Hello everybody! Happy
February! Hope you've got plans for next Friday! ...I don't. Screw
celibacy. Really, screw it. I hate all this white, red and pink all
around for the first half of February, I am not a fan of Valentine's
Day, because it's a constant reminder that I have no one to offer a
gift to on that special occasion. I'll start enjoying that holiday
when I'll have a girlfriend, not before. It's a painful day for a celibate.
Hm, enough about me. I'm
not here to discuss my personal life (or at least, not in that way),
and you're not here to read about my personal life either. Sigh...
Today's game is Kirby's Epic Yarn. Clearly a game for children, it is
quite a contrast with other Kirby games. Remember when I said, a long
time ago, that Kirby's universe was full of scary stuff? Demonic
monsters, powerful wizards, evil deities? Well, expect none of those
here! ...Except maybe the second one. This is the most kid-friendly game I've ever played. Softer
than freaking fabric. It's also extremely easy. (Note that it's far from a complaint.)
My interest for this game
hangs only by a “thread”, I can't wait to see if I “wool”
enjoy it. At worst, it's another “patch” for this blog. I hope it
won't be boring, I hate when a game makes me “yarn”. Er, yawn.
Now that the bad puns are taken care of, let's see if I can
“fabric”ate some better ones.
Oops, I did it again!
Once upon a time, in a
beautiful world called Dream Land, there was this hero, a pink cutesy
hero with an adorable face. His name was Kirby. One great trait of
his was his insatiable hunger. No way to fill him up, it's like
everything in Dream Land is empty calories. Talk about bad luck, huh?
Kirby could eat things bigger than him and still be able to inhale a
couple more creatures. One of his favorite foods, however, was the
Maxim Tomato. One day, Kirby was walking, when suddenly he noticed
something over a bush: A Maxim Tomato! It looked kind of strange, but
hey, he didn't care. So, he tried vacuuming it in, only for the
tomato to rise and reveal... A bizarre creature made all out of
lines. This creature was Yin Yarn, and he was an evil wizard from a
land all made of fabric, a world within a sock (not kidding): Patch
Land. Having delusions of grandeur, Yin Yarn ordered his sock containing Patch
Land to suck Kirby in. Which it did. As a result, Dream Land no more had its little
hero, and Yin Yarn was now free to do whatever he wanted.
He's been turned to threads! |
This level shows
everything you need to know about the game's basics. Kirby can use a
number of abilities, like turning into a car when you tap left or
right twice and he can tun into a weight if you tap down while Kirby
is in the air. He can also turn into a parachute to descend slowly if
you press 2 while he's in the air. Also, he can unfold his yarn arm to use
it like a whip to attack the enemies, or roll them into balls of yarn
that can then be tossed to attack other enemies. Every level that is
not a boss has three hidden items: Two pieces of furniture and one
CD. As you certainly guessed, finding them all is the only way to get
100% completion. Last but not least, pieces of beads (I guess that's
what they are), scattered all over the levels, can be collected. When
Kirby picks up enough beads, he gains a bronze medal; more, and it's
a silver medal; even more, and it's a gold medal. When he gets hit or
hurt, he loses beads. At the end of a level, he keeps all the beads
he collected, and also gets a few more. Last but not least, through
the level you can find pieces of a spinning prize wheel; at the end
of every regular level, the prize wheel must be rung to finish the
level; And if the prize wheel stops in a zone of a piece of the
spinning wheel, he gains prizes, from 2X to 5X an amount of beads.
Cool.
Fluff explains what
happened to Patch Land. The evil sorcerer Yin Yarn separated the
seven parts of it, which means that- Oh wait, Fluff gets attacked by
a monster first. Kirby quickly defeats it by turning into a weight
and smashing it down. When the monster was defeated, it released a
spiraling piece of magic yarn. Fluff explains that the only way to
repair Patch Land is to find those spiraling pieces of magic yarn and
use them to sew back together the seven parts of Patch Land. Only this way can Kirby go back to Dream Land and defeat Yin Yarn. The pink puffball will be more than happy to help in retrieving the magic yarn pieces.
Near Castle Fluff,
there's the Patch Plaza; in there, Kirby can see all the things he
collected. There's a lot to collect in this game:
-Cast, all the characters
– that means the protagonists, allies, enemies and bosses – of
the game. There's a total of 88;
-Stuff, all the items
Kirby finds hidden in the levels. There's 168 of them;
-Fabric, all the
“wallpapers” Kirby can buy at the Patch Plaza's shops or win
through special missions. There's 180 of them;
-Medals. They only count
one, so the only way not to have one is to finish the level and not
even have the bronze medal. There's 50 levels in the game (including
bosses), therefore 50 medals;
-Tunes, the CDs you find,
one per level. There's 52;
-And finally, Flicks, the
game's cutscenes. Luckily there's only 9 of those.
For a whopping total of
547 things to collect. Impressive, huh? And yes, that means you need
to get them all to reach 100% completion. But hey, in such a game,
that's a reason to be happy!
But clearly, it's not the
only one. This game's art is BEAUTIFUL. Amazing. Wonderful eye candy.
Everything, freaking EVERYTHING is made of yarn or fabric of all
kinds. The game's levels include a lot of things reminiscent of
clothing, such as zippers, buttons and sewn badges. This is really
the highlight of the game, how it is yarn-themed all the way through,
in very creative fashion. It's impressive.
As you head out to the
next part of Patch Land, you'll find a yarn character named Dom
Woole. He owns an apartment block, and will be more than happy to
give one to Kirby while he's staying. Kirby's apartment can be
decorated with all the items and furniture you find in the levels, as
well as the wallpapers that you can buy or earn. Once Dom is done
showing you the (for now empty) apartment, you can choose to start
decorating immediately or leave and head out to Grass Land, the next
part of Patch Land.
No, not that one.
Cute yet badass. I like that. |
YARN UFO KIRBY! |
And YARN TANK KIRBY! |
After the second level in
Grass Land, Kirby and Fluff will be called by Dom Woole. He says he
has opened a new apartment and is waiting for customers. He also
thinks the apartment would sell faster if it was already a bit
decorated. Problem is, he wants particular decoration items, not just
any. Luckily, it's also those you find in the first two levels, so
it's not “too” bad. What happens once you've decorated correctly?
I'll tell you later.
You can DECORATE, too? Wow! |
Fire made of fabric? Floor, platforms, creatures, ALL MADE OF THREADS, BUTTONS AND FABRIC? GENIUS! |
By the way, if you're
wondering why I always say “Kirby and Prince Fluff” when I
describe the story, there's a reason. You can play this game in
two-player mode. One controls Kirby, the other controls Prince Fluff.
So yes, indeed, you can have the two helping each other through the
Story Mode. That's a very neat idea.
So, Kirby and Prince
Fluff travel across Treat Land, until they reach the boss:
Squashini. It's one nasty magician who uses magic tricks to attack.
The first time you fight him, he's really hard to beat, because you
can never tell what he's gonna do and you have to find out how to
react to what he does. After you've beaten him a couple times,
though, and you've learned the patterns and what to do with each
situation, this battle becomes very fun.
So, the fourth yarn piece
is collected from the remnants of Squashini, and another part of
Patch Land opens up. Water Land!
No, again, not that one.
However, before Kirby and
Fluff go to the next part of the world, Kirby decides to start
munching on the giant cake that makes up most of Treat Land. Um...
Excuse me, but it was established at the very beginning that Kirby
was unable to inhale anymore. How is he able to eat? I mean... Okay,
one plot hole. Not so bad in a game for kids.
Guess I'll have to
continue next week. Okay, bye! ...Oh, right. Next review is February
14th... Just my luck. I had almost forgotten my situation.
Still tune in next week, but please don't mind if my lonely side pops
up. Bye!
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