Jump to content

Kirby Star Allies


Recommended Posts

Turned on my Switch today to pass the time and didn't realize the demo for Star Allies was out. Being a pretty big Kirby fan over the years, I had to see how this plays out. The Kirby series has been living off gimmicks for a long time now, form the stylus, to yarn, going in big robots, etc. I was hoping for a more traditional style platform in the veins of Crystal Shards and Return to Dreamland.  I tackled the "hard" mode first and I found it to be pretty easy. The Kirby games were never about difficulty, but even the recent ones have kind of been boring for me. Maybe because I am older? Idk. I then played the "easy" mode on the demo to get the full demo experience. Here are my pros and cons. 

 

Pros: 

Visuals are great, stunning in some parts (sunset). 

Abilities: great to see yoyo return, along with some new ones to look forward to.

Combos: Allie combos with your moves could make for some great combinations. 

Music: Always a plus in the games. Didn't hear anything new that I remember but I still expect great things.

Collecting: No this isn't a treasure collector like Super Star, but it does feature the collecting like the medals and keychains from the 3DS games in the form of puzzle pieces.

 

Cons: 

Allies not really necessary: yeah you will need them to advance the stage, but as far as fighting baddies/bosses, they more or less just get in the way of what's going on. This was my biggest fear for the game. I'm hoping the game will offer stages where you need the allies more for combat and less for puzzle solving. 

Way too easy: Even hard mode was too simple for me. 

The story: Don't know too much about it, but it looks like Kirby gets a new gimmick ability, Dedede gets possessed again, and it just seems like the same recycled story of Kirby needing to save Dreamland again. 

Level designs: Not talking about the visuals, but the pacing of the levels felt slow. Maybe it was Kirby and the allies moving at a slow paced, but I wanted more action.

 

So there you have it. This game is a 60 dollar game and features no new amiibo line. Though amiibo will be supported in this game, the amiibo couldn't be used in this demo. I do want this game to do well, sales wise and critically. It really hasn't been a game that's been discussed much and it's coming out less than two weeks. I have gamers club for Bestbuy so I'll still get a discount for the game, but I feel this should have been at most a 40 dollar game, based off the demo. I'm not sure if there's any online play,  I doubt it, but it would have made this game much more worth it with the 4 player option to go through levels. I'm hoping but I doubt it. I haven't heard anything on that front. I will most likely get it though, like all of the Kirby games, to play through and support the series. I really haven't disliked a Kirby game though, besides maybe Air Ride, but I eventually grew to like that to. The 3DS games were ok, but they just felt way too easy and felt more like a chore than anything. I feel like this might be up the same alley. 

 

Edited by Eliwoodman12
Link to comment
22 minutes ago, Eliwoodman12 said:

The Kirby series has been living off gimmicks for a long time now

uh the kirby series has generally been exclusively "gimmicks", virtually every single 2D game they make relies on some new gameplay mechanic they introduce into the fold, i don't know it's really fair to call them gimmicks when if anything it's more uncommon for them to reuse mechanics from older games y;

 

 

Link to comment
32 minutes ago, Astlyr said:

uh the kirby series has generally been exclusively "gimmicks", virtually every single 2D game they make relies on some new gameplay mechanic they introduce into the fold, i don't know it's really fair to call them gimmicks when if anything it's more uncommon for them to reuse mechanics from older games y;

 

 

 

The older ones didn't really. Dreamland had the animals to ride on? But they were optional and didn't rely on them to beat a game. It really started for me when Kirby needed a cellphone in Amazing Mirror. 

Link to comment
46 minutes ago, Eliwoodman12 said:

 

The older ones didn't really. Dreamland had the animals to ride on? But they were optional and didn't rely on them to beat a game. It really started for me when Kirby needed a cellphone in Amazing Mirror. 

Dreamland didn't even have a copy system initially.  Kirby's Adventure, Kirby Super Star, KDL2/3, and Kirby 64 all basically reinvented the copy ability system every game.  Nightmare in Dreamland was a remake of Kirby's Adventure and then you got Amazing Mirror.  And that's barring the weird shit that came out around that time like Pinball Land, Tilt n Tumble, Dream Course, Block Ball, Avalanche, and Star Stacker.  I'd say that Kirby's remained refreshingly stable in the 2D platforming genre since the DS came out, which is impressive considering we're still getting stuff like Air Ride, the Curse series, Yarn, or Mass Attack. y;

 

idk man don't get me wrong, Kirby's probably my second favorite series next to Pokemon, but they've been sporadic as fuck when it comes to what you should expect out of their games.

fwiw I played through the demo tonight and I thought it was fun.  Safe, but what I'd expect out of a demo.  Just a cute demonstration of what to anticipate out of the game, can't really look too deep into it. y;

Link to comment

Amazing Mirror and Super Star Ultra were the last good Kirby games. Fight me. And I can only enjoy SSU as Wing Kirby--otherwise Kirby's slow movement speed totally loses my attention. The newer games are all too slow and easy, and the levels are too open and bare.

 

The demo looks great, though with the flashy effects and 3D terrain it was very often difficult to see what was going on. I can never get into 3D sidescrollers. The mixing of abilities felt awesome, like what Kirby games were meant to strive for. But between the four allies and upgraded abilities (with pages and pages of controls)--and the enemies being made even weaker--there was no challenge. Maybe it'd be better if the player had to work their way up to four allies, like how Amazing Mirror's cell phone was very limited.

 

Kirby is stronger, and there are four players, and the enemies are weaker, and there are fewer enemies. This is not a good formula. There are brief moments when the action takes off and it becomes this awesome hectic slugfest, but the environment's depth and flashiness were blinding. Then the boss fight was the best I'd seen in any Kirby game, but if I lost my allies then there would be no more abilities to go around.

 

Basically it's some end-game level Kirby (like FE Awakening or BOTW), except the game's design and imbalance is actively working against its every high point.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Destiny Hero said:

Amazing Mirror and Super Star Ultra were the last good Kirby games. Fight me. And I can only enjoy SSU as Wing Kirby--otherwise Kirby's slow movement speed totally loses my attention. The newer games are all too slow and easy, and the levels are too open and bare.

 

The demo looks great, though with the flashy effects and 3D terrain it was very often difficult to see what was going on. I can never get into 3D sidescrollers. The mixing of abilities felt awesome, like what Kirby games were meant to strive for. But between the four allies and upgraded abilities (with pages and pages of controls)--and the enemies being made even weaker--there was no challenge. Maybe it'd be better if the player had to work their way up to four allies, like how Amazing Mirror's cell phone was very limited.

 

Kirby is stronger, and there are four players, and the enemies are weaker, and there are fewer enemies. This is not a good formula. There are brief moments when the action takes off and it becomes this awesome hectic slugfest, but the environment's depth and flashiness were blinding. Then the boss fight was the best I'd seen in any Kirby game, but if I lost my allies then there would be no more abilities to go around.

 

Basically it's some end-game level Kirby (like FE Awakening or BOTW), except the game's design and imbalance is actively working against its every high point.

Facts. Though I did enjoy Epic Yarn for various reason and I was fine with Return to Dreamland. 

1 hour ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

 

A too easy Kirby game? Looks like we are going back to Epic Yarn roots.

 

 

I wouldn't go that far, but it's more along the lines of 3DS level of difficulty.

Link to comment

Return to Dreamland dumpsters every Kirby game that came after 64.  And honestly that's almost entirely due to the reason that it's basically Kirby Superstar without the "they're all miniature games" mechanic in place.  The whole point of a demo is the sell the game on its premise, not to be over-analyzed because a demo is basically a distillation/tutorial to get people interested.  Expecting challenge or depth in a demo is perplexing, especially for a Kirby game.

 

And the fact that we're rating the difficulty of Kirby games when the vast majority of them are sub-10 hour platformers where you'd have to have an actual disability to get a game over in any of them seems arbitrary.  Barring the non-platformer spin-offs, they're all remarkably easy games where the only semblance of challenge comes in when you're trying to 100% them, which moreso comes down to knowledge of what to do at certain times than actual difficulty. y;

Edited by Astlyr
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Astlyr said:

Return to Dreamland dumpsters every Kirby game that came after 64.  And honestly that's almost entirely due to the reason that it's basically Kirby Superstar without the "they're all miniature games" mechanic in place.  The whole point of a demo is the sell the game on its premise, not to be over-analyzed because a demo is basically a distillation/tutorial to get people interested.  Expecting challenge or depth in a demo is perplexing, especially for a Kirby game.

 

And the fact that we're rating the difficulty of Kirby games when the vast majority of them are sub-10 hour platformers where you'd have to have an actual disability to get a game over in any of them seems arbitrary.  Barring the non-platformer spin-offs, they're all remarkably easy games where the only semblance of challenge comes in when you're trying to 100% them, which moreso comes down to knowledge of what to do at certain times than actual difficulty. y;

Good points, but I have two issues:

 

1. Older Kirby games had more fluid controls and tight level design, making them a joy to play even when they were easy. They were full of little secrets and alternate paths to discover, but newer games have sparse and open levels, partly because the graphics of 3D sidescrollers don't lend themselves well to tight and narrow spaces.

 

2. The demo is easy, yes, but I also made the point that for Star Allies to provide any challenge against Kirby's upgraded offenses, the screen has to be filled up with enemies. But due to the 3D graphics and visual effects, this would make the action unintelligble and almost completely mask the level's terrain.

 

Everything's coming back to this series being constrained by what the graphical style can display clearly.

Link to comment
45 minutes ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

 

 But those games were good despite the difficulty.

 

 What I am saying is calling a Kirby game "too easy" at this point is kinda of stupid con if you have played a Kirby game before. 

Well for this one you can have your allies do all of the attacking without doing anything. 

Link to comment
5 hours ago, Destiny Hero said:

Good points, but I have two issues:

 

1. Older Kirby games had more fluid controls and tight level design, making them a joy to play even when they were easy. They were full of little secrets and alternate paths to discover, but newer games have sparse and open levels, partly because the graphics of 3D sidescrollers don't lend themselves well to tight and narrow spaces.

 

2. The demo is easy, yes, but I also made the point that for Star Allies to provide any challenge against Kirby's upgraded offenses, the screen has to be filled up with enemies. But due to the 3D graphics and visual effects, this would make the action unintelligble and almost completely mask the level's terrain.

 

Everything's coming back to this series being constrained by what the graphical style can display clearly.

I don't agree with any of that. y;

 

Except the sprite-based games feeling a bit tighter, but virtually everything else gets a big :thinking: from me.  If anything I'd argue that Kirby's strong suit is that its cute and fairly simplistic art style lends to its readability in general, I never have felt that the visuals have gotten too busy to be difficult to understand what's going on.  But different strokes. y;

Link to comment

Um, I don't play Kirby games often or played a lot of them but it's like my top four fave IP from Nintendo so that shows you how high of priority these game are to me but to behonest tho the demo is fun. I'll buy but just not now.

 

Just for the record, I thought Kirby Triple Deluxe look dumb despite ppl praise of the game but I do want to get Kirby Plant Robo. The Demo of that looks fun. Also of not I played most of the GBA kirby games and I think the some the standalone minigames on the 3DS are besides the one the plays like Smash.ktongue;

Link to comment

I don't have a Switch yet, but I'm always up for a romp with a new Kirby game. Though as of Triple Deluxe I feel the series has stagnated. I don't expect crushing difficulty with my Kirby games, not by a long shot. I say this as someone whose favorite Kirby game is Kirby 64. But I do feel the latest 2D entries in the series have suffered from "New Super Mario Bros Syndrome," as I like to call it. I'd hoped Star Allies would at least spice things up with the token gimmick, though it sounds like it ultimately does more harm than good. I still look forward to playing it eventually, but it sounds like more of what we've been getting on the 3DS. Which is what I expected. 

 

Still waiting for a Kirby 3D plaformer. 

Link to comment
10 hours ago, Laclipsey said:

I don't have a Switch yet, but I'm always up for a romp with a new Kirby game. Though as of Triple Deluxe I feel the series has stagnated. I don't expect crushing difficulty with my Kirby games, not by a long shot. I say this as someone whose favorite Kirby game is Kirby 64. But I do feel the latest 2D entries in the series have suffered from "New Super Mario Bros Syndrome," as I like to call it. I'd hoped Star Allies would at least spice things up with the token gimmick, though it sounds like it ultimately does more harm than good. I still look forward to playing it eventually, but it sounds like more of what we've been getting on the 3DS. Which is what I expected. 

 

Still waiting for a Kirby 3D plaformer. 

 

I think actually that's what it comes down to for me. It's less about the difficulty and more of the aesthetics. The problem with the NSMB series it's just generic graphics compared to being its own thing like Mario World, Mario 3 and the earlier platform games in that series. I think that's what my problem is now with the Kirby series. That's why I can appreciate Epic Yarn and the Canvas games for what they are, their own thing. Again I am really just talking graphically and atmosphere wise, nothing to do with the gameplay. 

Link to comment
11 minutes ago, Eliwoodman12 said:

 

I think actually that's what it comes down to for me. It's less about the difficulty and more of the aesthetics. The problem with the NSMB series it's just generic graphics compared to being its own thing like Mario World, Mario 3 and the earlier platform games in that series. I think that's what my problem is now with the Kirby series. That's why I can appreciate Epic Yarn and the Canvas games for what they are, their own thing. Again I am really just talking graphically and atmosphere wise, nothing to do with the gameplay. 

Gameplay is another part of it. In the 3DS/Wii generation, Nintendo games were either slam-dunks or completely forgettable. And it wasn't just that those games didn't have unique gimmicks--Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, etc. They were just slow, bland and easy, and the gimmicks were forced rather than naturally woven into the game.

 

Kirby: Star Allies lands in the middle of those low-budget, low-risk NSMB-syndrome games, and the Switch's do-or-die blowouts. Like the developers wanted to go all-out like Odyssey, but they had no experience balancing games, because the past gen's were too bland to need balancing.

Link to comment

I can't judge this game based purely on two levels.

Though I'll say this, it's awesome to have Yo-yo back. The friend system seems to be very much inspired by Super Star's Helpers which can only be a good thing, only smarter. The levels are gorgeous and I'm digging the hectic feel of the bosses, though they were a bit easy, they're both, of course, very early game encounters.

Edited by Marxforever
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...