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.
MXZ
This game looks lovely, the only drawblack is that its a Wii title.