It's the middle of May, and you know what that means. That's right, it's time for Nintendo to do the bare minimum and release their monthly Nintendo 64 game for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers. This month we get Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, which was first released all the way back in 2000. Kirby is big this year, but does that mean you should download this 2.5D platformer? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Nintendo Power, GamePro and more classic magazines to see what the critics said back when Kirby 64 first came out. Join me for a shape-shifting episode of Nintendo Switch Online Review Crew!


Over the last thirty years, we've seen a lot of console franchises find their way to handheld systems, including big names like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda. However, that's not the case for Kirby, which flipped the tables and started on the Game Boy before jumping to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES and Nintendo 64. It's that 64-bit version that is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack this week. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a 2.5D take on the classic series that was originally intended to come out on the Nintendo 64DD add-on and would end up being Kirby's last console game until Return to Dream Land on the Wii, released more than a decade later.

Critics were charmed by this 2000 release, but Kirby 64 was considered a lesser Nintendo title at the time. Over at Electronic Gaming Monthly, Mark liked he bright, clean and colorful graphics, but complained that "there just isn't enough new or exciting, and the game's slower pace and low difficulty made it hard to stay interested after a while." Shawn liked it more than Mark, praising it for being something for "anyone (male or female) who loves a solid platformer. The sheer number of things Kirby can change into and the way these personas can be used against a particular enemy or to find a hidden item is really entertaining."

You saw similar scores from most of the American critics, with Game Fan being Kirby's biggest cheerleader with an average score of 87%. Believe it or not, that's higher than Nintendo's own Nintendo Power, who only gave it an 8.1 and called it "cute, but never condescending." Jason notes that "despite its mild difficulty level, I still found myself wanting to play this again and again." Jennifer concluded that "playing Kirby 64 is a shard habit to break." I see what you did there, Jen.

In case you're wondering, Kirby did not fair much better around the world. UK's own N64 Magazine gave it the lowest score, with a 72%. If we want to travel all the way to Australia, you'll find that Hyper gave it an 85% in their 85th issue. Coincidence? I mean, yes, of course it is. You saw the same complaints popping up in every part of the world. GamePro sums it up this way: "Crystal Shards pulls you in slowly and perhaps a little reluctantly. But soon you'll be completely enveloped in Kirby's weird platform-hopping world, and you won't be able to put down the controller. The auto-save makes the game a little too easy, yet some later stages are very challenging." If you're looking for an easy game that probably won't wow you, then you might as well give Kirby 64 a download. After all, it's the only Nintendo 64 game we're getting for at least a month.