For the first few minutes of my Kirby: Mass Attack demo, I felt bad. I felt bad for the Kirby series for leading to this failed experiment. I felt bad for the DS for having something so irritating as its swan song. I felt bad for the poor booth attendant who was tethered to this game and forced to stand around as people played it all day. And I felt bad for myself for playing this.

By the end of the demo, I was totally, unreservedly into it. It built up steadily from something awkward to something elegant. I still felt bad for the woman corded to that demo DS, though.