Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Fans of all things pink and puzzle related may have good reason to be excited by this latest release as it will surely satisfy both of those needs. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Kirby's Star Stacker

 
Price: GB £2.70, EU €3
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Hal Laboratory
Released: 1997
System: GameBoy

Yet another title starring everyone's favourite pink blob, Kirby's Star Stacker is a puzzle game in which our titular hero must 'stack stars' it really couldn't be any more transparent a title if it tried; but what's perhaps most surprising is that this isn't just a simple remake of an existing concept with Kirby slapped on it but instead an original puzzle game which is in itself fairly impressive considering this was the last spin-off title released on the original monochrome brick. In essence you have some already arranged blocks which have stars on them plus character blocks featuring three of Kirby's helpers from Dream Land 2 which in case you'd forgotten they are called Coo Kine and Rick, you must match these blocks together to get rid of them with the added bonus of obliterating any star blocks that happen to be inbetween.

That's basically all you need to know as it will see you through 'Round Clear' which is the main mode that has you clearing a certain amount of stars in order to defeat King Dedede, naturally the number of stars increases as you make progress through the various rounds spread across five different difficulty levels until you get to the last levels where you'll need to clear over two-hundred stars. Obviously this is where you'll be spending most of your time as there's certainly a decent level of challenge to clearing every single round which could take you a fair few plays though depending on your experience with puzzle games your mileage may vary.

Other modes include Challenge which is in essence endless so you're just going for the high-score here as you start off with blocks rising from the ground up so you need to be dispersing them rather rapidly even at the start because not too soon after clearing a few the speed then increases so keeping on top of the pile is key here. Then we have Time Attack which does exactly what it says on the box, meaning you have precisely three minutes to hopefully accrue a vast amount of points which is always fun; originally of course there was a two-player versus mode which naturally with most 3DS VC titles is unavailable for now but it will likely be added in a future update.  

Everything is very clear on the visual front with some rather nicely detailed monochrome graphics which manage to carry over the majority of what makes the Kirby games so appealing even in puzzle form so expect to see some rather familiar elements here which are sure to bring a smile to your face. Predictably catchy the music featured here has that hummable quality to it that's usually associated with the platformers including many tracks that perfectly suit the pace of a puzzle game accompanied by some suitable sound effects which further enhance the experience.

Providing you find puzzle games pleasurable then there really isn't much to go wrong here as this is a decent example of the genre that's available for a fairly cheap price, naturally if you're a fan of Kirby too then there's your additional reason to purchase but really it's something of a no-brainer. You'll likely gain a decent few hours of enjoyment from this title which is definitely one of the better Kirby spin-off games that money can buy.    

Verdict : Kirby's Star Stacker is stunningly good fun in short bursts.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!