Of all the games that Nintendo revealed at its E3 2010 press conference--which there were legion--none captured, for me, the essential playfulness and creativity that Nintendo embodies when it's at its best like Kirby's Epic Yarn. After playing through a couple of levels and a boss encounter in Epic Yarn at Nintendo's booth, I'm pleased to say that the arts-and-craftsy visual motif seems to hold up, and lends some fun twists to the simple, forgiving gameplay.
It's not all just for show, though, and the gameplay implications were apparent pretty quickly during my time with Epic Yarn. Though the game is played from a strictly 2D perspective, there's a lot of layering of materials going on, and I found myself undoing zippers to reveal new paths or tugging on buttons sewn into the background to literally pull parts of the environment closer to me, bunching up the very fabric of Kirby's reality in the process.
== TEASER ==
While the art style represents the obvious departure for Kirby, the sections of the game being shown eschewed some of the fundamentals about Kirby, such as his ability to suck up enemies and steal their abilities, or his knack for simply floating through levels. The controls, which have you holding the Wii Remote sideways, still have an airy feel to them, though Kirby's primary means of interaction with the world around him is a bit of the yarn he's made out of, which he can lash out at enemies or objects. Kirby's got decent ups, and a double-tap on the jump button turns him into a parachute that slowly floats to the ground. Similarly, double-tapping a direction on the d-pad turns Kirby into a car that speedily dashes across the screen.
The stakes seem very low in Epic Yarn, and there doesn't seem to be a way to really lose--it's just a matter of how good your score is once you cross the finish line. There's something to be said for some easy-going platforming action, though to be completely honest, I'm more enamored with the game's look than anything else. As Reggie mentioned during the press conference, it's been seven long years since Kirby--an oft-neglected member of Nintendo's stable of mascots--had a full console game he could call his own, and this is looking like a more than suitable homecoming.
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