Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn (3DS) – Review

Special thanks to Nintendo of America for providing us with this review copy.

Roughly nine years after its original release, Kirby returns to his yarn form, this time on the Nintendo 3DS. Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn is a port of the original Wii release, but just how much has it changed? Are problems with the original game all patched up, or does the game just fall flat? My name is Tris, and let’s find out in this review.

Story

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn opens up with everyone’s favorite pink puffball trying to eat what appears to be a tasty tomato. In doing so, he angers a wizard, gets sucked into a sock, and transformed into yarn. Trapped in Patch Land, Kirby teams up with Prince Fluff to restore the damaged land and return home. All the while, the wizard works to conquer Dream Land with yarn. It’s a simple story fitting of a softer Kirby game, setting up for a silly child-friendly plot behind this 2D platformer. There isn’t much more to say about it, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Every now and then, the game has little narrated cutscenes to tell its plot, giving the game a sort of “storybook” feel.

Gameplay

For a 2D platformer, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn feels relatively smooth, albeit a bit sluggish. Sure, Kirby may turn into a car in order to run, but unlike other Kirby games, I never felt like I was able to quickly run through a level if I had to revisit it. Most of the movement in the game feels on the slower side, best emphasized by holding the jump button and letting Kirby drift down slowly. Often times I found myself always expecting to jump higher than I actually could, and a running jump just wasn’t enough of a push. If you’re stitching these pieces together, you’ll see that Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn is not a “race to the end” quick platformer. This is not necessarily a bad thing…on its own.
One of the main complaints of the original Kirby’s Epic Yarn was that the game was simply too easy. Being a game aimed at a younger audience than the rest of the Kirby series, many frequent players of the series complained about the lack of real punishment and consequence in the game. Fall off a cliff? Take too much damage? There’s no lives in Kirby’s Epic Yarn, you just drop your beads. While having a larger number of beads gave players a better rank in each level, it seems the average player did not care much for this. So, how does Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn address this gameplay criticism? Devilish Mode.
Devilish Mode is an alternative version to every level in the game. When entering a level, the player is prompted to choose either normal mode or devilish mode. In this mode exclusive to the 3DS port, a devil enemy will frequently and consistently spawn to attack the Kirby. While the devil enemy can be attacked and deterred, it will respawn within another thirty seconds or so. Unlike the normal mode, players actually have a health meter, which can sustain five hits. Finishing a level with remaining life points get put towards a reward, with every five pieces earning you a new piece of furniture for Kirby’s room. I’ll come back to Kirby’s room in a little bit. Any level in the game can be played on Devilish Mode. While this does combat the complaint of the game being too easy…I’m not sure this was the best way to handle it. Having this enemy frequently spawn becomes more of a nuisance rather than a difficult aspect of the level. Especially if you have the means to attack the devil enemy, you can simply wait for it to spawn, deter it, then continue through the level. Plus, every time you take out the devil, it drops a rather large number of beads as a reward that can simply be grinded, at least from my experience. While Devilish Mode does make the game more difficult, it feels more artificial rather than true challenge added to the game. Oh, and if you lose all five hit points, you have to completely restart the whole level. I think that’s the one aspect of Devilish Mode I found myself liking, actually, as it reminded me more of other platformers with this penalty.
Now, if you played the original Kirby’s Epic Yarn you may be compelled to say “hey, that does sound hard, it’s not easy to attack unless you unravel a nearby enemy and use them!” You know, that would be true…if they didn’t add new power-ups into the game. As another exclusive to this port of the game, players can find power-ups such as a sword, a whirlwind, and an endless supply of yarn. These power-ups aren’t exclusive to Devilish Mode, either, meaning if you’re playing on normal mode, the game is actually even easier than before. Many levels don’t feel as though they were made with the intent of having power-ups, as some puzzles and obstacles that actually would have taken time and thought to solve can simply be brute-forced. While the power-ups are neat and fun to play around with (I’m personally fond of the sword ability, call me basic), they unfortunately make the game even easier than before, while also making the main threat of Devilish Mode a near pushover.
Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn actually adds a couple of small sub-games in addition to everything else. Dedede Gogogo is an auto-scroller that has Dedede running to the end goal, trying to collect as many beads as he can. You can jump, swing your hammer, slide, and dash. It’s a quick little sub-game that I find to be pretty fun, but it’s rather short. Slash and Bead is the other sub-game, this one starring Meta Knight. Another auto-scroller, this one has Meta Knight flying around, earning as many beads as he can before he reaches the end of the level. At some points the movement will stop and large hordes of enemies will spawn in. Meta Knight can fly and slice in any direction, charge in a direction, and after his meter is filled, unleash a special that just destroys any enemies on screen. This sub-game is also rather short, but I personally like this one a little more than Dedede Gogogo. That being said, both sub-games are rather small in scale compared to the main game, but at least they add a pleasant aspect to the experience.
Overall, the gameplay to Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn is fun, but the attempts to make the game more challenging are simply countered by additions making the game even easier. The game is slow-paced and relatively easy, just as it was before.

Presentation

I have to completely admit, I’m a little torn on the presentation in Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn. The visuals of the game are genuinely beautiful and hold up well on a 3DS. I love the yarn aesthetic and I love how Patch Land looks. The enemy designs and animations are rather clever, and the level design is fun. Kirby’s shape transformations for different abilities in the later halves of levels continue to be charming.
An interesting part of the game I mentioned earlier is Kirby’s room. Throughout the game you can find and collect various pieces of furniture and decorations to place around Kirby’s room in however fashion the player feels. Overall, it’s a cute feature, but I didn’t care for it too much. The issue here comes in that the room decorations are every reward in the entire game.
Moving on to where I’m more torn, the execution of Devilish Mode is a bit lackluster and feels like an artificial difficulty. The rewards for Devilish Mode tie back into Kirby’s room furniture, and since I didn’t find myself caring for that much, I actually feel little to no motivation to play in Devilish Mode at all. The sub-modes are fun, but I can’t see much playtime being put into them. The music is rather odd to me. This next point isn’t really about criticism but I wanted to mention… main menu of the game has absolutely no music, it’s…kind of eerie to me, being honest. Yet the menus for the sub-games have music, which is what confuses me. Though I’ve not played the original game, I’ve been told its main menu had music. So..where’d it go?
Overall, the presentation of Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn isn’t bad at all, it’s rather solid actually, but only really in its core game.

Verdict

I went into this game after being told countless times that it’s “nothing” like other Kirby games. I had my doubts, but I have to say, despite the issues I’ve brought up, it does feel like a Kirby game to me…albeit not a very strong one. The game is most definitely aimed at a younger audience than usual, as even with attempts to make it more difficult for players, it’s still too easy, or just flat out a nuisance to deal with. I’ve been having fun with the game, but it’s slower than I’d like a 2D platformer to be. Overall, the game is fun and looks nice, but I wouldn’t say there’s enough changed to fix the flaws of the original to make this much worth picking up.