Making robot suits look good in pink.
At first glance, Nintendo’s favorite platforming pink puffball may seem out of place in the cockpit of a large robot mech, utilizing giant buzzsaws, laser guns, and flamethrowers to demolish foes and roadblocks alike. While that robot-fueled destruction might make things a little easier than I’d like, its clever use of 3D-based puzzles in vibrant worlds, engaging boss fights, and a collection of enjoyable side-modes make up for pushover enemies. Planet Robobot proves that sometimes, giant robots do make things better.
Once again, Kirby can use his trademark moves to copy enemy abilities, and most of the 20+ forms come with several moves and combos to keep things fresh and interesting. Among many others, there’s Doctor Kirby’s ability to create and store volatile potions to unleash on groups of enemies, ESP Kirby’s ability to vanish and reappear in a destructive blast, and Jet Kirby’s ability to store power before launching forward and ending with a powerful forward projectile.
Another returning ability lets you guard against attacks and even dodge slightly to either side - but guarding grants complete invincibility against almost everything thrown at you except the main bosses. In a game that’s already lax on platforming difficulty, it feels especially cheap. The fact that one of Planet Robobot’s additional modes - Team Kirby Clash - puts your guard on a cooldown timer akin to Smash Bros., has me wondering why this more limited and balanced guard system wasn’t uniform throughout the entire game.
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For the first time in a long while I found myself truly excited to make use of the 3D slider.
Most of the challenge instead comes from the puzzle-like level design. Traversing through the six areas of Planet Robobot is a delight, with each level oozing charm and taking full advantage of the 3DS’s stereoscopic 3D to paint two parallel side-scrolling levels in the foreground and background and allowing you to jump between them though warp pads and pipes. As you warp between them, traps and enemies seek to catch you off guard by taking potshots from across the screen, and hidden routes full of secrets are everywhere. While the foes you encounter will hardly impede you, platforming puzzles made me stop and think – especially because they unlock Data Blocks needed to progress to the next big boss battle. You’ll often have to keep track of both planes at once as you simultaneously remote-control robots as well as Kirby to unlock a door, or clear out obstacles while watching for falling objects that stretch across both background and foreground.
The amount of moving parts in an area never became too much to handle, and the later areas peel back the curtains for some truly awesome shifting landscapes of technology and space. It’s rare for a 3DS game to achieve this, but for the first time in a long while I found myself truly excited to make use of the 3D slider.
Multi-plane platforming and puzzle solving is only made better by the addition of Robobot suits that Kirby can not only pilot, but modify by scanning and downloading enemies to absorb their powers. Wielding improved weapons and blasting through areas had me feeling satisfied as I ripped apart giant crushing hazards that gave me grief when playing without the mech. Planet Robobot strikes a good balance between regular Kirby and mech-oriented levels, in that you only find robot suits when needed to let you tear through otherwise impervious roadblocks or enemies.
Puzzles in these sections take on new forms, such as moving giant blocks around to connect circuitry jumpstarted by the suit’s laser gun, or restraining yourself from destroying a row of destructible platforms that connect to a collectible item in the background of the stage. This also meant I never got tired of hopping into a new mech, eager to see what new abilities I could absorb.
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I never got tired of hopping into a new mech, eager to see what new abilities I could absorb.
After breezing through the regular enemies in levels, the bosses of Planet Robobot are a refreshing challenge. They’ll frequently change tactics and shift the landscape to attack from virtually any angle, making clever use of the foregrounds and 3D effect on a side-scrolling plane. During a boss battle against an enemy in their own mech suit, the small arena quickly transformed into a circular ring with Kirby moving right or left on one edge as the boss attempted to dive from the opposite side of the ring to ambush me. The ending of the story mode campaign culminates in a spectacular and challenging multi-phase battle that gets more over the top with each passing moment, utilizing both ground combat and aerial fighting.
As an added nice touch, collectible decals hidden throughout the levels actually let you do more than just view them in a gallery: they can be pasted on your mech and swapped out between levels for some extra personalization. These include character and symbol art from past and present Kirby games. The most endearing I found were two messily drawn doodles of Meta Knight and Waddle Dee, pasted proudly on each of my mech’s arms. Sadly, you can only ever slap on one sticker per mech arm, which feels like wasted potential considering there’s almost 200 stickers to collect.
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Planet Robobot strikes a good balance between regular Kirby and mech-oriented levels.
The main Story Mode (which, despite the name, remains noticeably light on storytelling) takes about six hours to beat, not including the task of unlocking more levels via collectible Data Blocks. These Data Blocks are still required in smaller quantities to progress, encouraging exploration and replays using different copy abilities, which are sometimes needed to find the blocks. When you’re done with that, there are several other modes that provide varying lengths of entertainment. Kirby 3D Rumble challenges you to rack up combos in bite-sized areas that are over in minutes, but offer little variation beyond spitting basic enemies at each other. Team Kirby Clash has more dramatic flair lets you fight with friends or AI partners against bosses in an RPG fashion that isn’t all too deep, but remains enjoyable with several Kirby classes and bosses to choose from. You can find new twists on the main story with the boss rush mode called The Arena that’s great to test your mettle against Robobot’s most challenging foes. You can also swap out Kirby for Meta Knight in Meta Knightmare Returns, which streamlines the main story levels with new bosses and new ways to fight. Playing as Meta Knight is a refreshing alternative as you charge up his four unique abilities, but with his mech-like destructive powers and lack of collectibles worth solving puzzles for, the only real challenge comes from the last few bosses.
The Verdict
Kirby: Planet Robobot may not be the most challenging platformer around, but its clever use of robotic destruction combined with gorgeous environmental puzzles and unique bosses make for an entertaining ride. I only wish Kirby’s monstrous mech suit could make proper use of the huge amount of collectibles.
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