1 big labyrinth, 4 heroic Kirbies. That's what Kirby and The Amazing Mirror revolves around; instead of a typical Kirby platformer, you're now exploring a large maze. Does this make the game a fun challenge, or a mere gimmick?
Storyline: 8.2/10
High above the skies of Dream Land
lies an alternate dimension called the Mirror World. Recently, an evil
has arisen there and is causing chaos in it. Meta Knight flies up to save
the Mirror World, but as he enters, due to the evil shrouding the world,
Dark Meta Knight, an evil version of Meta Knight is created. While Kirby
is walking innocently along, Dark Meta Knight swoops down and chops Kirby
into 4 different-colored Kirbies, then flies back up to the Mirror World.
The Kirbies decide to give chase, and hop on the Warp Star to fly after
him. After a brief level, the Kirbies arrive at Rainbow Route, the main
port of the game. There is a big mirror in the middle that Meta Knight
enters, but soon Dark Meta Knight appears and breaks the mirror into 8
shards, which the Kirbies must find not just to save Meta Knight, but to
save the entire Mirror World. It IS a pretty good story, but when watching
the cutscene for it, it will seem kind of confusing, especially since there
is no explanation of Dark Meta Knight's creation. I had to look on another
site to be able to type out the story. But it all starts to make sense
once you know the whole story and what everything means.
Gameplay: 9.2/10
Since Dark Meta Knight sliced Kirby
into 4, you can't expect the other 3 to have no purpose in the game. These
3 Kirbies are controlled by a computer, a lot like the helper system in
Kirby Super Star. Whenever you may need assistance in the game, you can
press R to have Kirby get out a cell phone to call the other Kirbies in.
These Kirbies have all of the same abilities as the original Kirby, but
I found them to lack common sense at points. Sometimes, they might just
stand there and let an enemy damage them, or just fail to cooperate with
whatever you need them to do. Kirby can also use the cell phone to call
the Warp Star to take him back to the Rainbow Route. What I really enjoyed
about the gameplay is its maze format. If you've played the Great Cave
Offensive in Kirby Super Star, or Metroid for the NES, it will likely feel
familiar to you. Instead of a traditional Kirby platformer, he has to travel
through one huge, interconnected world. This more heavily applies the element
of exploration to the series. Overall the map overall divided into 9 different
areas, each one with a boss at the end. These areas don't have to be accessed
in any particular order; it is possible to go from Area 2 straight to Area
9. Now what would a Kirby game be without Copy Abilities? Kirby's got a
large roster of 'em with an element that hasn't been seen since Super Star:
abilities again have more than one command. While some abilities like Rock
still only have 1, some like Fighter have numerous attacks for you to strategize
with. Not to mention, Kirby's gotten some new abilities in the game: Missile,
an ability that turns Kirby into a missile (Shocker) and allows him to
fly around and blow up enemies; Smash Bros, a rare ability that allows
Kirby to use his various attacks from Super Smash Bros. Melee; Cupid, which
gives Kirby a set of wings to help him fly more easily and arrows that
he can shoot at enemies; and Mini, an almost useless ability that makes
Kirby unable to fly, attack, or inhale, but allows him to go through tiny
passageways. There is also a secret ability to unlock, but you'll have
to find that out. Aside from the Story Mode itself, there are 3 nice minigames
for you to play: Speed Eaters, a game that tests your reflexes against
the computers; Crackity Hack, a game that plays very similarly to Kirby
SuperStar's Megaton Punh; and Kirby's Wave Ride, where you surf on the
water and try to jump waves for extra speed.
Graphics: 8/10
Yeah, pretty average graphics that
haven't evolved much since Nightmare in Dream Land. Kirby is cute and round,
Waddle Dees are stubby and helpless... Most GBA games have the same look
as Amazing Mirror, with an average amount of shading, average amount of
detail, nice-looking backgrounds. There's no graphics here you haven't
seen in previous GBA titles.
Music and Sound Effects: 8.4/10
Unlike quite a few modern Kirby games,
there aren't too many remixes here; it's mostly composed of original tracks.
You’ve got your typical videogame compositions, but some of them really
are quite good. The Forest/Nature area theme is probably one of my favorites
in the game, and that's a theme you'll probably be hearing a lot of. The
boss battle theme is pretty catchy too, although the mini-boss theme gets
old VERY fast. Fortunately, a majority of the better themes in the game
you'll likely be hearing commonly whilst exploring the Mirror World. There
is something of a Sound Test mode in the game, but parts of it have to
be unlocked. That, I'll cover in the Replay Value section. The sound effects
are average as always, not much different there.
Length: 8/10
Kirby and The Amazing Mirror is probably
the second longest Kirby platformer next to Kirby SuperStar. Due to the
mazey format, you might find yourself quite challenged at times. Most of
the areas are easy enough, but what I found the biggest challenge that
required the most exploration is actually FINDING the location. It took
me pretty long to figure out the way into Area 5, the entrance to Area
9 was in a place I almost never would have thought of looking, and World
4 was the last one that I found. The thing is that once the place is found,
it's pretty much normal Kirby game difficulty from there. The necessity
of backtracking helps a little, but most of the time you won't find yourself
needing to do it much except when replaying the game. But being a Kirby
game, I must give it praise for being a good bit more challenging than
previous titles, especially since it's a handheld Kirby game. This should
make Kirby somewhat more appealing to hardcore gamers.
Replay Value: 8.8/10
There are numerous treasure chests
scattered around the Mirror World, each usually containing unique treasures.
While some only contain casual items like Maxim Tomatoes or Pep Brews,
some have unique and rare treasures. There are 5 different types of treasures:
Spray Paints, which allow you to paint Kirby a variety of selectable colors;
the Sound Player, a one-of-a-kind treasure that allows you to play unlocked
music from the game; Musical Scores, which contain music or sound effects
that you can listen to on the Sound Player; Maps, which allow you to press
pause and select to view a map of that area showing places with or without
treasure; and Vitality Pieces, which permanently give you an extra life
unit. Some of them might be guarded by various sorts of puzzles, such as
hard blocks, which require strong abilities to be able to break; fuses,
which need to be lit to fire Kirby out of a cannon to another place; strung
platforms, which need to sliced with something sharp to be bypassed; and
Heave-Ho blocks, large steel blocks that require the inhaling of 3 Kirbies
to move. With so much to explore and so many puzzles to solve, it should
probably take you approximately the same time you took to complete the
main quest to find every treasure. The complaint I had was, as I mentioned
before, some chests only contain casual items. Most of the time, you won't
need them for your sidequesting when you find them, making them almost
useless. However, if you want to unlock a new mode in the game, you’ve
gotta get to every treasure chest in the land.
Fun Factor!: 9.1/10
Since the game is a maze-styled format,
I personally found it more fun than most normal Kirby platformers. The
many pathway routes and massive world all make the game more of a challenge
while still not being too hard. And thanks to multiple ability commands,
there are so many more attacks you can perform to fit your situation. Amazing
Mirror is a game that creates elements new to its franchise, but still
keeps said franchise's old elements, forming a marriage between new and
old mechanics. And while there are some annoyances throughout the game
such as the ignorant Kirbies or sometimes unrewarding treasure chests,
it's mainly typical Kirby fun with some challenge thrown in.
Overall: 88/100
There's not much doubting that this
is one of the elite Kirby games. It suffers a bit in select areas, but
other areas are just fantastic. Since most stores no longer sell GBA games,
you should probably be able to purchase it off the Internet somewhere.
There are some better game choices for the system like Mario & Luigi:
Superstar Saga, but if you have the opportunity to get this game for a
good price, go for it. As an avid Kirby fan I can say many will be impressed
that in this Kirby game, length is hardly a problem.
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