Kirby And The Amazing Mirror

I've been on a bit of a metroidvania kick lately, I bought Touhou Luna Nights, replayed Super Metroid, and am in the process of trying to fully complete Hollow Knight once and for all (not an easy task, mind you), so I decided to try out Kirby's attempt at a metroidvania. Amazing Mirror is definitely an interesting and memorable experiment, even if it's also a relatively flawed one.

Kirby And The Amazing Mirror has you search a giant world called the "Mirror World" in search of the eight mirror shards that you can use to save Meta Knight, who has been trapped in a mirror (there's a pretty big mirror motif in this game). In general, Amazing Mirror's core gameplay is similar to most Kirby games. You can run, jump, swallow up enemies, and copy their abilities. It's just as fun of a gameplay loop as any other game in the series and works perfectly fine on GBA. You also have the ability to call on three other colored Kirbies to help you out for a puzzle or a difficult enemy or boss encounter, as long as you have enough batteries. It's an interesting concept and even supports multiplayer, but it's not required all that often in the actual game. However, it's a great stepping stone for later multiplayer Kirby games like Return To Dream Land and Star Allies.

The main thing that makes Amazing Mirror stand out from any other Kirby games is its large, open world and nonlinear nature. You start off in a main hub that takes you to the first world of the game, Rainbow Route. As you start exploring, you eventually reach a bunch of split paths and alternate routes, along with rooms that link to the main hub for fast travel. Each of the nine major worlds of the game has a complex, interconnected map, with certain rooms that can only be accessed with certain copy abilities, goal areas, and of course, bosses which hold the mirror shards that you're meant to collect. The concept of a metroidvania Kirby game is a really cool one, and at times, it's a ton of fun to explore the massive worlds this game has to offer. However, this is where my praise for Amazing Mirror's gameplay ends, because the open world nature of the game leads to a lot of issues.

First of all, Amazing Mirror uses the same engine as Nightmare In Dream Land meaning that you lose your copy ability after getting hit by an enemy once. While this is fine in your average platformer, Amazing Mirror has tons of routes that are completely blocked off unless you have a certain ability like Missile. Sometimes, you get the copy ability shortly before the point at which you need it, but other times, you have to cross the entire map without getting hit to access certain paths which can make it incredibly frustrating if you happen to lose it and have to trek back to where you originally found the ability. Then, there are the goal rooms, which put you through a mini game before forcing you back to the main hub. It seems like an attempt at recreating the level-based nature of the other Kirby games but it doesn't work at all here. But my least favorite addition to Amazing Mirror is the fact that you need to go through every door in the game both ways to get 100% rather than just visit every room, which is particularly bad given that the Boss Rush, a staple of the Kirby series, is locked behind 100% completion this time around. Even worse, the map screen doesn't tell you which doors you need to go through, so you'll probably end up having to blindly scour for whichever door you forgot to go through twice.

This isn't to say that I hate Amazing Mirror, however. The core gameplay of Kirby is enough to carry me through anything after all, and the sheer novelty of an open world Kirby game is still super cool. I think the formula shows a ton of potential, and even a remake of Amazing Mirror with some quality of life improvements would be incredibly welcome. I also really like this game's boss fights, which are easily some of the most unique in the series. The fights with Mega Titan, Dark Meta Knight, Master Hand & Crazy Hand, and of course, Dark Mind, are definitely the highlights for me. The visuals are mostly taken from Nightmare In Dream Land, but they're still super clean and pleasing to the eye, especially in regards to the backgrounds. As for the music, it's pretty great too. I have a lot of nostalgia for Game Boy Advance music, even if its sound quality is pretty weak, and I think this soundtrack's melodies definitely carry it regardless.

Overall, Kirby And The Amazing Mirror is easily one of Kirby's most unique experiences and is worth playing for that reason alone, even if the core exploration needs a bit more polish. I think a remake with better visuals and music, more quality of life improvements, and fairer 100% completion could turn this game from good to thoroughly great.

3/5 Stars