The new Kirby game, Epic Yarn, is something that I imagine a lot of people won’t end up touching because of its cutesy nature and child-like appeal. The game has gotten a lot of praise in gaming circles for its imaginative graphical style which incorporates yarn-based characters traveling through a patchwork of fabric swatches that make up the world. Certainly the heavy usage of the yarn and pastel color palette will probably make many guys feel a bit emasculated in playing it, as it is just about as childish of a game that you can find on any system.

For those who can get past that though, the game seems pretty solid. Pie and I have played a little bit of it and it is a nice lighthearted romp. My biggest gripe is that so far (mind you we aren’t TOO far in yet), the game is just too easy. I would have loved for them to build in a way to ramp up the difficulty for seasoned players as having a game that you can’t lose to takes away a bit of the excitement. This is minor though as I already knew that about the game it up and it didn’t stop me from wanting to pick it up.

Because of the ease of the game thus far, it helped spawn today’s comic which helps add something that is necessary to the poor world of Patch Land. Cold-hearted conflict! What’s the point of calling something epic unless it has some enemies that can fit the bill? You know; the kind of enemies that wouldn’t think twice about a massive show of yarnocide.

Now if you’ll excuse me as I need to go pump weights, drink beer, cuss at my guy friends, take some male enhancement drugs and go buy a motorcycle to get all the fluff out of my system…

As Bear mentioned in last week’s entry, we not only got Donkey Kong Country Returns but we also got Kirby's Epic Yarn. From what I've read and heard, it's supposed to be an amazing game. I've been a big Kirby fan since the original Kirby's Dreamland came out on the Gameboy "brick". Though there were a good number of subsequent Kirby titles released, I've only had the fortune of owning and playing Kirby's Adventure (nes) and Kirby Super Star (snes) after the first. We've only been able to play maybe about an hour of Kirby's Epic Yarn so far; it's really interesting to look at, but I can't help to really hope the game play gets a little more intense really soon. So far it feels really weird playing it because not only can you not die in the game, but almost all the enemies in the first few stages can't hurt you. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to playing a little more to see what more the game has to offer.

One thing that's been on my mind lately is that I'm hoping that Nintendo doesn't end up giving the impression that Kirby games are all fluff and for little kids; I imagine it'd be pretty easy to do considering Kirby's already Pink and cutesy. Kirby's Epic Yarn seems so different from the older Kirby games which can actually get rather tough. Epic Yarn's music is also very whimsical but other Kirby titles had a lot of up-beat and sometimes adrenaline-pumping boss music. I'd hate to see one of my treasured franchises become one of those things a lot of people just won't touch due to the insecurity of their own masculinity and/or adulthood.