Kirby 64:
The Crystal Shards

Overall: B
Violence: B-
Sexual Content: A
Language: A
Drugs/Alcohol: A

Platform reviewed: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB rating: E

If the word 'Kirby" makes you think of a vacuum, then you've already got the gist of what this pink blob-like Nintendo character uses for defense. The feisty little powder-puff was minding his own business on the planet Pop Star when all of a sudden a fairy named Ribbon appeared. A resident of the fairy planet Ripple Star, Ribbon fled when a dark cloud containing a sinister force called Dark Matter invaded her home and tried to take control of the Crystal, a secret power source of the fairies.

To thwart his efforts, Ribbon grabbed the Crystal and fled across the universe. But three smaller cloud-thugs of Dark Matter pursued and attacked her. The resulting force broke the crystal, and dropped tiny shards onto many planets. Ribbon persuades Kirby to find the crystal shards and put everything back together again.

Playing within a three-dimensional environment, Kirby is limited to forwards or backwards movements along a predetermined path. While waltzing down his path, Kirby is challenged by all sorts of little creatures, most of which have a negative impact on his vitality meter. If the meter hits zero, poor little Kirby loses a life. While hardened gamers may find this too simplistic, Kirby's pastel color palette and fairy characters are likely targeting a softer younger crowd, even enticing some of those elusive female players.

But rather than just taking the lumps from the enemies, the best thing to do when you see a cannonball throwing midget or a running flame-thrower is to turn on the vacuum. Kirby's mouth opens wide with a satisfying suction sound and in moments your opponent is in the bag. Now push the down button to swallow the enemy, and you can copy his talents.

For instance, if you eat the bouncing pile of rocks you'll have the strength of a boulder. Chomp down a snowman and you can turn everyone to ice. When you get really good, you can gulp down two enemies and get increased or combination powers (a stack of bouncing rocks plus a cannonball equals a hopping stick of dynamite). But these defense weapons have some limitations too. Although a rock is strong, when Kirby is in rock mode, you can't bounce as well, making it difficult to reach the high places where reinvigorating health stars or food are found.

The ultimate goal of the game is to collect all the fairy's crystal shards. I didn't get close to saving the fairies, but the many stages I saw on various planets provided a wealth of scenic variety, although game play is basically the same: Collect stars, food, and shards. Beat off everything else.

The essentially one player main game does offer children some problem solving challenges and the abstract nature of the environment keeps the violence from feeling too realistic. To provide a diversion, the cartridge includes three "mini-games" where up to four players can compete simultaneously. These include a race game, a sort of checkers match, and a contest to see whose basket can catch the most falling food. Although simplistic, they kept a room full of my daughter's girlfriends busy for over an hour.

For younger children, Kirby is a pleasant game with few concerns for parents. Now if he could only teach my children how to really vacuum a room...

Rod Gustafson

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