Kirby's Adventure is one of the most graphically impressive games on the NES. It's so expressive - everything from the facial animations to the color choices to the backgrounds. It benefited a lot from being one of the last game to arrive in the NES' library. One of the best platformers on a system inundated with them.
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is not Kirby's Adventure though. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is an oddly hollow facsimile of Kirby's Adventure.
Say what you will about the original's slowdown or NES-era sensibilities. The slowdown is, indeed, removed in Nightmare in Dream Land. However, the NES-era design sensibilities aren't solved at all. It's still essentially the same game under the hood.
Which becomes especially odd when you realize that the presentation has taken a significant hit. Gone are the beautifully drawn backgrounds of the original Kirby's Adventure, replaced with ugly, dense pre-rendered backgrounds. The simplistic sprite art that conveyed so much charm and emotion is now made into a depressingly standard art style for Kirby. This is all especially jarring when the game still plays exactly like Kirby's Adventure: presentation matters so much. It looks like a GBA Kirby game, but it doesn't feel like one, and that disconnect is hard to shake while playing.
Kirby's Adventure is a game full of life and character. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a game that tries to strip that character away.
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is not Kirby's Adventure though. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is an oddly hollow facsimile of Kirby's Adventure.
Say what you will about the original's slowdown or NES-era sensibilities. The slowdown is, indeed, removed in Nightmare in Dream Land. However, the NES-era design sensibilities aren't solved at all. It's still essentially the same game under the hood.
Which becomes especially odd when you realize that the presentation has taken a significant hit. Gone are the beautifully drawn backgrounds of the original Kirby's Adventure, replaced with ugly, dense pre-rendered backgrounds. The simplistic sprite art that conveyed so much charm and emotion is now made into a depressingly standard art style for Kirby. This is all especially jarring when the game still plays exactly like Kirby's Adventure: presentation matters so much. It looks like a GBA Kirby game, but it doesn't feel like one, and that disconnect is hard to shake while playing.
Kirby's Adventure is a game full of life and character. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a game that tries to strip that character away.
1992
There really is something to be said for a strong first impression.
Not every game series gets this right. Mega Man's first entry is one of his more forgettable, and I haven't met a single person who has told me that they love any of the original Monster Hunter games. It's a hard thing to do, to break out into the medium.
Kirby manages somehow. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's still a fun time. There's something rather distinct about this game. I'd say the wonderfully saccharine presentation, which is so cleanly animated, maybe. The soundtrack contributes a lot to it too. It's just so Kirby.
As an example, let's look at a contemporary Game Boy platformer - Castlevania: The Adventure. It feels so much like an obviously "downgraded" version of its console predessecors, generic and walking down a path that had already been trodden. Super Mario Land, on the other hand, hits much the same chords as Kirby does. A whole new aesthetic that was especially crafted for the Game Boy which allows it to take advantage of the system.
Kirby focuses on being adorable, and the designs are made to accommodate for the Game Boy's limitations in doing so. I think it's fairly successful. It's just a joy to look at, really, and the simple gameplay adds to all of this. He's a wonderful little puff.
Not every game series gets this right. Mega Man's first entry is one of his more forgettable, and I haven't met a single person who has told me that they love any of the original Monster Hunter games. It's a hard thing to do, to break out into the medium.
Kirby manages somehow. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's still a fun time. There's something rather distinct about this game. I'd say the wonderfully saccharine presentation, which is so cleanly animated, maybe. The soundtrack contributes a lot to it too. It's just so Kirby.
As an example, let's look at a contemporary Game Boy platformer - Castlevania: The Adventure. It feels so much like an obviously "downgraded" version of its console predessecors, generic and walking down a path that had already been trodden. Super Mario Land, on the other hand, hits much the same chords as Kirby does. A whole new aesthetic that was especially crafted for the Game Boy which allows it to take advantage of the system.
Kirby focuses on being adorable, and the designs are made to accommodate for the Game Boy's limitations in doing so. I think it's fairly successful. It's just a joy to look at, really, and the simple gameplay adds to all of this. He's a wonderful little puff.
1994
This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy VI is the game that changed the way I interfaced with games as a medium. It's the game that changed me as a person.
When I was 12 years old, I didn't really play many games outside of games published by Nintendo. This was partially due to my parents not having any interest in getting me non-Nintendo things, and partially due to my own elitism. Chalk it up to me being 12. I saw Super Paper Mario as the pinnacle of storytelling, which is ironic given how I feel about that game now.
Everything changed when, against all odds, I tried out Final Fantasy VI for the first time. I don't know what spurred on this decision. Maybe it was a lack of faith in the Mario RPGs in general after having been burned by Sticker Star. Maybe it was just a general sense of boredom. Hell, maybe it was even just that I had heard from my dad that it was really, really good. I was enraptured by it almost instantly - the characters, the ensemble opera style of storytelling, the symbolism. It quickly became my favorite game ever made. I had simply never seen anything like it before. I didn't realize a story could draw me in so deeply, that the struggles of a party of characters could be so compelling to me. When you get to choose a scenario, I knew this game was just different.
There are many games I've played now that I would say are better than Final Fantasy VI. Fallout: New Vegas, Undertale, and Celeste. But no game changed me the way this game did. No game shaped my tastes and understanding of the medium like Final Fantasy VI. This overly ambitious love letter to a genre that most people in Japan had never even engaged with, Italian opera, and the swan song for 2D Final Fantasy is the game that has affected me the most over the course of my life. Sure, it has a cast of characters that's too big for its own good. It has a plot that can feel all over the place. It has frankly awful gameplay systems. But it's my game.
And doesn't everyone have one game that's just... theirs?
When I was 12 years old, I didn't really play many games outside of games published by Nintendo. This was partially due to my parents not having any interest in getting me non-Nintendo things, and partially due to my own elitism. Chalk it up to me being 12. I saw Super Paper Mario as the pinnacle of storytelling, which is ironic given how I feel about that game now.
Everything changed when, against all odds, I tried out Final Fantasy VI for the first time. I don't know what spurred on this decision. Maybe it was a lack of faith in the Mario RPGs in general after having been burned by Sticker Star. Maybe it was just a general sense of boredom. Hell, maybe it was even just that I had heard from my dad that it was really, really good. I was enraptured by it almost instantly - the characters, the ensemble opera style of storytelling, the symbolism. It quickly became my favorite game ever made. I had simply never seen anything like it before. I didn't realize a story could draw me in so deeply, that the struggles of a party of characters could be so compelling to me. When you get to choose a scenario, I knew this game was just different.
There are many games I've played now that I would say are better than Final Fantasy VI. Fallout: New Vegas, Undertale, and Celeste. But no game changed me the way this game did. No game shaped my tastes and understanding of the medium like Final Fantasy VI. This overly ambitious love letter to a genre that most people in Japan had never even engaged with, Italian opera, and the swan song for 2D Final Fantasy is the game that has affected me the most over the course of my life. Sure, it has a cast of characters that's too big for its own good. It has a plot that can feel all over the place. It has frankly awful gameplay systems. But it's my game.
And doesn't everyone have one game that's just... theirs?