Kirby has been around what seems like forever. He has always had some pretty good plat forming games for whichever Nintendo console he is on. Kirby’s first game was actually one of my first handheld games I ever owned. There always seems to be some interesting game mechanic that makes every Kirby game unique. The one I will be reviewing today is Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for the Nintendo 64. So, is Kirby still on his feet or should he just go on a diet?
The story in this game is like the story found in the first Superman movie. This shadowy darkness thing attacks a peaceful land of fairylike beings, and one fairy girl is sent away with the planet’s crystal. While traveling through space, however, she is attacked by the shadow beings, and is sent flying towards Kirby’s home. While Kirby is just minding his own business, the fairy girl lands right on top of Kirby and asks him for help. Just like any main hero in a game, Kirby accepts her request and then goes out on an epic adventure.
So, Hal Laboratory made Kirby 64. This company is known for making games like the Adventure of Lolo series, Kabuki Quantum Fighters, the Earthbound series, the ever-famous fighting franchise Super Smash Brothers, and the best Pokemon games on the Nintendo 64 game, Pokemon Stadium.
Kirby 64 is in the form of a 3D side-scroller where you take control of Kirby, and go from one side of the screen to the other like in any other Kirby game, but in 3D. Your basic forms of attacks are swallowing an enemy and spitting them back out. Though this time, you get to swallow the enemy and take its power, depending on what kind of enemy Kirby swallows. To add on to the pure awesomeness of this mechanic, you can throw one power at another enemy and combine it to make an even new power. I’ll explain how it works. You take an enemy who has a bomb power. After that, you throw it at an enemy who has a boomerang power, and combine those two to make exploding shurikens. There are about 35 combinations of powers, which mean that during the game you will explore and test out all these new powers. There are multiple kinds of powers that Kirby can use - ice skates, a giant flame sword, a double-sided light saber, and multiple other combinations that are fun to use.
The graphics are pretty impressive for the Nintendo 64. They aren’t pushing the limit like Banjo Kazooie or Conker’s Bad Furday, but they are better then a lot of games on the Nintendo 64. The music is also fun to listen to. The whole world of Kirby is cutesy and cartoon-like, which reminds me of Yoshi’s Story. Personally, I love this game and I would play it more then games like Resistance: Fall of Man. It’s such an awesome game to play, and it also has fun little multiplayer games which aren’t really that important, but they are fun to play with if you have 3 friends.
Now, it is time to swallow up the bad parts of the game. The game itself is pretty easy, if you are just going to blow through it. If you are trying to get every crystal in each level, then the game can get a little bit annoying. The crystal placing is pretty tough since it’s not in plain sight and you have to do something to find the crystal, like use a specific power or something. The final boss is just tedious. I mean, yes, it’s the final boss, and it is going to be tough, but it just seems like you can’t escape most of its attacks.
All and all, I love this game and it stands as one of the best Nintendo 64 games. I would say buy this if you have a Nintendo 64 or get it off the virtual console for a couple of bucks. So, yeah, Kirby has been mostly on the handheld systems now, but there is supposed to be a new one coming for the Wii. So, Nintendo, where is it? I want a new 3D Kirby game!
This game gets an 8 out of 10
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