User:Star Solister/Random thoughts

Some random thoughts on random things.

Kirby: Canvas Curse
This is actually the game that got me into the series, and it's definitely a very, very unconventional one to start on. When I got my hands on it, I loved it. The gameplay was unique and I found myself loving the concept of Copy Abilities, even if I had never seen a proper one before. The puzzle-heavy level design was also fun, too, and it always felt satisfying to find a secret door, grab a medal, beat a time trial or line test, or just in general, solve something on my own.

Looking back now, the game had a lot of flaws and deviated too much from the core gameplay, which I understand is not something that a lot of long-time fans enjoyed. However, I feel like the atmosphere of the game is what made me love it so much. It wasn't sugary and sweet and all that like the other Kirby games. It was dark, and not in the sense that the plot was super edgy, but in the sense that when you play through the game, you can tell that nothing is "right." The darkness in the game was very subtle. The backgrounds were flat and realistic, almost like everything got sucked into a world that it didn't belong in. The menus weren't flashy with cutesy fonts, but rather were jagged and robotic. I didn't know the songs were remixes at the time, but the general feel of the soundtrack was that it was very heavy, energetic yet often not cheerful, and laced often with distorted passages, which added to the mood. Now that I know what the original tracks sounded like, it only reinforces the feelings I had back then. It takes what you know and twists it into something unfamiliar. I can imagine what that would feel like to long-time fans who did enjoy this game.

Kirby, of course, was still his cute ol' self- but he had no facial expressions for most of this game; it was just a blank stare. It was only in the goal games that I saw a glimpse of his usual cheery persona, and I feel like back then, this sort of environment pushed me to want to bring his smile back, in a way (if that makes sense). It was immersive, it kept me coming back, and it kept me wanting more.

Kirby: Squeak Squad
So yeah, you can imagine how I felt going into the next game where everything was diabetes fuel. Squeak Squad gave me my first taste of a proper Kirby game, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every moment of it on my first playthrough. From puzzle solving to resource management to fun, comfortable level design to Jesus Christ all these goddamn copy abilities? It was one of my favorite DS games.

As good as it was, Squeak Squad simply could not replicate the feel of Canvas Curse for me. The plot of the game made no sense and the atmosphere was such a departure from what I enjoyed (though I still like cutesy things, don't get me wrong, otherwise I wouldn't be here!) Still, though, I sunk hours into it, getting to know every level and ability as well as I could, and it's still one of my favorite DS games to this day.

Other random thoughts
These are just purely my opinions and I acknowledge that. There are multiple ways of enjoying the game and you may disagree with these thoughts. I just want to post some of my thoughts about what I've observed in my time playing this series.
 * I'd like to see older games get remade in a newer style. Think Spring Breeze, which is the first game in the series, but remade with a Super Star feel. Or Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver. With the amazing modern copy ability system, I can see myself really getting into them.
 * In my opinion, cheese abilities/strats are overrated. Kirby is already an easy game. Why do you need to make it easier?
 * Abilities like Stone, Archer, Mirror, and Leaf are all overrated for the wrong reasons. Judge an ability by its other merits instead of the one thing that allows it to slowly cheese out a single game mode. Some of these abilities are indeed amazing, but their invincibility is not everything.


 * On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, Hammer gets too much focus in my opinion. It is definitely the most powerful ability, and world record runs are justified to use it. Do what you have to to get the best time. However, when not going for a world record, why aren't people doing more runs with different abilities, showing off what they can do as well?
 * The only other runs besides Hammer runs are usually 40-minute, multi-part runs with Archer or Stone or Leaf. It's telling that whenever someone posts a run of some other ability, people lose their minds.
 * I'd like to see other abilities done as side runs or categories, even if they may not be as fast as Hammer. In particular, I've been trying to push Parasol a lot in Return to Dream Land, and in doing so I've found ways to slightly compensate for its perceived weaknesses. Most abilities in the recent games are so much fun to use and are great in their own right, not just Hammer.