Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a side-scrolling platform game by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo on Nintendo 64. It was later available on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console, and is also in Kirby's Dream Collection.

Plot
Ripple Star, the home planet of Ribbon, is attacked by Dark Matter. To save the planet, Ribbon leaves Ripple Star with the Crystal, but is soon attacked by some Dark Matter and falls on Pop Star, losing the Crystal on the way. She then meets Kirby, who helps her gathering the lost Crystal Shards scattered over the planets.

Why It Deserves To Get The Crystal Shards

 * 1) As a sequel to Kirby's Dream Land 3, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards features a unique "combo ability" system, which allows Kirby to have two abilities at once. You have a total of 49 combinations of abilities, all of which are cool to try out, and some are even important in order to complete the game.
 * 2) Unlike the previous Kirby games, this game features 3D graphics, and though the player is still restricted to a 2D area, they can now interact with objects in the background. The camera angle is just right and you can see things clearly.
 * 3) Awesome soundtrack. Of them, the 0² battle theme is very nice to listen to.
 * 4) Beautiful 3D graphics even by it's 2000 standards.
 * 5) Fun boss battles. Some of them are in a ring-like arena. This later inspires some bosses from Kirby: Planet Robobot.
 * 6) In some areas, you play as King Dedede, who can use his hammer to smash down obstacles. Alongside, some levels have you ride a minecart or bobsled with Waddle Dee.
 * 7) Amusing and cute cutscenes between stages. For example, during the Rock Star cutscene, Kirby is so hungry that the team has no choice but to stop for a picnic.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The controls of this game are not as smooth as the other Kirby 2D games. Kirby is slower than usual, and he can't fly infinitely. He will fall down after a period of time if you try to stay in the air. Partly because of this, the level designs are flat.
 * 2) Unlike other Kirby games, the mid-bosses are just larger versions of enemies and they are almost passive (with some staying completely stationary).
 * 3) Much like Kirby's Dream Land 3, you have to collect every Crystal Shard in this game in order to unlock the final boss and good ending. The game doesn't give hints for you, and some of them need you to enter another stage and quit just to find the right ability. You need a lot of backtracking to collect all of them.
 * 4) While the graphics are beautiful by Nintendo 64 standards, they haven't really aged well.
 * 5) Some of the combo abilities are ultimately useless, such as the Burning + Ice (Melting Ice Block) or Bomb + Cutter (Explosive Ninja Stars) one.

Reception
This game has a score of 77/100 on Metacritic.

Trivia

 * The game was planned for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, but got cancelled due to the add-on's failure.