Played this on my flight down to Nashville (ironic that its the Music Capital and its a music game). Okay little game for a couple dollars. If you are like me and just kinda wanna complete all the levels and not even worry about the medals, it takes about an hour to complete. You definitely get more value out of it by trying to master the songs. The gameplay isnt that great though in terms of rythem games. It feels more just like a platformer than a rythem game because you could really just completly ignore the music and play it all the same. Probably just could have been fleshed out a little more.

As a rhythm enthusiast, it's always fun to try a rhythm game that can set itself apart mechanically, and this does that. You auto-jump to the rhythm, and (optionally) slap your tambourine on the offbeats. Avoid obstacles by timing your jumps in order to reach three specific heights. It's a weird setup, but I was surprised how natural it felt! There's a medal ranking system, and by getting through the stage efficiently, collecting all the coins, and mastering the backbeat, you can get the platinum, which is extremely satisfying to pull off. The soundtrack is comprised of remixes of legendary Kirby tunes, and while it's great to hear them, I personally feel that the remixes come across as a little too "dinky", lacking some punch of the originals. Though it was inexpensive, the game is surprisingly tiny, with only seven core stages and unlockable, more difficult variations of those same stages, recycling their music. Because of this small selection, I suspect those new to rhythm games will struggle with the steepness of the difficulty curve. These issues aside, I had fun honing my skills and getting platinums on every stage... Except the last one, which is a cruel marriage of tedium and repetitive stress injury. It doesn't count.

All in all, a short but satisfactory time for rhythm enthusiasts. Unfortunately this game is no longer available with the closing of the 3DS eShop, so... I don't know who this review is for. Myself, I guess?

Only Kirby game where you don't play as Kirby!

Short but solid. Mastery takes a while to figure out since you're hitting the off-beats as well as the beats, which is pretty unique in my admittedly limited experience with rhythm games. But there's a good cadence to it once you get into it. Mastery is essentially learning the route and pattern to follow, then executing it; it takes a bit to get there, and it's really disheartening to feel yourself lose the beat and watch it all fall apart. But it's supposed to be like that, and it feels good when you pull off a good run.

It's sort of cute that base Drum Dash in Triple Deluxe uses songs from throughout the series, and then Drum Dash Deluxe is half remixes of Triple Deluxe tracks.