Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:00

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Here is my Full playthrough of Kirby's Ghost Trap done on Hard Mode, Normal Skill) live on IGTV.

Follow me on instagram @CabinSNES_fever to join me live or via my reviews and uploads to witness me take down all the games currently in my SNES colleciton, following on from having already beaten all 234 licenced UK releases for the NES. I only use original carts, no cheats & no save states.

REVIEW:
-After the roaring success of Kirby's first 2 outings, its fair to assume his transition into 16-bit would have been a triumph. With 4 different releases on the system surely one of them must match the high standards of the previous NES game?

Of the 4 titles only 1 was actually the platforming format everyone was expecting: Dreamland 3, and bizarrely that wasnt even released outside the US? Instead we only got a miniature Golf game (Dreamcourse), a selection of mini-games (Fun-pak) and this; a Puyo-Puyo clone "Ghost-Trap". If you're not familiar with Puyo-Puyo, its essentially Tetris on steroids. Rather than creating lines the goal is to match 4 or more of 1 colour either horizontally or vertically. To add to the difficulty, each stage is played against an opponent & for every 4 blocks cleared a transparent block (or Ghost Trap) is dropped onto the opponents stack. The big payoff comes from creating multiple block removals in one move, called 'chains'. After removing a section of blocks at the bottom of the pile, the resulting collapse of more layers can result in further chains. The more chains, the greater the Ghost Trap drops on the opponent. Chains are fairly difficult to calculate successfully with any confidence, especially given the incredible speed the drops come at, but chains are the only way to successfully beat the hardest opponents.

Since my brain doesnt work at the speed of a 12 yr old Japanese kid, after stage 6 the game basically becomes impossible. The speed that drops come combined with the speed your opponent clears his stack leaves any logical approach futile. Instead relying on building a big stack as fast as possible, and removing the bottom in the hope of causing chains is the best strategy. It feels cheap but it's the only way (for me anyway).

While I'm not the greatest fan of these games, it seems this is a fair representation of Puyo-Puyo. Its just a shame that's basically all it is. Given the franchise it feels like a missed opportunity to not Include more Kirby themed powerups. It's a very repetitive experience with little to do with Kirby. Not the 1st time Nintendo!