Ok it’s slightly awkward confession time – I found Kirby’s Epic Yarn – a 2D platformer with co-op – to be one of my favourite (if not the favourite) games of the Eurogamer Expo show.
Visually the game is an absolute gem, and whilst everything is typically ‘Nintendo cheery bright’, it has been made to look like every level has been hand embroided. Whilst this doesn’t paint a particularly amazing picture in your mind, when you see it in motion you can’t help but stop and stare. Compared to all the high end games, with their immense polygon outputs, Kirby’s Epic Yarn was the game that appealed to me the most.
The demo consisted of three levels, although I could have happily played it all day. Level one is an introduction with regards to Kirby’s main skill set; the main attack consists of unravelling his woollen enemies, and instead of a double jump Kirby turns into a parachute and can float for a short period. Pressing down whilst jumping turns Kirby into an anvil – which can be used to smash through certain types of floor – and he can also turn into a car when dashing, and a submarine when under water.
Sounds easy? You’re right, it is, and within a minute or so I was up and running.
The actual platforming itself is very good indeed, with none of the floaty feeling that one might expect from a pink ball of air, and I even made the comment that I preferred it to New Super Mario Brothers Wii – which is high praise indeed. Making progress through the level is an absolute joy, with some fantastic little touches such as being able to unstitch, and pull back parts of the scenery and jump in behind it to collect various treasures.
Level two took me by surprise when Kirby turned into a giant, missile firing tank and proceed to trundle through the level as you became the director in some surreal, woollen based carnage. This was quite a novel idea, and if you are playing co-op your partner can control the robot’s massive rocket propelled fist, and smash it into enemies. Level three was a boss fight against a fairly large Dragon, and I found this to be the most disappointing part of the demo. It’s not that it was bad, it’s just I was expecting a slightly tougher challenge from a fire boulder spitting winged bringer of death – it was over far too quickly.
I left the demo feeling overwhelmingly positive about Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Yes it (at the moment) appears to be fairly easy, but if you love your 2D platforming games then Kirby’s Epic Yarn is looking like it will scratch the itch that other platformers just can’t reach.
3shirts
This is the good stuff that comes out of a less powerful console. Instead of ‘gritty’ realism you get imaginative use of colour and design. This is what Nintendo does best and it’s good to see.
colossalblue
Really looking forward to this, it was probably one of the most interesting trailers from E3 so it’s good ot hear that the aesthetic translates well to playable action :)
Dan Lee
It’s pretty much a day one purchase for me – I do love my platform games :op
Watchful
My Wii is going to get plenty of attention once the two Epic games release in November. They were my top two games of E3.
cc_star
Yeah, same here!
bunimomike
Looks like a fuzzy-felt farm version of LBP! :-)
TSBonyman
This is the only game announced at E3 that made me jealous of the Wii. I might borrow one to play this when it’s released.
Nauraph
Hmm… what is a Wii game hands on doing here on TSA?
Dan Lee
Check the left hand side of the page – we do Nintendo stuff now too :o)
colossalblue
We’ve been properly covering Wii reviews, features and news for over a month now…
Nauraph
Lol. This is actually the first time I notice.
You guys should change the page title aswell.
Kennykazey
Can Kirby eat his enemies? He better be able to.
Dan Lee
Didn’t see any eating – that’s not to say it won’t feature. Although he is kinda hollow in this game.
Kennykazey
That’s too bad. Being a living black (or pink) hole is Kirby’s awesomefactor.
ico
As usual some Nintendo developers really know their hardware (and it’s limitations) like the back of their hand. While the wii still has some detractors it’s the home to many a quality platform game (whereas it’s harder to find great quality platformers on the other big 2) so should be applauded and considered a decent console for that reason alone.
Seems like the wii haters are becoming a rarer breed these days and I for one am glad of that. I cannot stand fanboyism of any variety and it’s one of the things I love about TSA is that you rarely witness it.
aerobes
Sounds fantastic! When I was little, Kirby’s Dreamland was one of my favourite games on the GameBoy and it’s great to see this much underused character getting a great sounding game.