Kirby's Epic Yarn

Overview

Kirby's Epic Yarn is a 2D side-scroller announced for the Nintendo Wii at the E3 2010 press conference. It is the first Kirby platformer released on a major home console since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and the first console Kirby game released since Kirby Air Ride for the GameCube.

Story

The game's story follows Kirby, who after eating a metameto belonging to the evil wizard Yin-Yarn, is sucked into a magic sock and transported to a world where everything is made of yarn, textiles, and buttons. Kirby himself is transformed into a being made of yarn, and as a result has also lost the ability to inhale his enemies to absorb their powers.

Upon arriving in this strange new world, Kirby encounters Prince Fluff, joining forces with him to defeat Yin-Yarn. Kirby also discovers that the metameto has given himself the power to transform into new shapes, such as a car, parachute and submarine.

Gameplay

Though Kirby can't vacuum up his enemies in the traditional manner of his earlier games, he has an entirely new set of skills in the patchwork world to help him navigate obstacles and defeat his foes. He can change the shape of his yarn body into items like a parachute, car, and submarine, and at certain points can take the form of a giant, rocket-spewing tank or a flying saucer.

Stages

The game is made up of several different worlds, each with a different theme that plays into how the levels are designed.

Quality Square

The hub world that also serves as the tutorial area. In this area, Kirby is able to spend the beads that he collects on various items and decorations that can be used to furnish the nearby apartments.

The apartments themselves are occupied by different tenets, who all have different tastes in how their abodes are decorated. By decorating the apartments to the tenet's liking, they may unlock different mini-games that Kirby is able to play.

Grass Land

A world of green grasses, colorful flowers, fluffy clouds, sparkling lakes and giant beanstalks. But, even the most picturesque places hold their dangers.

Hot Land

Being a sun-baked desert with a volcano in the middle of it, this place is as hot as it gets. Sinking sand and pools of lava make this world dangerous enough, if not for the looming threat of a sudden eruption.

Treat Land

How dangerous can a world of candy and pastries be? Quite, if you don't look out for those giant, falling cakes and bonbon cannons. Along with sweets, this world is also known for its lovely music and incredible toys.

Water Land

There's nothing like a day at the beach. And this place is nothing like a day at the beach. Sand castles have been turned into dangerous fortresses. Tidepools are now home to hostile creatures. And the surfing competition has been taken over by Yin-Yarn's minions.

Snow Land

A jolly world of snowflakes, downhill sled rides, cozy cabins and huge, elaborately decorated trees. Things have gotten colder than normal since Yin-Yarn arrived and started spreading his uncheerful influence across the land. It's up to Kirby to return the warmth to the chilly world.

Space Land

The world of the future. No technology like this has ever been seen in Dreamland before, with its flying cars, space freighters and computers so advanced that they put the greatest minds to shame. As it always is, along with the marvelous there is also the dangerous.

Dreamland

After escaping from Patchland, Kirby found that his home of Dreamland had changed drastically. No longer the world he knew, Dreamland was changed to fit Yin-Yarn's design. Can Kirby make it to King Dedede's castle to depose the evil wizard?

Bosses

Fangora

The dragon who has taken up residence in Grass Land. This giant beast does not tolerate intruders on its lands and viciously attacks Kirby with its fiery breaths, and by whipping up gusts with its powerful wings.

Hot Wings

The meanest phoenix you'll ever meet. This fiery bird's main interest is to turn anything that it sees into a pile of ash. That includes Kirby and all of the other citizens of the Yarn Kingdom.

Squashini

A hot-tempered, pumpkin-headed magician who can't stand anybody upstaging his performance. Especially not puny, pink troublemakers. Facing Kirby, he'll use every dirty magic trick up his sleeves.

Capamari

A giant squid with a penchant for fashionable knitwear. This sea monster lives in the deepest parts of Water Land, coming up only to deal with those who threaten its rule there.

King Dedede

After being captured by Yin-Yarn, the king of Dreamland was turned into a mindless lackey by the knitted wizard. His hate for Kirby only expounded by his woolen form, the oversized king attacks with all of his usual tricks and a few new ones granted by his new body.

Meta Knight

Another one of Kirby's oldest enemies, now turned to yarn by Yin-Yarn's power. With his new form, Meta Knight's weaponry has expanded beyond his normal sword. The only thing that has not changed about this knight is his desire to defeat Kirby in a one-on-one duel to the death.

Yin-Yarn

The mastermind behind the entire coup on Dreamland. This evil wizard sees the world only in terms of what can be created and what can be destroyed. To him, anything not made of yarn can be destroyed and created into a knitted image of itself. With everything made of yarn, his rule becomes absolute. But, is he really what he appears to be?

Graphics

The star of Kirby's Epic Yarn is arguably the aesthetic style of the graphics. Everything in the game, from Kirby to his enemies to the environment, all appear as though they're constructed out of yarn, cloth, and buttons. Kirby is able to interact with this cloth world by ducking between fabric layers to reach platforms that rest between them, pull pieces of cloth away from the landscape to reveal items, and even unzip sections of the levels to reveal passageways. The cohesive look and feel to the design gives Kirby's Epic Yarn an infectiously cute appearance from start to finish.

Two players can play through Kirby's Epic Yarn cooperatively, with the second player taking control of Prince Fluff.

Difficulty

Kirby's Epic Yarn is not designed to be a difficult game to complete. It is impossible for Kirby and Prince Fluff to die. The real challenge of the game is to uncover all of the secrets and complete each stage with as many gems as possible. Even a single hit from an enemy will cause Kirby to lose a large chunk of gems.

There is an overworld in the game to tie all the levels together. Nintendo has called this overworld "Kirby's Pad" and the player is able to decorate it with items they collect in the adventure.

Abilities

In this game, Kirby has a whole new set of abilities to help him throughout his adventure.

Car

If you double-tap in either direction, instead of dashing, you turn into a car and honk in the first few seconds.

Parachute

After a jump you may hold the button to turn into a parachute. This allows you to slowly descend to the ground to collect what appears to be gems.

Surfer

This allows to Kirby to travel through water at a high speed. He can also jump on enemies to beat them while in this state.

UFO

Kirby can turn into a UFO and absorb enemies. If he has enough enemies inside him, he can discharge electricity to beat all enemies on the screen.

Tank

When playing with a second Kirby-like creature you may combine to turn into a tank. One move uses the arms to beat enemies directly in front of the tank, and they may also fire missiles to defeat airborne enemies.

Stone

While in the air, if you press down on the D-Pad you turn into a variation on Kirby's stone ability to smash enemies or blocks to get to new areas.

Submarine

When Kirby goes underwater, he changes form into what seems to be a submarine. It is unknown whether he will have any special abilities in this form although he can move naturally like a fish.

Fire Engine

Kirby gains many of the attributes of a fire engine. The main feature of this transformation is Kirby's ability to spray the hose of the fire engine.

Train

Kirby will take the form of a train, and the player manipulates train tracks to guide him through a level.

String

Pressing the 1 button on the Wii Remote allows you to throw a piece of yarn like a lasso towards an enemy, object, or a piece of the background. You may be able to hold the object or enemy over your head and throw it at an enemy. This ability seems to replace Kirby's ability to inhale and subsequently spit out an enemy.

Development

The game began development under the name "Keito no Fluff" (lit. "Fluff of Yarn") and featured Prince Fluff as the main character. During the summer of 2009 however, Nintendo proposed that the game be altered and released as a title in the Kirby series.

The game's soundtrack was scored entirely by Good-Feel's Tomoya Tomita, as franchise regulars Hirokazu Ando and Jun Ishikawa were busy at the time composing the music to Kirby's Return to Dream Land.