Kirby is my favorite series of all time, but there has always been two Kirby games that I never really got the hype about: Amazing Mirror and Planet Robobot. Recently, I had decided to play them both again to see if I was missing anything. In Robobot's case, I came away liking it less. The easy collectibles and overall difficulty, along with the mindless yet slow-paced puzzles and many autoscrolling stages made the game a real a chore, and even the initially awesome final boss became a drag once its novelty worn off. But worse of all, I hated that you spend most of the game playing as a worse and less agile version of Kirby in the Robobot Armor. Planet Robobot is still super polished, and I still really like the postgame with Meta Knight, but I'm gonna be perfectly frank here, it's probably one of my least favorite mainline Kirby games now. Amazing Mirror is different, though. Where I have only grown to dislike Robobot more with time, I ended up growing to love Amazing Mirror. Believe it or not, it might actually be one of my favorites now.
So let's start with the stuff I already liked about Amazing Mirror, because there was always a lot to love about the game. The core Kirby gameplay is as polished and fluid as always, especially compared to its predecessor Nightmare In Dream Land. That game was limited by Adventure's single-move abilities, but Amazing Mirror was able to giving all of its copy abilities multiple moves and combos for the first time since Super Star. You can tell the developers at Flagship wanted to put a bit more emphasis on the combat here since the enemies now have a health bar, an addition I find really charming if a bit unnecessary. Speaking of the combat, the one thing I unambiguously loved about Amazing Mirror were the boss fights, which I'd easily call some of the best in the series. Aside from Kracko, almost all of the boss fights are original here, with even Whispy Woods being replaced by his mirror counterpart King Golem, and fights such as Master & Crazy Hand, Dark Mega Titan, Gobbler, and Dark Mind play around with the standard Kirby boss formula through elements such as weaknesses and immunities in a way most other games rarely do. That creative spirit extends into the world as a whole. Since Amazing Mirror takes place outside of Dream Land, in its Mirror World, the entire game is filled with unique settings and locations like the haunted Moonlight Mansion, the interstellar Candy Constellation, and the ancient Radish Ruins. Even more standard biomes like the beach and cave levels feel fresh thanks to Flagship's unique artstyle, as well as their great original themes. I love Kirby's continuity and fanservicey elements, but one of Amazing Mirror's greatest strengths is its decision to not lean into any of that. It's very much its own thing, and I really admire that of it.
But that's all stuff I liked from the start. The reason why Amazing Mirror was one of my least favorite Kirby games was because of its open world structure. If you're not aware of the game, Kirby And The Amazing Mirror takes place in a large interconnected nonlinear world rather than a series of platforming stages like in the rest of the series. It's a really cool concept, and at its best, discovering new rooms and hidden secrets can be really addicting. There's even a multiplayer component that lets you and a bunch of friends link together to go on your own adventures, and even on singleplayer, there are AI Kirbies that will roam around on their own (though the AI is actually really bad, to the point of being absolutely hysterical to watch). It's by no means a perfect execution of the concept, but I really didn't give it the credit it deserved for the stuff it does right. My big problems with Amazing Mirror were three-fold: Certain paths are blocked off behind certain copy abilities which you can lose after a single hit making backtracking for them a chore, you have to go through every door to 100% the game including the two-way ones (as well as open all the chests), and the goal rooms are dead ends made to pad out the game. The latter two complaints, I think, are still valid. If you're diligent, the 100% thing isn't much of an issue but it can still feel frustrating if you miss like a single chest, and being funneled into a goal room if you're not trying to fill out the map can be a bit of a nuisance. However, those are both relative nitpicks that only depend on what kind of playthrough you're going for. The first complaint was easily my biggest, and is also the one that I have absolutely gone back on. I thought that losing your copy ability like that was antithetical to an open-world game, but that showed a fundamental misunderstanding of how Kirby And The Amazing Mirror operates.
Kirby And The Amazing Mirror starts off like your standard Kirby game, funneling you through a fairly linear set of rooms to the game's first boss. There are a few alternate paths you can take, but they're locked behind fairly rare abilities and require a lot of skill to reach. Once you beat the boss, the game completely opens up. You have access to pretty much all of the central hub Rainbow Route, and can really start to tackle things in whichever order you want. The sheer amount of freedom you get is what really makes Amazing Mirror shine, with each new route you discover uncovering at least three more options, and every world having several entry-and-exit points each of varying difficulties meaning you can pretty much go through the game in any order you want. The wide array of options you have at your disposal makes every playthrough entirely different. If you just want to beat the game normally, you can just go through the worlds in numbered order without much trouble. But if you want a bigger challenge, you could go to World 9 from the very start of the game through ability smuggling, and even beat all the bosses in reverse order. And as you go through the game, you unlock fast travel points that net you free abilities, hearts that increase your health, and maps that show where all the rooms are, making taking those harder paths all the more easier. That aforementioned World 9 exit is even right next to a fast travel spot, so as long as you've unlocked a Missile copy essence, getting there turns from a brutal no-hit run into a cinch. It's like Breath Of The Wild in that aspect. You can pretty much go anywhere you want from the start, but don't expect to be able to make a beeline for Hyrule Castle without getting your ass kicked. And that's ultimately why I didn't like Amazing Mirror at first. I used its open world structure as an excuse to go wherever I wanted, completely oblivious to the fact that I should've probably been getting better at the game before I started going for some of the harder paths.
As a result, I've really changed my tune on Kirby And The Amazing Mirror. It was always a pretty polished game with smooth gameplay, fun bosses, and great presentation, but I've really come to love its open world structure most of all. The sense of freedom and exploration Amazing Mirror offers is enthralling, regardless of if you're playing alone or with friends, and the way it handles its difficulty actually leaves the game open to speedruns, challenge runs, and pretty much any playstyle under the sun. It's still not a perfect game and I stand by wanting a remake or sequel to expand on its structure, but I have been way too harsh on it. At worst, Amazing Mirror is just a few quality of life features away from being truly top-tier.
4/5 Stars
So, since my ranking in the Retrospective hasn't really aged the best, here's a new one. I made a few other small changes, and moving around a few spinoffs, but my biggest change is definitely my new Amazing Mirror placement:
- Kirby And The Forgotten Land
- Kirby's Return To Dream Land
- Kirby Triple Deluxe
- Kirby's Epic Yarn
- Kirby Air Ride
- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
- Kirby Super Star Ultra
- Kirby And The Amazing Mirror
- Kirby Star Allies
- Kirby's Dream Land 3
- 3D Classics Kirby's Adventure
- Kirby And The Rainbow Curse
- Kirby Planet Robobot
- Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land
- Kirby Canvas Curse
- Kirby Block Ball
- Kirby Super Star (SNES original)
- Kirby Squeak Squad
- Kirby's Adventure (NES Version)
- Kirby's Dream Land
- Kirby Mass Attack
- Kirby Fighters 2
- Kirby Tilt And Tumble
- Kirby's Dream Land 2
- Kirby's Blowout Blast
- Kirby Fighters 2
- Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe
- Kirby (Super) Star Stacker
- Kirby Battle Royale
- Kirby's Dream Course
- Kirby Fighters Deluxe
- Kirby Pinball Land
- Super Kirby Clash
- Kirby's Avalanche
- Team Kirby Clash Deluxe
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