This is one of the most mixed of mixed bags I've played in a while, which makes sense because my relationship with the Kirby series is kind of complicated. While games like Kirby Super Star (both original and Ultra) and Kirby Air Ride are some of my favorite games of all time, a lot of times my experience with Kirby games ends up being pretty weird. There are games like Kirby's Dreamland 3, which is a beautiful game, but getting 100% gets too annoying and tedious for me to remember it fondly. Kirby games tend to do this thing where in order to get the main collectable you have to have chosen the exact right power up earlier in the level and know exactly what to do with it in order to get the collectable, otherwise you simply have to do the whole level again, and I never enjoyed this aspect of the series. Kirby Squeak Squad did this so much of this that, along with just feeling super mediocre in terms of gameplay, I pretty much gave up on the series, and haven't played a new installment since the DS. With this in mind, I'm both super impressed and disappointed with Star Allies.
Star Allies is the latest in what seems to be the current formula of Kirby game, starting with Return to Dreamland. I had missed out on all the games in this style, and I had no idea just how elaborate the powers have gotten. Like, not only are there so many new power ups, many probably introduced in previous entries, but they all have so many different inputs, it rules. Old powerups feel a lot more exciting and ones that are new like spider and staff are great as well. This makes switching power ups a lot easier, as it no longer feels like certain power ups are more boring than others, and so I had a lot more fun with the variety of abilities here.
This game also has the dream friends, characters from previous games that can now be used as partners or playable characters in other modes. All of the returning characters look wonderful and their animations are perfect for their characters (Marx and Adeleine are my personal favorites). They also all have really fun movesets, where boss characters just have their full boss moveset available to use and other characters have super unique and exciting movesets to work with. I love this aspect of the game, but I do feel bad for people who bought this at launch and probably finished story mode without ever getting to use these characters.
Story mode ends up being the weakest part of this game. The level design just feels like it's on autopilot, like "yeah these are the parts that make up a Kirby level, ship it". I know I said I didn't like the way previous games handled collectibles, but "the power up you need for this challenge is right next to the challenge and it can be completed in one step" isn't necessarily the answer I wanted. The bland level design isn't helped by the way worlds are structured, where there are only four worlds and the last one has way more than the others. The last world has you going to several planets in space, which mostly just means different planets of the same themes we've seen in previous worlds. This leads to finishing the fourth world feeling like nothing, as there's really no progression to the levels. You'd think for one of Nintendo's most beloved characters, there'd be more polish for the story mode, but it feels like nothing.
The actual mechanic of gaining partners with hearts is kind of neat, and it's nice to basically have three back up power-ups. I wish I could turn my current power up into a partner like in Super Star as well, though, but I guess that's more of a personal preference. I imagine this game gets a lot better in co-op, as a lot of games do, but in single player it can feel a little much to have three CPU partners, especially in bosses where it becomes hard to tell what's a boss attack and what's an attack from your partners. There's also friend abilities, where you can combine partner powers with your current power, and I thought it was going to get into some good Kirby 64 stuff but it really just amounts to different melee abilities having elemental properties or throwing partners at blocks, which was disappointing. The friend actions are actually pretty fun though, I actually didn't mind any of the sequences that used them.
After completing the story mode, you unlock the three big post-game modes, and they're all great. Being able to do a boss rush as the dream friends is super fun, and Heroes in Another Dimension is just some really good Kirby game design. Guest Star isn't as interesting, but it's still fun. These post-game modes really prove that there's a lot solid about this game. I constantly found myself admiring the presentation and soundtrack, enjoying the bosses (the final boss in this game is incredible, both in concept and execution), being impressed by complexity of the power-ups, taking screenshots of every frame of Adeleine and Ribbon's animations, but also wishing I was playing a better game, hoping for levels that weren't just the same thing over and over again. I have a feeling that I jumped into the series at a point where it's become a bit fatigued, but despite everything I think there's still some fun here. Really, my main takeaway is that I got to get into Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, as it seems those games deliver where this one doesn't.
Star Allies is the latest in what seems to be the current formula of Kirby game, starting with Return to Dreamland. I had missed out on all the games in this style, and I had no idea just how elaborate the powers have gotten. Like, not only are there so many new power ups, many probably introduced in previous entries, but they all have so many different inputs, it rules. Old powerups feel a lot more exciting and ones that are new like spider and staff are great as well. This makes switching power ups a lot easier, as it no longer feels like certain power ups are more boring than others, and so I had a lot more fun with the variety of abilities here.
This game also has the dream friends, characters from previous games that can now be used as partners or playable characters in other modes. All of the returning characters look wonderful and their animations are perfect for their characters (Marx and Adeleine are my personal favorites). They also all have really fun movesets, where boss characters just have their full boss moveset available to use and other characters have super unique and exciting movesets to work with. I love this aspect of the game, but I do feel bad for people who bought this at launch and probably finished story mode without ever getting to use these characters.
Story mode ends up being the weakest part of this game. The level design just feels like it's on autopilot, like "yeah these are the parts that make up a Kirby level, ship it". I know I said I didn't like the way previous games handled collectibles, but "the power up you need for this challenge is right next to the challenge and it can be completed in one step" isn't necessarily the answer I wanted. The bland level design isn't helped by the way worlds are structured, where there are only four worlds and the last one has way more than the others. The last world has you going to several planets in space, which mostly just means different planets of the same themes we've seen in previous worlds. This leads to finishing the fourth world feeling like nothing, as there's really no progression to the levels. You'd think for one of Nintendo's most beloved characters, there'd be more polish for the story mode, but it feels like nothing.
The actual mechanic of gaining partners with hearts is kind of neat, and it's nice to basically have three back up power-ups. I wish I could turn my current power up into a partner like in Super Star as well, though, but I guess that's more of a personal preference. I imagine this game gets a lot better in co-op, as a lot of games do, but in single player it can feel a little much to have three CPU partners, especially in bosses where it becomes hard to tell what's a boss attack and what's an attack from your partners. There's also friend abilities, where you can combine partner powers with your current power, and I thought it was going to get into some good Kirby 64 stuff but it really just amounts to different melee abilities having elemental properties or throwing partners at blocks, which was disappointing. The friend actions are actually pretty fun though, I actually didn't mind any of the sequences that used them.
After completing the story mode, you unlock the three big post-game modes, and they're all great. Being able to do a boss rush as the dream friends is super fun, and Heroes in Another Dimension is just some really good Kirby game design. Guest Star isn't as interesting, but it's still fun. These post-game modes really prove that there's a lot solid about this game. I constantly found myself admiring the presentation and soundtrack, enjoying the bosses (the final boss in this game is incredible, both in concept and execution), being impressed by complexity of the power-ups, taking screenshots of every frame of Adeleine and Ribbon's animations, but also wishing I was playing a better game, hoping for levels that weren't just the same thing over and over again. I have a feeling that I jumped into the series at a point where it's become a bit fatigued, but despite everything I think there's still some fun here. Really, my main takeaway is that I got to get into Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, as it seems those games deliver where this one doesn't.
2 Comments
@mellorine wow, would not have guessed to do that, but thanks for letting me know!
mellorine
2 years ago
Something I will say here though is that you can make a Friend out of your current ability by discarding it ( - is faster than Y for this purpose), and throwing a heart at your ability star! I would actually have liked to see that used more often in puzzle-solving, where what specific ability Kirby and partners have and can swap around matters: like maybe after a section where Kirby solo had to melt a block of ice with fire, he has to inhale something - let's say it's a fastened object that inhaling acts as pulling on it - while a new Flaming Leo has to go and light up a fuse that would be interrupted by the object otherwise.
But that's probably a thought for my review too. It's great to see this from the perspective from a classic Kirby fan.