Superhero Media: Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn

I waited a while for the price to come down on this one, and I'm glad I did, because as good as Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn is, it's pretty short, I cleared the main adventure in a few hours. When the fiendish sorcerer, Yin-Yarn, escapes from his own universe into Dream Land, he begins to turn everyone and everything into yarn in a bid to conquer the world. Naturally, Kirby steps in to aid the situation, but once his is also turned into yarn, Kirby is unable to use his inhale ability and is quickly defeated. Now in the textile-themed "Patch Land", Kirby befriends Prince Fluff, the displaced ruler and the pair embark upon an adventure of freeing Patch Land from evil and collecting furniture. Yes, the collectable element of the game is furniture, with which Kirby can decorate his Patch Land apartment, a part of the game I didn't really care for, though that may have something to do with the touch-interface of the 3DS not being something I like using for precision work. 

The aesthetics of Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (yarn instead of wool for the pun value) are probably the best part of the experience, with everything looking like an arts and crafts project, complete with bottle caps, paper clips and the collectable being beads rather than stars. Instead of inhaling opponents, Kirby lassos them with some of the yarn he's made up of, which makes for rather unique game-play in the series, but there are still powers, most of which are reminiscent of previous entries. Probably my favourite little flourish of Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn is the new dash mechanic, in which Kirby transforms into a little car, beeps twice, and is harder to steer; it's cute and exactly the kind of detail that makes a Kirby game endearing. Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn is among the easiest Kirby games I've played, with the challenge being pretty flat except for a few massive spikes, which kind of bugged me as I was playing the game pretty casually and wasn't expecting them. The bonus "Devilish" levels vary in difficulty from absurdly easy to brutally punishing with no real indication or reason, so I haven't played a lot of them. 

So why isn't Prince Fluff in Kirby Star Allies or Smash Bros Ultimate even? He's got an interesting set of moves and transformations, the big mech would work as a Final Smash really well and at least it wouldn't be another JRPG or Mario character on the roster. Is it to do with rendering the whole Yarn thing? This game was pretty popular, but aside from demands for more knitted Amiibos, I don't really see a call for Patch Land to return in any fashion, which is a shame, at least the progression of the game wasn't the typical Dream Land fare that has become pretty familiar to fans of the series. I'd still say I was disappointed overall with Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, but there is stuff there that I want to see more of in later Kirby games, and not just a setting that I'm not already familiar with. I don't know, I get the feeling that the Kirby franchise has all of the pieces for an amazing "Triple A" style game that is engaging and story-driven whilst still being approachable for younger players, if Nintendo and Hal really committed to it, but only time will tell if that's one dream that can come true.