Kirby Star Allies, available on Switch
1-4 local players
A violent game is not necessarily a bad game. Conversely, a colourful and cute game is not necessarily a good game. Of course, I am not referring only to the visual content here, but to its very essence, what makes a game enjoyable; to its mechanics, what makes it a well-designed product offering an interesting activity. A good game therefore offers coherent interactivity, which leads the player to overcome challenges by themselves, using the skills acquired in previous experiences. With this brief, slightly theoretical introduction, we can assess the case of Kirby Star Allies, freshly arrived as a Switch exclusive. For those who do not know him, Kirby, the little pink ball, is one of Nintendo’s icons, but he remains rather discreet. He is more of a “supporting act”, in the shadow of the great Mario, Link, Samus or Pikachu. Yet he is more than 25 years old, but after dazzling beginnings, he has only been brought out of the cupboard for games that often have an aftertaste of “stopgap”. In this instance, the endearing little hero, who sucks in his enemies to steal their powers, returns in a very classic platform game. Four players can play through this adventure simultaneously, and this lays the foundations of a collaboration concept that could have hit the mark. Indeed, each character has an ability (water, fire, wind, electricity, combat, etc.) that can be combined with those of the others to obtain different kinds of tools or attacks. This idea is appealing and it is easy to see how it could create a participatory dynamic of collective thinking. But an idea alone does not make a good game. The major pitfall lies in the way things are presented. For each obstacle to overcome, the solution is provided automatically. It would have been interesting to let the children (since the game is aimed at them) think about which power to use and combine in order to succeed. Instead, the enemy with the useful skill is systematically placed right next to you. It is as if you were asked to find a clever way to drive in a nail in order to progress, and a hammer were systematically placed in front of it, in plain sight. Rather poor thinking. The “level design” also cuts a sorry figure. This is the construction of the level in which the characters move (Where to put platforms? Should you go from left to right, the reverse, or from top to bottom? What shape does the scenery take? etc.). Here it resembles a flat electrocardiogram. And that is not just a metaphor, since the different worlds you pass through offer almost no variation in their construction. One last black mark, and then I will stop picking on this cute little face: when you play alone, the other three characters are played by artificial intelligence, and it is so effective that you can simply let them do all the work. Let us not forget that the strength of video games also lies in being able to make players (and especially children) fail and encourage them to push themselves to overcome these challenges. Offering a game that is too easy and poorly thought out, on the pretext that it is not violent and therefore ideal for the youngest, is not necessarily a guarantee of quality and does not necessarily help to develop a critical mind in choosing games.
The game is nonetheless very beautiful, let us give it that.
One for all, all for me!
To discover the content by watching players stream their games:
https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Shadow%20of%20the%20Colossus
Niels Weber is a psychologist-psychotherapist (FSP) specialising in hyperconnectivity
niels.weber@semperludo.com
Find more articles on the website www.semperludo.com
