Kirby Star Allies Demo Impression

  If there is anyone outside of Mario that is a pillar of Nintendo it would be the adorable puffball Kirby.  Initially created as a placeholder for a hero that never came to be, Kirby has been giving us all sorts of adventures through the decades and he is back once again on the Nintendo Switch. HAL Laboratory has developed Kirby Star Allies and a demo was released that I had to try out.

Nintendo Can Milk Nostalgia. 

  Something that Nintendo and those that design under them can do better than anyone, is mash the nostalgia button until we are left with nothing but the child forms of ourselves enjoying yet another adventure.  The music and the sound assets immediately draw us back to earlier titles beckoning to the good feelings that came with them.  It's almost cheating.  Kirby Star Allies does not rely on this alone and creates a new but familiar gaming experience.

  The demo offers two different maps.  One being declared as the easy map while the other a harder map.  You will start out with Kirby all alone but quickly learn you can throw some love at an enemy and make friends.  While considered assault in real life, these enemies are cool with it and join Kirby's party.  What's more, if you have some real-life friends they can jump on with you to take over the in-game friends you made.

  Kirby has always had the ability to inhale an enemy and absorb their powers and now his buddies can add to them.  For example, if you inhale a knight you can take their sword, if you befriend a flame-based character, they will light that sword on fire for you.  A lot of the puzzles demoed in the game were based on the mechanics of having the right friends at the right time to deliver specific abilities.

The Game Felt Easy

   The demo was not difficult at all.  Even in the hard mode I was only hit a couple of times and never felt like I was in danger.  This was even more so because the friendly AI is super aggressive and if I hung back they would be gung-ho.  My biggest worry about is the game could be too easy. It was only two levels of what I hope is going to be a decent adventure so there is a chance this was just a taste.

  The graphics looked good and the sound assets are on point.  I am not sure if there is a reasonable story yet but like Mario, depth is not what these games are known for.  The controls were solid and simple to learn and use.

  Even though it felt easy I found the game pretty entertaining.  There were hints about the importance of the co-operative play and that could be something that makes this game good; the absence of it will create a large amount of disappointment.   The game launches later this week so I will have a better idea with an hour first impression but I am not sure I would have pre-ordered the game already if I wasn't running on the Nintendo hype train.

TL;DR:

  Looks good and sounds good with some brand new mechanics.  It just might be too easy.