"Dance! (>'-')> <('-'<) ^('-')^ v('-')v <('-'<) ^( )^ (>'-')> ^(^-^)>"

What is a Kirby? A marshmallow that can suck up bad dudes and gain super powers? Close enough.

Visuals - 7
Sound & Music - 7
Gameplay - 7
Longevity - 6 (3-4 hours)
Replayability - 6 (120 chests don't amount to much)
Difficulty - C (EASY)

Copycat? - 8
VERDICT - 7.0

A traditional Kirby game in every sense
After last year's fresh and exciting, stylus-driven inaugural DS effort that was Kirby: Canvas Curse, Hal brings us yet another title featuring the cutest flagship character ever. If you were hoping to be the (wo)man of the match again (with your touchscreen input used to steer Kirby right), then you will be, like I was, quite disappointed. Kirby: Squeak Squad is your typical Kirby platformer game. The story is even simpler than the last, and the game looks and plays nearly identical to the previous 2 GBA releases.

Kirby's treasure chest with his coveted strawberry shortcake (this pink fluffball is crazy over desserts btw) is stolen by the titular gang in question. Somewhat angered by this loss (even with so much food still left over) Kirby goes on to recover his precious. The premise is very weak, but hey, playing through 8 worlds of classic Kirby-style levels should be worth it right?

If you have played a Kirby platformer before, you know exactly what to expect, and there will be no surprises whatsoever. Each level will see you make your way to the end in a linear fashion nearly every time. Along the way there the 120 chests to collect, which net you enhancements such as extra health and special attacks, or unlock bonuses such as new skin(?) colours or artwork. Finding all the chests is not hard, and to gain access to the last 2 worlds you HAVE to obtain 5 special keys hidden in 5 of these 120 chests; a blatant way to extend shelf-life seeing as the game is really, really short.

Short and Sweet
There are about 6 levels per world on average. Given that there are 8 worlds altogether, this seems like a very large amount. Thing is, each level lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to 5 minutes, with many of them hitting at the lower end of the scale consistently. Length is usually not an important factor to me as long as it suits the genre (ie. don't want to play 10+ hours of a side-scrolling shooting game), but here I can't help but feel that the many abilities on offer here are wasted by such small levels.

It can't be Kirby game without his trademark copy abilities (unless you're talking the original dreamland of course!) and there are 23 sweet ones to enjoy here. These include Ninja, Fighter, UFO, Magic (yay!), Wheel, and of course everyone's favourite, the Sword, cut cut! Each copied 'ability' changes Kirby's appearance to suit, as well as providing him with a totally new moveset. As a UFO you can shoot different types of laser beams as well as hover with ease, and as a ninja you can throw out shurikens, slash out at close-by enemies, or just piledriver them. There's a lot of variety to be had and nearly all of the forms are a lot of fun to use. This is why I am disappointed with the lack of level space to utilise them in.

As you suck up relevant enemies and gobble them up, you'll see them transfer from the main screen above to Kirby's stomach displayed below. The new twist to this game is that his stomach can be filled with up to 5 items at a single time. This allows you to store abilities for later (making the game much easier than its predecessors when trying to obtain those chests calling for specific transformation), and even let you do some digestive mixing. You will have to do a bit of organisation with your contents, but it's all relatively straightforward. The mixing of abilities is a really neat idea, but with only 5 different combinations all up (sword/bomb + element), it looks like the developer's imagination went down the wayside. Considering this is Hal and that many past abilities were excluded makes this a big miss.

Nothing new to see here folks
You would be hard pressed to see why it was necessary to put this onto the DS console rather than the GBA (but obviously money played a part). Apart from the stomach idea, which wasn't really necessary, there is nothing here which could not have been done on the older portable. The game looks just like the previous ones, with perhaps a few more animations sprinkled lightly and some modest special effects like swishing grass. The music (a custom it seems) features many classic tracks, again. There's no doubt they are still addictive tunes to this day, but when they are remixed time after time with little actual 'remixing' done, one can't help but think of the word 'lazy'.

As for the actual platforming, there are absolutely no 'wow' moments at all. But then there aren't any terrible parts too. I guess you could say that overall, this game is very, very AVERAGE in every sense. The difficulty level is much too childish and all the bosses are pushovers; just spam with your copy ability powers. Whenever you grab a large treasure chest, one of the Squeak Squad member will chase you and your prize. You then have to make a dash for the exit, and if they manage to steal it back from you, you will have to fight them off along with a couple of cannon-fodder baddies. It's something kind of new... but not really.

Finally, in yet another Kirby key component, we have the minigames. The 3 on offer here require some slashing, tapping or flicking at the most basic level imaginable. You can also play these multiplayer, but they still won't hold you for more than 10 minutes tops. It's a shame given that Canvas Curse had some really worthwhile and enjoyable ones, which I wouldn't have minded if they were rehashed in some way. The other mode is a boss rush, with all the abilities made available to you at the very start; it's fun, but since it's so easy, I doubt you would want to come back to it often.

Bring back the Curse
It's hard to not like Squeak Squad; it is cute, fun in (very) short spurts, and features lots of abilities to go crazy with. If there ever was a DS game which sat right in the middle, unmoving, this is it. It plays it super safe with hardly a change to the standard Kirby formula, and there are no significant ups or downs throughout the entire journey. It is solid platformer which would've done well 2-3 years ago, but with all the interesting developments these years, you have to pull out some new magic tricks to keep things fresh.

The first DS game did something totally different with Kirby, yet it still retained the same charm the series is associated with. I do hope another title in a similar vein is produced soon, as that was the kind of game the DS was made for. Take a rest from floating around there Kirby; let us guide you once again!

7.0/10 - It's Kirby, more or less

22/12/06

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/06