Kirby Wii is, in a nutshell, Kirby meets New Super Mario Bros. Wii. With four-player drop-in/drop-out gameplay featuring Wii-Remote-on-its-side controls, you traverse around traditional Kirby levels with a few new twists. The biggest is the fact that four players traipse around on the screen together. It's much like the partner system in past titles, except now the other three players (first player is always Kirby) get to choose between Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee. The four players can share health, and even stack on top of each other to make a giant totem pole.

Kirby has a few new tricks as well, as he is the only one that can suck up enemies and use their powers. The usual standbys are there, with sword, cutter, beam, and more. Some new ones (at least to me) were a leaf power-up that used homing leaves, a whip that turned Kirby into the dopest cowboy in the world, and a water power-up that gave Kirby a head full of water and the ability to put out flames.

He can also suck up ultra enemies that give him time-limited screen-clearing power-ups. The large sword power-up involves Kirby taking out a large sword to cut away the surrounding enemies and environmental hazards. Another one is a flame power-up that shoots a line of fire across the stage. These are visually exhilarating and rewarding.

Naturally, there are some motions involved. You can get sucked up an enemy and you have to shake to get out. Also, Kirby has a super suck that is activated by holding the 1 button and shaking the Wii Remote.

The two levels in the demo seemed a little on the long side, with lots of secrets and several mini-bosses. The boss at the end of the easier first level was the standard tree boss from older Kirby games. The boss at the end of the harder second level was a genie who threw bombs.

There are also several, possibly optional sections where Kirby goes into a black-and-white environment that auto-scrolls. Wait too long and the edge of the screen will get you. You can, however, throw items at it to keep it back. This might tie into the story, which likely involves Dream Land being taken over by some jerk who's turning it black and white.

Kirby Wii is, kind of oddly enough, my favorite thing on the floor so far. It's early, but I had a blast with this game. It's developed by HAL Laboratory and is coming out this fall.