Game:

Super Metroid (1994)

Duration: 2:48:24

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0

Originally recorded: April 4, 2024
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It feels a little blasphemous to consider myself a proper Kirby fan without having cleared the so-called "Dark Matter trilogy". I did manage to play the second Kirby's Dream Land on my own via the 3DS some years back, but the third game has always been something of a massive hurdle for me. And it just wouldn't feel right to beat Kirby 64 without tackling it's predecessor, so here I am.

It's not so much that this game is difficult or bad... it's just tedious. Each level has a side mission in it that you need to complete in order to unlock the true final boss. And on the surface, that sounds alright. But, well, in practice, there are problems. Like, in the first level of each world, you just have to avoid stepping on a specific type of flower -- or at best, you have to tend to flowers without crushing any of them. Sweeping floors, finding the correct route to a hidden sub-boss that leads to a collectible that you need to take to the end, finishing the level with the correct animal companion. And don't get me started on the "mini-games".

KI generally has a beef with the Kirby games that didn't adopt the "Superstar style" -- that is, games where abilities only give Kirby a single attack, as opposed to a full repertoire of attacks. That being said, at least KDL3 has an excuse for it... unlike other games. The animal partners have their own variations on all of Kirby's powers, though clearly some powers work better with some partners than others. I think that Pitch is my favorite so far, if only because he has a minimal impact on Kirby's manueverability and some of the coolest attacks in the game.

All that being said, this isn't a bad game per se. Omitting Dream Land 3 from a "top 50 SNES platformers" list would only be truly viable if you decided to apply a "one game per franchise" rule -- which seems a bit excessive for a list that size. I would say that it does fall on the lower end of the Kirby franchise though. Not quite as bad as, say, Squeak Squad or even Amazing Mirror... but it's no Super Star either. Fortunately, barring some freak difficulty spike, I should be done with this game next time. Then I can move onto the feature presentation.

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