Kirby Planet Robobot (3DS)
Jan. 17th, 2017 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroAn alien spaceship lands on Kirby’s home world and conquers it in moments…but that’s just because Kirby hadn’t woken up yet. Haltmann Works Corporation won’t know what hit them.
The game feels generally very easy, even compared to other Kirby games--if there's a miniboss, for instance, that's the power you're going to need for the puzzle immediately thereafter. If there’s an alternate path that’s slightly harder to reach, that’s the path you’re going to need to take. In several places, the general solution to puzzles is spelled out for you, you just need to follow the directions. I didn’t actually lose any lives until around World 4, and there were only a handful of stages I needed to replay to retrieve all of the code cubes. (Though the stages are very long, on the whole, and I’m guessing they didn’t expect you to replay all of them.)
Every power Kirby can absorb he can also absorb in the Robobot armor, and they give a variety of different special abilities. I particularly love the shoot-em-up sections that are built right into "you pick up the rocket power with the robot suit", and the racing sections with the wheel power. (I’m reminded of the animal buddies from some of the earlier games.)
In terms of special appeal to me, it's often the little things that matter: The fact that the remote control for the robot buddy looks like a Game Boy, or that you can choose to attach the stickers you find to your robot armor (and they even appear in cutscenes). The new ESP power was a lot of fun, and the armor-bomb power (which sends out bob-ombs that run along walls and are used to solve puzzles) was great.
Finishing the game unlocks an Arena and a Meta Knight mode. There are also two bonus games (required for 100% completion) that are basically an rpg-elements team boss rush and a 3D arena-fighting mode. (Both of those were amusing for the half-hour it took to play all the stages.)
I will complain, though, about the final boss: You fight a mini-boss, a semi-final boss, (both essentially retreads of earlier fights) and then three different forms of the final boss as 3D shoot-em-up battles. If you die at any point during this sequence, you’re sent back and given the option of restarting from the first battle for the beginning of the final boss sequence. It’s an out-of-nowhere genre shift in the middle of a boss marathon; and while not totally unknown for this series, it’s still annoying and very long.
Overall: If you liked Kirby Triple Deluxe, this is more semi-3D excitement and action/puzzle platforming in the exact same vein. Different art assets and different excuse plot, the same Kirby action I continue to enjoy. Now with more giant robot suits!
The game feels generally very easy, even compared to other Kirby games--if there's a miniboss, for instance, that's the power you're going to need for the puzzle immediately thereafter. If there’s an alternate path that’s slightly harder to reach, that’s the path you’re going to need to take. In several places, the general solution to puzzles is spelled out for you, you just need to follow the directions. I didn’t actually lose any lives until around World 4, and there were only a handful of stages I needed to replay to retrieve all of the code cubes. (Though the stages are very long, on the whole, and I’m guessing they didn’t expect you to replay all of them.)
Every power Kirby can absorb he can also absorb in the Robobot armor, and they give a variety of different special abilities. I particularly love the shoot-em-up sections that are built right into "you pick up the rocket power with the robot suit", and the racing sections with the wheel power. (I’m reminded of the animal buddies from some of the earlier games.)
In terms of special appeal to me, it's often the little things that matter: The fact that the remote control for the robot buddy looks like a Game Boy, or that you can choose to attach the stickers you find to your robot armor (and they even appear in cutscenes). The new ESP power was a lot of fun, and the armor-bomb power (which sends out bob-ombs that run along walls and are used to solve puzzles) was great.
Finishing the game unlocks an Arena and a Meta Knight mode. There are also two bonus games (required for 100% completion) that are basically an rpg-elements team boss rush and a 3D arena-fighting mode. (Both of those were amusing for the half-hour it took to play all the stages.)
I will complain, though, about the final boss: You fight a mini-boss, a semi-final boss, (both essentially retreads of earlier fights) and then three different forms of the final boss as 3D shoot-em-up battles. If you die at any point during this sequence, you’re sent back and given the option of restarting from the first battle for the beginning of the final boss sequence. It’s an out-of-nowhere genre shift in the middle of a boss marathon; and while not totally unknown for this series, it’s still annoying and very long.
Overall: If you liked Kirby Triple Deluxe, this is more semi-3D excitement and action/puzzle platforming in the exact same vein. Different art assets and different excuse plot, the same Kirby action I continue to enjoy. Now with more giant robot suits!
