Kirby Mass Attack Review

Overview

Pikmin-Style fun would describe this game very well. You are in control of up to 10 Kirbies, and must use them to progress through 52 Levels and get rid of the “Skull Gang”.[the plot can be completely ignored without hampering gameplay, mind you.] Use your Stylus to toss them every which way you can imagine, and pummel foes with multiple pink blobs at once, while collecting Medals in each level.

Gameplay

(This game is handled 100% by the Stylus, so beware of pencil-hand fatigue.) After starting a new file, you will be given a basic “walkthrough” through the first level of the game. The basic controls are to tap the screen to walk, or double-tap to dash, to Kirby's “heart”(the star that appears when you tap.) You can hold down the Stylus to keep walking/running. You can fling a Kirby across the screen by quickly sliding the stylus across from a Kirby to its destination, and this is an effective way to attack larger or well-armored enemies. Finally, there's a “safety net” feature you can use if you want to get all your Kirbies to someplace that would be too tedious to try jumping to, or if you're just lazy/scared they might die otherwise. To use this, hold down the Stylus near your Kirbies, and they will all cling onto it, surrounded by a blue-colored outline, all the while making a marker sound. When this outline changes to red, you better be over safe ground. It would also be good to mention that you generate more Kirbies by eating fruit. Apples are worth 1 point, Bananas 5, and whatever those weird-looking green fruits are (melons?) are worth 30. You need to fill a meter on he top screen by eating 100 points-worth of fruit, and you will be rewarded with a new Kirby. If you already have 10, you will be rewarded with 10,000 score-points.[unrelated to fruit meter]

Enough about controls, you can learn the subtle details if you actually play the game.
You're going to come across a lot of mini-bosses, and usually without warning until you get close to them. These fights are usually quirky and creative, but definitely not out of place. There are also lots of puzzles, which are necessary to get most medals. Some kinds of puzzles require a minimum amount of Kirbies, so eat as much fruit as you can, as these almost always contain a medal or level-sensitive item.
Speaking of items, there will be certain levels where your Kirbies have to carry something. This can be anything from baby Birdee chicks to space-ship parts. Most often though, you will be carrying one of two kinds of keys; Chest Key, for Treasure Chests, or Skull Key, which warps you away for a battle with a swarm of Skullies. You will most likely get a medal from the chest afterwards, and be warped back to your original position. A hint, always pay attention to the background, as doing so will allow you to find the most medals. There are either 3 or 5 medals per level, except Boss Stages. There will always be 1 Rainbow Medal, and these are necessary to go to the 5th and final island/world/planet. All medals in general are needed to unlock extras, but more on that later.

Boss Battles are usually challenging but not impossible. To this game's credit, this is the first time Whispy Woods has been fun and challenging since Amazing Mirror(or whatever your first Kirby game was). There are 2 bosses unique to this game, and two “franchise bosses”.(Whispy Woods and King Dedede.) All the bosses require a different method of thinking, and for that matter, all four islands/planets/worlds. Unless you hair-split for tiny similarities in every possible instance, you won't get bored. If anything, you'll want to take a break as the levels get longer and more fork-in-the-road-ish.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics are what you've been seeing since the 90s; Sprites. They are very pretty in this game however, and I have not found any issues of fuzziness, glitchiness, or generally crappy artwork. When certain objects squish or stretch, there's minor muddiness, but it's what you come to expect from a sprite-based game. The art style can be summed up with the term “Cutesy”. Everything is very, very cutesy. Not a bad think, it fits a pink androgynous blob perfectly. Just beware that even creepy stages lose their air once you see a Waddle Dee or Beanbon.

On the musical style, “Cutesy” comes to mind again. Except much stronger. The moment you turn on the game and see the title screen, you will be treated to the main theme, which is very chromatically simple and seems to imply that all ten gayly-skipping Kirbies are trying to use Sing(/pokéreference) to make you play the game. This title theme is used in different variations at many points in the game, depending on location or event. There are some tracks that sample from previous games' music, for example, the track “Tough Enemy”(every song has a name) is akin to the Masked Dedede theme(and almost every other Dedede theme) from Kirby SuperStar, although it sounds like it was composed by a slot machine. There are some minimalist tunes during the “spooky” levels, and the space music is as out-there as ever. I implore you to where headphones with this game. If you don't have any, buy some.

Extras(and a bit on Medals)

This game hosts the most extras I've ever seen on a Kirby game. First, you have an Achievements List, which is there purely for fun and to satisfy Completionists' OCD. Second, you have the “Extras”, which are mostly minigames that range from a take on Whack-A-Mole to a Vertical Shooter to quirky puzzle/coordination games. You also unlock a music player, which works when your DS/3DS is closed if you have headphones, a “photo gallery”, for cut-scene viewing, and you can “unlock” the 5 Achievements List pages, so you can deliberately try to do the 50 mundane and insane tasks.

You unlock these fabulous Extras by collecting Medals(if you paid attention to the Overview, you'd remember them) through levels. Every couple of medals, you'll receive a new Extra. At the top of the Extras menu, there's a counter to let you know how many medals out of all 186 you have so far, and on each locked Extras space, it informs you of how many are needed. You will need to collect all 186 Medals to unlock the final Extra, and it is totally worth it. At least in my opinion, it is, but that's why I'm not revealing what it is. Thankfully, this task is made easier by that mouse character from Squeak Squad, who will offer cryptic-but-not-cryptic hints as to where certain medals lie within a world. He also is given some funny dialogue as you progress, so be sure to use him when hunting for the final few medals. He may be Nintendo's way of hand-holding in this iteration, but he is damn useful. You'll regret not using him.

Score

That pretty much concludes this review. I know it seems long, but I want to ensure people are informed about what they might go to enjoy. The score for Kirby Mass Attack is;

9/10