Kirby 64 feels like a much improved successor to Kirby's Dream Land 3 for the SNES (which I did not enjoy that much), but most of the issues I had with that game are addressed here.

First wanna point out the super charming 3D graphics. I'm a sucker for low poly 3D and it works so well here for Kirby, even taking the advantage of the 3D and making it a 2.5D game. The visuals shine the most during the intro and outro cutscenes of each world with the cast doing silly little things.

In terms of gameplay, it's a Kirby game with the twist that instead of mixing and matching copy abilities with animal buddies like in KDL3, Kirby can just mix those abilities himself, which is such an improvement. But also, the new abilities you get in this game from mixing are some of the best in the whole series. Like a flaming greatsword?? A double-bladed ligjtsaber? Don't get me started with how fun the fireworks ability is to use.

Only big flaw with the gameplay is how Kirby feels to control. In KDL3, Kirby was at his most sluggish and felt terrible to play. In K64, he feels much more responsive but is a little too floaty, even for a floating puffball like Kirby. Still it's a major improvement, but not the best feeling.

The worst thing about KDL3 was the barren level design and how you basically had to go for the optional missions to make any of these levels feel fun. But the optional missions were mostly cryptic and not that fun anyway.
In K64 we how have both excellent level design and a great side objective. Meaning, if you don't play for the 100% you will still have a lot of fun playing through the levels. But now it's even more fun going for the 100% because the side objective is to find all 3 crystal shards in a stage, and they're not that hard to find. It's similar to trying to find the 3 green stars in Mario 3D world. There are a couple of shards that can be annoying to get by needing very specific requirements, but those are only like 4 shards of the 60ish in the game.

Bosses are a lot of fun and quite challenging for a Kirby game. Most of the bosses have 2 stages including the mvfucking tree this time around.

Great Kirby game, while not my favourite, I like it more than some of it's predecessors. If movement was a little less floaty and closer to Kirby's Adventure or Super Star, and some of the few shards weren't a pain to get, I would've liked it a little more.

Kirby 64 é perfeito e é impossível não se divertir com ele!

Aqui o rosinha brilhou demais, gráficos bonito jogabilidade fluída e em um ritmo calmo porém um tanto melhor que o Dream land 3, sem ser aquela lentidão toda, sem contar que aqui eles adicionaram a combinação de poderes que.. nossa senhora, esse negócio é muito apelão, papo de tu acabar com a maioria dos bosses só spammando ataque de tão forte que é!

Eu achei o level design desse jogo MUITO bem trabalhado, Linear e satisfatório de ir passando e eu diria que ele até tem um certo fator replay. Uma coisa que eu tenho muito a elogiar ao Kirby 64 é o jogo de câmera dele, que obviamente me lembrou muito Klonoa só que eu achei bem mais trabalhado aqui porque a gente não se perde aonde pisar, fica claro nos level onde a gente vai se dar bem e onde vamos se dar mal se pisar, o que é algo realmente agradável principalmente pra época do N64 onde tinham jogos que trabalhavam bem mal essa perspectiva do 3D

Po, já mamei o saco desse jogo ta esperando o que pra jogar? ENTRA AI NO KIRBY 64 vale muito a pena, ele envelheceu muito bem e é um dos meus favoritos agora, diversão do início ao fim sem NENHUMA fase entediante!

If you think of a game that completely streams infinite charm, Kirby 64 should be one of the first names that will come to mind.

This title is absolutely adorable, featuring some of the most expressive world and characters of its time, and an adventure that doesn't just screams personality in its writing, cutscenes, memorable characters and really enjoyable multiplayer modes, but also in its gameplay.

The main mechanic of this title, unique even compared to the rest of the srries, is the ability to combine abilities together to create a surprisingly amount of different trasformations, each of them with their own gimmick. Some of them are sick and really effective, while others are useless or straight up a joke.... but that is the charm of discovering and using them.

You feel like living a goofy Hanna-Barbera skit for the amount of funny absurdity and cute moments you will witness, while having fun with the always solid Kirby formula.

Personally I feel compared to other games from the series, it has some flaws: it can feel to slow for most of the runtime, the requirements to achieve the "True Ending" (WHICH YOU SHOULD TRY TO GET) can be tedious and lead to replay levels over and over again, and the lack of a higher difficulty can turn it into a less enjoyable titles, especially compared to the difficulty options of later Kirby titles.

But aside from these flaws, Kirby 64 is an absolute charm! A must-have for the time, and a title able to stand out even today!

*Note: The Japanese version was played for this review, Japanese names for stuff like Kirby game titles will be used.

Last time I checked out Hoshi no Kirby 3 and thought why not check out Hoshi no Kirby 64. This is a game I’ve played a couple of times but not as much as I probably should. It’s always been my favorite of the Dark Matter Trilogy and since I can now play the Japanese version, this should be a fun time. I’ll try to not make this too long but time to talk about the game!

Plot this time around has Dark Matter returning to take over a planet called Ripple Star. With no other choice, the Queen sends a fairy named Ribbon off with the Crystal Shard to a safe place but sadly the Dark Matter still succeed and break the shard into pieces sending Ribbon crash landing down Pop Star. Though with some luck, she meets with Kirby and explains the mission and Kirby is ready for another adventure. During the first world, Kirby and Ribbon meet with a lone Waddle Dee, a girl named Adeline, and even King Dedede to help join them and save the day. No Animal Friends or Gooey this time though, I wonder why they aren’t here.

When it comes to gameplay you’ll be playing as Kirby with controls about the same from 3. Though there have been improvements and changes in general. For starters, the camera issues are nonexistent this time and flying feels a lot better in this game. They did however give flying a time limit but you’ll never really have an issue with it once you’re good at the game. Sliding has gotten a power buff as it will kill enemies this time in one shot and there’s even speed tech with it if you use it at a wall or off a platform. Sadly headbutting has gotten weaker though it’s still okay but the ability to faceplant on enemies is pretty bad in this game. It just takes too long to activate that you never really have a reason to use it, it’s a shame because you can’t stomp in this game due to no Animal Friends. I think Kirby is also a little slower on the ground in this game but it’s nothing awful. He also can no longer spit bubbles in water anymore which is an odd change. Overall though, it’s good and I’m glad flying isn’t so miserable to do now.

Level design in 64 is pretty good. We have a 2.5D game this time around and it gives the game a unique feel to it even compared to some of the modern games. Since this time around each world is on a whole different planet, variety in the levels is amazing. There’s some notable cool areas like going through Dedede’s castle in Pop star, going through a futuristic UFO in Rock Star, Swimming in the ocean and enjoying the beach in Aqua Star, Going through rocky mountains and volcanoes in Neo Star, a shopping mall and deadly factory in Shiver Star, and finally the climatic end with Ripple Star which is the very planet you’re saving. I love the camera work done in these levels too, it’s something I wish the other 2D games tried doing even if I understand why they don’t. There’s almost no bad levels here with the only levels I wasn’t a fan of were the last level in Aqua Star and the first level in Ripple Star. Just really great all around!

Abilities are back but sadly Parasol and Clean were cut from the group. We do now have Bomb from Super Deluxe but now it’s been simplified which is kind of interesting. New to this game is combining powers to make all new ones. Sure using spark may be fun but combine it with cutter and you get a sword straight out of the Gundam Anime. That’s where the true fun comes with the abilities, seeing what you like and what works with the level design. So many possibilities to go through levels and see what you like using and not having to worry about the pros and cons of another character like what Animal Friends did. Another cool feature is pressing the C button will have Kirby hold an enemy or ability star above him. You can use this for helping combine abilities or even have special features with an enemy, it’s all very niche stuff and some don’t even do anything but I love the detail put into a mechanic like this for something most players won’t even bother using. Some abilities are better than others and I’ll go over an issue I have with it in a bit but these are still the most fun to have with abilities in the whole trilogy in my opinion even if they aren’t all winners like stone bomb, that ability is terrible.

Oh there’s also two different gameplay styles you’ll do rarely through the adventure. Sometimes Waddle Dee will let you hop on a vehicle and you’ll do a little vehicle section. Think of them like the minecart levels from DKC but very easy. They aren’t too interesting but they’re fun distractions. They also always end in a funny way. The other gameplay style is having you ride Dedede’s back as he goes through a section of the level. Dedede can swing his hammer and even do a charged hammer swing and…well that’s it. Yeah he’s very limited and honestly none of his level design is that creative. Wish I had more to say here. It’s weird Adeline is never playable though at one point she was going to. I wonder why it got cut.

Now we can talk about the Crystal Shards. There are three in every level along with a bigger one each boss is protecting. Unlike in 3, Shards are just found in levels for you to collect and they’re usually pretty easy to spot especially if you keep a watchful eye. Though there is one type of way they try to hide them that I’ve always disliked. You see, there are blocks that protect them that need a specific ability to obtain them. So what kind of clever ways do they find ways to have you collect them? They just have them color coded to let you know what ability you need and that’s about it. Honestly I don’t get why these feel so lazily done. They not only hurt some of the experimentation of the copy abilities but there’s never a good reason to use this method so many times. At least the game for the most part will give the ability you need at least once but like in 3, very rarely the game won’t do this and it never feels like good design in my opinion. There are a couple of times puzzles are done like ones involving Adeline or one where you need stone cutter and have the Rick transformation to wall kick up a very tall room but that’s like the only examples. I feel like I never hear anyone complaining about these color coded blocks so maybe it’s just a me problem but I just think they could have had better ideas.

Bosses in this game are interesting as they vary a lot from each other. Take the first two as you go in a circle in the boss fight while the others are done mostly in a more 2D like setting. Once again the camera work really highlights how much good camera work can improve a boss fight. My favorite one gotta be the HR-H/HR-E fight with that really nice diagonal viewpoint. I do have some gripes like the beginning of Pix lasting way too long, Acro’s fight is horrible without an ability, and they don’t all feel well designed with some abilities in mind sadly. The fake final boss Miracle Matter is a really good fight with a good difficulty around it. It only can get hurt by the ability it’s using, meaning you have to learn its patterns and play it without abilities as spitting his projectiles is more optimal. It’s easily the best fight in the game and it would make for a nice finale but now I have to rant.

After getting every Shard, you are ready for Dark Star. It’s a short level to get you ready for the final boss named 0². The setup for it is amazing, Kirby and Ribbon team up to use Ribbon Shard, a gun made up of the Crystal Shards you obtained. 0² is a more powerful godlike take on the Zero fight from 3. The atmosphere is perfect and the music is even more impactful than the Miracle Matter theme, the 3D space this fight has makes it unique compared to any fight similar to this in past games. It all seems so perfect except the actual fight is an easy snoozefest. You just stop to shoot then move out of the way of his projectiles, rinse and repeat till you can hit the halo and then his weird bottom vine looking thing and do it a few more times and it’s over. It’s so lame like why have all that for such an easy and uninteresting fight? It had so much going for it! While it’s not the worst final boss in a Kirby game (because it’s not the Super Rainbow final boss) but man is it down there. At least the ending and credits are nice though is the ending meant to be a Star Wars reference or am I just overthinking it?

When you’re done with the main game, you can do some additional things like getting every info card. Info cards can be found at the end of level bonus game where you jump at an item at the right position and distance with right timings. This is the only place to get them and there’s 81 in total. I never got them till now so I tried doing so and OMG this was a terrible experience. You might wonder why is it so bad? Well for some reason you can get repeats making the grind even longer and tedious. You don’t even need them for 100% so I don’t get why they even made this so tedious. Once you have the cards you can view them on the file select and look at every Boss or Enemy you have available and it even shows which ones have abilities and also their model. I guess it’s nice I finally did it but I will never do that again, I’m sorry. There’s also a boss rush mode you can unlock and it’s similar to previous games in the trilogy and honestly it’s not too hard in this game, it probably helps that 0² is easy. It should be noted this also isn’t necessary to do for 100% which is quite odd.

Finally there’s three different Mini-Games you can play. Hop Hop Race has you competing in an obstacle course. You move one space by pressing B and two spaces by pressing A. It’s pretty simple and it tests your reflexes on avoiding the hazards but I kind of find it just a weaker take on that one Pocket Monsters Stadium minigame. Catch Catch Battle has you trying to catch fruit while bumping with other players to switch places. It requires a lot of mind games but I find the game to be a little too slow for my liking but it can still be a little fun I guess. Fall Fall Fight is easily the best one where you all are on a Square platform and by pressing A you can destroy all of the floor in front of you requiring a lot of thought and plenty of chaos from the four players. It’s the one mini-game I’d really recommend trying. The only real issue I have with it is the difficulty doesn’t really change anything besides the aesthetic. All of these minigames are four players and you can even play as Waddle Dee, Adeline, and Dedede here. I do wish you could choose the color you want for them though, does that bother anyone else? I should also add they can be played the moment you start a final and also are not required for 100%, so just remember to have fun!

Hoshi no Kirby 64 is a marvelous looking game for the N64. This still looks really good even to this day. The environments are very vibrant and sometimes exotic looking. The tricks used to help the game run better aren’t too distracting and there’s no framerate issues seen in this entry. The models, while simple, work very well. The cutscenes are also the best the series had up to this point and they even had these running at 60 FPS with better looking models too. I already gave praise to the camera work but I cannot stress how much it helps the presentation. I don’t know, maybe I’m overreacting but I really want another Kirby game to try something like it. You can even change the UI in the settings to some cool looking themes and I went with the one exclusive to the Japanese version. The music is also fantastic and maybe some of the best in the series. I don’t think there’s a single bad song in this. You got some really great tracks like Quiet Forest, Factory Inspection, Ruins, Above the Clouds, and many more. Even stuff like the level select themes are really good in this one. It’s really worth a listen if you haven’t heard any of it yet. Even Kirby bops to it when you go to the sound test! Ohh this game is just so awesome!

So much for that being a short review huh? Hoshi no Kirby 64 is a game that when I think about it, it really is brilliant. I don’t usually praise N64 games and I use to think not as highly of this game but I think reviewing this has really shown me a new light with this game. It’s not just very good, it’s goddamn great! The gameplay, the level design, the new abilities, and the presentation just highlight how good the team was getting. I enjoyed a lot about Hoshi no Kirby 3 and I’d argue that one still might be more impressive in some ways but 64 to me is still a better game. If you haven’t played this one then you’re missing out. It’s an N64 game you don’t wanna miss. Sadly unless you own the original cart and N64, you’re going to have to shell out $50 per year to play this on Switch. It is available on the Wii still via a collection but it’s not the cheapest thing out there and it’s a shame both releases of it on VC are forever gone. Kirby wouldn’t get another mainline console game until 2011 with Hoshi no Kirby Wii. The combining abilities thing would somewhat be reused in two other games but sadly they more combined elements rather than making brand new abilities. I don’t really have much more to say so thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the game if you happen to someday try it out!

THE END

Pink glutton needs to become 3D but in 2D and save the galaxy again?
It's actually so free.
Gone is Hamster Rick. Gone is being a fish on land.
Kirby will murder innocents and (GAMING ALERT) COMBINE ABILITIES???
This is awesome.

Some of the abilities are hype and have felt the best to use in any Kirby game thus far.

Cons: Kirby is slow as hell and collecting the crystals is kinda tedious. Would have been infinitely better without pleb-blocking progress through the use of combinations. The frost combo star in the volcano? Not liking that!
Additionally, Kirby ultimately looks much better in Superstars beautiful 2D graphics, but I like how this game plays more.

What if Kirby inhaled a burp and a fart at the same time to vcombine them??

"Why do birds poop white?" son, they poop fire and ice, haven't you played Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards? I feel seen... Oh, it's the box art. Please look away, Kirby-san! This game is suffering from compulsive peak disorder and I'm the one diagnosing shit around these parts. A splendiferous last hurrah to many cultural remnants of the pink ball, like the little stars, the enemies, and a gimmick that gives you a shitload of ability combos that I actively seek out. Ado also comes back as a freind but that's her deadname don't use it 🤣 (she got one name for every clothing set). We will watch her shortlived career with great interest.

Like every old fart (anybody born before me) probably anticipated after the numerous jocular intermissions plaguing the series since its first entry, there are jocular cutscenes here, too! They are very delightful. I swear, jocular doesn't seem like a real word. In these cutscenes, we meet our allies: Bandana Waddle Dee (he's the only liddle dee that matters. Bro is him), King Dedede??! Yep what a turncoat, and the last is Ado who I have already mentioned. She serves a hearty meal of tomato once in a while, she's clearly doing her best. Waddle Dee, meanwhile, uses his suspiciously different colored feets to step on the gas of various machinery he does not have a license for. While they were all intended to be playable, it is finally King Dedede that you get to clobber dat dere enemies with.

I forgot Ribbon, anyways, look at those enemies. Kirby takes it one step further and can take them hostage, forcing them to kill their own family (swag) "Um i'm a biblical angel of death 🤓" stfu dioxygen I'm coming with the "Swiss Army" ability! <-- clueless. I will be taking Sephiroth hostage see how you parry this 😂 in true Kirby's Dream Land 2 fashion, the one combo I've used almost all game is the aforementioned Needle Needle ability. Press B to win! But I did replay afterwards to test out what I didn't get to test. Some of those are peculiar ngl, instead of using his cellphone to call a warp star, which he has never had to do before, he should have called Kirby reddit to give him even weirder abilities.

I cant believe Whispy Woods got kids bruh 😭 when did he find the time to settle down? I guess letting him walk in DL3 is letting him cook 🗣️ I guess Ripple Field went from the rainbow islands to a whole new planet? I do like the map design and environment of this game! One of the best in the N64 some might say. Despite the non-linearity of the path, it was easily navigable. Underwater sections have been known to be breathtaking at times too. The concept of room guarders is pretty weird, what are they guarding? Still, they became staples, there is no place for critic. One complaint I might have about this game is that I keep getting pit deaths! My name is not helping me at all, platforming be damned these Neo Star falling logs can muster a mean fall. The picnic shit at the end of levels is funny though. Look at my boy all sad and sobbing because he jumped on grass

lindo, maravilhoso e tudo de bom.

genuinamente um dos jogos mais bonitos do Nintendo 64, com modelos muito expressivos e bem animadinhos. o Kirby em si controla melhor do q em Dream Land 3, voltando a ter mais mobilidade e velocidade. apesar disso, é meio q bem mais difícil do q a maioria dos jogos anteriores, com pequenas mudanças de gameplay q tornam o platforming mais desafiador. no geral gostei dessa mudança, apesar de alguns chefes serem meio frustrantes. a combinação de habilidades é uma novidade até q interessante, mas meio q esqueci q isso isso era uma coisa pela maior parte do jogo.

um dos melhores trabalhos de Jun Ishikawa e Hirokazu Ando na série tbm. acho q é a minha trilha sonora favorita do Kirby até o momento. e um dos meus jogos favoritos do Kirby até o momento. curtinho e muito doce.

NOTA: 6,75

Sendo o primeiro game com visuais 3D e uma gameplay 2.5D Kirby 64 é um game bem divertido, com uma proposta um pouco fora do habitual, o game introduz a mistura dos powerups. Com os designs dos levels bem feitos e diferentes cenários, gostei também de como o jogo esconde alguns dos seus coletaveis pelas fases e achei as boss fights um tanto quanto criativas e desafiadoras.

Se por um lado me surpreendi com os mix de power ups ( achei muito legal principalmente os misseis e a espada de choque ou fogo) por outro lado não pareceu que essa mecânica agradou de maneira geral, já que se não estou enganado, ela jamais foi mantida.

Sem dúvidas o principal ponto para se criticar aqui tambem acaba sendo a jogabilidade, para hoje é um pouco datada, a movimentação do Kirby é bem pesada, além disso o jogo não varia tanto os inimigos e nem as soundtracks das fases, os boss de meio de fase também não brilham e acho que o game poderia ter levels com mais eventos repentinos e trechos em conjunto com o restante do grupo.

Finalmente, o verdadeiro boss final definitivo apesar de variar a gameplay, é bem simples em relação ao outro boss final caso não se pegue todos os cristais.

Concluindo, Kirby 64 de fato tem o carisma da franquia, embora não tão detalhado e nem incrível como um mario 64 ou zelda OOT, achei bem divertido e desafiador pela jogabilidade mais pausada, para fãs da franquia, recomendo dar uma chance ainda mais pela surpresa ao se deparar com diferentes power ups misturados do Kirby.

The Dark Matter trilogy is finished! I'm happy to have revisited them after all these years, even if I'm not quite as in love with them as I was back in the day. There's still some really cool ideas and vibes in these games, and Kirby 64 is probably the peak of the slower, more puzzle-y flavor of Kirby that characterized the Dark Matter trilogy in opposition to the faster, more beat-em-up flavored Sakurai games.

The Crystal Shards' central copy ability gimmick is probably the most memorable aspect of it, and it is REALLY fun to experiment with combos to see what you get. Some abilities are more practical and/or fun than others, which I feel is sort of an inevitability when you implement this many options... but it is kind of weird when you end up seeing an ability that got so much more love than anything else. It's definitely wild how crazy they went with Cutter/Rock! Like, they put in all the animal buddies from 3 as statues, even if they don't show up in person! That's sick. I love it.

There's also a weird... well, I don't know if it's a hidden mechanic or not, but it's kind of a weird bonus that doesn't really have much practical use outside of being Kind of Neat. You can hold an enemy above your head instead of swallowing them once you've got them in your mouth, and some of them have weird effects that you can use if you do that. Like, holding one of the little pterodactyl guys over your head will let you glide pretty quickly, while when you're holding one of the anemone guys it will shoot projectiles the whole time. Maybe they're used in some crazy speedrun strats, but I think they're mostly just a neat thing to mess around with.

I think I'm not as fond of the stage design as I am of the actual concepts here, though. 64 kicks it up a notch from 3 by hiding three collectibles in each level, and more often than not they involve babysitting a combo ability through a stage. I think the abilities aren't too difficult to use for the most part, but some of them can be a real pain in the ass to use (lookin at you, rock+bomb). It doesn't help that the abilities you'd need for the combo might not always actually be in the stage they're needed for. I don't think 3 was quite as bad about this? I know there was a level or two where you'd need to bring in an animal buddy from another level, but they usually had some sort of hint in the level select suggesting which animal you might need. 64 doesn't have anything like that, unfortunately, so a lot of it is trial and error. I also feel like while there's different dev DNA involved, 64 could've benefited from a "stage" like Superstar had with all the copy abilities that you could combine at your leisure.

Anyway, the cutscenes and story are extremely cute. Waddle Dee and Dedede are perfect, and I wish Ribbon and Adeline had more appearances outside of, like, this game and Star Allies... and of course, you get things going absolutely insane and bizarre at the end. Admittedly, Shiver Star has its own wild vibe to it, with a sort of proto-Forgotten Land feeling. The factory level is a pain in the ass but damn, the music and that one segment with the critters floating in the vats, though. I love that shit. I marked out extremely hard when the music showed up again in Canvas Curse.

Also, you really gotta pour one out to 02, because what in the fuck. I love it. I'm so glad Kirby goes so hard on having nightmarish horrors for its secret final bosses.

O' Kirby 64, my pleasantly polygonal darling, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. This was one of my favorite games growing up, and was my introduction to the Kirby series. I think it was nice to have a more laid-back experience to come back to between bigger games. I never managed to 100% it and was really confused by the ending that I got - something that I remedied in recent years. And I really wanted to hold Queen Ripple's hand (lowkey still do). It's still one of my most fondly-remembered games from that time period.

The story: Dark Matter invades the far-off Ripple Star, a peaceful planet populated by fairies. The Queen of Ripple beseeches a young girl named Ribbon to flee to a safe place with the planet's crystal. However, Ribbon is attacked by Dark Matter before she can make good on her escape, and the crystal breaks apart into pieces that scatter across the solar system. She crashes into Pop Star - and Kirby - and entreats everybody's favorite sentient sphere to assist her in retrieving the titular Crystal Shards and freeing her people from Dark Matter's wrath. Kirby obviously agrees, and the two set off on their journey, supported by a few familiar faces.

Kirby 64's presentation is stellar, no pun intended. The simple, colorful art style combined with a clear understanding of the N64's strengths and weaknesses results in visuals that have aged much more gracefully than many of its contemporaries - which is to be expected for this series. The 2D gameplay is retained, but Kirby 64 makes use of 3D to give the world and characters more depth and detail than they've had up to this point. The music is fantastic, which is pretty much a given for Kirby. Some of the tracks have been living in my head rent-free for decades - listen to this and tell me you don't want to hum along after a while. And then there's what I consider one of the game's greatest strengths that I feel people seldom talk about: The game is dotted with several cutscenes that do a fantastic job of telling a story without a single word being spoken. It's not a particularly complex tale, to be sure, but the main cast are given so much life simply through how animated they are and how well their personalities are conveyed, along with the musical cues that tie it all together. This all succeeds at making Kirby 64 a very memorable experience, even if the gameplay itself is barely any different than the games that came before it. Run, jump and fly, swallow the baddies and steal their powers to wreak havoc on the rest of them.

But there is a wrinkle to the gameplay - a really good one, and one I'm sorely disappointed Nintendo hasn't properly revisited since. In 64, Kirby's signature copy abilities can be combined, resulting in brand new abilities that run the gamut from broken to laughable (or laughably broken). Combine Spark with Cutter to get a Darth Maul-esque laser sword, or mix Spark with Ice instead to turn Kirby into a refrigerator... That spits out health-restoring food items. One of my favorite parts of the game was mashing up the different abilities just to see what would come of it, and the added variety was a great boon to the overall experience. My only possible complaint is that a lot of other abilities from past games were absent - I would love to see a new implementation of this expanded to include as many as the devs can muster.

It's far from perfect, almost by design. Kirby's a little slow and awkward to control. It doesn't feel great to play, and because this is a baby game for babies (I'm babies), you can probably attribute most of your lost lives to how hard it can be to keep the pink puffball out of harm's way rather than due to any meaningful challenge. Levels are somehow even more linear than in past games, with very few opportunities to duck into secret rooms or alternate paths. The collectables you'll need to snag to see the full ending are, much like in Dream Land 3, sometimes barred by obtuse and poorly-communicated requirements, necessitating multiple runs through a level until you figure out what the game wants you to do. And yes, even though you can generally expect low difficulty from this franchise, this game is almost trivially easy at certain points. It's a great introduction to video games for younger players, and many others simply won't mind - but compared to other platformers of the time, it isn't exactly exhilarating.

Even so, Kirby 64 is an adorable little feelgood experience that you can complete in a single sitting. Those who want just a bit more out of the game can fill out the enemy list, and there's also a handful of surprisingly fun, if basic, multiplayer minigames if you have a few friends nearby. Compared to more modern Kirby titles, though, it is a bit light on content. I imagine the game won't blow anybody away today, but it's an understated gem of the N64 library that belongs in your collection. For my part, I like to revisit it every few years to have a cozy little afternoon, before kicking myself for ever having let go of my cart.

Undoubtedly one of the best of Kirby's classic era. All three Kirby titles directed by Shinichi Shimomura's Kirby are strong tonal pieces one way or another, but this easily takes the cake. "Planet Popstar" has to be one of the most immediately welcoming stage 1 themes out there. Then there's the ensemble cast. They're all great, but Adeleine turned a fun high-concept fight from DL3 into one of the most understatedly-charming characters in the series, and I love this first hint at Dedede as someone with a good heart, even if he's a bully. I always hone in on the cool ability combos between playthroughs, so it's always a pleasant surprise to see just how often Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede show up in standard gameplay. To say nothing about how this is the first time the series has started to hint at something sinister lurking beneath its surface, with the uncertain nature of what Shiver Star is.

But those ability combos are pretty dang cool. It's a fun compromise of Dream Land 2/3's animal buddy systems, where the appeal was to experiment with all the options made available to the player. I do miss the animal buddies here, though their cameo with Rock+Cutter is a nice compromise (even if Pitch is most blatantly the most fun to play as). While the game requires that just about each ability combo get used, there's no denying that some abilities are blatantly stronger than others - you're not gonna be cutting much of a path through bad guys with Ice+Spark or Fire+Ice. Still, that they all exist and that they're all so imaginative makes it fun to mix and match 'em.

It is a pretty short game, though. This is true of most Kirby games (even Modern Kirby has this issue, though it's disguised somewhat by the extended post-game modes), but for some reason I've always especially felt it with Kirby 64 and its six bite-sized worlds. The difficulty, such that it exists, comes from ability-derived lock-and-key puzzles - a stable of Kirby games, though the games are usually more creative about it than throwing in color-coded barriers that need to be destroyed. This is an issue each of Shimomura's Kirbies have, so nothing new here - but still definitely an issue. Game speed is also quite slow compared to other Kirbies, even of its era. It's not bad or anything, but since I'm generally used to the cadence of something like Nightmare in Dream Land, I always have to readjust when replaying this.

Before my series marathon a couple years ago, if you'd asked me what my favorite entry in the series was, I would've said... a toss-up between a couple different entries. But this would've placed towards the top for sure. I didn't have the fortune to grow up with this - I first played it in middle school - but I know for a lot of people, this is an extremely nostalgic, fondly-remembered title. I can think of fewer other Kirbies to make for as strong of a starting point.