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MarsDragon's Kirby's Adventure (NES)
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| [January 19, 2007 12:48:20 AM]
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Well. Another trip into Kirby got me almost to the end of the fourth world, Grape Garden, which neatly fixes most of my complaints about palette and levels from the previous entry. The familiar old sets were changed up nicely with sky levels and a cooler tone. Quite nice, and I feel I should revise my earlier comments on design. Consider them stricken from the record.
The controls, however, haven't gotten any better, as I learned to my chagrin at the end of world four, where you must use the (previously rarely-used) ablity Hi-Jump to damage the boss, after a long jumping spree as warm-up (and to get you a few Hi-Jumpers in your belly). I often found myself floating after a jump, which left me easy prey for the quicker boss, and also jumping rather short if I didn't press the button quite hard enough. It was a rather frustrating experience, and eventually I gave up. The concept is quite good, jumping through the vertical level while the boss chases you from below to result in a confrontation in the clouds. More bosses should have run-up levels. If I had a bit more skill in not hitting up after a jump the fight itself would be great too.
Oftentimes throughout the world itself the control slipped from slightly laggy to downright sluggish, which takes away from the experience. While fighting the controls was an integral component of many NES games, (see: Castlevania) it's a day I'm glad we have left far behind us.
Other than that Kirby continued to be a fun and well-put together game, with an astounding amount of variety. (and easy, until the thunderbolt boss) I am impressed, and left with rather less else to say.
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| [January 18, 2007 11:49:09 PM]
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So far I have been playing Kirby's Adventure for around 45 minutes. This took me just past the second level in the third section (Butter Building). So far the game has been enjoyable, with some rough edges associated with NES games.
Previous to this the only Kirby I had ever played in earnest was Canvas Curse for the DS, which was a radical departure from the traditional mold. (And I wish they had followed up on it instead of making Squeak Squad. Damnit HAL, CC made me break down and get a DS!) As of such, going back to Adventure was...different.
In many ways Kirby's Adventure doesn't seem to know what it wants to be in terms of platformer genres. It has a hub-like access to the levels, which then tend to be fairly straight-forward Mario-like romps until you find the occasional expansive one with extra doors that might owe a bit more to Mario 2 than 3. In addition, the straight-forward levels are all linked together until you get back to the hub, with no way out. This tends to prevent me from wanting to take advantage of the hub-like design and go back; there's rarely anything there to warrant doing so. The game is reasonably generous with 1ups and ablities, so there's no real need to farm paticualr levels (especially with the bonus viewing rooms), so unless you find you like playing through a paticular set of levels it seems a little pointless to use the ablitiy to go back.
The level design itself is also fairly basic so far, but the addition of the more exploratory and vertical-orientated stages help mix things up quite a bit. One of the odd things is that Kirby can fly, but there are hardly any bottomless pits and insurmountable walls anyway. So far I've only been forced to fly a few times, and the main one was in a bonus bit. Enemy placement was rarely frustrating, and could generally be taken care of with quick and able application of abilities. Medicine and Tomatoes also come along only after a tricky bit or just after a boss, but the game isn't too hard anyway. Boss placement DOES seem a little random, however.
The controls occasionally feel a little sluggish, and pressing up to make Kirby fly feels a tad unnatural, like it should be jump instead. It also makes it too easy to accidentally hit up and fly when you didn't mean to, turning a well-timed jump into an awkward bit of puffing around. No danger, of course, but it is an irritation. There is also some slowdown when things get hectic, which is only to be expected for the poor little NES.
The slowdown does help to show off the great amount of animation that is present in the game, however. (admittedly, in a bad way, as there's only slowdown when things get TOO animated, but it's a segue) The graphics themselves aren't something to particularly write home about, they're no Mario 3 or Little Nemo, to be sure. The backgrounds especially feel constant and recycled with the never-ending pale blue, pale green, and sand colours. However, the sheer amount of sprites everything has makes up for it. Kirby's range gives him more personality than most NES heroes, and this helps draw players in with the animated charm.
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MarsDragon's Kirby's Adventure (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 18 January, 2007
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