Kirby and The Amazing Mirror is a wonderful creation of a Gameboy Advanced game that has been raised and brought into our Gameboys with love and care. This game appeals in so many ways, to the eye, ear, and to the fingertips as well. Kirby has long been a staple of Nintendo, as we mostly think of Mario when we think Nintendo. However, the pink puffball can't be left in the dust, can he? Just look how adorable he is, look at his face! Kirby is an alien from the planet Popstar, and has a rather intriguing adventure to embark on, using the power of multiple versions of himself in order to save the day. I always played this game when I was little, and since the Ambassador Program aired on the Nintendo 3ds soon after its launch, I was graced with the wonderful game that blessed my tiny, six year old mind, with images of the happy, food nomming, enemy swallowing hero that is Kirby. Through countless hours of rolling through the same levels for the satisfying pleasure of finding a new, hidden area! The addition of three other Kirbies also added a fun, group factor to the game! (Even though I spent most of my time playing alone... Heh). But that's besides the point.

Graphics: 10

The graphics in this game are absolutely wonderfully constructed, albeit sometimes a little unclear given the size of the items and enemies in comparison to the large amounts of things on the screen all at once. However, the beautiful textures and appearances of the many, MANY areas of the game will keep you entertained for very long, as you pass by enormous castles, freezy winter-lands, and harsh lava areas as well. Clean and sleak even down to the rather large enemies, the graphics are well on par for the Gameboy Advance's time. The food looks absolutely scrumptious, the mini games have an art style almost completely to their own, and the enemies look absolutely tasty! Er... Never mind that last bit. But where the game really shines is the Copy Abilities that Kirby has the option of obtaining when he swallows an enemy. In the start menu, you also get a cool, if not amusing, witty description of the copy ability at hand with some artwork there as well (I'm talking to you, Tornado copy ability)! If I had to pick one aesthetic of the game to truly praise, however, it would be the bosses. Doing a bit of spritework myself, I understand how difficult it is to make huge monsters look clean pixel by pixel, so seeing a fresh load of unique, fearsome bosses, from a giant, bomb barfing present monster to a frosty giant that shakes its butt at you, they're supremely wacky and interesting in their own way. No boss feels out of place in this game, and their attacks are varied and interesting to use. Some of the very first worlds have the most beautiful, intricate background art if you're willing to take a second from the variety of spinning, toppling, flying, exploding, fiery, freezing, zapping enemies in order to see. Beautiful forests and stunning backgrounds, saturated and blended beautifully into the background. Of course, the foreground isn't without love as well! Beautiful adornments of pixels dot the screen to create a visible, interesting ambiance that lasts from area to area. It is shocking to look at exactly how much effort went into it all, as the beautiful masterpieces of art dance onto the screen, with so many areas and backgrounds to look at from world to world.

Sound: 10

What else is there to say? Oh yeah, the music is AMAZING! The catchy tunes of the areas leave a mind entrancing tune that gets so easily stuck in your head! Although some areas can be repetitive if you do them over and over and over, the wide variety of areas as well as collectible music tracks leave a lot of beautiful tunes to be listened to at any given time. The beeps and boops from the different tracks along with the beautiful candy theme that plays whenever you get an item leaves a lot to be proud of. The little noises and sounds with each and every copy ability adds to the "wow" factor of using each! The game just wouldn't be the same with the volume down. Sometimes, the catchy tune from the music will leave me tapping my foot along to the music, or humming it in my head when I hear a song that sounds somewhat alike it. Kirby games are most fondly known for their upbeat, fragile music, which creates a sense of enjoyment and happiness, but this one compared to any other ones prior, takes the cake when it comes to this, as well as crazy, upbeat boss music to fist-pump along to. Multiple little electronic instruments dance and swat the music back and forth, creating a catchy, enjoyable beat.

Story: 7

Kirby games tend to show rather than tell, as you will soon find out that there is very few pieces of dialog that actually tell you what the story is. This is the only part that gives the rating a good deduction, but for what you can inference, a "shadowy figure" has broken the Amazing Mirror, scattering it's shards all across different worlds! It's up to Kirby, (Meta Knight?) and the multiple versions of himself (that "Shadow" Meta Knight created by... Slashing kirby into four?!) to find, and recover the pieces of the mirror in order to restore balance. Although the richness of the story isn't very apparent, the show, is way better than the tell. Searching high and low for these pieces in order to fix the mirror drives the game ever forward, leaving lots of surprise twists along the way. Kirby will have to use the power of the Warp Star, and the other three Kirbies in order to combat all the monsters, solve puzzles, and even for some of the most tricky boss battles! However, the meaning of the story almost gets lost in translation between the start of the game and the end, where the entire reason of the mirror splitting apart because of Meta Knight and saving the world, transfers into "Gotta rebuild the mirror." Because of this, the game loses the purpose and it starts to dilute into the adventure rather than the whole purpose behind WHY you're even ON this adventure. The story is highly forgettable in essence, but as you revisit the main hub over and over and over, you'll take a glance at the mirror and remember what your task is.

Addictivness & Depth: 10

There is SO much to do in this game. Collectibles are scattered throughout multiple levels, from musics to spray paints, as well as other little tidbits that lay about, such as secret doors or links to other areas, teleports and more! If there's one thing the Kirby games never fall short of, it's volume. Kirby and The Amazing Mirror is probably the greatest, if not the only open world Kirby game where you can constantly switch and explore the map all the way across from one world to another. There are always different copy abilities to find and monkey around with in order to find all the hidden goodies spread about the map! Spray paints allow you to change your Kirby to the color of your liking, such as chocolate brown or black, which is purely cosmetic, but sure is addicting to see all the different neat types of flavors you can paint our hero. The mini-games add a fun amount of depth, and a pleasing, alternate aesthetic to Kirby that isn't seen in the story mode. The replayibility on this game is super high, considering the completionist attitude of absolutely NEEDING to find all of the collectibles, play around with your favorite copy abilities, or fight your favorite boss once more.

Difficulty: 7

The difficulty factor in this game depends on what you define as difficult. If you're looking for a quick blast through the game, there isn't much that's going to turn you broadside on your search. However, if you're hellbent on linking all the worlds together and finding every secret, every extra, and every copy ability, you're in for a long ride. Although the boss battles aren't particularly difficult, navigation and methods of climbing from point A to point B may be the thing that hinders your exploration of the game itself. Finding these tricky passageways or backtracking or mixing abilities in order to get that ONE that you need in order to open up the next area is where the adventure lies to a certain degree. As for combat, repetition and memorization will save you any major difficulty, but the lack of extra lives without more exploring can hinder first time players into starting back at the main hub a multitude of times, but which then leaves them able to explore a NEW area!

Controls and Multi-Kirbies: 7.6

Kirby and The Amazing Mirror has controls that are, more so than not, tailored to the copy abilities that Kirby is able to obtain. These controls are made vastly easy, utilizing the maximum capacity of all the buttons on the Gameboy in order to fulfill each of the moves' criteria. For example, the Fighter move has a lot of different combos to use, but each comes out when commanded and how commanded. Some copy abilities have more usefulness than others with different moves to perform, but not once have I had myself dying from lack of the game's responsiveness to my input, or inability to perform specific moves. Now to address the AI in the game. In short, the other Kirbies aren't anything particularly special, as they can easily get jammed behind walls or find ways to directly put themselves within the line of fire. As a result, you'll usually end up losing a lot more Kirbies than your phone has batteries to call back. This usually leaves you on your own, or at least, in a cluster of struggling Kirbies who have difficulty dealing a moderate amount of damage to the enemy. Quite possibly the worst part is the lack of consistency with the copy abilities that the other Kirbies have, and an inability to control them. Sometimes one Kirby may have a copy ability you really need, but you have to direct them into danger for the purpose of getting their own ability, as group commands for them are nonexistent, and switching Kirbies is impossible. Due to this, the game seems severely hindered in it's prime feature of using multiple Kirbies. Sometimes they may surprise you or lead you to a secret area by accident, but that's more through trial and tribulation rather than genius AI. This isn't to say, however, that these Kirbies don't have any programmed smarts either. Some areas you absolutely NEED them in order to progress, or unlock a secret. Luckily so, the Kirbies know exactly what to do, even when you don't, sometimes, such as inhaling large blocks or breaking special metal ones. This at least alleviates that difficulty of finding and dealing with secrets that require multiple Kirbies. Although, you ARE able to heal some Bottom line, multiple Kirby combat= poor, treasure seeking secret finding Kirbies= way better.

Overall: 8.5

Even with some of the slight drawbacks and amounts of repetition that this game has, it still holds its own through the wide variety of copy abilities, areas, and fun bosses to fight and shards to find. You may find yourself looking for a snippet of a music sheet only to find yourself facing an unexpected boss with a poor copy ability, or having to backtrack in order to find all the shortcuts. Although these may seem to be a hindrance, it creates a large sense of adventure and puzzle solving that other Kirby games seem to not be able to cram into missions, that this one does by cramming it into multiple worlds. For a casual, yet adventure seeking game, you need not look further than Kirby and The Amazing Mirror, for you'll find more than you could have wanted out of a commonly level based game, where this one breaks the mold tremendously. What Kirby could do better, what Kirby and The Amazing Mirror could do better, we may leave the blame up to the limitations of the Gameboy, because the ability to play such a vast multiplayer experience with your friends, may be one of the most exciting things for such an extraordinary game.