Kirby’s Adventure: 3D You Have To See!

COLORS EVERYWHERE!

Back in 2007 I picked up Kirby’s Adventure on the Wii Virtual Console. While I loved the Gameboy game, and had played a few others, this one had completely passed me by as  kid. I sat down, started playing it, got a few stages into it, and then for some unknown reason I just stopped. I don’t really know why, maybe I wasn’t into it at the time, or more likely I got distracted by a Castlevania game (Portrait of Ruin had released two months earlier). Because I owned the game already and had not finished it, I was slightly hesitant to buy it again on the 3DS…until I saw it played. The major question of this review is this: does a gimmick like 3D make this game worth buying all over again?

I struggled with that question for the better part of a month, occasionally switching back and forth between being poor and being interested. When I finally had money AND was interested at the same time (sometimes it takes a celestial alignment, I swear…) I took the plunge and downloaded it. I started it up, looked at the very first stage, and immediately saw a difference. The original version of this game was something of a technical marvel for the nearly outdated NES, but with 3D effects, this game really came to life. Nintendo/HAL took the sprites and backgrounds apart and layered them over top of each other using the 3D effects, making the already impressive parallax style visuals have a remarkably crisp, lively depth to them. While they could have shaped the 3D to be more rounded and fully dimensional, they chose (like other 3D Classics) to simply separate 2D images into their own depth layers. The end result makes me feel as if I’m playing a never released Paper Kirby. The other thing this effect did was force me to pay closer attention to the amount of detail and quality put into all the backgrounds, sprites, and animations, something I missed when playing it on the Wii. Every few levels I’d see an impressive visual or animation and I’d say to myself “Surely the original didn’t look THIS good?” and then I’d turn the 3D slider off and realize that, yes, it did. I got my NES when I was about 6 and played it well into the mid 90s, owning many of the best games and seeing the best visuals, and yet I’m still impressed today by this game. The NES was always an underpowered system in my mind, and yet when I look at the quality and detail put into this game, I view the system differently. Some people may complain that the 3D effect is too flat or too little change to make it worthwhile, but I believe that the style of 3D used fits perfectly with what is still a 2D world. The only complaint I have with this game visually is that there should have been an option to stretch or resize the image. Playing this game on the 3DS with such a large screen, and yet only seeing the game in a small window was a bit annoying, especially considering the amount of detail the graphics have just own their own. Full screen is the one and only reason to prefer the Wii VC release in my opinion.

Gameplay-wise, there is no question that this game is top notch. Many have argued that this is the best game in the entire series, and a case could certainly be made for it. Unlike the original Kirby, there’s a lot more to do here. We have a wide-range of powerups and abilities, unique stages, varied enemies, and COLOR EVERYWHERE! This game seriously stretches the limits of what could be done with the NES color palettes, and it really shows. Towards the end of the game I continued to be stunned by the range of color and effects that could be put into a game that was in monochrome just a year later. Oh, and they did THAT too, adding a monochrome stage which pays homage to a game that had only been released a year earlier. Only a year had passed, there’s already much more depth to the gameplay, as the first game was limited to flying, inhaling, shooting, and finding secret doors in the scenery. Now there’s loads of abilities, many new gameplay mechanics and fighting styles, puzzles, lots of hidden areas which require certain abilities to find, even a series of minigames. While these are all good, I do have a little complaint with some of these abilities. Unlike many of the later games in the series, some of the abilities were usable only in one specific place and are otherwise useless. Even the seemingly useful abilities often have weird ranges or awkward arcs that are more likely to get you killed than your enemies. It’s not terrible, but sometimes they get a little old, especially when you consider how long this game is. This is a LONG game when compared to platformers in the NES era and is massive compared to Kirby’s Dream Land. I kept playing, thinking I’d be close to the end, but the game kept going.  By the end, after what turned out to be a truly impressive final boss, I could definitely say I was done with the game. And yet my completion was still around 75%, because there’s just so much hidden stuff, and I frankly couldn’t be bothered finding it all.

So we’ve asked two important questions here: Does the 3D alone warrant a re-buy, and is this the best Kirby game in the series? The answer to both questions is no, but very close. The 3D, in my opinion, goes a long way to really open up the depth and intensity of the game’s already stunning visuals, but doesn’t really add anything to it. The gameplay, while great, is still dated and not as perfectly polished as it could be when compared to a few of the later games in the series. That said, if you’ve never played Kirby’s Adventure you owe it to yourself to give this game a go, as it is solid and has a lot to offer, despite it’s few shortcomings.

WayForward Switches Things Up!

This glass crack effect looks so real in 3D...

If you know anything at all about WayForward, you know that they’re a small company that mixes classic sensibilities with innovative ideas. While most popular for their Shantae games, they’ve had success with the DSiWare series commonly referred to as Mighty. The newest entry, Mighty Switch Force!, is available for 3DS and continues in the vein of innovation that it’s predecessors are lauded for. Does Mighty Switch Force! measure up to those that came before it?

The gameplay premise of MSF! (I like this acronym!) is simple. Your awesome female cop is chasing after awesome female thieves, and in order to catch them, she needs her trusty gun and the power to alternate or “switch” blocks. Each stage is a platforming puzzle where you must switch blocks around to continue forward, avoid obstacles, move objects, even fight enemies. Some blocks are in the background and some in the foreground, ones in the foreground are solid, while the background ones can be passed through. But be warned, if you’re standing where a block is and switch it into the foreground, you’ll lose a heart! You have three hearts before you die and have to restart the levels. The 3D aspects of the game, while not necessary for completion, add a layer of depth that makes the switching a little easier to see and, I believe, improves timing slightly.

Visually, this is a well made game. The character animations are smooth and really stand out amongst the futuristic scenery, something very important in this game. Fans of the Metroid series will notice little shout outs, such as the fact that the heroine dies just like Samus, with her body floating in the air while her suit explodes off her, revealing some mildly sexy sportswear! It just adds to that classic sensibility and charm that WayForward puts into their games. Everything is highly detailed and the 3D depth is used very effectively. For example, whenever you or an enemy are squished by a block, they smack up against the very front of the 3D and make a glass cracking imprint which you could SWEAR was on the screen itself. The designers clearly understood the way we perceive stereoscopic 3D and made sure to leave that foreground 3D level free for this effect. It makes every single death from block squishing that more unexpected when you think for a second it might pop OUT of the screen. One of the things I’ve noticed after playing MSF! for long periods of time is that my eyes begin to see an optical illusion 3D effect on everyday things like websites or…this blog (the text looks like it’s coming off the page to me right now). Complementing this visual design is the music which, while not the greatest music in the history of gaming, certainly does a great job adding to the quirky, fun nature of the game. It’s clear that the music designer (look Jake Kaufman up, he’s EXTREMELY talented) had a feel for the direction of the game, creating some catchy tunes which get under your skin just as much as the gameplay itself does.

Hey look, I segued into gameplay! This is the real beauty of this game; WayForward has managed to take a really simple concept that you’d perhaps see in a classic Mega Man game (remember those AWFUL blocks that alternated, and you had to time the jumps across?) and made it fun and complex. At first it seems simple, just switch the blocks until you get the result you want. The first few levels seem easy, as you quickly get the hang of the switching mechanic. However, it isn’t long before MSF! starts throwing challenges at you. The puzzles get more complex, and as you’d expect, the mechanic evolves. The game introduces rocket blocks which propel you through the air in a certain direction when switched onto where you’re standing. Then there’s the still confusing red and blue off/on blocks which will stay in place when you switch if you’re standing on them. What first seemed like an easy concept gets really tough, and by the last 5 levels, you’ll be dying a lot more than you’d expect out of a game like this.

There are a few minor complaints, the biggest (and only one I can remember) being that there are only 16 stages in the whole game. While this seems really short, and it is, many of these stages take a lot longer than you’d expect to beat them. On top of that, every stage is timed, and there’s a set par for each one that you can attempt to beat. In another shout out to Metroid, the image of the heroine at the end of the credits *seems* to be different based on how often you managed to beat the par time. The only other complaint I had is that the 3DS’ size makes switching and jumping at the same time a little tough on the hands after a while, as everything is kind of cramped. A, L, and R can be used to switch, but unfortunately, none of those are very easy to get to without straining just slightly. This, however, is a limitation of the system and not the fault of WayForward by any means. It’s likely that there’s nothing they could have done to avoid it…it could also be that I played it for several hours.

In closing, MSF! is a game everyone with a 3DS should own! I’m not just hyping this one, it’s really fun, engaging, and worth the $5.99. Its fast pace and unique gameplay makes this easily the best 3DS Downloads game in the eShop right now.