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Doesn't paint the Canvas Curse masterpiece, but still a treat

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 28 / 33
Date: December 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Kirby's Canvas Curse was a Nintendo DS sleeper and one of the highest-rated Nintendo DS games in early 2005. One of the first fully-featured Nintendo DS games, Canvas Curse showed what the DS could do with lots of touch screen innovation, creative graphics, and deep gameplay features. Kirby Squeak Squad, Kirby's sophomore DS effort, is nothing like its predecessor. It is instead much more like the NES, SNES, N64, and Game Boy adventures of this beloved ballooning Nintendo character, and as a result it offers much of the same.

Strawberry shortcake is quite a tasty morsel. With this in mind, one must understand why Kirby is so inclined to tracking down and finding the thief of his delicious treat. After finding out that the normally devious King Dedede is innocent of charge, Kirby discovers the Squeak Squad, a menacing band of baddies, is responsible. This leads to his trek through eight cute, colorful worlds in search of his dessert. The story is so bare-bones that it's hard to call it anything but ridiculous and unimportant, but one must ask how important a 2D platformer's storyline really is in the first place.

With the 2D platformer standards already in sight, Kirby hits on all cylinders: the levels are fun and have a great design. Enemies fill up every one of them, some hidden in walls for an extra challenge. Kirby's suck-things-up skills come in handy like always, and there are more than 20 abilities to help the little guy get through each level and defeat his countless enemies. These abilities are mostly familiar; you'll spit fire, blow ice, and even emit sparks. Rather than only destroying enemies, some abilities affect your environment-for example, blowing ice over lava keeps the molten substance from burning Kirby. Another perk this time around is that Kirby can keep up to five abilities or items stored in his stomach, and using the touch screen, the player can combine things to form other abilities or items. I'd have liked to see more abilities, though. This is where Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards really excelled; letting the player combine several different skills for really fun effects. How could I forget Fridge Kirby?

Kirby Squeak Squad doesn't offer much depth to its formula and rarely strays from what's worked in the past. One could go as far as to say that it's simply an update from the GBA titles, and those that really enjoyed Canvas Curse will be disappointed to find that the amount of gameplay modes and the depth found in each is noticeably missing here. Kirby Squeak Squad is as short as any Kirby game, too, clocking in at about five or six hours for a trip through each of the eight worlds. In its defense, there are collectibles that serve as a bonus for exploring each level. By finding treasure chests scattered through the worlds, you'll unlock things like enhanced abilities (throw a bigger Cutter!) and even different Kirby colors (paint him Green!) This extends the length of the game a few hours, but I only missed a few treasure chests in each world, so they're not much of a pain to go back and get.

Kirby has a distinct style and this style was preserved very well in Canvas Curse, despite the major functional change. Squeak Squad has no excuse to mess this up, and it doesn't. The visuals are crisp, clean, colorful, and are 2D greatness. Kirby and everything in his world animates very well. The abilities yield some decent 2D effects. I'd have liked to see some 3D here and there, though-if a game like Super Mario 64 DS can deliver a totally-3D experience, I'd imagine a game like Kirby could integrate some 3D into its style, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards looked great. The music and sound effects have Kirby written all over them, so series fans will find a lot of familiar sounds and such.

Kirby Squeak Squad is no Canvas Curse, but it's another great platform effort for the DS and yet another solid Kirby title. Though they seem to come out by the year, Kirby games always generate some excitement with younger crowds (partially thanks to the television series) and I'd imagine that age group will really enjoy this title as much as the others. One might notice that I gave Kirby Squeak Squad the same score as I gave Yoshi's Island DS. Both are solid DS platformers, and I'd say they're interchangeable-if you're into the Kirby series, check out Kirby. If you're into the classic Yoshi's Island, try that one. If you want to try both, by all means, it's no mistake on your part. Despite its shortcomings, Kirby is a fun game that joins New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island DS for a very solid trio of Nintendo platform games.

Dissapointment

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: December 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is kinda fun, but it is very different. First, it's not like canvas curse that you use the DS at it's full capacity. It's a traditional game, which uses the face buttons. The game is good all kirby games are good, but this one is kinda repetitive and it is not as half as fun as the other ones. It has new cool powers like magic, cupid etc. If I would have known that this game was like this I wouldn't have buyed it at the price listed above...

The multi-talented pink puffball returns to the DS with a rather easy platform game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

(Scroll to the bottom for point-form pros and cons of the game.)

I have to start off with a warning -- Kirby Squeak Squad is an incredibly teeth-rotting, sickeningly cute game. And for those that played Canvas Curse, be aware that Kirby's brought back his old platforming style for this one.

Visually, it's vibrant, colourful, and has those old school sprites that many of us older gamers welcome and are used to. Musically, it has all the cute little Kirby tunes that should be familiar for veteran Kirby gaming fans; the tunes are simple, fun, whimsical, and "childish" which perfectly compliments the little pink puffball.

The story of Kirby Squeak Squad is very simple: Someone steals Kirby's shortcake and he's out to find out who and get it back! Since it's a platformer, you really can't expect some complex, mind-provoking plot, can you? :P Plus, it's Kirby who, in recent years, seems more and more targeted at the younger, pre-teen crowd anyway.

The game has you guiding Kirby through 8 colourful yet dangerous worlds. He comes with his standard abilities which are jumping, ballooning-and-arms-flapping-to-fly, and, of course, inhaling and copying enemy skills. The gimmick this time is that you can carry more than one ability -- but only if you found them in bubbles. Up to 5 bubble items or abilities are stored in the copy palette which is on the bottom/touch screen of the DS. Touch an ability bubble within the palette and Kirby will don the headwear or costume of the one you chose thus gaining a new ability. Touch an item bubble and he'll reap the healing or life-extending benefits of it! The player is also free to mix them to get new items and abilities. (There are some exceptions though.)

It should be noted that this game is very VERY friendly in that it practically holds your hand when it comes to problem solving. For example, if you're about to head into a boss battle, Copy Ability bubbles will readily be available outside for you to use and these are usually the ones needed to defeat the boss. However, from experience, it's a good idea to mix these bubbles together to get another ability. (Tip: Tornado, although it can be hard to control, is a sure-way to take down bosses without receiving much damage. Trial and error in mixing can get you the ability if it's not available as a bubble or from the tornado enemy.) And if you need to get a chest that's seemingly impossible to reach -- no worries! There's an enemy nearby with the ability you can use to get it!

The helpfulness continues when you complete a stage by allowing you to freely enter and leave after picking up 1-Up items, as well as bubble items and abilities. Indeed, there's no need to replay the stage from start till end to keep those items. This is extremely handy if you just loaded up a save game since Kirby defaults to having 3 lives (1 in use and 2 extras) and has no special abilities.

Kirby Squeak Squad also features four single/multi-player sub-games for up to 4 players. (All participants don't need the game to play as they're downloadable off the player with the game card.) The game allows you to play 3 of them right from the start but the 4th one is a post-game unlockable bonus. The default mini-games are all based on reflexes and judgement; the first one has you grabbing shortcakes before the opponent(s), the second one features bumper-stars where you can ram foes off the platform while zipping around on a star, and the third one's all about shooting as much food as you can within 30 seconds. The unlockable sub-game is an endurance boss rush mode where you get to fight all the bosses in the game in succession without extra lives or anything. Unfortunately, none of these sub-games reward you for your efforts. In fact, it doesn't even maintain a high scores list.

Lastly, there are A LOT of things to collect in this game such as sounds, spray paints for Kirby, scrolls to upgrade abilities and more -- all of which are obtained through the various chests scattered across the worlds. Each stage has tiny chests under its number to indicate the amount of chests that are in that stage. Note that there are five particular chests that contain seals that are needed to continue on after world 7 so grabbing all chests is a good idea! Or you can just check a walkthrough/guide to figure out which ones you need. :P

Overall, the game is a lot of fun but simple (thanks to the hand-holding approach) and unfortunately, sort of short. A lot of gamers seem to be able to finish the game within just a few hours to under 2 days. Of course, those are the ones that don't have butterfingers and are platform game veterans. Sadly to say, I'm neither. :/

PROS:
- Vibrant and colourful
- Very cute (this could be a con, I guess)
- Fun soundtrack
- Familiar Kirby gameplay
- New mixing items and abilities system
- Lots of things to collect

CONS:
- Game guides you in overcoming barriers and bosses (could be a pro?)
- Short game
- Should have more sub-games or at least had incentive prizes that could be added to the collection or used in-game

same thing as always

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

when i saw this on tv i thought it looked cool and decided to get it
so when i got at first i liked it but after i beat in like 45 minutes i was bored with it. i mean sure theres a mix thing but the only powers you can mix is ice with bomb and sword with thunder,ice,or fire and no you dont interact with the enviorment exept destroy grass and dig so nitendo really needs to create something different. But i guess if you never owned a kirby game and want one then fine get it.

Kirby Returns!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: December 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I owned this game. it was pretty fun. using new abilities and all that good stuff. it is challenge sometimes. its a great game where you have to think hard a few times in order to beat a boss or frind a chest. i think its a good buy.

A Very Fun Kirby Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When I first got this game, I thought it would be fun, and I was right!
The graphics are very cool. My favorite copy ability is Metal Kirby.
I know he might be slow and hard to float, but I like him because
he is mostly indestructible! One thing that I find not good is that
from levels 1 through 5, the bosses are easy to defeat!
I'm stuck on the boss of level 6, and Daroach is very hard to defeat.

I really love the minigames and the collection room.
My favorite spray paint to put on Kirby is pink....Of course!
Kirby's natural color is pink!---'Duh!' Anyway, in the next Kirby
game they make, I hope it's going to be like this one!

My 7 year old son loves this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My son received this game for Christmas. This is by far his favorite game. If you like the Kirby games for the Gameboy Advance, you will like this game, also.

Can use it in PAL DS?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 11
Date: January 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Does it work in PAL DS? Or if my friend has PAL version of this game, can i play multi-card multiplayer with him?

A well formulated Kirby

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I mean, I've played Kirby before. It was alright, and I had fun with it - didn't get over to quick, didn't take too long.

The use of the touchscreen was well thought out, at least it wasn't something general or *too* gimmicky like "Move Kirby's legs with the touch screen!". Mixing items and making lives with little Kirby's work out well.

It's not like I don't recommend this game or anything, it's just, well - you play one Kirby and you've basically play them all (with the exception of the first Kirby DS, Kirby's Tilt 'n Tumble, and others). For my little sister, though, this is her first Kirby game and is having a blast. Overall a good purchase, definatley buy it if you've never played a already-done Kirby game.

Love it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My son absolutely loves this game. He plays it all of the time. He's forgotten all about the other games he got for Christmas and spends hours playing this one.

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