Games I Beat: Kirby Planet Robobot

Kirby Planet Robobot
Platformer
1 Player
System: 3DS
Developer: Hal Laboratory
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: September 14th, 2016

Kirby has always weirdly been in the background of my life without me ever realizing it. One of the few earliest memories I have is of Kirby's Adventure, I just remember the look of it with Kirby climbing up ladders. In the initial batch of Game Boy games I got with the handheld was Kirby's Dreamland. Kirby Super Star was one of my stand out all time favorite Super Nintendo games growing up. When I rented Kirby 64 one of the files had access to the final boss which fucked with my head. I played more Air Ride than Double Dash. Canvas Curse is one of the main reasons I wanted a DS. I don't really think about it too much, but I really love the series as a whole. In between games I tend to forget, but every time I play through them I absolutely adore my time with it. Canvas Curse, Squeak Squad, Mass Attack, and now Planet Robobot all bring me (a few difficult levels aside) nothing but joy while playing them. So yeah, spoilers, Planet Robobot is great.

The game has the typical Kirby set up, Kirby's napping and somebody fucks up Dreamland. This time an evil intergalactic business is digitizing (or roboticizing, I'm not really sure) Dreamland for profit. Of course Kirby takes it upon himself to save the day. The usual Kirby formula ensues, you run and jump and flap and suck and swallow and gain abilities. And like Triple Deluxe introduced (I need to go back and play that one) you can now go between the fore- and background. This isn't a new mechanic really though, but it adds some depth to the levels. Except this time, you occasionally get to pilot a cute Kirbyesque robot!

It isn't really too game changing though. Yeah, you're now more powerful, and the abilities can be interesting, but more often than not you get into the Kirby mech because the level needs you to unscrew giant screws, or to bash big boulders, or transform into a bike/car or plane to progress. The bike/car and plane bits were really enjoyable to me. The former rely on the fore- and background mechanic as you hop back and forth while trying to not lose momentum or fall to your death. The plane sections play out like light shoot 'em ups, which is fine by me. The rest of the time you're just running around mashing attack and killing everything.

Even without the mech Kirby is a beast in this game. Powerful new abilities are introduced, like pill poppin' Kirby and Ness Kirby. Kirby MD might not actually be that powerful, but I did enjoy running around throwing pills at everything and it felt effective enough. Ness Kirby though, oh boy. You can use his dashing attack almost infinitely which causes you to disappear and reappear doing damage each time. This was one of my more sought after abilities, and I tore bosses up with it.

Like everything else the bosses and enemies are mostly standard Kirby fare. There's a bit more focus on technology, for example Waddle Dee's driving cars, possibly sending Kirby flying off screen. I almost don't like all the technology influencing Dreamland, but considering it's the result of the villains schemes that kind of alleviates that feeling. It's a minor thing, but the game makes me want to remove these evil corporate types off Kirby's home all the more.

Kirby might be one of the few franchises where par for the course is a perfectly acceptable design. I can't really place my finger on it, just something about playing through the game brings me joy. My one major complaint is the lame extras. In many Kirby games the extras are amazing, like decently sized minigames kind of amazing. In Planet Robobot you're stuck with two pretty disappointing minigames, and all you collect are stickers which you can apply to your mech and are usually awesome references to previous games. That's my main gripe though, that the mini-games could be better. You won't be overly challenged, and the play time is fairly short, but Kirby Planet Robobot is well worth your time. Plus, if you love Super Star, like me, the final boss is simply amazing!