4/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

I have a lot of nostalgia for this game, but not so much at the same time. As a kid I used to watch a lot of footage of the boss battles from this game, and I would always start the game but never get very far into it. The background track from the very first level has always stuck in my mind and is one of my most memorable video game tracks of all time, so I was really excited to finally complete this game after so many years. And I’d say it was worth it, I really did enjoy my time with this game, albeit with how short a Kirby game usually is. I believe the developers did a really good job at transporting Kirby into the 3D space by giving players the same formula we’ve come to know, but now in a 2.5D setting, more so than what we see now in the likes of “Kirby’s Return to Dream Land” and “Kirby Star Allies”, but with a more unique spin that only this game had. Every bit of level design and gameplay feels tailor made for the new structure, which I really appreciated. While the overall gameplay was pretty different control-wise from most other games in the series, it didn’t feel out of place, and still felt natural. They took out Kirby’s infinite float, allowing you to only do it ten or fifteen times before Kirby begins to fall, but that doesn’t take anything away from the game as it was built with that in mind. Kirby’s dash was made noticeably less fast, but that also doesn’t take away anything major. This game’s big gimmick is how you can combine two copy abilities into a brand new one, and while a lot of the ideas were cool and unique, I feel like majority of copy abilities suffered as a side effect. A lot of the combined powers feel really useless and one-use, really getting in the way of the game’s pacing when it comes to its levels. The worst offender of this is almost every bomb combination, which almost all have a long period before they detonate. Like an exploding fridge, or a stick of dynamite that not only takes a long time to explode, but has such a large blast radius that Kirby almost always gets damaged by it. Therefore, I found it much easier to just use base copy abilities, or enhanced versions of them by just combining the same ability twice, like cutter, spike, spark or fire. And on that note, every copy ability has been altered completely for the 3D setting, which honestly does take away from the experience a little bit, but not so much as to take away from the overall game, I just wish they kept them the same. Kirby gets some pretty cool copy combinations though, like a double bladed lightsaber or a flaming long sword. Both are cool, but are hard to platform with. Kirby’s main goal once again is to stop Dark Matter who has taken over one of Pop Star’s neighboring planets, who has also scattered the Crystal Shards and spread them across the solar system. This is your main objective of the game; to collect all 74 Crystal Shards. There are three hidden in each level and one after each boss, collecting all of them allows you to face off against the true final boss, 02 (Zero Two), who has somehow been resurrected/reborn since his death at the end of “Kirby’s Dream Land 3.” Moving onto level design as a whole, I believe it was done justice for the move to 3D, and that each level was really fun to explore. My only gripe was Level 4-2, which was incredibly frustrating to get one of the Crystal Shards in. Boss battles shine here once again, as they prove to be fun, unique, yet challenging at the same time, even with returning faces such as Whispy Woods and Acro. Forgot to mention up until this point that this game’s soundtrack is one of my personal favorite game soundtracks of all time, solely for its wholesome sound and vibe majority of the time, and even if it doesn’t feel wholesome, it still sounds amazing. Overall, I believe this to be a really good and unique entry in the Kirby series that deserves to be mentioned more often for things other than its final boss. I recommend anyone who’s into Kirby and hasn’t played this game yet to give it a try, as it’s not too long to beat, and just a bit longer to complete. Check this game out!!