The test
Historical studio if any, HAL Laboratory, Inc was created in 1980. In forty-two years, Japanese developers have naturally had the opportunity to work on dozens of titles and give birth to several important licenses. Among the latter, the two most famous are undoubtedly Super Smash Bros. and Kirby. Today we are going to focus on the little pink ball, on the occasion of its latest adventures. Good news: this forgotten world should ultimately be remembered as one of the best games in the series.
The first contact with the game takes place via the choice of the level of difficulty, the two available being called Hurricane and Breeze. The fact that the higher of the two is offered first is not entirely insignificant. This Kirby adventure, like almost all the others, is indeed extremely accessible and favors above all the pleasure of play. The deal is therefore clear: choose Hurricane, which corresponds roughly to a normal mode, and keep the Breeze mode for kids. This surprising and meteorological nomenclature is linked to the scenario, which presents us with Kirby and Waddle Dees being sucked into a stormy vortex. Here they are then transported from the planet Pop to an unknown and obviously abandoned land for a long time. And this forgotten world is simply ours. Rusty cars and overgrown buildings leave no doubt about it. We can also place a first word on the success of the different levels of the game, which offer us to evolve among others in a shopping center, an amusement park or a snowy city. Don’t expect to come across humans there, who have long since disappeared, the enemies of the day being the “Pack of beasts”, led by the cute and canine ouafies. With their help and that of malicious birds, the Waddle Dees find themselves captured in cages, which our pink hero will of course have to find and open. Despite this “threatening” context, the atmosphere remains permanently good-natured, helped in this by an absolutely adorable artistic direction. With a pink ball as the main character, it’s hardly surprising, but the colorful graphics avoid any bad taste, while the design of the scenery and the creatures are simple enough to be readable by children and detailed enough not to leave adults unmoved. Technically there is also something to be satisfied with. Apart from a bit of aliasing visible if you get a little too close to the television screen, you would almost forget that this is a Switch exclusive!
KIRBY, TRANSFORMATION!
Regarding the gameplay, Kirby initially remains faithful to its fundamentals. Jumping can therefore be used to float, while sucking in and spitting out basic enemies provides a simple and effective shooting function. But when the pink ball swallows slightly more powerful enemies, it then acquires their main power. This is how Kirby can juggle over his encounters between a sword, a slicer, bombs, fire, ice, a hammer, a blunderbuss or even a drill. This offers a lot of variety, especially since the list presented here is not exhaustive. But the game is not content with this principle already seen in the other episodes of the saga. A new mechanism called transmorphism is offered to us, in order to vary the pleasures even more. This special power allows Kirby to take on the form and function of certain objects in the modern world. The car allows you to spin at full speed, the dispenser to throw cans at enemies and obstacles, the construction cone to pierce the ground or fragile pipes, the pipe to roll over enemies, the metal arch to fly such a hang glider, the bulb to illuminate dark areas, the elevator to stretch out or fold up, and the wardrobe to discover secret passages by putting it on the ground.
Once again, this is only a small overview of the different possibilities, which are regularly renewed and have a lot of surprises in store for us. All these small gameplay variations are used to enrich the exploration, to unearth secret passages or to solve a few “puzzles” (the word is almost a bit strong). Always clever, the level design is often reminiscent of that of recent Marios, which is obviously not a defect. And unlike Mario Odyssey, 100% is much more tempting here, because it’s easier to achieve. Each level offers four hidden objectives, which reveal themselves when you begin to accomplish them, guided by chance or intuition. Pass between the legs of a boss, grow five tulips or discover such and such a cellar can thus be part of the hidden missions. But to encourage players to persevere and start again, the game also has the intelligence to reveal one of these mystery objectives if they have not all been discovered once a level is completed.
ON THE ROAD TO 100%
Eventually, fulfilling as many of these objectives as possible makes it possible to rebuild the village of the Waddle Dees more quickly, which gradually acquires many buildings including a cinema allowing you to replay the cutscenes, a mini-game café, a Colosseum intended to fight again bosses in tournaments or even, and above all, an armory dedicated to improving powers. The power of each weapon can indeed be increased on three levels, which obviously does not refuse, even if the already not very bad bosses at the base only become easier to beat. The general lack of difficulty is felt in the life of the game, since you can see the end of the adventure in just ten hours. But it would be really stupid to just put on the main missions without looking aside. Thus, secondary and timed challenges are available on the map. They allow you to acquire rare gems necessary for the improvement of powers, and should therefore not be neglected. Exploration also gives us the opportunity to unearth in the sets capsules from gashapons and containing figurines relating to the current adventure. While in 2022, some titles would not have hesitated to hide micro-transactions behind this collection mechanism, here it is possible to enjoy them with complete peace of mind. Distributors of “Japanese Kinder Surprise” are even available in the village, the purchase of a capsule being done quite simply with the coins collected in the levels. There is therefore not much to reproach this Kirby, apart from its ease (especially if you play two in coop), music that is not necessarily memorable (one or two of which are even annoying) and its duration fair enough life. But none of this spoils the pleasure of traversing this forgotten world, at the controls of a hero more versatile than ever.
