Back in the day, some kids didn't have as much money as the others, some kids were me. The others kids were all excited for there Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems and I? well, I was still watching Takooni Mario on good old Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES. But oh wait, look what my Father gets me, Kirby's Adventure. Now as a kid you have just no clue what your getting, and my Father didn't know enough about Games to know if this was going to be good or bad, and there were no Reviewers back then, so basically you actually had to PLAY through the game to see if it was any good or not...I know crazy right?
Kirby's Adventure was released to North America on the 1st of May 1993, but was released to Japan earlier, and to PAL regions later on, around December. Kirby's Adventure is the second game in the Kirby franchise and was the only Kirby game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Kirby's Adventure came along very late in the life cycle of the Nintendo Entertainment System (This was around the time everybody was buying the Super Nintendo).
So, Kirby's Adventure for the NES is basically a Kids wet dream...come to think of it that's highly disturbing...anyway, the Character himself, the Side-Characters, the World Maps, everything in this game is colorful, creative and cute and once more, you don't look like an absolute Homo playing this game, it really is gender friendly...or so i think...dammit. But it isn't just the Characters and Maps and whatnot that makes it so cute, its the actual design of the game. Kirby's Adventure is probably the best game Graphically i have seen on the Nintendo Entertainment System period. Everything looks so tight in this game, when comparing Kirby's animatic compared to say, Mario's in the first Super Mario Brothers game for the NES, its hard to describe just how crappy it looks compared.
Sound is also another huge aspect of the game. The Sound on this game, and i wont let up on this word, is just...cute. Kirby's character himself is all about the cuteness factor, and just the fact that the sound adds to that makes Kirby something of an icon for Nintendo. We know that Nintendo is all about the Family-Friendliness and this just adds to the charm of that (if you believe it is charm and not torture to the adults out there). Every world has its own Soundtrack, in fact, the Sound for this game was so good, that a Soundtrack was actually released in 1994 by Sony Records, so that definitely says something about it.
But two huge things that make Kirby more convenient to play is the Save Function, and the Percentage Meter. The Save function adds to the fun of the game because although most people could go through this game first time easily, some people (like myself) take there time on games and like to complete them at later times, and thus why i love the save slot that Nintendo games missed so much back then. The Percentage Meter is awesome because if your a hardcore fan, then getting 100% is essential, especially with all the hidden stuff in the levels, some of which is particularly difficult to find.
But in the end it all comes down to the Game play of Kirby's Adventure, and this is where Kirby both hits...and misses. Kirby's Adventure is fun to play, don't get me wrong, with all the power up's you can get by Kirby sucking in his enemies, the Mini-Games which are surprisingly addictive and the variety in Worlds which make it fun to play through many a-time, but the Controls of Kirby are slightly frustrating. They just don't have the fluidity of what say, the controls in Super Mario Bros had, or Mega Man. Although this does not distract from the experience that much, it certainly does step the game down, making Kirby's Adventure (even with the Mini-Games, Percentage Meter and variety of Worlds) just an average NES Side-Scrolling game.
One last thing that is rather disappointing is the dropping frame rate at certain points in the game. Now this is generally acceptable, I mean they really did put everything they could into this game, and this was when people were figuring out the maximum potential that the Nintendo Entertainment System had, but that's the problem, they should have known that was going to happen at certain points, and should have prevented it from happening when it does in the game.
Even with these problems, Kirby's Adventure shows of the maximum graphical power the Nintendo Entertainment System could do, has a great soundtrack, and has some rather solid game play, excusing a few minor problems that arise in the Game itself. I would advise Kirby's Adventure to anyone that was a Side-Scrolling fan in the Nintendo Entertainment System days.
