After a long time away from the home console scene, Kirby has finally returned. He’s quite a crafting master – after 2005’s ‘Kirby: Power Paintbrush’ (known in the US as Kirby: Canvas Curse’) on the DS which was art/paint themed, I’m expecting Kirby’s next outing to maybe focus on cooking or food.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn is themed around fabric and stitching, with Kirby in Patch Land, a fabric world under threat from the evil sorcerer Yin-Yarn. Patch Land has come unstitched, and it’s up to Kirby and Prince Fluff, the leader of Patch Land, to find and defeat the monsters holding the magic yarn that sews it all back together! This sets the stage for lots of classic platforming action. It’s nice and straightforward, easy for anyone to just jump into. Kirby is controlled with a horizontal Wiimote too, and it suits the game perfectly not having to faff around with any motion controls.
It looks very different from any other Kirby game. Everything is ‘fabricated’ in the most literal way, with Kirby made out of strands of yarn, landscape made up of textiles and parts of stages held together with buttons and zips which Kirby can swing from, or pull to change the terrain. The game’s general design reminds much of Paper Mario and Yoshi’s Story. Certain areas involve having to go into the background like Paper Mario and the first area you come to looks pretty much like the first few levels of Yoshi’s Story – all that is missing are the fruit and Shy Guys. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s nice to be reminded of other excellent Nintendo games right down to the music which has flavourings of classic Nintendo and other Kirby themes.
The artists and designers have very much gone to town in this game. A stitched Kirby who is essentially made of thread can’t inhale enemies to gain their abilities, so he has other appropriate talents. For example, he can throw out a piece of yarn like a lasso to unravel enemies, or wind them up into little projectiles; he can transform into a parachute to avoid sharp drops and even turn into a car if you find his waddling a little too slow. Kirby’s classic move of transforming into a heavy weight that drops on enemies is present, but somehow more hilarious reimagined in yarn. There are also special levels where Kirby is transformed into something such as a rocket car, a tank or my personal favourite, a UFO complete with traction beam and lightning power. It’s these special stages that add a nice touch of variety to proceedings. The bosses are also very cleverly designed, and are fun to battle. The first boss you come to, for example, is a dragon that sticks his tongue out at you, and can be defeated by tugging the button at its end.
Some might find this game too cute and sweet, but it’s so appealing and cheerful that it’s hard to play without a big grin on your face. I haven’t had this much fun with a Wii game for a long while!
There are some nice little touches as well, such as collectible furniture that can be found in levels and used to decorate Kirby’s Patch Land apartment. The owner of the building also needs help decorating other apartments appropriately in order to attract new tenants. If you find the correct furniture and someone else moves in, they’ll give you little challenges that net you neat rewards.
Talking of playing with someone, you can play two-player mode if you like. The second player will take the part of Prince Fluff, who looks like a blue, crowned, no-nonsense version of Kirby himself.
There are plenty of levels for you to work your way through and trying to gold-medal every one of them and find every collectible will keep you occupied. You’ll want to do it too! It won’t feel like a chore at all since the furniture attracts new tenants and decorates your own place, plus the beads (Patch Land’s currency) that you collect in levels allow you to buy more furniture and wallpaper. Earning medals and collecting treasure chests in each level will also unlock more difficult stages.
It might be a bit easy and linear in some places, but you will want to replay levels to get some collectibles which can be elusive. Some of the more difficult levels also have some puzzles and tricky bits in them to keep you satisfied. Overall, the package is very nicely put together, and it’s fantastic to see Kirby on the Wii in his own adventure at last.
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