Mushroom Run in Treat Land is full of tricky platforming!
Sweets Park is the cutest level EVER. Graham crackers, cookies drizzled with chocolate, tufts of frosting, strawberries, cake… and none of it is a lie!
Melody Town? The level that comes right after? Best. In. Forever.
It’s simply wonderful to integrate audiovisual stimuli into platforming. It’s compelling and rewarding.
The boss of Treat Land is Squashini. His stage is very inventive as well!
And now, we can go down to the beach, gonna do some beachy things, hey hey~ ♪
Dark Manor was frustrating.
I hate losing beads.
Blub-Blub Ocean in Water Land. These underwater levels remind me of Ecco and The Little Mermaid.
Kirby and Prince Fluff are in the mood for seafood. Will Capamari be the catch of the day?!
Kirby and Fluff are so cuuute as fishies~
When they enter a body of water, they automatically turn into fishes that control differently than they do on land.
An old fore rears his head yet again! Will Kirby lose his, or triumph?
Even Dedede looks kinda creepy in yarn form. At least they kept his theme song intact.
He’s a toughie. Tip: Stomp on him whenever he’s lying on his tummy.
Meta Knight time! …Or not… Curse you, Yin-Yarn!
Penguins in Cold Land are so cute~
Frigid Fjords is a racing level! Dare I say, a wacky one?
Future City in Space Land has weird music.
Time to bust out the space puns. In space, no one can hear you yarn. Space: The final fun-tier. “Because it’s a big, stupid jellyfish.”
Turns out that there is a big jellyfish in Future City.
These jellyfish enemies are a little difficult to fight because you have to assume a UFO form, and you can only attack with the Thunder Spark if you’ve absorbed certain enemies.
Spacing Out in Tube Town
The Mysterious UFO level is annoying. I spent way too long on the wheel of doom.
Stellar Way? STELLLLLLLAAAAA
I was hoping that this land would have something like the shmup level in Kirby Super Star, and it does!
Not even being rendered in yarn can dissolve Meta Knight’s cool.
It’s nice to return to Dream Land. It has a familiar piece of music, too.
The Tankbot is made of win.
Tempest Towers
Dedede’s theme is totally addictive.
I liked the final boss battle. Yin-Yarn was tricky.
Dedede himself is kind of forgotten in the story.
Time: 8:48:16
Completion: 69%
I have put almost 24 hours into the game, and I’m still only at about 95% completion. I hoped to get a rare (for me) 100% completion before publishing the final part of this review, but I wasn’t able to. It’s all Beadrix’s fault.
Beadrix is a character that moves into one of the spare apartments in Quilty Square once you get the right items to furnish the room. Beadrix’s challenges have you collecting a certain number of beads within a strict time limit. Her penultimate challenge takes place on the Battleship Halberd, and it’s hurty. It requires you to collect 1200 beads within 80 seconds. The problems include stubborn UFO enemies that appear in groups of two or three, and fire three homing lasers, and the miniboss cannons that you have to destroy but don’t drop any beads. I would not hold it against anyone if they dropped their attempt at a 100% run at this point. It seems that Beadrix’s challenges are among the least liked aspects of the game, along with the campaign stages that require the train transformation. At least those aren’t frustrating.
Interestingly, Beadrix refers to herself with the masculine pronoun boku in the Japanese version (e.g. Boku no Hero Academia / My Hero Academia).
When Kirby shakes his fist, it’s so cuuute~
The Battleship Halberd stage is just like the shmup level in KSS! It even uses some of the same enemies!
I’m relieved that they didn’t take inspiration from “The Great Cave Offensive” in KSS.
I had such problems getting the treasures in TGCO. Never did get them all.
Trivia
The game is called Keito no Kirby, or Kirby of Yarn in Japan.
Originally, the game began developmentby Good-Feel outside of the Kirby franchise, as a game called Fluff’s Epic Yarn or Keito no Fluff. Development was progressing slowly until Nintendo asked G-F to make the game a part of the Kirby series. G-F would later make Yoshi’s Wooly World.
Apparently, some of the people behind The Legend of Zelda were interested in pursuing a yarn-based Zelda game. It would be so cute!
Final Thoughts
I love KEY. It’s adorable, fun, and mostly chill (trying to get gold medals on all of the levels can be annoying). The level design is extremely good. Almost every stage has a “wow” moment; it’s not just a series of platforms and set pieces that get you to the next area.
The game is very easy, even by Kirby standards, but that makes the game more relaxing than 99% of most titles. Difficulty =/= quality. Trying to 100% the game adds more challenge, however.
KEY gets my highest possible recommendation. It’s one of my favorite Kirby games, which is saying a lot considering how much I love some of the other entries in the series.
The game was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in North America and Japan in 2016, but considering how the Wii U failed, you’re probably more likely to have/get a Wii to play the game. There is also the 3DS port, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, but it lacks some of the features of the console version, like the two-player mode.
Ah yes, the two-player mode. It can be a riot. It changes the functionality of Kirby’s vehicle transformations, giving Fluff something to do while Kirby advances through the levels.
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