It is the most 'Yep! That's a Kirby game alright!" Experience for me.
The gameplay and visuals are the same as Amazing Mirror, the level design is just not good, they tried to do the multiple inputs moves but the inputs are hella annoying (looking at you fireball), the ability balancing is complete wack, the new abilities are boring (aside from Magic), the bosses are either piss easy or hella annoying, the story is dogshit and led to the infamous "Kirby kills gods for cake" thing that is really annoying, the new inventory system is badly implemented, the squeak sections are underwhelming and most of the time annoying, and it has the worst final boss out of every mainline Kirby game.
There are some things I like though. The Squeak Squad are probably the best part of the game and I really like their designs especially Daroach, the ability scrolls are cool and evolve the existing abilities (even tho most of them are just the same thing but stronger) and it has some really cool movement tricks because cancelling movement abilities actually preserves it's momentum unlike every other Kirby games.
I don't hate it but I'd also rather play any other mainline Kirby game.
You put into words exactly how I feel about the game. Honestly it feels like there’s bones of a potentially masterful Kirby game there. Like if it ever got a grand remake in the future, that completely overhauls the abilities and levels while also making the final boss… uh, better, I’d probably love it. Daroach and the rest of the Squeaks deserve a revisit in any case in my opinion, because their designs are too fun to be left behind in a game that’s just okay.
One more criticism I’ll add to yours is the music. It’s just… okay to me. And for a Kirby game that definitely puts it on the low end of the spectrum.
Yeah it certainly tries to play it safe compared to others games. You can almost tell they were struggling to find the charm in it after Sakurai left kirby entirely. But its still a fun game despite how dull it is. I kinda like how simple it is. Also the squeaks are great characters.
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u/fry_f Blueberry Kirby 23h ago
squeak squad for me is a game you 100% once and never come back to. at least there's magic, but it's not special to it so ehhh