how was it? o: (wiiiiith no spoilers of course)
so i’ve been posting scattered thoughts on star allies on twitter since it came out, but my general reaction is: it’s very good. not as good as robobot, which honestly may very well be the best game in the series. but star allies is still quite enjoyable
the main fault most people will have with the game is that it’s pretty easy, even for a kirby game. the level design is rather simple (especially because the multi-plane layouts of triple deluxe and robobot are gone), there are only one or two major secrets to really look for in every level now, and any time there’s a puzzle the tools you need will generally be handed right to you. bosses are probably only slightly easier than they were in robobot and triple deluxe if you’re playing solo, although they don’t scale when kirby has friends along. it’s easy to absolutely wreck them if you have a full party (especially if you make use of ability mixing, which in many cases gives you a strength buff)
i can’t really fault them for all this though because like… it’s totally understandable in this case? this was definitely all done to make the game less hectic to play in co-op. and i can’t really fault them. the co-op is really fun, and there are so few games that do co-op like this! but i honestly see how trying to drag three other players through the multi-plane levels of robobot hunting for code cubes and trying to cooperate for more difficult puzzles might be a headache. i imagine hal foresaw many a child yelling at their younger sibling for fucking up a puzzle in co-op and ruining their fun with the game and decided instead to make it less demanding and more forgiving. so i understand why they toned it down
overall though it’s still really well made and thoroughly enjoyable. it’s a beautiful game, for one thing–i’m so happy to see hal finally experimenting with kirby’s aesthetics in an hd game with nice lighting and everything. and the music is amazing as always. and the ability mixing is fun, even if it isn’t as deep as kirby 64′s, and there’s nothing quite like the image of kirby plowing through a stage with three helpers in tow. also holy fuck, the lore??? i’ve long been a fan of the lore of the kirby series and once again the final boss DOES NOT DISAPPOINT when it comes to being a huge, bombastic finale with deep implications for the series as a whole
i enjoyed my time with the main story quite a bit, even if i wouldn’t say it’s my favorite kirby game, and am now continuing to have fun with the extremely cool extra modes. so yeah. kirby good
