And on the Wii, no less! Good to still play something new (well, sort of new) on the ol' waggler.

For the third autumn in a row, I've picked up a Kirby game for the Wii, and while I haven't been able to delve super-deep into the collection yet, I can say that it's absolutely a better deal than the Super Mario Slapdash ROM dump we got a couple years back. Here's what you get:

~THE GAMES~
-Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
-Kirby's Adventure (NES)
-Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
-Kirby Super Star (SNES)
-Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
-Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)

It's a nice set of games for the Kirby platformer fan. DL1 is a classic, albeit a short one, but it's built entirely around Kirby's slurp-and-shoot mechanic rather than his copy abilities (which came later). As a result, it's got a slightly different feel to it. The music is outstanding and has stood the test of time well. Adventure is one of the NES's best games, with a plethora of copy abilities and tons of secrets. It's a classic and probably in my top ten or twenty for the gray system. DL2 adds animal buddies and keeps the abilities coming, feeling more like a sequel to Adventure than the original DL.

Super Star is my all-time favorite Kirby game, with nearly 20 full movesets and hours of replay, as well as an outstanding 2P mode. I remember being underwhelmed by DL3, but I'm willing to give it a real shot again since I've only played a couple hours of it--it adds more animal pals and has a nice look to it. And K64 lets you combine powers and contains some pretty fun minigames.

~THE EXTRAS~

-All new, three-save-file Challenge Mode where you play through numerous copy ability rooms akin to RtDL. The engine, visuals, sound and controls are borrowed from that game, although the arenas are all-new. It's an unorthodox but very fun extra, complete with medals and high scores.

-A comprehensive Kirby History feature. You can go through every year since 1992 to see all sorts of fun facts (worldly and Nintendo-wise), as well as take a good look at all the box arts of Kirby games (fully rotatable and readable, etc), as well as see videos and hear music from each one!

~THE BONUSES~
-A soundtrack CD comes with the game, containing 42 tracks spanning all of Kirby's games, as well as 3 all-new tracks (two of which are fully orchestrated). Very impressive! The track selection is pretty well-thought-out too.

-An art booklet of around 50 pages is included as well. It's full-color, going into the history of every Kirby game out there as well as fun early sketches, tidbits about the game, and more. It's a really excellent extra.


All in all, the game is a great deal for $40, assuming you don't have all the games already. And even if you do, it's an excellent package all-around and a great way to celebrate our puffy hero's 20th anniversary! (v'.')>

Anyone else pick up this gem?