Game Review: ‘Kirby’s Epic Yarn’ for Wii

Everyone’s favorite pink puffball, Kirby, has made his debut to the Wii in the form of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, a colorful, adorable platformer that has rolled itself around my heart and refused to untangle. Throughout the entirety of playing this game, I have never ceased to stop laughing, smiling, and feeling like a 4 year old girl, as I romp, roll, and raced through the levels, making it one of my favorite games of 2010.

The most striking part of this game is the graphics. While the Wii’s graphics cannot begin to compete with the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3, Kirby’s Epic Yarn takes the limitations of the Wii system and uses that to its advantage. The result is a gorgeous game world, which is all animated to look like fabric, as Kirby’s body gets transformed into yarn at the beginning of the game.

While the gimmic of former Kirbys was the ability to swallow your enemies and turn into various different versions of Kirby, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is quite different. In this game, Kirby has been turned into yarn and must travel through the fabric worlds and collect all the magic yarn, and players must use Kirby’s new state in a different way.

Kirby uses his own body as a whip to grab yarn enemies, either rolling them up into a ball or shredding them. He can turn into a car on land and a submarine in water. But the most fun parts about Kirby’s new yarn state is when he and, if you’re playing co-op, Prince Fluff transform to become spaceships, racecars, and giant flying robots.

Two-player co-op is excellent in this game. It’s so much easier to get up onto ledges to reach items and gems if you have another player lasso you up and throw you. While the game is totally playable and still fun on your own, playing with a friend will get you further, faster.

And because the game has the same kind of guide system as New Super Mario Bros Wii, if a character dies they’re just transported to the other player, even if they’re further along. This feature makes Kirby’s Epic Yarn a really fun and easy game for parents and kids to play together.

My only problem with Kirby’s Epic Yarn is that it is just too short. I could have played this game for another ten hours and still be entertained. Although after finishing the main storyline, there’s still some side-quests to do and the opportunity to get any items you may have missed, the game is simple enough that finishing these things the first time around isn’t too much of a challenge. But, seeing as it is at heart a children’s game, the length seems fine and the game is still very good.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is not just another sequel to previous games, nor is it a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up with Kirby. Instead, Kirby’s Epic Yarn creates a unique experience with a beloved Nintendo character that we haven’t spent time with in a good long .while