Nintendo released their newest first party title Kirby’s Epic Yarn last week and I finally got a chance to play through the end of the game. Kirby’s Epic Yarn is the latest in a series of first party side-scrollers released for the Wii, following up on New Super Mario Bros Wii, and releasing just before Donkey Kong Country Returns in November. So is Kirby’s Epic Yarn worth your hard earned dollars? Click through after the jump to find out.
The first thing you will notice about Epic Yarn is the highly stylized graphics. The Wii might not have the horsepower of its Sony and Microsoft counterparts, but that hasn’t stopped Nintendo from releasing a great looking game. The entire environment looks like it was knitted by your grandmother. Even Kirby and all of the other characters are made up of scrap pieces of yarn. The color palette for the game is… well… very pink and pretty. This adds to the overall cuteness of the game, which is already enough to make you sick since this is a Kirby title. This is OK though, as it is a welcome break from the other blood and guts games I have been playing lately (*cough*Super Meat Boy*cough*).
The play style for this 2D sidescroller comes directly from the art style. Since Kirby is transformed into a piece of yarn, he doesn’t suck. Literally. His signature move has been taken away since he is now made out of a piece of yarn. Instead he can transform, squash, and stretch to fit the different stages of the game, from land to under water, and the desert to snow covered mountains. Kirby’s main attack mode is to transform his arm into a rope to grab enemies. You can also swing and pull on buttons that are stitched into the background. He also transforms into a bunch of other objects to get through the different levels, including a car, UFO, submarine, dolphin, offroad truck, parachute, among many other things.
The game levels can be modified, pulling on buttons and zippers to open hidden areas and find hidden objects. The goal of each stage is to collect as many gems as possible in order to achieve a bronze, silver or gold rating. Earning extra gems on the boss stages will unlock an additional 2 levels in each stage. Each stage has 2 hidden items and 1 soundtrack to find. This adds to the re-playability of the game, especially if you like getting 100% completion in your games like I do. Collecting the hidden items also unlocks the mini games by decorating the apartment that Kirby lives in on the home stage. These extra mini games area actually a lot of fun and add to the experience after you have finished playing through on the story mode.
The multiplayer portion adds quiet a bit of value to Kirby’s Epic Yarn. It’s enough of an addition, in my opinion, to play the whole game through once on single player and then a second time with a friend on the 2 player mode. It is difficult to describe how much having two players on the screen at the same time can change the game. Having the extra player can work for you or against you; however, as you have twice the chance to get more gems, as well as easier access to hidden areas by working together. You also have twice the chance to get hit or fall down a pit to lose the gems you have gathered to ruin your rating.
To wrap this up, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a great game. It is not without its flaws, as it did take a bit of time to grow on me. I also wish that they would have sped Kirby’s walk speed up just a little bit, as the game does play quite slow. Some of the objects that Kirby transforms into speeds things up momentarily, but most of the game is played as Kirby in normal platforming situations, and he is just a little bit too sluggish for me. Also the story mode is short. It took me just over 8 hours to play through the story mode in its entirety, and that put me at 71% completion of the game. All in all, this is a solid game and is worth adding to your Wii collection.