Platforming Week: Kirby's Adventure

I'm going to do my best to avoid having this be "Nostalgic Platforming Week," but yesterday's post got me thinking about other games from my childhood, most of which, were platformers anyways. At the time I didn't enjoy having a game's difficulty beat me to a bloody pulp, so Kirby was an obvious and enjoyable choice.

Soundtrack
You may notice how much this section is beginning to sound like a broken record. I must point out, however, that that is a good thing. Like the other games I've mentioned this week, Kirby's Adventure has enjoyable and memorable tunes. The light, cheerful tone of the game is conveyed nicely through fun, playful tunes. I may abandon this section later in the week since it always sounds like I'm repeating myself, but a good soundtrack helps keep the game in your memory and add to the overall enjoyment. Good tunes certainly don't make good games on their own, but we'd certainly be missing them if they weren't there. Can you imagine a Mega Man game that didn't have at least one good tune? Scary thought...

Difficulty
Like most Kirby games, the game is pretty easy. The neat thing about the game however, is that the different abilities allow for multiple boss strategies and ways to clear stages. It may be a little on the easy side, but that never detracts from the fun.

Control
Simplistic, but never lacking, Kirby's Adventure's controls are easy to learn and feel comfortable nearly instantly. A jumps, B uses copy abilities, up makes him fly, down makes him eat inhaled enemies. Simple and comfortable, what more do you need?

Overall Fun Factor
To put it simply, the strongest aspect of Kirby's Adventure is that it's fun. The many abilities acquired through copying enemies is an extremely fun mechanic that keeps things interesting the whole way through. Kirby's copy ability is well-known, but it's important to remember that Kirby's Adventure is the first game in which Kirby has this ability. In fact, while this wasn't his first game, I would argue that Kirby's Adventure is where Kirby's legacy truly began. Before Kirby's Adventure, Kirby didn't even have his signature pink appearance... well, in America at least. Even so, Kirby's Adventure is the game that introduced the most beloved and recognizable feature of Kirby to the series. (And Meta Knight. He's pretty cool too). I often am torn between Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star for the title of "favorite Kirby game," but without a doubt, Kirby's Adventure is the game that made Kirby games what they are today (excluding the spin-off games).

I would like to end this time, looking towards the future. Kirby hasn't had a major console release (excluding handhelds) since the N64 game. That was literally a decade ago in 2000. There were teases several times along the way that Kirby was finally going to be reappearing on our TV screens, but the only thing we got was Kirby Air Ride on the Gamecube in 2003, and that was ultimately a large disappointment, and not a standard Kirby game. It should come as no surprise that I'm extremely excited to see Kirby finally returning to the major console spotlight after all these years. So here's hoping that Kirby's Epic Yarn brings Kirby back to his former glory. I'm a little skeptical since he's lost his usual copy ability, but the game still looks very promising. Best wishes, Kirby.