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.
