Kirby's Adventure

As a platformer released in the last years of the NES's life, Kirbys Adventure is an excellent and charming little excursion. As a mainline Kirby game, wellllll, its hard to say if it really holds up. But really for its day I can definitely see how impressive and unique this was in comparison to everything else on the market. Truth be told the final years of the NES library are a night and day difference between what was on offer at launch and with nearly 8 years of hardware experience and evolving tech, the final games really are something rivaling the "retro-throwback" platformers of contemporary gaming. Ironic. However as a mainline kirby game, Adventure is about average, and that's me trying to divorce my entire 22 year obsession with the Kirby franchise from this. Its a decent platformer, the controls are what you would expect, though doing nothing to portray the floaty puffball. Kirby is absolutely clunky in a dead run.

I've been meaning to give the kirby games a go for awhile now and I was absolutely shocked at how well this game has held up! It's a beautiful platformer (best looking NES game I've ever played) with whimsical floaty gameplay to match its aesthetics. It has some pretty unique boss fights for the time, an alright soundtrack, and the copy ability is really innovative.

That being said, it does suffer from some flaws. The first is the technical flaw of the game slowing down because it can't handle everything on screen. Makes an otherwise smooth experience hellish at times. The level design is inconsistent and often leaves too many moments where the player can just float over everything and not worry about platforming. It's also painfully easy, and when you do die it's usually because of something that spawned in off screen which gave you minimal reaction time. I lost a few lives but never even came close to seeing the game over screen.

Overall this was a fun little experience and I am super excited to try out some of the other games as I have a gut feeling they solved a lot of my issues I have with this one

Kirby's Adventure is the first great Kirby game in my opinion, taking everything learned in the first game and adding to it. Adding a lot more content, the iconic copy ability, more great music, and, of course, color! I think it's safe to say this is up there with the most beautiful NES games, or even at the top, mix that with a pleasant soundtrack and an all around better-controlling experience and you get a wonderful experience for all five senses.

Er, I assume Kirby's world smells and tastes great, at least.