Having finally taken Wind Waker off of my backlog, I decided to tackle another game I’ve been meaning to play for quite some time. I don’t remember exactly why I wanted to play Kirby 64; I just remember liking the refrigerator power. Nevertheless, I finally got around to it. Kirby 64 is not really the Kirby series’ big jump to 3D as it may seem, but it is a quality Kirby game with a neat power mixing gimmick and great music.
Remember, this review reflects my experience and therefore everyone else’s as well. If you disagree with any point I bring in this post, then you should reflect on your opinion until you agree with me as I am correct and you are wrong. Thank you for reading!
Abilities
The big appeal of this game to me is the ability mixing. You are able to get 2 powerups at once which functions as a whole new power. This idea is present in Kirby Squeak Squad as well for a couple of abilities, but is mostly unique to this game. Since there are 7 powerups and if we count normal as a power, this makes for 36 total powerups.
The game is not too difficult, but remains fun for all skill levels due to having so many different abilities to experiment with. Even having 100%ed the game, there are a few abilities I never got. Some abilities are much better than others, but they are all fun to use.
Shard Puzzles
Collecting all the Crystal shards is required to 100% the game and to get the true ending. Each level has 3 you must collect. Some are hidden normally in the level, but others are behind puzzles which require a certain power combo. In most cases, this takes the form of a wall with the color or striped colors of the needed powers to break through it.
These puzzles pretty much require you to play through the level once, remember what power ups are needed, get the powers from another level if the needed enemies are not present in that one, then return to the level making sure not to lose your power until you’ve collected the shard. These puzzles are a little boring, but not the worst. I would have liked more inspired puzzles.
A few of the puzzles though are just utter crap. They follow the same “use the power combo to break the wall” formula, but don’t color the wall like the others; you kind of just have to guess… from 36 different possible abilities. Like what? There are only a couple like this, but I can’t imagine anyone figuring these out on their own back in 2000. Me having the modern luxury of internet access, I just looked up all of the ones I missed the first time around, so the process was mostly painless.
Music
The music in this game is fantastic! Most Kirby games are known for their unique brand of fast-paced high energy soundtracks, but I think this game in particular knocked it out of the park. This game is not long, it only has 29 levels, yet it has a whopping 62 songs! (so close to 64 come on guys). There’s unique music for the menu screens, the map areas, the minigames, the cutscenes, and so much more! Some of theme are bangers too: I really like ‘Rock Star Theme,’ ‘Boss Battle Theme’ where the flautist goes ham and ‘Ruins Theme’ which is this game’s dire dire docks.
Score
Kirby 64 innovated on the Kirby formula in interesting ways by introducing copy ability mixing. The puzzles present in the game are a bit bland, but the huge number of power combos to try keeps the game entertaining past the end credits. I hope they revisit the idea of mixing copy abilities in the future.
Score: 12/15
Power Combo Tier List: (SABCDF) (- means I never acquired it and cannot judge)
| Normal | Burn | Needle | Spark | Cutter | Ice | Stone | Bomb | |
| Normal | B | B | A | C | B | B | C | A |
| Burn | B | B | D | A | A | C | S | |
| Needle | A | B | B | – | B | A | ||
| Spark | A | A | A | A | C | |||
| Cutter | A | – | SSS (B) | B | ||||
| Ice | – | B | D | |||||
| Stone | B | S/F | ||||||
| Bomb | B |
In making this, I realize that the only powerups I never got were ice combos. Huh.