Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)

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Description

The plot of Kirby's Epic Yarn largely revolves around Nintendo's cutesy cream-puff being dragged out of his normal world by an evil sorcerer named Yin-Yarn and trapped in a fabric-based world called Patch Land. Everything in this new land, including the heroic marshmallow Kirby, is made of yarn and fabric. As a result, Kirby has lost his signature inhalation and power absorption abilities. After meeting and saving Fluff, a prince, Kirby and his companion decide to work together to "stitch-up" Patch Land in the wake of the destruction caused by Yin-Yarn.

Kirby's Epic Yarn follows previous Nintendo franchises Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story in its creative design around physical real-life aesthetics. Where Mario was designed around a flat paper theme, and Yoshi lived though a living story-book (in a sense, a variation on a paper theme), Kirby ventures into strange new territory being made of fabric and yarn. Stages and puzzles are heavily designed around the fabric themes and aesthetics, such as enemies being made out of yarn, and puzzle elements involving zippers and buttons.

As mentioned, Kirby has lost his typical powers, and instead of using his formidable lungs as a weapon, he uses a whip (obviously) made of yarn. While Kirby no longer swallows enemies to steal their powers, he hasn't slowed in the least bit where transformation and unique powers are concerned. Kirby floats by transforming into a parachute, flies as a UFO, drives as a car, and features a wide range of other transformations including an anvil, a dolphin, a mole, a dune buggy, a rocket, a robot, musical notes, and more.

Like the Lego games or later Wario Land titles, Kirby really doesn't die. However, taking damage causes Kirby to lose precious items (colored beads for instance) that the player collects throughout the levels to, in effect, earn higher scores, medals, and to unlock more challenges in the game. As well as the item collection, each stage contains three hidden secrets for players to hunt. Each "world" in the game features a boss battle and extra stages should the player meet the right challenges in item collection. There are also new friends to be made who bring about several smaller challenges such as finding a certain number of characters in a stage within a time limit, carrying a character to a new location, and more.

Also, Kirby's Epic Yarn follows the seemingly current trend from Nintendo of the game playing largely as an old-school side-scrolling title a la New Super Mario Bros. Wii, large segments of Metroid: Other M, and the revamped Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Kirby also welcomes his new pal, Fluff, in two-player cooperative gameplay which adds to the puzzle solving and gameplay in many situations. Like many Nintendo-helmed Wii games, Kirby's Epic Yarn takes liberties with the Wii Remote using it for several different styles of play holding the Remote sideways à la classic controllers, pointing at the screen, or angling the controller for other uses.

Screenshots

Alternate Titles

• "毛糸のカービィ" -- Japanese spelling
• "Kirby und das magische Garn" -- German title
• "Kirby e la stoffa dell'eroe" -- Italian title
• "Kirby Au fil de l'aventure" -- French title
• "Keito no Kirby" -- Japanese title

Part of the Following Group

• Kirby games

User Reviews

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The Press Says

The Escapist	Nov 21, 2010		100
1UP	Oct 14, 2010	A-	91
Hardcore Gamer Magazine	Oct 19, 2010	4.5 out of 5	90
Fragland.net	Mar 25, 2011	90 out of 100	90
4Players.de	Dec 16, 2010	87 out of 100	87
GameSpot	Oct 15, 2010	8.5 out of 10	85
The Video Game Critic	Jan 29, 2011	B+	83
GNT - Generation Nouvelles Technologies	Mar 02, 2011	8 out of 10	80
Jeuxvideo.com	Feb 22, 2011	15 out of 20	75
Gamekult	Feb 23, 2011	6 out of 10	60

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Trivia

Awards

• 4Players
  • 2010 – Best Import Game of the Year
• GameSpot
  • 2010 - Best Graphics, Artistic (Editors' Choice)
• GameSpy
  • 2010 – Wii Game of the Year
  • 2010 – Platforming Game of the Year