-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Kirby's Epic Yarn |OT| The Grass Feels Like...Pants
- Thread starter Fantasy Final
- Start date
MidnightScott
Banned
Finally caved in and bought it at Best Buy since I had a $15 gift card. Got tired of losing all those Ebay auctions trying to get it for cheap.
I hope I enjoy it...>_>;
I hope I enjoy it...>_>;
SirPenguin
Member
This game has some frustrating design choices that make co-op with an inexperienced player a lot more frustrating than it should have been.
Making players solid is an interesting idea, but ultimately we ended up running into each other far too many times. Or she'd knock me off a platform when she spawned, completely by accident. Or we'd go to jump and one of us would make it but the other would collide with the first and fall off.
The camera is also really zoomed in. You don't notice it that much until there's two people and the camera doesn't zoom out that much. This creates an invisible wall that is very frustrating, especially for vertical levels.
Finally, having both players tied to the same bead pool ends up causing a problem if one of them keeps getting hit. My girlfriend felt awful every time she got hit, because I was almost always the one getting all the beads and she was the one who kept losing all of them. I wish she could only lose the ones she earned so she wouldn't feel so guilty!
Anyways, as a game KEY is really amazing. I find the music to be really poor and generic, but the "feel" of the game is completely without rival. I strangely find myself wishing this wasn't a Kirby game, if only because the world is interesting enough to explore on its own. The Kirby stuff, like Waddle Dees and the like, feel really out of place in comparison.
Though the platforming isn't hard in the traditional sense, it is unlike previous Kirby games in that there are far fewer safety nets. You can't fly indefinitely, or find cheap power and use it to plow through levels. Chances are, if you miss a jump you have to simply do it all over again - even modern Marios have walljumping which you can use to recover a failed jump. I enjoy this challenge for some reason, as it makes the game feel older than it is.
All in all, really enjoying it.
Making players solid is an interesting idea, but ultimately we ended up running into each other far too many times. Or she'd knock me off a platform when she spawned, completely by accident. Or we'd go to jump and one of us would make it but the other would collide with the first and fall off.
The camera is also really zoomed in. You don't notice it that much until there's two people and the camera doesn't zoom out that much. This creates an invisible wall that is very frustrating, especially for vertical levels.
Finally, having both players tied to the same bead pool ends up causing a problem if one of them keeps getting hit. My girlfriend felt awful every time she got hit, because I was almost always the one getting all the beads and she was the one who kept losing all of them. I wish she could only lose the ones she earned so she wouldn't feel so guilty!
Anyways, as a game KEY is really amazing. I find the music to be really poor and generic, but the "feel" of the game is completely without rival. I strangely find myself wishing this wasn't a Kirby game, if only because the world is interesting enough to explore on its own. The Kirby stuff, like Waddle Dees and the like, feel really out of place in comparison.
Though the platforming isn't hard in the traditional sense, it is unlike previous Kirby games in that there are far fewer safety nets. You can't fly indefinitely, or find cheap power and use it to plow through levels. Chances are, if you miss a jump you have to simply do it all over again - even modern Marios have walljumping which you can use to recover a failed jump. I enjoy this challenge for some reason, as it makes the game feel older than it is.
All in all, really enjoying it.
MidnightScott
Banned
CUTEST. GAME. EVER. 
OMG. What if I were to get high and then play this, lol. (jk I would never get high)
OMG. What if I were to get high and then play this, lol. (jk I would never get high)
jaundicejuice
Member
Beat Epic Yarn earlier today, my total play time was just under ten hours, I think my completion rate was 75% and I played the game entirely single player. Like the few other Kirby games I have played Kirby's Epic Yarn was not a particularly demanding but enjoyable experience.
The presentation and overall aesthetic is pretty inventive and I think they got a lot of mileage out of it, from the transformations that occur to the overworld as you progress to all of the inventive transformations Kirby himself can under-go in a given level. I particularly enjoyed the
sections and was kind of disappointed that there weren't more of them in the game. Initially I was getting all of the knick-knacks, gold medals, and unlocking all of the extra levels by doing well against the bosses, but by the seventh world I just started to fly through the levels not really concerning myself with making sure I got everything. I may go back at some point to collect the few medals and/or items I did miss, but I doubt I'll ever complete the apartment mini-games given that the rewards--wallpapers for your apartment in Patch Land--don't really seem worth the investment of time based off of the few I played.
Enjoyable game but this probably would've been better suited as a rental instead of a purchase.
The presentation and overall aesthetic is pretty inventive and I think they got a lot of mileage out of it, from the transformations that occur to the overworld as you progress to all of the inventive transformations Kirby himself can under-go in a given level. I particularly enjoyed the
vertical and horizontal shooter
Enjoyable game but this probably would've been better suited as a rental instead of a purchase.
Annoying Old Party Man
Member
Ok this game is like extended vacation. I love how easy it is, it allows to me stop caring about enemies and obstacles and just embrace myself on the pure wonder of the design and the world they created.
I only miss the old Kirby music, though the soundtrack is relaxing as well. Damn Kirby, you're the best thing ever.
I only miss the old Kirby music, though the soundtrack is relaxing as well. Damn Kirby, you're the best thing ever.
abstract alien
Member
Most of my time was spent admiring the artistry and whatnot, but the last four levels were actually pretty damn fun
I just beat the game. I throughly enjoyed it and I'd put it in the second tier of Wii's best games. I do have to say that the last 2 worlds
are noticeably better that what came before. If the whole game was closer in quality to those 2 last worlds, it'd sit alongside my very favorite Wii games, no doubts about it. Wario Land Shake It is up there to me, I loved it to death. Shake It is a more compelling game, more challeging and has a better soundtrack (one of my favorites of this generation). That said, I still have almost all secret levels to play in KEY, so maybe that will change my mind. Shake It's secret levels were awesome.
Kirby's Adventure, Super Star and Canvas Curse remain better Kirby games, but KEY is still great. Fantastic series.
By the way, am I the only who doesn't find older Kirby games to be that easy? I've died plentful of times in Kirby's Adventure and Super Star. Canvas Curse got pretty damn hard nearing the end. I mean, I'm not saying Kirby games are Ninja Gaiden or bullet-hell shmup levels of hard or anything. I'm just saying that I scratch my head when people reference all the time how piss-easy they are. I don't think I'm that terrible of a gamer either; I've beaten my share of harder than average games like Life Force, Castlevania 3, Mega Man 9, Metroid 1, etc, and I still die at times in Kirby games. How come everyone find them to be that easy? :lol
Kirby's Epic Yarn is one game that I'd agree with the feeling of piss-easy, though.
Space Land and Dream Land
Kirby's Adventure, Super Star and Canvas Curse remain better Kirby games, but KEY is still great. Fantastic series.
By the way, am I the only who doesn't find older Kirby games to be that easy? I've died plentful of times in Kirby's Adventure and Super Star. Canvas Curse got pretty damn hard nearing the end. I mean, I'm not saying Kirby games are Ninja Gaiden or bullet-hell shmup levels of hard or anything. I'm just saying that I scratch my head when people reference all the time how piss-easy they are. I don't think I'm that terrible of a gamer either; I've beaten my share of harder than average games like Life Force, Castlevania 3, Mega Man 9, Metroid 1, etc, and I still die at times in Kirby games. How come everyone find them to be that easy? :lol
Kirby's Epic Yarn is one game that I'd agree with the feeling of piss-easy, though.
nincompoop
Banned
Yeah I kind of agree with you there, I've never found the Kirby games before Epic Yarn to be any easier than the average 2D Mario or Sonic game . Some of the boss fights can be tough and they occasionally throw enemies and stuff at you that can be tough to avoid if you don't know it's coming, like the rock enemies dropping onto you from above for example. BTW don't expect KEY's bonus levels to approach the quality of the bonus levels (or hell, any level for that matter) in Wario Land Shake, they're mostly just transformation levels and don't really have anything more challenging or clever than what you see in KEY's normal levels.Rafaelcsa said:
Finishing up the apartment challenges... Just have to do the racing to the finish one, and I'll have 100%ed the game. Unless there's more after doing the challenges?
A few treasures/medals were a bit tough to get:
Car racing level in the Snow Land. Needed to do everything perfectly for the gold.
Dedede's castle treasure 3, where you needed to defeat all the bomb enemies, if you made the slightest screw-up you had to restart the stage.
And some of the bead collection challenges were tough, taking me quite a few tries.
A few treasures/medals were a bit tough to get:
Car racing level in the Snow Land. Needed to do everything perfectly for the gold.
Dedede's castle treasure 3, where you needed to defeat all the bomb enemies, if you made the slightest screw-up you had to restart the stage.
And some of the bead collection challenges were tough, taking me quite a few tries.
ShockingAlberto
Member
Finished the game co-opping with my girlfriend and it was a lot of fun. It was the perfect difficulty for her and was a good difficulty for me trying to get all the treasures and help her along.
It's gotten her really interested in co-op games, so we might be giving DKCR a run-through when it comes out.
It's gotten her really interested in co-op games, so we might be giving DKCR a run-through when it comes out.
Man, the ball transport minigame is so much easier in co-op. We took shortcuts all over the place. In one level, we reached the end in 5 seconds when they gave us one minute.
And that's neat because I don't like these minigames enough to try and do them "normally". It's more fun to just try and be as fast as possible.
And that's neat because I don't like these minigames enough to try and do them "normally". It's more fun to just try and be as fast as possible.
Yes Boss! said:
Its weird, it seems like there are different numbers of levels for each of the minigames:
Hide and Seek dude - 18 levels
Beadrix - 20 levels
Carrie - 12 levels
Kill the monsters dude - 20 levels
Beadrix - 20 levels
Carrie - 12 levels
Kill the monsters dude - 20 levels
I'm up to stage 20 or so on the final one (the race minigame)... think I have a few more levels to go then I'm gonna 100. I'm at like 98% now.
Fimbulvetr
Member
Yes Boss! said:
Did you buy all the wallpapers from the shop?
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
We got this last night and I played through the first two worlds in co-op. Well, I can see what qualities about the game would disappoint some folks, because those elements are not for everyone in platformers. But so far, I'm entirely happy with it. There is a difference in my mind between a game that's boring and easy, and a game that's engaging and easy. Epic Yarn falls into the latter category. Plus, I've always been down with games that are easy to play through once, but hard to master; I don't tend to play games for a quick fix and then shelve them.
And I can say that, while the first world is quite easy to get gold medals on (but we haven't unlocked the secret levels yet), by the end of the second world the stage designs get far harder to make it through without a bad score.
Thing is, this reminds me precisely of Goodfeel's Wario game. Shake It! is not hard at all - for minimum completion. You can cruise through most of the base stages and bosses except for a few tricky parts. But the challenges and especially the later secret stages are much harder.
In terms of design and production values, well, the game is off the hook. Best unique visual aesthetic and art direction I've seen since The Wind Waker. Their animation systems for the string constructs are frankly amazing. And like Wario, it /feels/ fantastic. The play is incredibly fluid and solid, and the whip mechanic is one of the best feeling whip systems in a platformer.
Boss designs and animation, difficulty aside, are fantastic.
The guys at Goodfeel seem to be genuine masters of the platforming genre. There is an old school Japanese craftsmanship in their games that you have to invoke the sacred name of Yoshi's Island to exceed. It's just that so far, they haven't been asked to make a platformer aimed purely at the hardcore platforming enthusiast in terms of difficulty gates required to proceed through the core game.
Oh yeah, and I continue to love the music of their composer. His acoustic and jazzy style is a big (and nice) change of pace.
And I can say that, while the first world is quite easy to get gold medals on (but we haven't unlocked the secret levels yet), by the end of the second world the stage designs get far harder to make it through without a bad score.
Thing is, this reminds me precisely of Goodfeel's Wario game. Shake It! is not hard at all - for minimum completion. You can cruise through most of the base stages and bosses except for a few tricky parts. But the challenges and especially the later secret stages are much harder.
In terms of design and production values, well, the game is off the hook. Best unique visual aesthetic and art direction I've seen since The Wind Waker. Their animation systems for the string constructs are frankly amazing. And like Wario, it /feels/ fantastic. The play is incredibly fluid and solid, and the whip mechanic is one of the best feeling whip systems in a platformer.
Boss designs and animation, difficulty aside, are fantastic.
The guys at Goodfeel seem to be genuine masters of the platforming genre. There is an old school Japanese craftsmanship in their games that you have to invoke the sacred name of Yoshi's Island to exceed. It's just that so far, they haven't been asked to make a platformer aimed purely at the hardcore platforming enthusiast in terms of difficulty gates required to proceed through the core game.
Oh yeah, and I continue to love the music of their composer. His acoustic and jazzy style is a big (and nice) change of pace.
Fantasy Final
Member
jamesinclair
Banned
Anyone who thinks this game is too easy clearly hasnt played the last 2 worlds
Mega Man's Electric Sheep
Member
jamesinclair said:
I played the entire game, getting gold on all stages and all treasures. The last two worlds were not very much harder than the first 2. The end boss was no harder than the first boss. The game does not have a ramp up in difficulty at all, it just has a couple anomalous stages like frigid fjords that are a bit tricky to perfect.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Summarises my feelings for this game.
MidnightScott
Banned
Pandemic said:
Because they hate you. I think Super Star Ultra took almost a year to come there right? :s
Jive Turkey
Unconfirmed Member
Wow the soundtrack is amazing.
Absolutely loving the game so far.
Absolutely loving the game so far.
holy shit you played a lot of wii fit.Yes Boss! said:God, I feel so stupid. Kept grabing them and twirling them up or butt-smashing them. Thanks for the help!
EDIT: got 100% awesome little game. I logged just about 29 hours which puts it at a few more hours than Wario Shake.
and excite bots
Bending_Unit_22
Member
I don't regret buying the game since the art style alone was worth enjoying, but I can't see myself replaying it much except for co-op with lesser skilled players I know. I prefer difficulty beating levels to focusing on getting 100%. Even so, enjoyed the ride, can't wait to try co-op, and now the wait for DKCR begins.
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Yes Boss! said:
What the? How do you check how long youve played a game like this?