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Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Man I love this game. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards has everything, in my opinion, to make it one of the best 3D Kirby games of all time. You get different powerups and you can combine two powerups to be even more powerful. You can float around in typical Kirby fashion to traverse through various levels. You can fight bosses and suck up items to throw back at them. It all feels like genuine Kirby at its best.

I have played older Kirby games on the original Game Boy, but I think I honestly had the most fun playing Kirby 64 because the first time going through it was a complete mystery. You didn't know what certain powerups did nor did you know which enemies even gave powerups. You sort of just had to figure it out on your own but once you did, you were just beating levels left and right and collecting everything you can along the way. It's a really fun game to go back and play again because the replayability is definitely there. Despite knowing what the powerups do, I think if you play it now, you'd probably enjoy it more than you did back then. You understand how these kinds of games work now, and there's a whole layer of potential enjoyment that wasn't there solely due to just being too young to understand the mechanics fully.

All the levels are super fun to go through once again, because you can combine powerups to get certain items, or just make note of which powerups you need so that you can come back later and finish the collectible part of the level. Despite having to back track though, it is really fun to go through the levels again just to make sure you've got everything. I don't usually mind going through levels again anyway so maybe it's a gripe with some people but I don't mind it.

Surprisingly, despite the N64 controller being the way that it is, the game still feels really natural to play and doesn't really feel like the controller hinders it much, if at all. Kirby floats and does everything he needs to do very well to where controlling him just feels good, again despite the ridiculous design of the controller. I never really found myself getting too terribly frustrated at the game, although some parts are definitely tougher than others. I think this game for me would fall around the same enjoyment I got with Glover. It's a great game to play from time to time, but it's definitely a little on the tougher side if you don't know what you're doing.

Boss fights are certainly all unique and come with their own arsenal to throw at you and while being unique and creative in their own rights, they all have weaknesses that you can figure out during the fight to put you in the advantage. I don't really remember if I ever had any trouble with the bosses in this game, but I do remember having a blast fighting them because they were all so different and unique to what they can do. The stages themselves were also really cool in boss fights because sometimes the stage would just change around you and you had to control yourself from getting kicked off the stage in some way or killed by the boss that you are currently fighting. A lot going on seemingly though never seemed too difficult once you figured them out. Glad the game does have boss fights though as it's sort of a way to test your skill at certain parts of the game. Which is always a plus in my book.

I remember just having good memories playing through this one and I would certainly play through it again if I were to acquire it in some fashion. I have watched people play through it since I played it for the first time and it still looks like fun to go through.