I fell in love with Kirby’s Epic Yarn from the moment I saw the debut trailer at E3. The art style and creative gameplay I saw in that trailer really wowed me. The moment after I saw that trailer, I sent pictures and videos over to my girlfriend, who I thought would love it just as much as I did. Turns out, I was wrong.
She had some concerns about how the art style would translate into gameplay. In particular, she thought that the fabric aesthetic might be gimmicky at best and detrimental at worst, especially since you can see through Kirby and many of the other characters. It’s been out for a while now, but we finally got a chance to play it for ourselves.
It’s been said a million times before, but damn, this game is gorgeous. The screenshots look pretty, but it’s awesomeness is amplified when you watch the game in motion. Everything runs at a solid frame-rate and I think this game looks awesome compared to anything else on the market. Yes, even compared to XBOX 360 and PS3 games. It may not be in HD, but the art style really pushes this game over the top.
What really impressed us both through was how far the developers of the game went with the fabric aesthetic. They didn’t go with cloth just to make pretty pictures. The fabric instead plays a key role in how the game works. When Kirby lassos onto a button attached to the background, you’ll actually see the cloth pull inward. One moment that actually caught us both by surprise was when we stumbled across a very small tunnel in the world. Kirby actually unravels into a single strand of string and snakes through the tunnel. The portion of the game we played was filled with a lot of creative uses of fabric that helped make the game really enjoyable.
While many games in the marketplace have a death mechanic built into them, Kirby: Epic Yarn doesn’t actually let you die. The focus here instead is about exploration and getting the highest score on each level. For this game, it works great.
My girlfriend and I came away very impressed by the little we played of Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I would love to play that game in co-op mode with her someday. If we do play it together in the future, she’s already called shotgun on Prince Fluff. Between this and Donkey Kong Country Returns, Wii gamers have a lot of good platforming games to play during the holidays.
In Third Person 