Simple yet addicting: The definition of a NES masterpiece
Surprisingly though, Kirby's Adventure excelled that barrier and became an instant classic, probably because of its extremely high production values. Since it was released by the end of the NES lifespan developers were already extremely familiar with the system's hardware, and were able to gain some power by using every single trick that they had learned since the NES was released.
On Kirby's Adventure Kirby wakes up and finds it strange that he didn't dream, therefore he heads to The Fountain of Dreams to discover what has happened. He then finds out that King Dedede has stolen the sacred Star Rod from the fountain and shattered it into seven pieces. Now Dream Land is threatened.
Most NES great titles have a unique, simple and addicting gameplay. And Kirby's Adventure is no exception to the rule. Being a platformer on a console that featured games like Super Mario Bros 3, Metroid, Kid Icarus and The Legend of Zelda is no easy task. Therefore in order to be noticed the game would necessarily need a gameplay that had never been used, something truly innovative.
On its prior game, Kirby's Dream Land, the starring character already possessed the ability to swallow its enemies, however on Kirby's Adventure not only was he able to swallow them, but he could also gain their abilities. And that's what you will have to do during the entire game, which contains seven worlds, each one consisted of seven different stages and a boss. The bosses are by far the most challenging part of the whole game, to defeat them you will have to perform a series of actions and avoid an impressive array of attacks.
Gaining enemy abilities may not look too much fun at first, but there is such an amazing variety of characters to eat that you will feel compelled to fully use all skills you are able to acquire during the game such as: being able to freeze enemies, use fire to attack them, turn into a rock (like Kirby's down + B move on Super Smash Bros), use an awesome sword and many others. As you progress you can also play a bunch of really fun mini-games and get a few rewards based on how well you fared.
While the game is not as hard – and therefore as long - as any of the aforementioned NES titles, its replay value is still impressive. When you lose all your lives, instead of returning to the very beginning of the game, all you need to do is restart the level on which you died again, the only thing that you will actually lose is any checkpoints that you may have gotten to, which makes the game much more friendly to the casual gamer or to those who despise some NES titles for being too punishing. The replay value is quite steep. Once you are done with the game it will give you a certain percentage of completion, so if you are one of those hardcore gamers who can't let a game down before knowing that you fully achieved everything that is possible.
When it comes to a technical standpoint the game is nothing short of reaching perfection. As I have stated before, since developers had already been producing games for this system for nearly eight years, they were able to sully use the hardware of the system. Kirby's Adventure is the best-looking NES title ever, and it can be compared to some early SNES efforts.
The amount of different colors and tones used to bring the scenarios to life is astounding. Since the game takes place in Dream Land it is necessary, for the game to succeed, that its scenarios look as colorful and fantastic as possible. Differently from all NES games, that simply change the palette in order to indicate that you have reached another world, each one of Kirby's Adventure's worlds presents unique forms, environments and colors. The same applies to the entire soundtrack that's brilliantly made of nice tunes.
Finally, Kirby's Adventure is the definite NES title, because of its graphics, gameplay and sound. It may seem a little bit easy to most old-school gamers but it is impossible not to smile and have some fun when playing through it. Simple and Addicting, an apparently easy formula that has only been achieved by a few NES games.