Touch (Me) Kirby

J

john tv

Member
kirby-pen.jpg


Touch! Kirby is out this week in Japan. Comes with a free "Kirby Pink" stylus (above), though aside from the fruity color, it's basically no different from the original. Anyone here planning to buy it?

I haven't had much time to play yet but I may try to give it a go later tonight if I can find some time before crashing. I played for like 15 minutes earlier and it seems nice so far. Controls are smooth and intuitive, and the graphics are really pretty. I guess the director of the game was the chief director on Rage Racer and R4 for Namco back in the PS1 days -- not a bad resume! Wonder what made him decide to go from Namco to Hal...

BTW, this stylus is packed in the box, unlike the Pac-Pix one, so there's no chance of missing out on getting it if you preorder w/o reading the fine print (cough, evilromero, cough).
 
pair that game up with a pink DS = great gift for any girl who likes games

i saw a video of this and it looks like a lot of fun. i really wanna give it a try.
 
My girlfriend would kill for that stylus. She is currently begging me to import one of those pink DS' at the moment so we'll see how it goes.
 
I played the game here in the Netherlands for about 10 minutes and was slightly disappointed (probably with myself): I couldn't get any speed into the tiny pink blob :-/

Might give an english version another shot in due time though.
 
I really want this and the GCN Kirby game.

When is Kirby Touched supposed to be out, State-side? Hope it comes with that stylus.

Any word on Kirby GCN yet? Or just gonna wait until E3?
 
john tv said:
I guess the director of the game was the chief director on Rage Racer and R4 for Namco back in the PS1 days -- not a bad resume! Wonder what made him decide to go from Namco to Hal...
Click to expand...
you talking about Shigeru Yokoyama? cause if you are, im about to shit my pants.
 
JohnTV keep us updated with Kirby impressions in the next few days. If there's anything horribly wrong with it I'd like to bail out and save my 5000yen :)

Also did anyone get Egg Monster Hero from the early-selling-secret-store? Despite being the rpg overlord, I'm a little weary about it. I'm not really fond of the Hanjuku series and I keep getting burned on DS games, but I'm a big Square whore so... :(
 
Koshiro said:
That is a truely wonderful box.
Click to expand...

i'm rather surprised that no one else has echoed this sentiment. Great, simple and more than adequately describes the gameplay. I approve of this boxart. (its pretty gay though, pink + rainbow = 1 mardi gra away)

John, you going to give us impressions?

Man, that stylus is like SO hawt. :)
 
Johnny Nighttrain said:
you talking about Shigeru Yokoyama? cause if you are, im about to shit my pants.
Click to expand...
Nope. His name is Motomi Katayama.

Odnetnin said:
i'm rather surprised that no one else has echoed this sentiment. Great, simple and more than adequately describes the gameplay. I approve of this boxart. (its pretty gay though, pink + rainbow = 1 mardi gra away)

John, you going to give us impressions?

Man, that stylus is like SO hawt. :)
Click to expand...
Sorry, that's not the box. It's the insert for the pen that comes inside the case.
 
From the movies I've seen, this looks like it will be the best DS release yet. My only concern is, since it's a Kirby title, is how difficult/long it will be.
 
I've got mine on pre-order for import, should come sometime in April :)

Even if it's medeocre, I'll still be pleased --- seeing as to how it's something that can only be done on the DS, and the sprite animation looks great.
If the art is only a little better than Magic Mirror, then it should be amazing --- 'Touch Kirby looks outstanding from the screens.

I eagerly look forward to impressions -
-does it seem like yo can get really good/fast with this?
-how explorative is it? Magic Mirror was at least tripple the size of Metroid Zero Mission --- I'm not expecting 'Touch to be as large, but I'm wondering what the map is for.

thanx :P
 
sammy said:
I've got mine on pre-order for import, should come sometime in April :)

Even if it's medeocre, I'll still be pleased --- seeing as to how it's something that can only be done on the DS, and the sprite animation looks great.
If the art is only a little better than Magic Mirror, then it should be amazing --- 'Touch Kirby looks outstanding from the screens.

I eagerly look forward to impressions -
-does it seem like yo can get really good/fast with this?
-how explorative is it? Magic Mirror was at least tripple the size of Metroid Zero Mission --- I'm not expecting 'Touch to be as large, but I'm wondering what the map is for.

thanx :P
Click to expand...
Was Magic Mirror really that long? And was it any good?
 
Here's my impressions from the first hour or so of play. Hopefully it answers a few of your questions too.

The maps start off small and get bigger as the game progresses. Each world has three areas and each area has three stages... so far. There's a medal on each stage which you can save up for unlocking special stuff like extra music for sound test, different colour rainbow trails etc etc.

Controls are fine, but there is lots of room for human error because there's so much to do. Actually, controls are a teeny bit off in one of the trial modes but I'll get on to that in a bit. Tap enemies to stun them, ready for Kirby to kill them. Tap Kirby to rush attack. Draw your rainbow and Kirby follows it like a conveyor belt, going upside down and everywhere else. Kirby will travel in the direction you draw the rainbow. I don't think there's as many copy abilities as older games, but there's still quite a few. The early ones you see are burning, spark and beam. You set off the ability in the same way as rush attack.

Graphics and sound seem to be on a par with the last GBA game. It may have been in development before specs were finalised. Who knows, but it doesn't look particularly bad, so no big deal.

At the end of each area, there's a mini game where you make Kirby roll as fast as you can, then draw a skijump for him to fly off. You can get extra stars depending on the distance you reach and 100 stars gives you an extra life. Sadly, any extra lives you save up are lost when you turn the game off, even though your progress is saved.

At the end of each world, there's a boss game. You choose from one of three games, all of which have an explanation on screen, and once beaten, the next world is unlocked, as well as the trial versions of that world. Trial versions come in two types: time trial and rainbow trial. The time trial is just a race against the clock, but rainbow trial is a test to try and use as little rainbow ink as possible. This is where the control quirk comes into play. Often you'll want to tap Kirby in mid-air to make him rush forwards, but the game will detect a tiny use of ink sometimes, which is a pain when you really have to use virtually no ink to get top rank for these trials. Top rank gets you three medals for each trial.

Honestly, though, I've never been a huge Kirby fan. I loved Kirby's Airride, though my friends didn't so I never had anyone to play it with (and single player was a bit boring). Magic Mirror was too disorientating for me, though I did persist with it for some time. This... well, it's ok, but it's a little too chaotic at times and I'm already starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff going on. There are times when your drawing reflexes really let you down, but I think that's a case of getting used to this kind of gaming. This is really the first game where I felt that touch control wasn't the best idea for the game, but it's still fun, and not being a huge Kirby fan may make my opinion less weighty.
 
Why has Nintendo always liked that rainbow paint brush effect? Started back in Mario Paint, was used in the Super Game Boy, and now this...

Strange, if nothing else, because I've never seen it anywhere else.
 
Jonnyram, thanx for the impressions : )
It seems like there's a lot of challenge --- I wonder if it's something that you can get wicked good at. --- does that map come into play at all, or is it usefull when figureing out what trails to draw?


john tv said:
Was Magic Mirror really that long? And was it any good?
Click to expand...

Magic Mirror was really my first Kirby game --- Like any newcomer to an exploration game like Metroid or Castlevania it takes a good hour or two from start to really get into -- or figure out what the hell is goin' on. --- getting 98% took me a good 30 hours.

Think of it as a non-linear Metroid -- each ability/puzzle is solved by the enemies on the map .... It helps to download some of the first maps from gamefaqs to get started

area 1

area 2

--- I highy enjoyed it, but can understand why some would be frustrated ... it's like handing metroid to someone that's never played it before --- if they don't understand they'll be a bit put-off by the backtracking and the sense that they aren't getting anywhere fast. But if they can figure out the pace, they'll be exploring all day.
 
lmao :lol :lol :lol :lol

those cheap little pieces of plastic are gonna be so collectible, man i'm really liking the DS more and more all the time,

that bing said i'm liking the psp more with the PSP-9 hacking encoding sftware.

what i really like to do too is get a normal pencil- hollow it out, bang the nib on a surface to seal the end, and when you use it it glides really nicly and prevents any worry of scratches. TRY IT, IT FEELS REALLY NICE.
 
magic mirror wasn't extremely lengthy time wise but it did have a pretty big world.

I played it co-op with a friend and after we beat it I went back and got 100%. Took prolly ~15 hours. That time could have been significantly reduced had I realized they gave you a god damn map >_< My friend and I prolyl got to like 60% completion before we realized you actually had a map for each area. We only thought you had the big useless world map.

And even then, we tried to use the map as little as possible because when you check the map it pauses the game for the other player (which is idiotic and beyond annoying)
 
BUMP!

i wonna see more stylus pens with themes, like the yellow pac man one, with the cak man figure on the top.

you know- i think i'll start buying games based on my stylus facination.

i really hope companies start releasing more themed stlus, red ones yellow ones.

it would be nice if lests say kingdom hearts had a verson on DS, it wuld come with a key shaped stylus for opening locks, or maybe stylus sets with special shape for specific purposes!!

which company manufactures the styluses anyway??? nintendo??
 
Bump? The thread was still on the front page and the last post was an hour ago. You can reply without saying bump.

Anyway, I'll wait for more impressions, but I'm a bit disheartened by Jonnyram's comments. Admittedly he said he doesn't like Kirby games much, but to hear that he's not sure touch controls were the best idea for the game when it seemed sure this was the best use yet is...well, like I say, disheartening.
 
Admittedly he said he doesn't like Kirby games much, but to hear that he's not sure touch controls were the best idea for the game when it seemed sure this was the best use yet is...well, like I say, disheartening.
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I got the idea that he thought touch control should always be easy and intuitive. I'm not sure where this comes from, though. Yes, touch control *can* be easy and intuitive, but I'm not sure why it's necessary. I mean, pulling off a crazy combo in SF using a controller is very non-intuitive and difficult. So why touch control needs to be is beyond me.
 
Nice impressions. It looks like this is the game that a lot of us thought/hoped Yoshi would be (a good use of the touch screen beyond the minigame/hi score format).
 
Mama Smurf said:
Bump? The thread was still on the front page and the last post was an hour ago. You can reply without saying bump.

Anyway, I'll wait for more impressions, but I'm a bit disheartened by Jonnyram's comments. Admittedly he said he doesn't like Kirby games much, but to hear that he's not sure touch controls were the best idea for the game when it seemed sure this was the best use yet is...well, like I say, disheartening.
Click to expand...

He also said it was too chaotic? Is challenging bad nowadays?
 
Sgt. Killjoy said:
He also said it was too chaotic? Is challenging bad nowadays?
Click to expand...
I guess I'll clarify that it just takes a lot of getting used to the touch method of control, which increases the challenge artificially. Imagine, all of a sudden, that the d-pad on controllers was moved to the right and the fire buttons on the left. Wouldn't that change make things a bit difficult?

That said, I've always found Kirby games to be chaotic. I wouldn't say challenging exactly, that's why I chose a different word.
 
Jonnyram said:
That said, I've always found Kirby games to be chaotic. I wouldn't say challenging exactly, that's why I chose a different word.
Click to expand...
This perfectly sums up the majority of Kirby games, save for Air Ride. I prefer Air Ride over any of the stable Kirby titles actually. Looks like I'll wait a bit on Touch Kirby.
 
Just did the first world and wow, this game is awesome. Seriously I don't know Famitsu could be throwing around 9s and 10s for every DS game but not rate this extremely high.

In the $600+ worth of software released for the DS so far in Japan we've had a million mini-collections, rub-a-thons, time trials, score attacks, ports, etc...but what we haven't really seen was a real down-to-earth game. You know, something with a start, levels, bosses, and an ending! The gimmicky DS stuff hasn't really appealed to me so far, so Kirby being an actual real platformer (one of my favorite genre) makes me really happy.

The game so far reminds me heavily of Sonic 2. And I think anyone whose played Sonic 2 will say that is a very good thing. The game is fast, has tons of branching pathways, a good challenge, and is very fun. Excellent 2d graphics that look even better than the 16-bit systems combined with great music makes for a really awesome platforming experience.

I'm guessing the downfall of the game will be that it's the usual nintendo short ('but with replay value!' scream fans), but if the game can at least be the length of DK:JB (15-18 worlds, acceptable for a platformer) than it will be by far the greatest DS game currently available.
 
EBGames lists the title as Kirby Canvas Curse now. Set for June 13th.
 
Bebpo said:
Just did the first world and wow, this game is awesome. Seriously I don't know Famitsu could be throwing around 9s and 10s for every DS game but not rate this extremely high.

In the $600+ worth of software released for the DS so far in Japan we've had a million mini-collections, rub-a-thons, time trials, score attacks, ports, etc...but what we haven't really seen was a real down-to-earth game. You know, something with a start, levels, bosses, and an ending! The gimmicky DS stuff hasn't really appealed to me so far, so Kirby being an actual real platformer (one of my favorite genre) makes me really happy.

The game so far reminds me heavily of Sonic 2. And I think anyone whose played Sonic 2 will say that is a very good thing. The game is fast, has tons of branching pathways, a good challenge, and is very fun. Excellent 2d graphics that look even better than the 16-bit systems combined with great music makes for a really awesome platforming experience.

I'm guessing the downfall of the game will be that it's the usual nintendo short ('but with replay value!' scream fans), but if the game can at least be the length of DK:JB (15-18 worlds, acceptable for a platformer) than it will be by far the greatest DS game currently available.
Click to expand...


Awesome, glad to hear. Personally I loved Mario, Wario, and Yoshi, but I have a feeling this might best them.
 
Bebpo said:
Just did the first world and wow, this game is awesome. Seriously I don't know Famitsu could be throwing around 9s and 10s for every DS game but not rate this extremely high.

In the $600+ worth of software released for the DS so far in Japan we've had a million mini-collections, rub-a-thons, time trials, score attacks, ports, etc...but what we haven't really seen was a real down-to-earth game. You know, something with a start, levels, bosses, and an ending! The gimmicky DS stuff hasn't really appealed to me so far, so Kirby being an actual real platformer (one of my favorite genre) makes me really happy.

The game so far reminds me heavily of Sonic 2. And I think anyone whose played Sonic 2 will say that is a very good thing. The game is fast, has tons of branching pathways, a good challenge, and is very fun. Excellent 2d graphics that look even better than the 16-bit systems combined with great music makes for a really awesome platforming experience.

I'm guessing the downfall of the game will be that it's the usual nintendo short ('but with replay value!' scream fans), but if the game can at least be the length of DK:JB (15-18 worlds, acceptable for a platformer) than it will be by far the greatest DS game currently available.
Click to expand...
I'm liking it too -- I'm in the third world so far and it's been very fun. Starting to get decently challenging, too. The bosses have been a bit dull so far but everything else has been good. Searching for medals gives so much more meaning to the levels; rather than just running from point A to B as fast as possible, it gives you incentive to look around and explore. I like it a lot. Kind of reminds me of Sonic NGPC in that way, heheh.

Good music, too.
 
This is my most anticipated DS title. I can't wait for June, I'll definitely be picking up the western release of this (I tend to avoid imports if possible, when a western release is confirmed). Thanks for the impressions!

Is there much replay value in this - such as improving the score/time for each stage? Is there any multiplayer option?
 
Kirby Canvas Curse? WTF?

What's with Nintendo lately and the lack of 's in their titles? For example, Yoshi's Touch & Go sounds a gazillion times better than Yoshi Touch & Go. Same with Kirby's Air Ride vs. Kirby Air Ride. Kirby Canvas Curse just sounds stupid.

Marketing divisions in America are so predictable. They never, ever take chances with anything. So boring!
 
john tv said:
What's with Nintendo lately and the lack of 's in their titles? For example, Yoshi's Touch & Go sounds a gazillion times better than Yoshi Touch & Go. Same with Kirby's Air Ride vs. Kirby Air Ride. Kirby Canvas Curse just sounds stupid.
Click to expand...
They should have gone with "Touch Yoshi & Go" and "Ride Kirby in the Air" if they're scared of 's. I think "Touch Kirby" would work anyway - no idea why they had to rename it ;)
 
Jonnyram said:
They should have gone with "Touch Yoshi & Go" and "Ride Kirby in the Air" if they're scared of 's. I think "Touch Kirby" would work anyway - no idea why they had to rename it ;)
Click to expand...
Because they're too scared to do anything but try to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Maybe it gets them an extra 30 or so copies sold, but it's at the expense of them looking stupid and clueless, which they really can't afford right now.
 
I played some more last night too. I'm loving the game but I'm still not totally convinced that the copy abilities work well. Using Kirby was natural because of his ball like shape, but they really have tacked the abilities on in this game, I feel, rather than integrating them from the beginning. Perhaps this will change in later levels.
 
The more I play, the more the levels rock but I'm not sold on the 3 boss fights. Basically they're HARD :( The only one I can do consistently is the one where you draw pictures by following the diagram. The arkanoid one is ok but the boss lvl.2 is kinda tough and the driving game is just near impossible straight from the start :\
 
Is there Final Fantasy levels of text to translate in the game that's keeping them from releasing it until JUNE in the US?
 
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