So close to being great but too many fatal flaws. Canvas Curse sequel? Awesome! Make it more action-y and give it more forward momentum? Great! Make it look like Gumby? Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhh.
This is a monkey's paw situation surpassed on the Wii U only by Star Fox Zero. See, the big downside to making a beautiful claymation Kirby Canvas Curse sequel is that if you're using the stylus, your eyes are LOCKED to the GamePad at all times. So while I played the game on my gorgeous 1080p monitor (ie I matched resolution so it should look its best), I barely got the chance to look at the game on the TV because I had to look at the low-brightness, LED Playskool-ass GamePad that can only display game graphics by streaming them from the console. Although I sympathize with the idea that this is probably the only way to make this game on Wii U, I can't help but think in 2024 that they should have saved this as a Switch handheld-only game that is packed in with a capacitive stylus. The way it is now feels completely kneecapped.
The game is quite fun, and feels like it has more pop than what I played of the DS game. Good worlds, good level design, fun bosses, etc. However, (I hope this isn't a spoiler so quick warning HERE) the way the game is structured, there are 7 worlds of 4 levels -- last one of each being a boss -- and the first three world bosses repeat for the second set of three worlds. In other words, you fight the damn Kirby World 1 Tree twice, with the latter time being a little harder. There are only 28 levels in the game...do we need to be repeating bosses on a first playthrough? Between that and the lack of side modes (other than some challenge levels), I understand why they charged only $40 for this at launch.
So yeah, totally good Kirby Wii U game, glad I played it, but the art style is completely compromised by the fact that you are only regularly looking at it on your smudgy 12-year-old GamePad. If you can live with that and the fact that it's kind of a sparse experience, pretty good!
This is a monkey's paw situation surpassed on the Wii U only by Star Fox Zero. See, the big downside to making a beautiful claymation Kirby Canvas Curse sequel is that if you're using the stylus, your eyes are LOCKED to the GamePad at all times. So while I played the game on my gorgeous 1080p monitor (ie I matched resolution so it should look its best), I barely got the chance to look at the game on the TV because I had to look at the low-brightness, LED Playskool-ass GamePad that can only display game graphics by streaming them from the console. Although I sympathize with the idea that this is probably the only way to make this game on Wii U, I can't help but think in 2024 that they should have saved this as a Switch handheld-only game that is packed in with a capacitive stylus. The way it is now feels completely kneecapped.
The game is quite fun, and feels like it has more pop than what I played of the DS game. Good worlds, good level design, fun bosses, etc. However, (I hope this isn't a spoiler so quick warning HERE) the way the game is structured, there are 7 worlds of 4 levels -- last one of each being a boss -- and the first three world bosses repeat for the second set of three worlds. In other words, you fight the damn Kirby World 1 Tree twice, with the latter time being a little harder. There are only 28 levels in the game...do we need to be repeating bosses on a first playthrough? Between that and the lack of side modes (other than some challenge levels), I understand why they charged only $40 for this at launch.
So yeah, totally good Kirby Wii U game, glad I played it, but the art style is completely compromised by the fact that you are only regularly looking at it on your smudgy 12-year-old GamePad. If you can live with that and the fact that it's kind of a sparse experience, pretty good!