Away game special: When two yarns spin together

Even in Kirby's Epic Yarn ice physics are terrible. By which, I mean that they are spot on. Whenever you land on a platform, you don't just stop but instead skate along with your momentum. This adds a welcome element of challenge to the game. One that's compounded by playing the game with two players.

The multiplayer's not as bad for co-operative play as New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Nonetheless, when the platforms get small and the surfaces get slippery, then it's easy to get into each others' way. But that's the greatest source of difficulty in the game. Plus, levels and their secrets are designed in such a way that they reward people playing together.

Sometimes there are things hidden so high up that one player needs to leap off of the back of another while they're in mid-jump. Or, in other cases, you'll need something to throw into a block but your partner will be the only thing around. So the game's multiplayer may well be its strongest feature.

Away game special: What makes it "Epic"

Maybe I'm not great at holding a Wiimote steady. Maybe my sense of what's flat doesn't jive with the Wii's. Maybe Kirby's Epic Yarn just has levels where the difficulty spikes.

Considering that the rest of the game sets the difficulty bar pretty low, it's probably that last one.

Having just played through the level in Cake Land where you need to be train Kirby/Fluff, this so-called easy game has taken on a new face.

The level in question (Cocoa Station) doesn't have a lot of enemies or pitfalls. If it did it would be all the more infuriating. Why? Because you control train Kirby/Fluff by drawing tracks with the Wiimote.

These tracks technically don't have to be perfectly flat, but make them too rocky and train Kirby/Fluff will fall right off. This is especially enraging when you're trying to reach a platform or get to a speed boost on the way to a yarn wall. Thankfully, the game shows a small mercy in the "B" button. Pressing it flips you around.

Truth be told, at this point in the game (halfway through), every world has one challenging level. This level is always one unlocked after beating a world's boss, as is to be expected. But the challenge never lies in getting to the level's goal. Instead, if lies in getting enough beads to earn a shiny gold medal.

Such a completionist concern might seem a strange reason to deem a level challenging. However, any old school hardcore gamer will be able to appreciate a game that ratchets up the difficulty every now and then; it's a quality that made Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country classics.

Away game special: Super Mario Galaxy 2 vs. Kirby's Epic Yarn

The levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2 are weird. They're fairly open, but linear; they're three dimensional, but hemmed in. In some ways, actually, Kirby's Epic Yarn has better hidden secrets and branching paths.

The reason for this unexpected difference (3D games should, after all, trump 2D games when it comes to hiding things) is that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is made up of functional areas.

These are areas that have a specific purpose, like hosting a puzzle or minigame or introducing a new power up. Because much of the game's galaxies are full of such areas, it's fairly easy to see where things are out of place. And, where things are out of place, something is, more than likely, hidden.

In Kirby's Epic Yarn, however, the parts of each level are much more neatly knitted together. No doubt this is the case because the levels here aren't sectioned into particular functions. Each level is just a series of screens to navigate through. The game also benefits by not trying to hybridize a fairly rigid expression of platforming with linear three dimensional environments.

Away Game Special: More Yarn

Kirby's Epic Yarn is definitely an easy game. But it does use that easiness to its advantage. In the Treat Land area (the third area), for example, there are a few levels with bottomless pits. These pits don't lead to a restarted level or a loss of a life, but they make a dent in your bead collection.

Since bead collection is a pretty big part of completing levels successfully (read: at 100%), this penalty can be quite severe. Especially since there are already a few levels with a paucity of beads to collect.

The loss of beads doesn't lead to a forced restart of a level, but it's just as annoying to fall to your "doom" after having amassed a hoard of them. Just as annoying, in fact, as if you were to lose a life and have to restart if you're intent on getting the gold rating on each level.

Away Game Special: Spinning Yarns Together

It quickly earned a reputation for being incredibly childish, but Kirby's Epic Yarn offers some worthy challenges. 

First off, it's true that you can't die or wind up with a "Game Over" in Kirby's Epic Yarn. However, when you're trying to get everything unlocked as you go, losing a bunch of beads because you've been rescued from a pit or fallen into spikes is as bad as being kicked out of the level. And that goes double for the game's co-operative play mode. 

That is the mode where the game's challenge truly shines through. The screen barely zooms out if two players are on either side of it. As a result, the players are tethered together, and will be brought back on screen if they stray too far away or get trapped in a scrolling area. What's worse is that once the game puts more and more emphasis on precise platforming two players will quickly run out of room between jumps. They'll be grabbing each other with their yarn whips and otherwise falling all over each other. 

Nonetheless, this hysterical sort of gameplay really adds to the game's fun. Playing it solo would definitely be far too easy (especially since there aren't really any places where the boost a second player can offer is necessary to find hidden items/areas). But, working with another player in the game's tight spaces turns it from a cutely stylish platformer into a frantically challenging, fun experience. 

If you can play it regularly with another person and love a good platformer, I highly recommend Kirby's Epic Yarn.