With enemies like these, who needs friends? In the last few games starring everybody’s favorite pink puff, a pattern has emerged: Guys who are supposedly Kirby’s enemies are in fact doing him a huge favor, freeing him from his main gimmick and putting him in situations that make his games much more interesting than they would be with Kirby alone. The witch Drawcia in “Kirby: Canvas Curse” transformed Dream Land into paint. Yin-Yarn in “Kirby’s Epic Yarn” banished Kirby to a world where everything — including Kirby — was made of yarn. And now in “Kirby Mass Attack,” a faux foe named Necrodeus smashes Kirby into 10 mini versions of himself.
These recent outings — the best Kirby games since “Kirby’s Adventure” for the Nintendo Entertainment System — represent a surprising turnaround for the little guy. By jettisoning, at least temporarily, Kirby’s gimmick of copying enemy abilities, what used to be Nintendo’s most stagnant franchise has become a laboratory of innovative — and greatly successful — gameplay ideas.
| ‘Kirby Mass Attack’ |
| » Systems: DS |
| » Price: $29.99 |
| » Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |
The latest involves controlling the aforementioned swarm of Kirbys using only the touch-screen of the DS. This is easier than it may sound — they run wherever you tap, and if they’re all together, you can draw a line they’ll follow in group flight. You can separate the pack for simple puzzles, where Kirbys do their parts in different sections of the screen, or gather tham together for a satisfying group body slam of a giant enemy. It’s not the most inspired idea in the history of platforming, and the graphics are a disappointment after the visual masterpiece “Epic Yarn,” but the game delivers wall-to-wall cheer and pleasantness. “Mass Attack” has a sense of humor — one enemy fishes for your Kirbys with fruit on hooks, and another throws cake at your Kirbys, rendering them fat. And there are tons of little things that, deliberately or not, put the player in mind of beloved platformers of yore: jumping blocks a la “Super Mario Bros. 3,” oxygen bubbles a la “Sonic the Hedgehog,” an anti-dinosaur bridge disappearance that will remind many of a certain plumber’s first fight with a certain lizard king.
Smoothing over the “Mass Attack’s” rough edges are its many unlockable minigames, including a pinball mode that’s liable to claim more of your time thatn the main adventure. Add it all up, and you have one of the last, best games on the DS.
