So that's the only picture this time since I don't play this with an emulator. Now, first up...An Introduction: For those unfamiliar with the pink puff, I'll elaborate shortly. Kirby's main gimmick is that he can suck almost any enemy and swallow it into oblivion. The uniqueness of this (as if it wasn't already strange) is that when Kirby swallows certain enemies with special powers he will gain what power they had. In addition to this Kirby can fly, alright? So Kirby usually will go from the start point of each level to the end doing whatever it takes, simple right?
Gameplay: It is simple, but Kirby 64 adds a new twist which (sadly) has never appeared in any other game. When Kirby swallows an enemy he can spit them out, not new. But when pinkie swallows the enemy, that's it you can lose the power and get a new one, or just stick with the one you have. In Kirby 64, however, you can take the power out of your mouth at will, and if you want to, throw it at your enemies, but believe me there's a much better use. In this game, if you throw your power at another enemy that would give you a power, then the two powers will combine, giving you a combo power. So in this way, while this has the smallest number of powers compared to any other game, (Fire, Ice, Spark, Bomb, Rock, Cutter, and Spike) if you include the combos, it has a total of 37 powers, which is more than any of the other games. In fact one of the most enjoyable things in the game is just getting different combos and seeing what powers they give. You got the fire sword, a lightsaber, fireworks, a volcano, even a curling puck. In addition to the powers, you got 22 levels and 7 bosses, which could be thought of as levels. They all have a fantastic design and look exactly like they should. Lastly on the note of difficulty Kirby has always been centered towards little kids, probably due to the childish nature of the characters, and levels (when every world is named after a food such is the case). Since the game is centered on kids most of the series is made so that anyone with hands big enough to reach all the buttons can win. But make no mistake, Kirby 64 is easily beatable by an older gamer, but to get the final ending can be quite a task. To get the final ending requires getting all of the crystal shards (hence the name of the game). Some shards are just in the open and, more or less, hidden; others will require you to use a certain power on a part of the foreground that has cleverly masked itself as being part of the background. So in finality, it's a great platformer with clever powers; it's fairly short, but with great level designs; the difficulty is low, but not to be ignored. So overall, pretty good, could be better, but hey.
Music: The music here is bar none. I've always loved Kirby music and this is no exception. Kirby tunes are known for there bouncy happy feel, and there synth. In fact if I ever hear a Kirby song without the synth, it just wouldn't be Kirby. But the synth is there. There's a wide enough variety of songs that are all bouncity and happity that you won't get bored, but the boss battle music is able to bring the, final battle, get serious, feel. So I haven't said much other than that the music is awesome have I? Can I say anything bad?...I don't think so .
Story: Kirby was never meant to have a story, but we got a hint of one. Ripple star (which is heart shaped and for some reason is not the name of the water planet) is populated by fairies who get there power from a large crystal. The fairies are always happy and pleasant, so it's no surprise that they were attacked by Dark Matter, who tries to take their crystal. While Dark Matter is attacking, one fairy (who I just recently learned actually has a name, Ribbon) is chosen to take the crystal away to safety. As Ribbon jets off, three smaller versions of Dark Matter begin to follow here in hot pursuit. The three blobs destroy the crystal and send Ribbon plummeting to her death (or rather her soft fall on Pop Star). We all know that Pop Star is where Kirby is, so we all can probably guess that they meet up before the first level and then after one thing leads to another Kirby decides to help Ribbon because he wants to get out there and eat some enemies. So after the first few levels we come upon a waddle dee, then Adeleine, then finally King Dedede. All three we initially find possessed by tiny Dark Matters and promptly beat the snot out of all three, then they all decide to team up with Kirby in their successive order. Don't worry we still get to play as Kirby, but the other guys show up in the background for supportive reasons. So that it actually is the whole story, no summarizing or abbreviating, in fact when you play the game you might as well skip all of the opening sequences because I already told them to you. But I digress, anyway the story is there, even if it's pretty poor, but Kirby doesn't need a story, he just helps out because he wants to show off his awesome powers.
Replayability: Even though you wouldn't expect it from a Kirby game I give this game kudos here. The single player mode will have you coming back just straining to beat that Boss battles mode, and maybe to collect all the cards. So even for single player there's a reason to play more, but there's actually a decent multiplayer game, three even! I'm not going to bother describing them, but I'm going to say that it's like Mario Party with only the games, and only three games. You can play with anywhere between 1-4 players and the games are really the most fun with more people. So good replayability, but this reviews getting long, so you can find out about it on your own after you beat it the first time.
Graphics: Kirby is a round ball with stubs for arms and legs, what do you expect? Well I think the graphics are great and well polished, and about as good as you can get on the N64.
Closing: So the game seems to be absolutely fantastic in every way. The only drawbacks are that the game is only moderately long and the difficulty only makes it seem shorter. So with that I'll give this game 8.4/10. That's that, check back on Saturday.
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