Kirby: Mass Attack preview: Kirby's other avalanche

by JC Fletcher on Jun 10th 2011 6:00PM

For the first few minutes of my Kirby: Mass Attack demo, I felt bad. I felt bad for the Kirby series for leading to this failed experiment. I felt bad for the DS for having something so irritating as its swan song. I felt bad for the poor booth attendant who was tethered to this game and forced to stand around as people played it all day. And I felt bad for myself for playing this.

By the end of the demo, I was totally, unreservedly into it. It built up steadily from something awkward to something elegant. I still felt bad for the woman corded to that demo DS, though.

Kirby: Mass Attack (E3 2011)

The Kirby series has been a testbed for weird ideas for a long time, with results like Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble, Kirby Canvas Curse and Kirby's Epic Yarn. This DS game carries on that tradition, by being a fully stylus-controlled sidescrolling platformer in which you can have up to ten Kirbies on screen at a time. What?

You move Kirby around by clicking on a destination, or holding the stylus down in a direction. You swipe over him to make him jump (and break blocks), and can click on an enemy to make Kirby grab onto it and fight. You can also click on objects to make Kirby grab onto them, like giant hanging roots that can be pulled down to reveal hidden powerup items.

Those powerup items are mostly limited to food. Kirby can find giant apples hanging on trees, left behind by enemies, inside hidden blocks, etc. Each one fills up a meter a small amount; other food items will fill it up more, with a Maxim Tomato filling it immediately to 100%, at which point ... another Kirby appears! You can have up to ten running around at a time, all controlled by the same pointing and clicking. And because it can be difficult to swipe ten Kirbies and make them jump up the same cliff, you can hold the stylus over the group, pick up the whole coterie and drag it around.

With many Kirbies, it becomes possible to pull down heavier roots, destroy more blocks at a time, and overwhelm enemies in a really adorable massacre. With one Kirby, the game feels like a slightly awkward touch-controlled platformer; with ten, it's choreographed, wholesale destruction of the Kirby universe by a gang of pink puffballs. HAL Laboratory is aware of the thrill that comes from the snowball-like buildup from one Kirby to ten. As the stage progressed, an ever-increasing amount of fruit pickups were available, so that it took a few minutes to build up to two Kirbies, a bit less to get the third, and then my Kirby gang cascaded into a full lineup in a far briefer time. And just as my menagerby increased in number, my smile increased in rictus-like intensity. Which ... probably wasn't comfortable for that put-upon booth attendant ...

Nintendo is working on producing copies of Kirby (enclosed in copies of Kirby: Mass Attack) for all interested parties for release on September 19.

Tags: ds, e3-2011, hal-laboratory, kirby-mass-attack, nintendo, q3-2011, release-date

Reader Comments (35)

Kirby Mars Attack!? Sweet!...Wait, what? Oh... Still pretty cool.

Terrible jokes aside, this does look pretty fun. And completely bonkers.

@Zal Clever buildup JC..

That.. actually looks really good...
It reminds me of classic graphics.. instant buy for me .

"by being a fully stylus-controlled sidescrolling platformer"

aaand you've lost me. Hey Nintendo, do you know what the d-pad and buttons are for? They are for controlling the game. It is not innovation when you force the touch screen on us to do the same things we've done for decades with d-pads and buttons. In fact, it's a step backwards since touch controls will never be able to rival button/d-pad controls when it comes to precision and speed.

It's like when force the stylus controls down your throat in the DS Zeldas. There is literally no point to it, aside from showing off how INNOVATIVE you are. But giving us an objectively inferior version of the controls you've had since the very for LoZ.

But people will be all over it since they care more about gimmicks than gameplayer. INNOVATION!

@Mehbah

Wow you're right, directing ten characters at once would be SO MUCH easier with the D-pad! And easier to understand! I don't know why they didn't just do it the *right* way here.

Man, the only thing more fun than that is stopping 1/3 of the way into an article to complain about how terrible a game is before learning anything else about it. There's no way there could be more information that would change my mind! Not an explanation of the reasoning, nor an endorsement of how it actually turns out quite well! Yessir, the best thing to do when reading a preview for a new game is to find the first thing I dislike about it and just stop reading. That's how you stay well-informed and ahead of the crowd.

@Mehbah And yet it is described here and in multiple other sources as fun....so OK?

@Author X
"Wow you're right, directing ten characters at once would be SO MUCH easier with the D-pad! And easier to understand! I don't know why they didn't just do it the *right* way here."

So then you are always in direct control over all the ten characters, right? Which is why they need to FORCE you to use stylus controls for everything rather than letting the d-pad and buttons do what they do best and then use stylus controls for anything they truly can't do with buttons, right? No? Why would you look at that, you're another of those idiots who just repeat "BUT IT'S INNOVATIVE AND WOULDN'T HAVE WORKED WITH TRADITIONAL CONTROLS IN ANY WAY". Or, at the very least, they could have included MULTIPLE CONTROL OPTIONS HOLY CRAP so that the player can choose whether they want to use full stylus controls because it's like innovative and doesn't work otherwise man, or if they want faster and more accurate controls for functions such as moving or jumping.

And finally, the only reason stylus controls are "required" is that they intentionally design the games that way. If they were more interested in making the best and most polished games, they wouldn't put so much effort into ensuring that the games absolutely can't be played with normal controls. Even if they're doing a horrible job with that, like the DS Zeldas with are nothing but standard 2D Zeldas with the ability to aim with the touch screen. Or they would have if they didn't shove stylus movement and fighting down our throats.

@houser

Another flawed argument. Did you know that some people think throwing rocks around is fun? You did? Then what exactly does "but it's fun" prove? That's right, nothing. Are the controls we spent decades perfecting suddenly not capable of making fun games? "but but but it's fun" holds absolutely no value as an argument; it's the card you pull out when you have none others left. It's essentially like saying "this would be better if we did x instead of y" and then replying with "but I'm going to do y because it's fun even though I can't provide any good reason for doing so".

This crap isn't innovation. In 99% of the cases, they're simply making us do the exact same things we already did before, except with more gimmicky controls. Is the ability to control each Kirby individually a new idea? Not entirely (think Pikmin), but it's fairly new in a platformer game. So why the hell are they forcing inferior stylus controls onto us for everything that DOESN'T require controlling each Kirby individually? Right, because Nintendo are obsessed with ruining good controls and replacing them with gimmicky INNOVATION!!1

Using the touch screen as a menu in NSMB? Yeah, we could do that before, it was called a ****ing menu. Remember how you could just press Select to make an item drop down? No? Well now you're forced to use the touch screen for literally no reason while buttons remain unused. Walking and slashing in Zelda? Yeah, we could do that. We could even strafe before, so there's actually a major feature lost. Stylus controls add inaccuracy and a delay when you have to move the stylus over the screen when you switch between moving and slashing or changing the direction you're moving in. I could go on. In 99% of the cases, they have simply forced the d-pad and button controls onto stylus or motion controls without a valid reason. Suddenly you need to break the flow of the game even in normally controlled games to bring up the stylus, like in the NSMB example where you can't just press a button but rather have to leave the game running, grab the stylus, press the item, and put the stylus back. And if you think I should use my fingers, then I'll just say that unlike some other people I actually expect my damn screens to be clean for more than five seconds because I'm not a caveman. No matter how clean you are, fingers leave marks.

@Mehbah - d-pad controls are objectively more familiar, but not objectively better.

@Mehbah

All those words and you're still wrong :(

@Mehbah

Your name is the reaction I had to your whole post. Nearly everything you've said is completely stupid. Not even gonna begin to waste time to type it all out.

@Mehbah
Yeah it's a shame that the oils from your skin that leave marks when you touch the screen are made of completely indelible material that instantly bonds with anything it touches, leaving a permanent stain. And can't be wiped off with a cloth or anything.

Almost all the good DS games are stylus-controlled. Don't think this sounds like it'll be quite good enough to tempt me, though (now 3DS is out, DS games are a harder sell).

Looks like Kirby meets Pikmin. Looks innovative and deliciously old school at the same time

@Nap i love kirby and pikmin

@Nap

Exactly what I thought. Kirby + Pikmin = MyMoney - $30

looks fun

it's got a lot of variety, just how kirby should be

Kinda weird that it is a DS game. You'd think Nintendo would want to make as many reasons to upgrade to a 3DS as possible...

lol, am I the only one that sort of feels sorry for Dreamland's inhabitants in that video? They're getting mangled, smashed, run over, and generally beat up by an army of remorseless kirbys.

@Gaddes Truly. One Kirby conquering, then consuming his enemies at least has the dramatic element of one being against the world.

There is something truly horrifying seeing Kirby foes being zombie piled by a horde of Kirby's.

@Gaddes

I think the inhabitants saw that coming. Out of the crazy things that happen in dreamland with kirby. This one could be their biggest nightmare lol.

@Gaddes They should of named the game Kirby - Dreamland's Nightmare

I NEEDA MONSTAH TO CLBOBBER DAT DERE KIRBEH!!!

@Mrguy you know that guy

"I NEEDA MONSTAH TO CLOBBER DOSE DERE KIRBEHS!!!"

I fixed it for you.

The story doesn't make a lick of sense. Why would the enemy split Kirby into a bunch?

But the gameplay looks fun as shit. I'm sold.

That is a lot of kirbys. Love it. I must get this one for my list of dream games.

Watching that trailer, I felt I was witness to the ultimate destruction of a world as a pink monster ate all the food, only to reproduce so that it/they could eat larger things and overcome all obstacles and impediments in order to eat everything else.

Most adorable apocalypse ever.

Kirby wants to be Jamie Madrox now?

@Bluebreaker

Considering he's basically been Rogue before, why not?

Huh, i thought Mass Attack was the name of the Wii game. So what's the Wii game?

@Mr Khan

It's just called "Kirby Wii".

Kirby games are one of those underrated game. I'll definitely check this game out. Based on the article, it's sounds fun and awesome. :)

Someone explain why Nintendo isn't releasing this on the software starved 3DS? I can't imagine it being overly difficult to add some 3D layering to the game (there's already multiple layers, just pop some of them out with the 3D effect).

Yes, it is backwards compatible with the 3DS, but in doing this we lose some of the screen real estate which makes it less than ideal.

Why not offer a DS version and a 3DS version? Only difference would be the 3DS version offers more on the screen at once (given the increased screen size) and the added 3D effect. Maybe throw in an extra bonus for 3DS owners, like a 3D mini game or something unique.

@Axcalibur

I think they just want this game to be a traditional (yet not so traditional) 2D side-scroller, and that wouldn't really work with 3D.

poor dreamland inhabitants....... those kirbies were vicious :D

Well, that's one more game I'm going to have to buy...