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.
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.