Kirby Squeak Squad

I'm a huge Kirby fan. I've loved all of his old handheld adventures and always found the difficulty to be just right. His first DS outing was fantastic and was the first game I ever bought from the Nintendo Store in NYC. I would have played this game sooner but I'm cheaper and the game never dropped in price.

This is one of the most beautiful games I've played on the DS. The backdrops are lush with color and detail. The themes feel generic and old but damn does it look good. The moves and enemies also look great and everything just pops with color.

My problem is that sometimes the levels don't make sense with their theme. One second I could be in a jungle and then suddenly I'm inside a futurist factory or in space or up in the clouds and I'm talking same world and sometimes all in the same stage. Just feels a bit random. I also found that some of the backdrops felt reused at times.

The music is cute and whimsical, along the same lines of any Kirby title before it. Sound effects aren't exactly exciting but still remain the same as usual in this long running series.

Stylus controls are rarely used in the game and it all relies on the item usage. The bottom screen works as a bubble and you can have 5 items in it and to use an item you double tap it or to toss the item out you zip it to the top quickly. I rarely had to use my bubble of tricks unless I messed up somewhere and it some how makes the game even easier than it normally is.

It's actually the main flaw of the game. The new mechanics just makes the game very easy. You have lives, which are a little harder to get than one would think but we all know they don't really matter. We also have a life bar now and I don't really remember one from the old days and I'm sure it wasn't this big. Sure it doesn't refill after each stage but you find health items everywhere and you can store them. Also the end of each stage has you shooting into an item and it's actually easy to get them.

The game itself is classic Kirby action though. 2D platforming and awesome puzzles. You can beat the entire game without solving a single puzzle though. You make your way through each satge sucking up enemies and if you have one in your mouth and hit down you gain their power, if possible. Now you will need to use these powers to solve the puzzles. Some are timed based along with requiring a specific ability.

The abilities range from a throwing star to a digging ability to a magical star wand. Classic abilities and enemies remain in the series which is nice as well. Our new bad guys are the Squeak Squad and the game ignores it's own story and you're constantly forced to fight these guys over over. The game does offer a ton of mini bosses but halfway through they start repeating and the game even pulls a Capcom and forces you to fight them all in a row for a stage.

The story is about as silly as it comes. The Squeak Squad has stolen Kirby's cake and now he is pissed off and wants it back. It gets a little deeper but not much and the story is rather lame. But as I said before classic bosses like Deedee and Metaknight do show up so that was a huge plus for me.

The game features a few mini games which I didn't find all that enjoyable. There are also 120 chests in the game to find. They contain pieces for new stages, new music, new colors for Kirby and a crap load of other stuff. This makes the game have some of the most replay value of any handheld game I've played in a long time and despite the actual game being just a few hours long it will take much longer for 100%.

Story - 4/10
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 9/10
Replay Value - 9/10

Final Score - 9/10