Kirby Triple Deluxe suffers from
the same fundamental problem most standard Kirby platformers have in the past:
With so many powers and abilities at his disposal, breezing through its levels
becomes incredibly easy for most of the game. It just gets boring. Despite some
expanded ideas, neat graphics and music, and a few fun boss fights, there
aren’t a whole lot of reasons for anybody older than 12 to pick this one up
Playing as Kirby is kind of like
playing as Superman foiling common bank robbers: he’s practically unstoppable.
He can swap between 26 useful and diverse abilities by copying them from his
foes. For example, the Bell copy ability gives you useful defensive and
offensive powers against bosses. Each one has layered mechanics and combos, but
they’re almost never needed because enemies are so weak.
Mini-bosses step in and attempt
to add a tougher challenge, but adding more hitpoints doesn’t really matter if
they can’t really hurt you. The only times I died were when
A new side-scrolling installment
in the Kirby series that features Kirby moving not only from left to right, but
also from the foreground to the background.
Since everything is already so
easy, I was really disappointing when it got even easier. Every once in a
while, with great childish fanfare, I was just handed a Miracle Fruit that gave
me the new Hypernova ability. It supercharges Kirby, allowing him to inhale
large enemies and objects to solve simple puzzles. I didn’t even have to do
anything to earn this power, so it felt excessive. The last world does finally
kick up the difficulty a notch, but it’s hard to get excited for a game that
doesn’t build up the way it should.
Kirby Triple Deluxe has some
redeeming qualities: Developer HAL Laboratory uses stereoscopic 3D in fun ways,
and you can expect occasional bosses and obstacles to practically pop out and
say “Hello!” from time to time. But these 3D tricks are a little deeper than
simple eye candy. Paintra, the second world boss, often tosses paint on the
screen between attacks to obscure your vision, and Flowery Woods is an
oversized tree boss in world one that aims attacks right into the screen. Those
boss fights are a highlight, and the only mildly challenging part of the
campaign.
The most fun I had playing Triple
Deluxe was in its peppy additional modes. Kirby Fighters is a four-player
competitive brawler in the vein of Smash Bros. that makes the most of the
Kirby’s expanded copy abilities. Don’t expect Smash Bros.-levels of depth and
balance here. In fact, it seemed pretty imbalanced, but it’s fun for a short
while at least.
I also got a kick out of Dedede’s
Drum Dash, a silly mash-up of platforming and music. It scaled up in difficulty
quickly, and actually got a little too hard, but a challenge was a welcome
change at that point. There’s also some incentive to return to the campaign for
speed runs and collectible 8-bit key chains that can be shared through
StreetPass.
Finishing Triple Deluxe opens two
additional challenge modes that should appeal to hardcore players, but you have
to slog through that too-simple seven-hour campaign to unlock them.
THE VERDICT
Kirby Triple Deluxe may look
great and has some clever ideas for how to use 3D, but falls into a rut of
simple platforming and puzzles that rarely require any thought or skill. I
admire that it tries to give us more powers and abilities to play with than
ever before, but that empowerment shouldn’t come at the expense of any real
difficulty.
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