Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was the first Kirby game to hit the Nintendo 64, and it ended up being the only game on that platform to feature our pink bubblegum ball friend. The cross over from the previous NES and SNES as well as Game Boy was a major change as this featured more ability to showcase a 3-D model with a 3-D type world. How did this game fare overall? Well I got to ring in the new year in 2025 with this game, so let's see how it went!
Positives:
1. This game delivers in its next step up format from the SNES to deliver a pretty fluid game in a 3-D environment that the N64 did for one of its flagship franchises. It's a beautiful looking game overall, and it nails everything that past Kirby's are about into a more current console.
2. The story is simple, and the style of game is very much like other Kirby's of past and then to that present. It's incredibly easy to pick up and play and blitz through this game in the matter of an afternoon where you have free time, but the game just has that feel of being good.
3. For all the nuances that the N64 controller had that was.. weird about it.. Kirby 64 did well to utilize as much of the controller as possible. Some other top games cannot hold that claim. Most every button has some sort of use for the controller, which is a major plus considering the weirdness of that controller.
4. The music is always phenomenal for Kirby but this again is just preaching to the choir. The music in the game is fantastic, and well worth listening to.
Negatives:
1. Honestly, this is the major negative: The game is far too easy. This is a staple feature of a lot of Kirby games, where they are trying to cater to a very young audience so they make the games pretty simplistic. It just is what it is, and they know who they are tailoring the game to.
2. The game still struggles like its predecessors with frame rate. This isn't something that was made better until the GameCube when it was finally figured out with Kirby, but at times this game moved very painfully slow, even on the N64.
Reaction/Rating: Overall, a solid N64 game that did well to bring Kirby to the next generation of console, that ultimately led to future console games. Kirby fans would do well to play this game, despite how simplistic it is. Overall, probably an 8 out of 10 works.
