Mario Kart 8. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. New Super Mario Bros. U. What do these three games have in common? They are all really cool games… but none of them have very important and innovative uses for the Wii U’s main controller: the Wii U gamepad. However, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse uses the Wii U gamepad in a most spectacular fashion.

After all the colors in Dream Land are stolen by Claycia, an evil sculptor, Claycia’s partner, Elline, manages to bring color to Kirby and Waddle Dee. The three then run off to Claycia’s newly-colored world of Seventopia to return color to Dream Land.

This game is an excellent addition to the Kirby franchise. The basic style of game play is the same as Kirby Canvas Curse, in which you draw rainbow lines Kirby can travel along. The controls are much more responsive than in Kirby Canvas Curse, especially when underwater, and vehicle transformations are exceptional; much better than the unreliable copy abilities from Kirby Canvas Curse.

The graphics are stupendous with their claymation motif, and levels and worlds look amazing in their design. Having actual bosses as opposed to boss minigames from Kirby Canvas Curse is also a relief.

The multiplayer mode is fantastic. It allows for all new ways to interact with Kirby, and the Waddle Dees have a pretty big part even though they cannot create rainbow lines. The Grab Hands also give the Waddle Dees some time to shine, something often unseen in other multiplayer games where Player One gets all the glory. However, it’s unfortunate that Waddle Dees don’t get a part in Rocket levels.

The music in the game is some of the best music the Kirby series has heard. Upon collecting certain treasure chests in the game, special remixed music from other Kirby games becomes available for listening and almost every tune is distinctly different and many an improvement over the original version.

The amiibo are also fun to use, like the Kirby amiibo, which grants unlimited Star Dashes, and is very useful and allows for more experimentation with Star Dashes. The King Dedede and Meta Knight amiibos also look like they would be fun to use.

Despite all these positives, the game is pretty short. Excluding boss levels, there are no more levels in this game than in Kirby Canvas Curse, which is a little disappointing. However, the levels are much more interesting, and the level Deep-Divin’ Kirby Submarine is one of the best levels of any platforming game ever created.

In conclusion, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is one of the best Wii U games available.  This game should appeal to anyone who appreciates amazing graphics and music in video games.