Kirby Mass Attack – Hands-on Preview (DS)

Kirby is back on the Nintendo DS in his craziest adventure ever following his adventures in Patch Land. I found myself controlling what appeared to be a pack of ravenous attack Kirbys roaming the landscape either devouring or assaulting everything that got in their way. What on earth has happened to our beloved Kirby?

Well, apparently Kirby has been attacked by an evil something-or-other and blasted into ten mini-sized Kirby bits. The demo I played had all the text and instructions in Japanese making it a little tricky to work out the narrative. The Kirby games are renowned for having wild and wonderful story lines but even so this game had its moments where I just stared at the screen wondering what the heck was going on, it was that weird.

Stylus, ready!

Controlled exclusively with the stylus, I started off with one teeny tiny Kirby making his way all alone in the world. The whole of the top screen of my DS was occupied by a huge Kirby face and a empty percentage bar with the text “1/10” at one end. As my lonesome Kirby began scoffing fruit and other tasty items the percentage bar gradually filled up until out popped a brand new Kirby when the bar was completely full. Yay, new play friend for Kirby :-) I was able to refill the percentage bar a further 8 times until I had a mesmerising 10 Kirbys to control!

Tapping on the screen with my stylus moved my Kirbys around the level. Then when I held down the stylus down on a particular Kirby or pack of Kirbys for a few seconds they became surrounded by a blue force field. This allowed me to draw a path around the screen that they would float along. This magical power gave my Kirbys the freedom to navigate around the levels and get to those otherwise out of reach areas. The other essential control I learnt was the flick move. Quickly swiping the stylus away from my Kirbys resulted in them flinging themselves across the screen. This was the control I used most as it allowed my to clear a path through boxes, bombs, animals etc to get to the end of the level. Whilst they were flinging themselves across the screen they did resemble load of demented pink Lemmings. Grasping these simple controls didn’t take long at all, so it was onto the task at hand; causing mayhem and destruction. I mean, putting Kirby back together again and saving the Universe (probably).

Kill the bunnies

As the progressed through the levels I began to send my Kirbys into battle against giant flowers and bunnies. My killer Kirbys gave them all a good beating before gobbling up the fruits that would appear in place of their cold, dead, lifeless bodies. I never knew Kirby could be such a ruthless badass.

It was during these fights that I first encountered problems controlling my loveable pack of mayhem. They kept getting separated at the most awkward of moments. Small groups of them would fall down holes in the landscape or get trapped on the wrong side of a giant swaying flower when you weren’t looking. It was a constant challenge keeping all my Kirbys together and safe from preying monsters. Backtracking and collecting all these lost Kirbys reminded me a lot of playing Sony’s excellent LocoRoco on the PSP in which you have to save all your defenceless LocoRoco’s.

There were some puzzles to solve along the way too. The majority of which require you to have a certain number of Kirbys available. For example, I needed over 6 Kirbys to grab onto the roots of a giant turnip stuck in the ceiling and yank it free. Once the turnip had been freed, it hit the ground it burst into a load of fruit which unlocked another bit of Kirby once everything had been eaten up.

You do have to be careful with your Kirbys as they are vulnerable, especially when separated from the main pack. When one of them gets hit, it turns into a ghostly form of Kirby and turns white. When this ghost Kirby gets hit again in this state, it dies :-( However, you can restore a ghostly Kirby to its solid pink form using one of the glowing floating hoops that can be found near the end of levels. For the first few levels I couldn’t work out what these floating hoops were for but as the levels got harder and I started to lose Kirbys in battle, I began to make use of these life-giving hoops.

This game trailer does a great job of showing the Kirby chaos I’ve been describing in all its glory….

Summary

This is a crazy, crazy game. Keeping all your Kirbys together and attacking as an organised unit is a lot of fun and keeps you pretty busy. I had a smile permanently planted across my face the whole time I was playing the demo. Just like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Kirby Mass Attack is a must buy game. Now where did my marauding pack of Kirbys get to?

Kirby Mass Attack is due for release on the 19th Sep 20111 for Nintendo DS.

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