Poor King Dedede. He's been the bad guy exactly once in Popstar's history and the hero at least twice, but no matter what it seems that Kirby's first recourse for any problem is to beat the stuffing out the unfortunate penguin no matter what.
Our pink hero knocks the snot out of Dedede again on pure principle at the beginning of Squeak Squad under suspicion that he was the cuplrit behind the theft of Kirby's snack, a strawberry shortcake. Of course, it turns out that Dedede wasn't the real culprit at all (he hasn't been the real culprit for
anything since Kirby's very first game, Dreamland, on the original Gameboy) and the chase is on.
Yes, Squeak Squad is an entire game based off of Kirby's crusade for a slice of strawberry shortcake. I wonder if he's related to George W. Bush?
In any event, Squeak Squad doesn't have gamers all in a tizzy because it's about a slice of shortcake but because it's the first
real Kirby adventure since
Crystal Shards way back in the dark ages of the Nintendo 64. Yes,
Canvas Curse was unique, addictive,
and charming but not a real platformer;
Nightmare in Dreamland was just a lame rehash of Kirby's Adventure for the NES (never you mind that the origial Adventure was the best Kirby game ever); The
Amazing Mirror took the pink creampuff in a Metroid-like direction that was so poorly executed that it
hurt, and finally with Squeak Squad we're back to good old map-screen-navigating, enemy-inhaling, power-copying, level-clearing, boss-thrashing proper Kirby.
It's about bloody time.
Squeak Squad looks rather like Amazing Mirror did, graphically, but most backgrounds and locations are less bland. Kirby's likeness and most enemies return from this previous outing, just with a little more screen real estate to play around on in their new DS home. The staple copiable abilities are back: Fire, freeze, wheel, spike, parasol, spark, hammer, cutter, and sword to name a few. (Kirby neophytes should be informed that the pink puff's schtick is to inhale enemies, devour them, and then copy their special abilities.) There are also some new additions to the mix: Animal, which enables pouncing on foes and digging through dirt; Bubble, which entraps enemies in suds Bubble Bobble style (more on this later); Ghost, allowing you to possess enemies; And Fire Sword, obtained by combining fire and sword (go figure).
The gimmick this time around is the use of the DS's touch screen. All of the action happens on the top screen, while the bottom screen holds up to five items encased in bubbles. Bubbled items are encountered from time to time or the Bubble ability can turn anything into a bubble; Either way, items in bubbles stay floating in Kirby's stomach indefinitely until you poke one of them on the screen, at which point Kirby... um,
regurgitates it and said item is put to use. Items can also be combined by dragging them into each other. For example, food items will 'upgrade,' eventually into Maxim Tomatoes, if you keep combining them. At least one ability can only be obtained by combining two others (fire sword) and combinations of abilities morph into a different one - generally always the same for a given combination - giving new use to abilities that would be useless given the situation.
The bad guys du jour are the game's namesake Squeak Squad, a quartet of mice who also happen to be intergalactic thieves/treasure hunters. They fall into the obligatory stereotypes: There's the big fat (slow) strong guy, the little quick ninja guy, the brainy one with the goofy glasses who lets his machines do the fighting, and the mysterious and Darkwing Duck-esque leader. Kirby fights them all repeatedly, as part two of the game's gimmick is the system of chests.
Every Kirby game needs something to collect. Usually you collect all of whatever and it leads to a different ending; In this case it's treasure chests. There are 3 in all normally sized levels, regular brown ones and one big ornate one per level. Snag the ornate chest and a member of the Squeak Squad will show up and try to take it from you. Sometimes you can just escape to the end of the level with your chest and leave them standing there. Sometimes you are forced to fight the thief even if you already "got" the chest on a previous play through. In some rare instances, even, you and the thief enter the room at the same time and you have to beat them to the chest (or, beat it out of them if they get it first).
At the end of each level the chests are opened and there are about a zillion and three collectibles contained within. These range from totally worthless (puzzle pieces that form pictures you can look at...) to functional (scrolls that grant new abilities) to downright essential (pieces of hearts that enlarge your life bar).
There are eight "worlds" to conquer, each with six to eight levels contained within, one hidden level per world, and a boss fight for each as well. Some levels are long and intricate and require multiple play-throughs to see all of their paths, nooks, and crannies; Some are just one or two "rooms" long and are often a race to obtain a single chest before you are hurled out of the level. Overall the game is disappointingly short; This is par for the course with many modern Kirby titles excepting the Amazing Mirror, but the fact that it'll probably take you just as long to find all the chests that you missed as it will for you to get from start to finish in the first place adds some game time. Also as expected in a Kirby game there are a handfull of mini-games you can get to from the menu, and of course some obligatory and utterly forgettable multiplayer minigames as well.
Squeak Squad is most definitely an entry into Kirby's Adventure universe (as opposed to his Dreamland universe) but climaxes in a boss fight with an utterly lame amorphous cyclopean thing as we're used to with Dreamland series titles. It's a strange mix, but the fact that the final boss fight is so very easy and so horribly lame will make you forget all about the incongruity.
Once you beat it you get a secondary mode that's a time trial to find all the chests in the game (again) and that's it. Nothing more to see here, move along.
Squeak Squad is short but relatively sweet. It's a fairly fast paced game but not as hyperactive as Superstar was; The pace is on par with the Amazing Mirror, not much of a surprise considering how much of its content was lifted directly from the previous title. The touch screen gimmick is sort of clumsy and a little annoying, and I think the game would be a lot better if it were ignorable. Unfortunately, chests take up stomach space just like bubbles do and sooner or later you'll be forced to manage Kirby's gastric inventory under fire, which will probably annoy you.
Squeak Squad isn't much new and certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it
is the first real Kirby game in quite a while and therefore worth a look.
Give it a go.
