"Fun, but a little too short. At least you get to see the Kirbeh dance :D"

Like most Kirby games, you get to play as the big and pink protaganist himself, Kirby. In this game, the worst of all crimes has occurred. Kirby is just about to eat a fluffy strawberry shortcake, but then all of a sudden, the cheesecake is gone! Kirby assumes that the trouble here is caused by King DeeDeeDee. Now it's up to YOU to retrieve the cheesecake, among other items.

As I've stated above, Kirby is just about to eat a strawberry cheesecake, until it mysteriously disappears. Kirby (and you of course, since you're controlling him) has to retrieve that cheesecake so he can enjoy his snack-time snack in peace. Along the way, you find out that all is not what it seems. You are greeted early by a mischievious roving gang of mice (or rats, it's hard to tell) that live to steal. You have the leader, Daroach. You then have the genius of the group, Doc. Next is the only bif and muscly guy in the group, Storo. Next up is the fastest member in the group, Spinni. Last, but certainly not least, are their evil, cute, and little henchmen called the Squeaks. Alone, they aren't much of a force to deal with, but in massive groups of bomb throwing madness, it's east to get KO'd when you least expect it.

The controls are very simple, just like in previous Kirby games. Since there are two ways that you can control Kirby, I'll break it down into two sections, regular Kirby and Skill Kirby.

-Regular Kirby
Regular is Kirby is just what the name states-a regular pink Kirby. The left and right directional pads control which way Kirby is facing and walking. Double-tapping one of them rapidly will make Kirby dash. The down button makes Kirby squat into a small Kirby pancake. The up button makes Kirby float. The A button is to jump, how unique. The B button is to suck things up. Holding it down will increase it's power. Certain things can only be sucked and then used as a projectile. Bubble items will go below to your touch screen (I'll cover that part later). Certain enemies will make Kirby change form. If you inhale an enemy and press the down button to swallow them, Kirby will obtain their powers. (Example: Inhaling and swallowing a fire enemy will turn Kirby into Fire Kirby)

-Skill Kirby
Skill Kirby is what I call it when Kirby has obtained the powers of an enemy, as I stated in an example above. Most of the controls here are the same, except for the B button. Instead of inhaling an enemy when you turn into Skill Kirby, you use the power your currently have. For example, If I currently have Wheel Kirby and I press B, Kirby will turn into a speedy wheel. Certain skills, though, are more complicated than this. Sometimes you need to enter a small chain of button presses before you activate a more complex skill.

If you don't like the current skill you have, you can press the Y button to remove the skill and the skill will turn into a bouncing star. You can either do two things here. You can either re-obtain the skill by sucking the star up again, or you can find a new enemy and gain it's power. If you don't want an ability, just keep on going forward. These controls are fairly easy to learn, and won't be that hard to memorize.

Another aspect of the controls is the newly introduced touch screen-the infamous design of the DS! This allows for a whole new world of exploration. You can store up to five Bubble items there, ranging from health replenishing Rice Balls, to power-ups like Ghost Kirby and Ice Kirby. You can store things here until you need them, but beware of the limited space. If you want to remove an item, just drag it with your stylus to the top of the touch screen. If something isn't in Kirby's mouth already, then the item will be in his mouth. just press B to spit it out, or you can press the down directional pad button to put it back in the stock.

The touch screen does more than that though. Early in the game you're given a small sample of what you can do with the bubble items. There are two ways to use them, combine or quick use. Again, I will split this up into their respective sections.

-Combine
If you point and hold the stylus on bubble items you'll be able to move them around. Depending on the type of bubble item you're using, you can do different things. If you're holding food that isn't a Maxim Tomato, you can mix it up with other foods to turn them into more powerful health replenishers. If you're holding a Skill-in-a-Bubble, just drag it to another skill you want to combine it with and it will do one of two things. It will either make a random Skill item, or it will combine both aspects of the weapons and morph them into an even more powerful weapon.

-Quick Use
Instead of combining items, you can also immediately use them in the current state they're in. Items like Maxim Tomatoes and Treasures can't be combined. Instead, you may be able to quickly use them. Say you're doing a boss battle. The boss hits you and you lose your skill. Luckily for you, you still have three more Skills in your stock. Just tap on the skill and Kirby will automatically get it's power. If you're low on health, then just use a food item in your stock to repair a small amount ranging to healing all the way. If you're not so good at keeping you're health, but you can easily use any skill, a stock of food items will make you even more powerful than you already are.

Treasures are a different matter, however. They don't do anything until the end of the level. They just sit in your inventory and occupy space. But don't take them lightly. Inside that box is a treasure that can help you with your quest, or let you do random things, such as changing your Kirby's color. If you manage to make it to the end of a level with at least on treasure chest in tow, you'll get a small scene where Kirby dances and then kicks the chest open and revealing the items in it.

The sound and music are seriously awesome. If you have ever seen the show, Kirby is an adorable little thing. And what better to add to an adorable character, than lovely music? Sure, most of the music is just a couple of beeps, but it's great nonetheless. The early stages have a fun and carefree ring in their que, while dangerous areas will have a perilous song in them. Depending on how you play, this might affect you or not affect you.

Graphics in this game are just a step up from previous Kirby games. There's nothing that special about them. Although you can alter Kirby's color. Other than that, there really isn't much to say about the graphics except that it's a step up from most of it's predecessors.

The gameplay is enjoyable but short-lived. You start off really easy levels where you can train your moving styles, fighting moves,etc. Then you get in even more dangerous areas, where dangerous monsters loom everywhere. Probably even touching certain floors of the level means getting hurt. falling causes instant death, so try not to do that as much as you can. The platforming in this game is really awesome, just like previous Kirby games. You can run, jump, float, and swim your way to your ultimate goal. Along the way, you can earn several abilities, master them, and then receive an item in which will make certain abilities stronger, and maybe even adding even more uber moves to Kirby's set. If you run out of skills on a boos fight, just inhale the stars of items that pop up and launch them at the boss. Simple as that.

For the little pink guy's DS introduction, he didn't do so bad. You can beat the game in about eight hours, and getting 100% won't be too easy, but not exactly hard. You'll probably get caught up in the extras for a while, but you'll get bored easily. But this game will give you a lot of excitement for some time to come. I give this game an 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/08

Game Release: Kirby Squeak Squad (US, 12/06/06)