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

Kirby 64 brought Kirby to the realm of 2.5D platforming. It has a bright and visually appealing aesthetic with a great soundtrack. I’m sure a standard play, where you run through each level and do the bare minimum is a brisk and enjoyable. Playing with the different power combinations are fun and the levels themselves are varied visually where the gameplay may be lacking - a lot of it are basic left to right which is probably suited to the audience. The true ending is frustrating, you need not just the specific power, but a combination of powers to collect every single crystal. At the very least you don’t need to finish the level for the crystal to be collected. I used a guide to cheese this, because it is really unreasonable and a waste of time and erroring which power up can destroy a block three quarters into a stage. People say Kirby 64 is the downslope, but I sorta consider Kirby’s Dreamland 3 to be in the same general ballpark. Both are visually impressive games that don’t innovate on the 2D plat-former. Can be beaten quickly if you avoid all side content, but the moment you shift gears it’s difficult and unrewarding pulls from some crazy overarching plot.