Written by Jo�o Pedro Lopes

Kirby's Epic Yarn warmed our hearts and turned them into wool (which might be kind of dangerous, but I'm not a doctor), but odds are you were still left yearning for a more classic Kirby experience. Enter Kirby Wii.

First announced for the Gamecube many thought this game dead after Epic Yarn was shown, but it turns out Nintendo is betting on the cute pink blob to breathe some life into Wii's barren 2011 release schedule and you know what? It's looking great!

If you played a game of the main series before, this should be familiar. Kirby can use his amazing lung capacity not only to hold in air allowing him to fly, but to suck in enemies and obstacles and spit them out. More importantly, if you swallow special enemies you can absorb their powers to use and abuse as you wish. Kirby's inhaling got an upgrade, if you shake the Wii Remote with pressing 1, you can suck in more and bigger enemies as well as otherwise immovable objects and then proceed to spit out a giant star.

The two stages I tried showed great level design as they were both long but didn't feel drawn out or empty thanks to its many enemies, obstacles, multiple paths, hidden items and a portal in each level that warped Kirby to a special black and white stage with a boss at the end that could be defeated to obtain an item. As usual there are plenty of abilities to absorb from enemies, Kirby can don his best Link cosplay to wield a sword, shoot beams from a wand, use a whip, throw blades, breathe fire, throw bombs and so on. Using these in the air or with different button combinations will yield different results. Take the new ability Water for example: if you press 1 Kirby shoots a stream of water, with Up+1 a water pillar rises from his hat and if you dash and press 1 you can surf and take enemies away with you.

The Super Abilities are also new to the series, if you swallow certain special enemies you can use these super charged powers for great destruction. In the demo I used Super Sword where Kirby swings gigantic blades that destroy everything in their wake and cut huge ropes to make new paths accessible and Super Fire to summon a fire dragon that burns down everything. With all these different abilities and variety in the levels, it seems like there will be many different ways to take the game and its bosses on.

I only played by myself, but up to 4 people can play simultaneously calling Meta Knight, King Dedede and Waddle Dee into the mix. I have to say that I absolutely loved this demo and it left me greatly anticipating the day Kirby Wii hits the stores as it's shaping up to be yet another great addition to Wii's platformer roster.