kirby a little more versatility, since now he can grab and throw enemies not just horizontally, but vertically as well. Additionally, some enemies have different properties as projectiles. For example, a snail enemy makes a projectile that will drop and roll along the ground, while a bat enemy makes a projectile that splits into three and homes in on other enemies.

As a result of no longer swallowing enemies, Kirby loses his trademark ability to copy enemy abilities. Thanks to the Metamato, however, Kirby can gain abilities by transforming into different things. A lot of these revolve around typical 2D mechanics that become native to Kirby like floating, dashing, and ground pounding. Kirby will turn into a car while dashing, a parachute while floating, etc. For the most part, these simple transformations are just aesthetic. However, many stages also have special transformation seals which turn Kirby into more complicated things, and give him new abilities. Kirby can turn into a mole to dig through walls of fluff, or a dolphin that lets him swim much more effectively.

Other transformations include a UFO that can suck up enemies to charge a powerful shock attack, and a giant tank robot that can shoot tons of rockets. Some transformations even make use of the Wii Remote’s motion sensing, like a firetruck whose hose you can aim by tilting the remote, or a train that follows a track you draw using the remote as a pointer. Unfortunately, these transformations are limited to specific sections of stages and you can’t access them whenever you want, making them more like tools than power-ups.

Epic Yarn also features two player co-op, with the second player taking charge of Prince Fluff (or “angry blue Kirby”). Prince Fluff plays exactly like Kirby in every way. The only difference I could find is that in a couple transformations, the two players will merge and control different aspects. Like in the above mentioned robot tank; player two will be able to control a spring-loaded fist attached to it. Players can also use each other as projectiles, making some items easier to get, though they can also choose to hamper each other as well (though not nearly as roughly as New Super Mario Bros. Wii allows).

But perhaps the most striking thing about Epic Yarn is its style. Using the simple concept of yarn, the game provides extremely fluid animations and richly detailed worlds. I can recall waiting in line for this game at E3, and the people in front of me were murmuring “It looks amazing; really detailed. Is this game in HD?”

Each stage is cozily woven together with unique elements not seen in any stage that came before it. The yarn theme is used very cleverly, such as the quicksand created with layers of thread being constantly pulled away, or the moving string platforms made to resemble an oscilloscope’s line.

The music is a bit bland for an action platformer, but it definitely fits well and is wonderfully composed, adding much warmth and richness to the world. This game could really put you to sleep, and not because it’s boring, but because it’s comfortable.

In all truth, the game is really quite easy; even compared to other Kirby games (and while Kirby is generally considered an easier series, some of those older Kirby games did get pretty challenging). You don’t have a life meter and you don’t die. Touching enemies won’t even hurt you unless they have some kind of weapon. All getting hurt does is make you lose a huge chunk of the beads you’ve collected, which the game encourages you to gather en mass.

You could consider that the difficulty has been shifted that way - instead of worrying about dying, the pro player will aim to clear each stage perfectly. And I did find myself inadvertently aiming for this, even becoming extremely upset upon taking a surprise hit. If you fall into a pit, a little angel character pulls you back out, but you rain beads along the way (most of which will fall into the aforementioned pit). It can be pretty frustrating, but since there’s no major need to collect many beads, besides unlocking additional stages after bosses, I wonder how many players will really care.

And this is where I come to a crossroads. On its own, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a fantastic platformer. It feels good to play; the mechanics and fundamentals are all there. It has a beautiful and unique world and offers an experience you just can’t get with a lot of other games that have come out in the past years. It even has a lot of nods to previous Kirby titles, with recurring enemies and an especially nostalgic final world. But, because Nintendo made this a Kirby game… it’s just missing something. A certain Kirby-ish quality that I can’t put my finger on. An X-factor, as Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear would put it.

“This makes all those knitting lessons you took look like garbage.”

Maybe it’s because the game is a collectathon, a plague that afflicts far too many platformers these days. Every stage has hidden items, most of which being furniture you can decorate your apartment room with at Patch Castle. Really though,what’s the point? It’s a mere novelty. You can also spend the cumulative beads you collect at a shop… for more furniture. And you can decorate other tenants’ apartments to unlock minigames… where you win more furniture. And the only motivation you’d have for all this is just to get 100%, which isn’t really worth anything. At least in previous Kirby games, getting 100% meant unlocking new features or new modes of play.

For me the decisive factor was this: I played the game with my pal Cheston to get a feel for the co-op play. After clearing the first world, he was done. He found it pretty dull and didn’t have any of his own motivation to go on. I couldn’t blame him for how he felt. Cheston and I, we’ve developed fairly different gaming tastes. But 15 years ago, he and I were playing the hell out of Kirby Super Star, over and over. As much as I like Epic Yarn, it just doesn’t offer that experience. And while I think the game is fun myself, I don’t feel much motivation to go play through it again immediately. It doesn’t have that special something to pull me back.

To some, that’s all and well, it’s still a fine game. It’s worth it, especially in a day where we old school gamers are truly gifted to still get quality platformers on a console; on a physical disc. But I still look forward to the day Nintendo uses the Kirby name to create a game that equals those which got me into the series to start with.

This review is based on a copy of Kirby’s Epic Yarn purchased by the reviewer.

Tags: 2d, kirby, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Nintendo, platformer, Wii

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.