Polaris

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

So, let me tell you about Kirby and The Amazing Mirror. I FREAKING LOVE THIS GAME. It is my FAVORITE Kirby game. I love this more that Planet Robobot, more than Return to Dreamland, more than Adventure, more than- you get the point. Truth be told, it is tied with as my favorite with Return to Dreamland. Well, first of all, what is Kirby and the Amazing Mirror? Amazing Mirror is a game for the Gameboy Advanced released in 2004 (Hey! A year before I was born :D) and in this there's not only one Kirby, but 4 of them, thanks to Dark Meta Knight splitting Kirby into four (even though it didn't make him any weaker, infact it just made Kirby even stronger... what was the plan there?). Another twist is that this game doesn't follow the normal stage by stage structure of previous Kirby games. Instead, you're plopped into a pseudo metroidvania styled open world, where levels are stringed together by branching path ways and different areas. Basically, a labrynth you have to find your way around to get to the bosses that hold pieces of the shattered Amazing Mirror (thanks Dark Meta Knight). But unlike usual metroidvanias, this game doesn't restrict you from going anywhere on the map without a specific unlockable. In otherwords, it's a full on 2D open world game and that's what I find so fascinating about this game! I've never played a game like this and metroidvanias only come close to scratching that same feeling. I love to explore and this game has that in spades, the challenge of planning out my path to the goal is really fun and super rewarding especially when it comes to the treasure chests. Oh did I mention? This game has chests you can find that will give you rewards such as permanent health upgrades, maps to help navigate each area, spray cans change Kirby's color, and music from the game that you can listen to on the sound test which you also have to find. The spray cans have always been a favorite reward of mine from this game, my favorite thing a game could have is character custimization, it just makes every playthrough of the game a lot more personalized. So this game has a big fun world to explore and rewards you for your curiosity, are there any catches?

As much as I hate to admit it, this game does come with it's fair share of problems, no video game is perfect afterall. First the most obvious one that this game is built off the same engine as Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland which is a remake of Kirby's Adventure which means, you lose your copy ability everytime you get hit once which is a decision I never understood in both games since these games came out way after the release of Kirby Super Star which changed the copy ability system where it takes multiple hits to lose your ability and you'd think a remake would add an improvement like this. But it's whatever, it didn't really bother me because I played my fair share of Kirby's adventure so I'm used to this system. Another problem is that players can easily get frustrated with this game when getting lost and start hitting dead ends and when hitting these dead ends it's not as easy as just going backwards because this game is riddled with one way doors so you have to call the warpstar in order to start from the very beginning. Luckily though, you can find buttons that unlock shortcuts to areas from the main hub area so you can quickly go back to the area you were just in so add another point to the rewarding exploration of this game. Also, pro tip: doors you haven't entered will be glowing while doors you've already entered won't have the glow. Another tip: doors with a small star on them are one way doors while the ones with big stars on them are two ways, and if you have the map of the area you're in, one way paths will be marked with arrows. Ontop of that, the map system in this game could be better as it doesn't give you a lot of information to work with especially when you don't have the map of the area you're in. You're stepping in uncharted territory and have no idea where to go. But here's another pro tip: in the map of an area you don't have the map for, the only known information you have on there is a colored box. Heading towards the colored box usually leads you to the map you need for that area.

Another flaw is that there are these unbreakable blocks that only a specific selection of copy abilities can break which are, flame, hammer, missle, smash, and UFO. These I can't really defend since it does restrict player freedom a little and it's already hard enough to keep your copy ability what with the one hit lose ability mechanic.

Despite these flaws and probably some other flaws I haven't pointed out, I can't help but still love this game. Like, I really enjoy the world building in this game and how each location is designed depending on the area you're in. One really simple example that comes to mind is how in Moonlight Mansion, each room is designed to look like you are actually exploring a mansion and even has an underground labratory. But one of my favorite instances of this world building is the paths you can take to get to Candy Constillation, the 9th and final area of the game. The 2 ways to get to Candy Constillation is through Moonlight Mansion and Peppermint Palace, and as you make your way to area 9, you can visibly see Kirby traversing to the very top of the respective paths and get close to the sky since area 9 is in space where a warp star is waiting and flies kirby into space and into Candy Constilation.

Another instance of this well carfted world building is that the only way to enter Olive Ocean, Area 6, you have to find a path to the area through Cabbage Cavern, Area 3. Entering Area 6, Kirby is seen exiting a cave since, the previous are he was in, was Cabbage CAVERN.

Speaking of Olive Ocean, I like that all the top paths are the coast/shore of Olive Ocean and once you take the bottom paths you start going underwater. Little details like these don't seem like much but to me, it nets this game tons of extra bonus points.

Lastly, I wanna talk about Wave Rider, one of the game's sub games. The sub games aren't anything special but this one in particular strikes a chord with me. Thanks to retroachievements I actually played this sub game and it was fun trying to beat the CPUs but timing the jumps off the waves. But, the gameplay isn't what I like about Wave Rider. What I really like about this sub game is just the aesthetic. Surfing across the ocean under the beauty of a night full of stars is really mesmerizing. Bonus points for the wallpapers based on this sub game for looking so good to, both the EU and JP ones.