Well, apparently Kirby has been attacked by an evil something-or-other and blasted into ten mini-sized Kirby bits. The demo I played had all the text and instructions in Japanese making it a little tricky to work out the narrative. The Kirby games are renowned for having wild and wonderful story lines but even so this game had its moments where I just stared at the screen wondering what the heck was going on, it was that weird.

Stylus, ready!

Controlled exclusively with the stylus, I started off with one teeny tiny Kirby making his way all alone in the world. The whole of the top screen of my DS was occupied by a huge Kirby face and a empty percentage bar with the text “1/10″ at one end. As my lonesome Kirby began scoffing fruit and other tasty items the percentage bar gradually filled up until out popped a brand new Kirby when the bar was completely full. Yay, new play friend for Kirby :-) I was able to refill the percentage bar a further 8 times until I had a mesmerising 10 Kirbys to control!

Woooaaahhhh!

Kill the bunnies

As the progressed through the levels I began to send my Kirbys into battle against giant flowers and bunnies. My killer Kirbys gave them all a good beating before gobbling up the fruits that would appear in place of their cold, dead, lifeless bodies. I never knew Kirby could be such a ruthless badass.

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'

There were some puzzles to solve along the way too. The majority of which require you to have a certain number of Kirbys available. For example, I needed over 6 Kirbys to grab onto the roots of a giant turnip stuck in the ceiling and yank it free. Once the turnip had been freed, it hit the ground it burst into a load of fruit which unlocked another bit of Kirby once everything had been eaten up.

You do have to be careful with your Kirbys as they are vulnerable, especially when separated from the main pack. When one of them gets hit, it turns into a ghostly form of Kirby and turns white. When this ghost Kirby gets hit again in this state, it dies :-( However, you can restore a ghostly Kirby to its solid pink form using one of the glowing floating hoops that can be found near the end of levels. For the first few levels I couldn’t work out what these floating hoops were for but as the levels got harder and I started to lose Kirbys in battle, I began to make use of these life-giving hoops.

This game trailer does a great job of showing the Kirby chaos I’ve been describing in all its glory….

Summary

This is a crazy, crazy game. Keeping all your Kirbys together and attacking as an organised unit is a lot of fun and keeps you pretty busy. I had a smile permanently planted across my face the whole time I was playing the demo. Just like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Kirby Mass Attack is a must buy game. Now where did my marauding pack of Kirbys get to?

Kirby Mass Attack is due for release on the 19th Sep 20111 for Nintendo DS.

Age rating:

7+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Another Zelda game.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £22.99

Yes.

Why?

So the mega franchise that is Zelda finally makes it to the DS. Therefore it must use the stylus, which to be honest, it does very well. Controlling Link is a breeze (after Zelda gets kidnapped, as usual) and so is using all the weapons that he collects along the way. Also the cell shaded graphics look pretty good too, with great use being made of the dual screens (especially during boss battles). But underneath these fine new clothes, beats the heart of every other Zelda game ever. Same moves, same puzzles, same temple based game structure and the same weapons. It’s all the same. Again.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed playing (most of) the Phantom Hourglass. It’s a game I’ve been wanting for ages (even bought a DS in preparation of it being released). But, there are some really annoying bits which keep recurring just to annoy you even more. Yes, I’m taking about you Mr Temple of the Ocean King. Whoever in Nintendo thought that making the player go through the same dungeon (temple) multiple times and against the clock, should be be forced to watch every Uwe Boll film. Forever. This single temple almost, and I say almost, ruined the entire game for me.

The are other problems too. The save system still sucks balls. It doesn’t quite save the game state, so you can’t resume part way though a temple. Instead you resume at set points throughout the map, sort of near where you last saved. But, isn’t meant to be a portable game? Play and save anywhere? Except you can’t, and because of this limitation I never once played through a temple whilst travelling. You can quite happily play the rest of the game, just not the temples. Also some of the puzzles (drawing ones mainly) are impossible to do unless you’re perfectly still.

Then you have the great little puzzles to solve and the fantastic boss battles. Drawing on the maps is a lovely addition and really helps the game as a whole, especially during each of the temples. Some of the cut sequences have some great comedy moments hidden inside them that just made me laugh. So there is lots of fun to be had from playing this game.

In summary:

It has all the good and bad bits of almost every Zelda game before it. If you’ve played one of those you won’t come across too many surprises in this DS version.

Screenshots

The Legend of Zelda – The Phantom Hourglass is out now