Introduction:

Kirby is one of the many Nintendo games I’ve “fallen out” with over the years. Some of these include the aforementioned Kirby, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, and Pikmin. I tried to have my go at Triple Deluxe, and Planet Robobot, and while I have enjoyed those games, they never struck me enough to play through the entire game, much less complete it.

With that said…

Kirby’s Blowout Blast is the most fun I’ve had with a Kirby game in years. I completed 100% of the game in 2 long play-sessions totaling at just under 4 and a half hours.

Playing Kirby’s Blowout Blast reminds me of the joy of playing Kirby’s Dream Land on a GameBoy Pocket, despite owning a GBA SP, it felt better at the time. With the return of Lololo and Lalala, callbacks within the music, some of the animations, the enemies, or even the fact that you can’t do what Kirby is known for, copy enemies, there are a lot of comparisons to draw from this game to Dream Land.

Gameplay:

Not flying freely in 2D levels and copying enemies made it feel like an almost puzzle-platformer game where your timing and method of dispatching enemies actually matter more than hunting collectibles reaching the end of the level, or traveling from world to world to further a plot. Some enemy waves may be used to shoot down another wave, and other times you may just have to suck in an enemy to use the next two waves to get a bigger combo than you would otherwise. Kirby can pretty much do everything he could do in Kirby’s Dream Land, which Blowout Blast seemingly can’t get enough of. Kirby can walk, run, jump, fly, blow out air (which seems almost entirely useless in this game), as well as of course, suck in and spit out enemies. When one enemy or object is sucked in, it will hit one enemy. When two or more are sucked in, it will plow through all the enemies, and the more you suck in, the larger your spat out projectile is, as well as the higher your combo will be.

The game is rather short, containing only 5 worlds with a special “EX” version of each world, with a more challenging world with a very similar level layout with more challenging enemies and enemy placement. Completing Kirby’s Blowout Blast will run you about an hour or less if you just run through every level, but a huge point of the levels is the aspect of getting a high score, which leads into the trophies. The bosses also have trophies for their levels, and seem very easy to get as long as you don’t get hit during it.

There are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the rather elusive Platinum medals. Gold medals aren’t terribly hard to get, and are required to unlock the true final level, but Platinum medals feel nearly impossible to get for most levels without getting everything perfect! While that may be the point, it also seems that if you want to get a platinum, you may have to do a lot of… math. I ended up getting two throughout my entire play-through, but I did get gold in every other level with very few hiccups.

Story:

NEXT TOPIC.

Visuals and design:

There also isn’t too much to be said about the visuals of Kirby Blowout blast. It’s very similar to Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, but of course, in three dimensions. The backgrounds in most of the area seemed to be largely “dumbed down” in comparison to a lot of the stages present in Robobot as well as in Triple Deluxe, but it is inherently more of a simple game. There’s nothing wrong with the visual style, and for the most part they’re quite nice, but in some areas, like the grassy area, can be quite visually unappealing. They’re still very solid as a whole though, and I particularly like the way the bosses look in 3D.

Music:

The music in Kirby’s Blowout Blast ranges from decent to amazing, as with almost every Kirby game. Some of my favorites from Blowout Blast are “Castle Lololo”, remixed from Kirby’s Dream Land, and “Mint Breath”, a remixed track from Kirby’s Dream Land as well, and finally, the Secret Boss theme, which is a remixed track from Kirby Super Star. All tracks in the game are remixed tracks from other Kirby’s games, many being from Kirby’s Dream Land, but has a good range of great tracks from other games as well.

Amiibo:

Just a quick word to speak on amiibo, the Kirby amiibo in Blowout Blast unlock a trophy in the hub area as well as different theme music for the hub world. They have some great remixed tracks not heard anywhere else, but other than that, they don’t serve any real purpose. Still a nice addition, though. This is an example for amiibo being used to unlock purely aesthetic things, like a lot of conventional DLC. Personally, this is fine with me, and it’s nice to see another example of amiibo that isn’t blocking out elements of the game.

Ending:

Overall, Kirby’s Blowout Blast, in my opinion, is a perfect budget Kirby title. It may be a bit thin on content for a full game, but at 7.99$, Kirby’s Blowout Blast has more than enough to keep you entertained for a good chunk of time. Kirby is the Nintendo franchise that’s probably got the most use out of the 3DS, with two main games, a slew of spinoff titles, as well as an unannounced game supposedly coming out in late 2017. Kirby Blowout Blast is a great addition to the Kirby Spinoff lineup.