Kirby's Epic Yarn

Kirby's Epic Yarn Review

I write this as someone who is immune to twee. The tedious, contrarian part of my brain sees cute and screams: It's a PLOY. I look at those adverts with talking cats and hiss: you're a marketing scheme. I'll listen to you go on about that time you put a hat on your Nintendog and then roll my eyes dramatically until I stop getting invited over to your house. This is my jaded fatal flaw, my heart of darkness.And so as someone typically immune to twee I can hand-on-heart admit defeat. Kirby's Epic Yarn has taken an adorable axe and broken down the ice barrier that encased my otherwise indifferent and cold heart of stone. Looking into Kirby's eyes I think...maybe... maybe I could love again.Why the sudden change in heart? Kirby's Epic Yarn is more than superficially pleasing. Instead it's highly creative in design, with its visually impressive and cutesy qualities forming the base for legitimately interesting platform elements.Kirby has lost his trademark ability. He can't inhale enemies like he used to. The game - which is oddly Mighty Boosh-like in premise - introduces you to Yin-Yarn, an evil wizard made of yarn who enters Kirby's world and begins sucking up its inhabitants through a sock he wears around his neck.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Games that lack challenge are often shunned and looked down upon by most gamers. These games are short, easy, and not very fun. Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii is short and easy, but don’t let those attributes fool you; this game is impressively entertaining. Despite not posing a big challenge, Kirby’s Epic Yarn manages to offer an engaging, highly delightful gameplay experience thanks to its great level design, adorable aesthetics, and Kirby’s transformations, which are now more a part of the gameplay experience than ever before. Kirby’s Epic Yarn starts out with the titular hero minding his own business when out of nowhere he spots a Metamato. Mistaking it for a Maxim Tomato, Kirby gulps down the mystical fruit, only to discover that it belonged to Yin-Yarn, an evil sorcerer from another land. At this point, Yin-Yarn works his magic, turns Kirby into a yarn-based form of himself, and sends the vacuum-like hero to Patch Land, a world made of yarn, cloth, and patches. Here he meets Prince Fluff, who enlists Kirby’s help in restoring the land, which has been literally torn at the seams. If you’ve played previous Kirby games, then the platforming in Kirby’s Epic Yarn should present itself as familiar.

Kirby's Epic Yarn Review

I can already hear the howls from lifelong Nintendo fans who perpetually complain about the lack of hardcore Wii games: Kirby's Epic Yarn is too short; it's too easy; it's too cute. It's a game for babies, for kids, for parents and grandparents to play along without having to fuss over too many complexities. Epic Yarn is all of these things, and it's splendid. After all, if a game is fun, what does the rest matter? Epic Yarn is jolly and jubilant in its presentation, recasting Nintendo's cute cartoon puffball as a patchwork protagonist adventuring across a colorful world of stitches and fabric. The plot -- which unfolds in a series of sweetly narrated storybook sequences that would make Dr. Seuss proud -- pits Kirby and his newfound friend Prince Fluff against the likes of up-and-coming series baddie Yin-Yarn, who's turned Fluff's home world of Patch Land topsy-turvy, and now threatens the very fabric of Kirby's own Dream Land. So, off Kirby goes, breezing through a series of themed side-scrolling 2D worlds that would feel right at home in a Mario game (Hot Land! Treat Land! Space Land!). And I do mean breezing; "death" in Epic Yarn is synonymous with "lose a bunch of widgets" (in this case, colorful beads that culminate in per-level bronze/silver/gold medals), and I finished the game inside of roughly six hours.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

In the 8- and 16-bit days of yore, you might have thought that header would be a better pun for a Kirby game if it said \"they suck me back in”. Alas, those days are long gone and no longer relevant, at least until the next sequel comes along. Kirby's Epic Yarn removes both of the trademark Kirby mechanics: floating through the air and sucking stuff up. But out with the old, in with the new. The king is dead, long live the king and all that. Kirby's Epic Yarn still feels like a Kirby game, even if it doesn't really play like one. The new core mechanic is a very simple yarn lasso that Kirby uses to pull buttons and zippers, unravel enemies, and in general tear his way through Patch Land. Why Patch Land and not Dream Land? The evil sorcerer Yin-Yarn has invaded Kirby's usual stomping grounds and starting sucking all of the normal Dream Land cast into a magic sock that he wears around his neck (there's a self-gratification joke to be had here, but this is an 'E' game and I have integrity). Inside the sock, Kirby meets Prince Fluff, who's basically just a blue Kirby with angry eyes and a crown. Kirby and Fluff set out to restore Patch Land's severed continents before bringing down Yin-Yarn himself.

Kirby's Epic Yarn Review

Side-scrolling platformers have been around for such a long time that it can be difficult for even the best entries in the genre to stand out from the crowd. Kirby's Epic Yarn avoids this pitfall by presenting an irresistible visual style that pushes you to see what delight awaits beyond the next fold. But Kirby's latest adventure doesn't let its fabric-themed world do the heavy lifting while the gameplay unravels under the pressure. Expansive levels and a wealth of diverse mechanics inject variety into this quest, making it as much fun to jump and swing your way to the ending bell as it is to marvel at the striking aesthetics. A few control issues sometimes get in the way of your carefree fun, and the overall ease with which you can tear through the story levels strips away the pulse-racing satisfaction of a hard-fought victory, but Kirby overcomes these missteps with sheer imagination and a plethora of enticing content. With loads of minigames, hidden levels, and even an aggravation-free cooperative mode, Kirby's foray into the land of yarn is bursting with joy. Who would have ever thought that yarn could be this cute? The whimsical story in Epic Yarn is told as if it were a children's storybook, but the plot elements don't matter one bit.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

The debate over whether or not Nintendo has abandoned its hardcore fans in favor of the new casual market has been raging for years, and Kirby's Epic Yarn is the latest first-party release sure to stoke the fire of that undying argument. This isn't the textbook example of an overly cute, just-for-kids game that it might look like, though. Kirby's latest adventure is a perfect reminder of what a Nintendo game is at its best: something anyone can appreciate that leaves plenty of room for skill and mastery. Kirby fans will notice two big changes in Epic Yarn. Firstly, because of his change into yarn form, Kirby has lost the ability to suck up enemies. This has been replaced with a useful whip/lasso that he uses to unwind his opponents or grab onto patches. Secondly, though previous Kirby games tended to be extremely easy, Epic Yarn maintains a surprising difficulty balance. Although Kirby and co-op buddy Prince Fluff can't actually die, making the game breezy for anyone who wants to rush through it, you'll have to spend time mastering each level if you want to see all the game has to offer. As Kirby progresses through a level, he collects beads by unraveling enemies and uncovering secrets.

Kirby's Epic Yarn Review

It's pretty clear that game designers have come full circle. Back in the '80s and early '90s, the hardware forced them to perfect the side-scrolling platformer, but once 3D became an element to toy with, that's where the world went. Now that they've had their fill of huge, explorable open world environments, we're seeing a trend that brings us back to game designs that made us fall in love with video games. New Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Limbo, Super Meat Boy -- strict side-scrollers that embrace the limitations of the perspective enforced on them while still utilizing the tech at their disposal. Now, add Kirby's Epic Yarn to the list. A game that creates an incredibly unique and clever world of fabric, Epic Yarn's style actually enhances the traditional gameplay mechanics. Kirby's Epic Yarn features an environment built entirely out of material you'd find in an arts and crafts store. Quilt patterns and fabric form the world, and yarn, string, and buttons are the building blocks of all the creatures…our hero included. Kirby's Epic Yarn Video Review Anyone who's familiar with Kirby may notice that he lacks his usual "suck enemies" power as has been a staple for the character for many of his platforming adventures.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Kirby's latest adventure is an unabashedly adorable and addictive affair, even when suffering from a limited reward system and lacking difficulty. When a dastardly villain decides to turn Kirby into yarn, he somehow pulls off the impossible: Kirby's latest nemesis makes the lovable, chubby hero even cuter. Tasked with stitching Patch Land back together, Kirby and his equally adorable new friend Prince Fluff have to traverse various themed worlds in search of the magic yarn. While the story is no narrative feat, it gives you the opportunity to play the game co-operatively: one player as Kirby, the other as the near-identical Fluff. Unfortunately, there's no difference between the single player mode and co-op. Two players simply double the chances of getting hurt and losing your shared pool of hard-earned gems. Like Kirby's new fabric figure, almost every part of Patch Land sticks to a cleverly designed arts and crafts theme in both an aesthetic and practical sense. His yarn-spun enemies can be unraveled, the walls unzipped, and portals unbuttoned, creating an ever-changing environment full of hidden treasures. Even the giant snowballs in one of the later worlds are simply large tufts of cotton.

Kirby's Epic Yarn Review

I get the first-glance comparison. Maybe it's because ever since the PS3 platformer drew our eyes with its arts and crafts-y aesthetic full of cleverly arranged bric-a-brac, we've yet to see another title pull off that style of carefully constructed simplicity. So when you see Kirby's Epic Yarn's fantastically vibrant visuals -- also featuring a yarn-spun protagonist -- well, it's human nature to categorize and relate the new to the old. Despite any "Kirby formula" preconceptions you might hold, Epic Yarn should still surprise you. Throwing most of an established series' playbook out the window can be risky, but here it's paid off. Rather than focusing on the adorable pink icon's ability to consume and replicate enemy powers, the game is crafted around the titular yarn motif, and the ingenuity with which Nintendo explores that theme had me positively beaming my first time through the game. Interestingly enough, Epic Yarn's cut-scenes -- narrated storybook style -- pleasantly remind me of Little King's Story. But let's be honest: for an adult, it's all terribly cheesy. The basic premise of the game is that the evil Yin Yarn has gotten his hands on a magical sock (not a joke), which he's using to turn everything into yarn-creatures under his command.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

The bright-pink fluff ball Kirby that we've all grown to love is usually a bottomless pit, sucking up everything in his path. So it's strange to see that in Kirby's Epic Yarn, he's not inhaling everything that comes his way, but rather, he's unraveling enemies with his lasso and winding them up into spools of yarn. In our latest trip to the Nintendo office in Redwood City--which was beautifully decorated with felt and other crafty materials to simulate Patch Land--we found out just how Kirby ended up in this adorable handcrafted world. In the opening storybook-style cutscene we see Kirby, plump and happy as usual, ready to swallow a juicy tomato that's lying before him. He is interrupted by a caped sorcerer, made entirely out of yarn (and named Yin Yarn), who sucks Kirby into Patch Land, a world that in Kirby's own words "feels like pants." Here is where Kirby runs into Prince Fluff, your cooperative partner throughout the game, who is being chased by some yarn monster. With his new transformation powers, Kirby turns into a car and drives away with the prince. The world of Patch Land is broken up into levels, and your goal is to try to stitch all the pieces together. The boss is actually in the middle of each unique world, so you don't have to play through all the levels to progress the story.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

Every time I play a new demo of Kirby's Epic Yarn, it gets more difficult. Sure, you still can't die; that's something that hasn't and won't change. But the difficulty comes from trying to get every last collectible. I know I'm only playing for a short while, I won't get to carry over any of my progress, and eventually I'll have to play it all over again on my own. But that drive to not just beat each stage, but to beat each stage with a gold medal, is hard to resist. The first time I played, I was just nonchalantly running through each stage. But now, every time I try out Epic Yarn, I have an insatiable desire to collect every last bead. I not only try to protect myself from getting struck by spikes or other unfriendly objects, but I finally try to help my couch-side companion (previews editor Thierry Nguyen) from getting hurt. Every collision takes a chunk of your collected beads away, and too many mistakes can quickly turn your medal from gold to bronze. For this last demo before the game's release on October 17, Nintendo took us through a few of the games side-levels. You can critical path your way through the game if you want, but as you travel along, you'll unlock additional stages in each world that offer more collectibles, more felt-covered crannies to explore, and most importantly, more challenge.

Kirby: Epic Yarn (Preview)

We spent an hour with Kirby and his friends' latest quest, enjoying the teamwork, transformations, and Triceratops present in an one of Epic Yarn's themed worlds. Join us on the adventure. What we're talking about: Kirby: Epic Yarn, the fabric-festooned platformer featuring Nintendo's iconic pink powerhouse. Where we saw it: At Nintendo's Redwood City office, where a member of the company's Treehouse team served as player two, commanding the stately blue ball of fabric, Prince Fluff. What you need to know:

Point in development cycle: Kirby Epic Yarn is due out in a little over a month on October 17, but this felt pretty final, as the gameplay and cinematics are already pretty refined. My take: Nintendo knows it struk gold with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, because I felt a similar vibe when playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. The cooperative gameplay, extravagantly colored design, and the deftly mixed new and old gameplay elements (like stage-altering and jumping attacks, respectively) are similar to last year's biggest Wii title, while adding a much more user-friendly experience with Kirby's slower style of play.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

You might already know that the world Kirby ventures through in Epic Yarn is entirely made of fabric and various types of yarn. As such, objects in the environment can be scrunched, unzipped, and unfolded much like actual cloth to reveal hidden beads and patches to collect. You probably also know that it's one of the most adorable games in recent years. And you probably know that it's a platformer with easy-to-use controls (performed by holding the Wii Remote sideways), but what you probably don't know is that Epic Yarn's cute and cuddly exterior hides an often complex action game that requires skilled teamwork when playing cooperatively with Kirby's ally, Prince Fluff. Fluff and Kirby have the same abilities. Both can lasso onto enemies and usually turn them into projectiles that they can throw, and both can turn into a variety of different things during the course of standard gameplay. For example, they can turn into parachutes to glide after a jump or transform into a small car to get a quick boost of speed for longer jumps. Additionally, Fluff and Kirby can turn into a weight by pressing down on the D pad--a useful skill for smashing destructible platforms underfoot.

Kirby's (Preview)

You can't die in Kirby's Epic Yarn, but that doesn't mean it's going to be an easy game. Sure, "hardcore" gamers will be able to blaze through stage after stage, eventually reaching the end; but the challenge in Epic Yarn isn't in just getting finishing, it's in collecting all of the shiny beads and hidden collectibles along the way. During the E3 demo, after standing in line and watching several groups of people try to slog through the game, I tried to rush through the entire thing as quickly as I could. And while I was impressed by the delightful art style (which Jeremy Parish expounded up in our last preview), I did think the game wouldn't hold any real challenge. But finally getting to sit down at the Nintendo offices and play through a few stages on my own time (along with previews editor Thierry Nguyen), my love for Kirby isn't just in its visual flair, its in how it encourages you to collect every last floating trinket that sits just out of reach. You see, you earn a medal at the end of each stage based on how many collectibles you've gathered up. And while dying doesn't make you start a stage over, it does significantly reduce the number of beads you have on hand.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

At one point while I was playing Kirby's Epic Yarn, I felt an uncontrollable and thoroughly embarrassing urge to get up off my seat and stroke the TV. The game looks unbearably soft, like the screen has ceased to conform to its glass and plastic composition and morphed into a tangible patchwork of cotton, wool and felt. As Kirby trots along the level, the fabric platforms indent and deform under his feet, just like a sofa would if you were to walk along that. Epic Yarn is a cushion-y collage of soft pinks, pale yellows and baby blues, a game that a 22 year-old male should have no right falling so madly in love with. God damn you, Nintendo.I've never paid much heed to Kirby as a character before - he was simply that annoying ball of pink I'd take great pleasure in beating the crap out of in Super Smash Bros. I was, of course, aware of his extensive video game history - the Kirby series boasts an impressive 20 titles - but I still saw him as little more than a little pink punching bag. Mere minutes into Epic Yarn, that perception of Kirby was pulled to pieces in a flurry of thread and fibre. Kirby, it seems, is one cool dude. Much like New Super Mario Bros.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

Kirby hasn't had a game to himself in more than half a decade and now Nintendo trots him out on the Wii in a 2D side-scrolling adventure. As generic as that sounds, Epic Yarn blew us away to top GamePro's exclusive best-of-E3 list. What we're talking about: Kirby's Epic Yarn is a 2D side-scrolling adventure game made for two player co-op. When a second person isn't around, the A.I. controls Kirby's companion. Where we saw it: At Nintendo's super-crowded booth on the final day of E3. This is a game absolutely everyone wanted to get their hands on, so we shared a co-op experience with another journalist for the demo levels and tried not to look at the long line of seething expo-goers waiting their turn. What you need to know: Point in development cycle: Beta. The demo worked incredibly well, but it was only a small section of the game. It's due out this fall. My take: This is the kind of game even the hardcore cannot resist. It's cute enough to make you happy, challenging enough to keep you interested, and the co-op factor creates the compulsive need to share Kirby's Epic Yarn with everyone you know just so they don't think you're crazy when you go off on how awesome it is.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

Welcome to the Interrogation Room, GameSpy's signature pre-release game coverage format. Here, a GameSpy editor (typically one who's relatively in-the-dark about the game in question) grills his peers for information on a hotly anticipated game -- hopefully with more entertaining results than the typical boilerplate preview would provide. Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: Nintendo's sure taking Kirby in a different direction -- he started off eating people, then he made rainbows, and now he's living in a weird yarn world and doing a bunch of yarn-related things to monsters made out of yarn. The thing I took away from the reveal at Nintendo's press conference this morning was "it's a side-scroller with a unique art style, and you've got a yarn-whip." Is this a cutesty Bionic Commando, or what? What's the story? Eric Neigher, Contributing Editor:Yeah, this one's called Kirby's Epic Yarn -- a play on the knitting-inspired aesthetic that permeates the game -- and it's been in development for friggin' years. This was originally meant to be a GameCube game! And, to be honest, the game feels a bit unfocused, as if several things were tried and none really worked, so they fell back on the basics with a cute aesthetic. And really, that's what Epic Yarn looks like it's going to be: a fairly basic 2D-platformer.

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Preview)

When people ask me what my favorite game of this year's E3 has been, I'm always a little surprised when the words that come out of my mouth are, "The new Kirby game." But dammit, Kirby: Epic Yarn is fantastic. Although it plays nothing at all like Kirby: Canvas Curse, it carries with it the same spirit of invention and progressive thinking around a simple core concept. With Canvas Curse, that kernel of action was drawing pathways for Kirby to travel in ball form. In the case of Epic Yarn, the hook is that Kirby and his entire world have been rendered entirely in arts-n-crafts style: Kirby and his foes are yarn outlines traveling through a feltboard world. A Nintendo's nerd's Etsy shop come to life, basically. It's not a completely original idea -- see also Yoshi's Story -- but here the scrapbook look is far more than a visual gimmick. The idea that everything is made of bits of yarn and fabric serves as a fundamental conceit for the action. It strips away Kirby's most iconic ability -- swallowing foes to absorb their powers -- and instead builds more on creative interactions between a string-based Kirby and his cut-and-sewn environments. Kirby uses a length of his own yarn as a grappling hook that can snatch enemies, grab environmental elements, and even swing Bionic Commando-style.