Overall, a bad game.
The only thing that kept me from dropping this after the first two levels was, in fact, Kirby: I am convinced that, wasn't this a Kirby game, everyone would have disliked it.

The soundtrack is catchy, the 3D models are adorable and way more pleasent than others Nintendo 64 games and the plot is
Interesting (as much as a Kirby game plot can be), but those are all the positive aspects I can think about when talking about this game.

The level design is boring, despite the semi-3D attempts being sometimes cool (it's a hit and miss, really) and the game is overall too easy (gone are the days of me complaining on how hard the first two games were...). Some bosses don't even move, they just stand still waiting to be killed while launching at the player useful resources.
What really keep a player from finishing this game in 1 hour is how SLOW and UNRESPONSIVE everything is.
My thumbs literally ache everytime I play this game for more than 20 minutes, and I'm not even joking.
Some levels have partners helping Kirby, but they often end up making everything more annoying than being helpful.

Yeah, what a shame, this game looked cool and all, but I guess Kirby early days were really a hit and miss. While I enjoyed the first two games, some spin-offs and loved Super Star, everything else is... Kinda of a letdown.

HAL are pioneers for their mainline Kirbys and Crystal Shards proves they can make anything work. Another unique experience while keeping the Kirby style intact. 3D sidescrolling was such an interesting take on the series that actually worked where the devs really flexed their 3D creativity in their boss battles. This game was hard for someone not used to 3D platformers, especially from 2000. Perspectives are frustrating. Though I appreciated simplicity in areas of this game that could afford it, where the game is incredibly linear but makes up for it in the 3D capability and immense options for copy abilities. I'm not planning on coming back to Crystal Shards but I'm glad I 100%ed it.

Joguei só até o segundo mundo e droppei...

Infelizmente assim como Donkey Kong, a franquia Kirby também não teve sucesso em se reinventar no Nintendo 64 como os jogos do Mario e The Legend of Zelda tiveram.

As medidas tomadas para tentar encaixar a estrutura de gameplay dos jogos anteriores em um ambiente 2.5D acabaram por deixar o jogo muito lento e fácil, que acabam sendo os dois piores defeitos do jogo. Os ambientes possuem menos detalhes e menos profundidade, o que resulta em uma exploração vertical entediante, e pra piorar, o movimento de "flutuar" do Kirby também é LIMITADO.

Não me entenda mal, Kirby nunca teve a premissa de ser desafiador ou algo do tipo, mas o fato do jogo ser ridículo de fácil acaba por canibalizar uma das novidades mais legais dele, que é a combinação de poderes. Por que ficar testando várias combinações (que em maioria nem são interessantes) se você pode simplesmente pegar a bomba e sair atropelando tudo no seu caminho?

Kirby 64 não é de todo o mal, o visual é muito lindo e charmoso e os modelos de personagens e chefes envelheceram igual vinho (infelizmente não se pode falar o mesmo das animações e efeitos sonoros), principalmente o do Kirby e o do King Dedede, além da trilha sonora ser excelente também... mas no geral me decepcionou bastante, sempre ouvir falar muito bem dele.

Played through Dream Collection because most emulators suck at running this game.

For being the finale of the dark matter trilogy, Kirby 64 goes above and beyond the scope of the other games, for better and for worse. I really don't want to give this game 3.5/5 but because I think it's better than that but it's not 4/5 IMO. Let's say uh maybe 3.75/5?

The game already interested me with the double copy mechanic it introduces, and it's a pretty freakin' cool idea. Being able to mix & match copy abilties is similar to the animal friends having adding onto the copy abilities of DL3. Unlike DL3 with its 8 copy abilities, we've regressed back down to 7? It's not a big deal, but losing out on Cleaning & Parasol is kinda a bum deal. At least Bomb was added. I really like the weird transformations Kirby can do when using certain combos like Freeze & Spark turning him into a literal refrigerator (which is also the most broken combo btw), double needle turning him into a giant swiss army knife, or Needle Cutter turning his hands into a giant fucking bear trap. Now that's cool. It's so cool I wish the series brought these weird little details back, but I know the hats are here to stay.

One thing I thought was pretty cool too was the dynamic 2.5d camera. Having the camera go from different angles & directions and having Kirby not move in a complete straight line really helps bridge the gap between 2D and 3D. There are a couple of consequences I've noticed though. Sometimes the camera can make it hard to see where exactly you're going or how far you are from X but this didn't come up too much. The much bigger issue is what it does to the level design. It really didn't do a whole lot different from DL3, hell in some cases I think it regresses from DL3. A lot of the levels boil down to "Hold right". Some levels don't do this, however, and a lot of those are my favorites, Shiver Star especially having more variety I noticed.

We also lose out on animal friends, which I'm not too hurt over because of how cool the double copy abilities are, but you have Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Adeline (Who I wish they just kept her name as Ado) help Kirby out through the journey. Waddle Dee pilots whatever psuedo vehicle you're riding on, Adeline gives Kirby health & extra lives and can give hints for certain Crystal Shards, and Dedede will help Kirby destroy certain obstacles Kirby couldn't break alone. It's not much, but I really think it's cool having friends help you out, and I especially would not disregard more Dedede.

Graphically, I think the game holds up. There's a few ugly models here & there (the venus flytraps especially). A lot of the 2D sprites are inspired off of Dream Land 3's style & it's a style I think blends well with the low poly aesthetic. I especially love Shiver Star & Ripple Star the most graphically. The music is also very similar to what Dream Land 3 did, and I appreciate it a lot. It's got a lot of great tracks, although it does have some forgettable ones too.

Now here's where I really start to have some issues: The crystal shards. They're the collectibles like in Dream Land 2, except there are 3 in every stage and 1 you get after beating the world boss. Not a bad idea. Some of these are pretty fun to find, but the ones that REALLY suck are the ones that require you to use a certain copy ability combo. A lot of the times that specific combo you get you might only have 1 chance to get it before you can't get it anymore, and sometimes you can't even get that combo in the level, so that means you gotta go to pop star (1-2), get the specific combo and go all the way back to the level you need. It's very fucking stupid and it pissed me off a lot. Brownie points if I died or lost the ability in the middle of the stage, having to do the whole cycle again. Neo Star is VERY guilty of this, which is why it's 100% my least favorite world in this game. This is the third & final game where you need to collect things to get the good ending in the series, and all three of them have flaws in various degrees. I'm not sure if I hate this method more or Dream Land 2's method. I really don't know. Either make the copy ability shards easier to get or just make said copy abilities available in the level & there you go. I can't tell you how many times I had to leave a level just to get another shot at collecting those stupid shards. It's even more annoying when backtracking is sometimes LOCKED out, so sometimes you only get 1 shot to get the shard before you're locked out. What a nightmare.

It doesn't help either when Kirby is slower than before. He doesn't run as fast (at least it feels like he doesn't) and his float is just shit. It's even worse considering you can only float for a limited amount of time. Really? Did that really need to be changed? The only other game I'm aware of that does this is Forgotten Lands, which I mean that game is 3D so makes sense. This game is still 2D at heart so why change it?

The bosses in this game are also a joke. Even with 1 copy ability you can make mince meat out of them easily, which is a stark contrast from DL2 & 3. The ripple star boss though is a jump in difficulty with how fucking LOOOOONG it takes to beat it. Seriously, it takes way too long to beat him. The final boss is something else indeed. It's not too different from DL3's final boss, but this time it's a different angle, and you're facing 0². This is cool until you realize that Kirby's fat pink puffball ass is in the way, making it harder to dodge projectiles. It also wasn't clear wtf i was supposed to do. It took me a couple of tries til I got an idea and 1 google search later I understood exactly what to do. The shards Kirby shoots are pretty slow and can be pretty inaccurate, which makes hiting the band aid kind of a chore unless you hug the top of the screen. Same with shooting the cactus thingy but hugging the bottom of the screen. Wasn't really a good final boss at all honestly.

Overall, it's a pretty cool game to play, but completing it can be tedious & frustrating. It's better than Dream Land 2, but I can't say I enjoyed it more than Dream Land 3 or Adventure. I still think it holds up just because it's not 3D for the console it came out on, but the sluggish nature of it got me a little bored of it sometimes.

"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

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.