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It has been a while since Nintendo’s pink ball had a moment on a home console. The last outing Kirby had on our screens was Kirby Air Ride and let’s just say that it left much to be desired. Being a fan of Kirby since I had a Game Boy, I leapt with joy when I found out that Nintendo had plans for a new Kirby platformer for the Wii and not the DS. The last Kirby platformer Nintendo released on a home console was 10 years ago, which has been way too long for our pink friend to wait while Mario and Link were getting their yearly reboots. I imagine Kirby was brimming with rage. But with Kirby’s Epic Yarn, he finally got his chance to shine and in a cute simple way, he does.

Oh, Nintendo thou silly sod

But oh why, Nintendo, doesn’t the Wii support High-Definition? Oh, that’s right, it is because you didn’t think it was going to catch on and thus didn’t make a console with enough processing power to support it. But then you went ahead and released a game like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and it was ever so beautiful. The problem was that players simply couldn’t sample its magnificence sufficiently on an HD TV. Silly Nintendo, you should have made the Wii HD so players could look at this game with glee and joy.

Because Kirby’s Epic Yarn is one of the prettiest games I have ever played. Next to the two Super Mario Galaxies, it is easily the best looking game on the Wii. To appreciate its true beauty you will unfortunately have to play the game on an SD Television, and in this day and age that simply doesn’t feel right. I literally cannot imagine how good this game would look in HD. You would never think that a world made out of yarn and sewing materials could look so good, but if you are a sucker for the cute worlds that Nintendo have a knack for making, you won’t find any better than the one in Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

No Suck, No Hover, No go

Kirby’s last adventure is based in two worlds; the first being Kirby’s home world Dream Land and the second is Patch Land, a land ruled by Prince Fluff, a small blue round ball made out of yarn. The basis for Kirby’s Epic Yarn is simple. Kirby eats a tomato, gets sucked into a sock, ends up in a strange land, saves Prince Fluff, is told of an evil wizard called Yin-Yarn who has torn Patch Land to pieces, decides to help the Prince defeat Yin-Yarn and save Patch Land. Yes, the story is utter balls, but this is Nintendo we are talking about. They have been spinning the same stories for 30 years and it’s nice to see that at least they made a new one for Kirby, even if it is completely garbage. Luckily, the story is a tiny speck on the windscreen. The gameplay, creativity and fun are what really make this game a good one.

You play Kirby’s Epic Yarn with the Wii remote sideways similar to Super Mario Galaxy. You use the D-Pad to move and to input some of the commands and buttons 1 and 2 for the other. The controls are simple but effective, although some of Kirby’s moves can be a bit of a pain to pull off at times, such as dashing. You may also be surprised to know that Kirby has a whole new move set. Kirby can now turn into a car and become a parachute, but cannot hover jump any more or use his inhale move. This may seem silly considering they are Kirby’s signature moves, but it all works well and even though sometimes you will be wishing for the hover jump, you will get on just fine without it.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn poses no challenge. For starters, Kirby cannot die or lose. Each time you fall off a platform or miss a jump you will be whisked back to the nearest platform by what seems to be an angel. There is no punishment for falling or being hit by enemies, which is one of the main points that brings Epic Yarn down from being a great game to just a good one. Patch Land has 8 sub-worlds each with a different theme, differing amount of levels and enemies. Your job is to navigate Kirby through these worlds in order to gain beads, with which you can unlock new levels within each sub-world. You will have to finish a set amount of levels in order to face the main boss of that sub-world. Each boss possesses a piece of golden string and it is Kirby’s job to retrieve all of the golden strings so that he can put Patch Land back together. After beating each boss you are able to progress into the next sub-world.