Before you read anything I will tell you that there are some story spoilers and if you want to play the game yourself, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Hi, and today I am going to talk about something new, sort of. Kirby’s Epic Yarn was created in 2012, ending the longest time that Nintendo hadn’t released a new mainstream Kirby game. That ‘no game’ streak lasted 4 years! This game was created by a new company called Good-Feel. They developed games that most people that were born mid 2000s wouldn’t remember like “Wario Land: Shake It!” and would even go on to create a new fabric game, Yoshi’s Wooly World.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn was based around, you guessed it, yarn. The story of the game is that there was a sorcerer going around turning people into yarn. So Kirby is walking by when he sees his favorite food on a bush, a metamato, being the red tomatoes with yellow letter M’s on them. He went to suck the tomato in when a man made out of yarn jumped out of the bush. Kirby sucked the tomato off his head and then the man, the sorcerer turning people into yarn, who’s name is Yin Yarn by the way, said “You’ll pay for that!” and sucked Kirby into a magic sock. Then Kirby finds himself in a world that’s made completely of yarn! I won’t spoil anymore of the story, now that the main part is out of the way.
Now, I just want to talk about the game itself. The gameplay is really nice, and a change of pace from the traditional Kirby platformers. This game is more focused on relaxed gameplay rather than platforming. The only time that changes is when you are fighting a world boss. When fighting a world boss the music turns intense, and the gameplay is more just trying to finish. The music on the normal levels is amazing and just adds to the nice mood. Oh, and one of the parts advertised in the box, the transformations! So, in some levels there are these little portals that can turn you from a rocket launching robot to a snowboarding penguin. Some levels have these as gimmicks and some of them are just for a portion of the level. Some bonus levels you can unlock by getting enough beads in the boss levels. They are mostly you turning into a monster truck, but one of the levels you turn into a snowboarding penguin. The currency and the score meter in this game is called beads. After each level you have a certain amount of beads, and depending on that amount you get a score, nothing, bronze, silver, or gold. After the score in that level you get it added to your total beads. You can use these beads to buy wallpaper and furniture for your house.
Oh, and I forgot to talk about Kirby’s pad! In each level you can get furniture to place in Kirby’s pad, or get some music to play when you like. You can place the furniture in your house and place the things that you get from the furniture shop there too, and you can also change the wallpaper to whichever one you like. Next to Kirby’s pad are empty rooms that you can fill using the furniture that you collect from different levels to make some friends move in. When you get the first person to move in, Zeke, You can expand the apartment to make more people move in. You do this until the 3rd floor and then you stop. For each person that moves in you get a minigame to play. One is hide-and-seek, one is collect the beads, and another is race the finish.
Overall Kirby’s Epic Yarn was a good game to reintroduce Kirby into the gaming world. I highly recommend the game and you should probably play it.
-Aren Oshagan ‘21
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