Kirby And The Rainbow Curse Review: Colorful, Clayful Fun

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Roy G Biv

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse has a major boss battle at the end of each world, and smaller mini-bosses interspersed amongst the levels for an extra challenge. The first three bosses provided interesting mechanics to learn and were a good test of what I had learned during the level. I was a bit disappointed that the fourth, fifth, and sixth bosses were basically replicas of the first three with some slightly harder mechanics or different environments, but they still put up a good fight.

Of course, the Story Mode only makes up about half the game. Dotted throughout all the levels are hidden treasure chests to collect by solving extra puzzles or defeating tougher enemies. At the end of the level, you get to open whatever chests you’ve collected to find figurines, music tracks, and other goodies. The figurines are just collectables with some additional back story attached to them, similar to trophies in Smash.

(Kirby) is fun and silly and laidback, with little punishment for failure, but plenty of challenge for those who are looking for it.

Completing certain tasks in each stage also unlocks Challenge levels. These are short areas you can access from the menu that require you to finish certain tasks within a time limit, such as collecting four chests, with 15 seconds for each. The challenges are fun and let you unlock bonus goodies, but aren’t necessary to the main game.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that while you can beat the game by largely ignoring the story, the story is available through an adorable little book on the main menu. Each page of the story is unlockable through collecting the “journal” as your level completion bonus at the end of each stage. The story is cute and mostly told through drawings from the POV of Elline, and helps make the bosses and characters make a bit more sense, especially for first-timers to the Kirby franchise.

Waddle Dee & Me

Rainbow Curse includes a multiplayer feature with Story Mode that allows up to three other players join Kirby as Waddle Dees that can run on their own in a more traditional platforming style. The Waddle Dees have less health and can’t create their own rainbow lines, but can use Kirby’s and help him through the stages. Though they aren’t necessary for completion or even collection of bonuses, they can be useful for overcoming more difficult challenges, and provide a nice way for others to join the fun. Multiplayer is really the only reason anyone’s going to look at the TV for this game.

I already owned a Kirby amiibo (purchased by me) when my copy of the game arrived, so I tried out the amiibo functionality. The Kirby amiibo is only usable on one level, once per day, and gives Kirby infinite star power for using his powered up attack. It was useful for collecting extra treasure that I may have had to take a lot more time figuring out otherwise, but wasn’t necessary–just nice.

Verdict

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse plays to the strengths of Nintendo this generation: great level design, cute characters, simple story, beautiful music, unique concepts. It’s fun and silly and laidback, with little punishment for failure, but plenty of challenge for those who are looking for it. It has some awkward controls for more precise movements, and a few gratuitous features, but those don’t distract from the goodness of the gameplay.

The biggest drawback is that there’s just not enough of this game. After clearing the main Story Mode, unless I want to pick up all the collectables, there’s not much left to play for. I feel like the game cut off right as I was getting comfortable with it, and I would’ve loved secret levels like in the Donkey Kong games, or for the already-existing levels to have an increased difficulty after I’d beaten it once. Unless I’m missing something pretty crucial, such a feature doesn’t exist.

If you’re the sort that loves puzzles and full completion, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is the game for you. It’s another feel-good Nintendo title that focuses on good gameplay–cute, low-stress, and lots of fun the whole way through.

A copy of this game was provided to GameSided for the purpose of this review. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.

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