4/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Kirby's Epic Yarn.

Platform: Nintendo Wii Time Played: 19 hours Status: Completed ⟳ I have a very soft spot in my heart for Kirby's Epic Yarn. I played it a lot as a kid, to the point where my first ever YouTube video was an incredibly poor quality Let's Play of this very game. And with this as the next stop in my Kirby marathon, I found myself unlocking a lot of memories from years ago. Hands down, this is the most wholesome Kirby game of the entire series, for sure. The yarn and overall craft aesthetic makes you feel incredibly warm upon starting the game, and there were a few moments that made me grin ear to ear at just how adorable the game is. I must say though, the graphical ability of the Wii really does make the art style falter a bit, as it does feel a bit tiring to see constantly, whereas I feel if this game was on the Wii U, this wouldn't be a complaint whatsoever. I mean just look at the beautiful graphics in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse for instance! I believe the unique gameplay for Epic Yarn is really fun, original, and a little refreshing when it comes to a 2D Kirby platformer, with Kirby's whip and his ability to turn enemies into a ball and throw those projectiles, how he turns into a car when he dashes, his ground pound turning him into a weight, or his glide being a parachute, along with many more. I also rarely ever thought about Kirby's trademark floating jump, even though platforming in itself isn't a big part of this game. There are multiple levels throughout the game where Kirby turns into different kinds of vehicles, and for the most part they are really fun. My least favorite is definitely the Train form as its controls are the worst, with the UFO form in second last solely due to the level layouts that accompany it, otherwise it would be fine. The Rocket form and Star Shooter forms are both fairly fun as most Kirby 2D shooter segments are. The Tankbot form rarely appears but is pretty cool to use when granted. The Snow Boarder / Surfer form along with the Off-Roader form are both pretty okay, and can either be fun or unfun. The Off-Roader level Frigid Fjords was hands down the most irritating level in the game and took me a good hour and half alone to complete with a Gold Medal. Otherwise, the Dolphin form and Firetruck form were definitely the best forms, as they both had the best level designs and controls to accompany them. When it comes to levels, I feel this game handles them in a very unique and fun manor. Per usual, we have seven main worlds if you don't count Quilty Castle, each with six levels and a boss fight. In order to progress to the next world, one must go through the world's first four levels and defeat the boss. In each boss, you can collect a certain amount of Beads (the game's currency) in order to unlock the world's fifth level, which I believe encourages a lot of good replayability and challenge when it comes to the bosses. Each world feels fairly unique despite mostly being themed after basic level designs like grass, lava, snow, water, but you also have areas within those worlds that aren't themed after the world's theme, or you have entire worlds like Sweet Land or Space Land which break from the mold. The final world, Dream Land is just an entire callback and fanservice to mainline Kirby. The game's soundtrack is pretty good, although I can barely remember most of it without thinking really hard, as most of it is fairly tame, and not the catchiest; and even if I do remember some tracks, it's mostly because they are replayed often, or are from other Kirby games. The theme for Castle Dedede is definitely the best arrangement in the entire score. In order to 100% complete the game, one must beat every level with a Medal (I went for Gold Medals in every level although it's not necessary), collect each of every level's three treasures, along with finishing all of the missions that Kirby's apartment neighbors give you. I feel like I honestly can't recommend completing this game 100% to others, as I believe it takes away from the experience. Getting the Gold Medals in some of the game's later levels was very tiring, especially the previously mentioned Frigid Fjords, along with a short few in Space Land and Dream Land. Along with this, the missions/minigames that you complete alongside Kirby's neighbors are just very boring, short replays of levels from your journey, with objectives such as "collect 2000 Beads in 20 seconds," "defeat 10 enemies in 30 seconds," or "race to the end against this character". and it just ends up being five hours or boring side stuff that doesn't need to be played at all and serves little to no purpose at all. Besides those small nitpicks, as I said earlier, this game is very original amongst the rest of the Kirby lineup. Being set on a different planet than Popstar along with every character being designed after crafts felt unique, with tons of original enemies not seen before (or since). The first four bosses were also pretty cool and unique as well, with me personally liking Hot Wings the most. Yin-Yarn was also a cool antagonist, although his design doesn't make him fit too well among of Kirby's rogues gallery. One boss I actively remember disliking as a kid and still find myself disliking is King Dedede's fight in Snow Land, specifically because of his hit box. To fit in line with most of Dedede's fights throughout the Dark Matter Trilogy, he is hung by marionette threads that you have to pluck out, but their hitbox becomes more and more narrow the more you pluck, making it incredibly hard and tedious to deal the final blow, leading to the entire fight taking an unnecessary amount of time to finish. All in all, Kirby's Epic Yarn is another great entry in the Kirby series, and although there are definitely a handful better than it, and that I could've benefitted from being released a console generation later, it's still something I would recommend people to try if they would dig its art style and aesthetic, or want to try something new with the Kirby series. Check it out if you can!