I think Kirby is the most deranged videogame character ever devised.
Okay I kid I kid. Basically this is the usual Kirby story fluff that fans of the series have come to expect from the franchise. It's nothing astoundingly groundbreaking, but it's nevertheless enjoyable.
Unlike the fantastic Canvas Curse, Kirby Squeak Squad plays in the same fashion as the very first Kirby platformer. You essentially go left to right to the exit whilst avoiding enemies (or digesting them and taking their power), obstacles and battling the occasional mid boss. New to this franchise is the chase to the treasure and fighting one of the mice from the Squeak Squad. There's also an element from Kirby 64, the ability to mix two abilities together to make an all new powerful ability. The touch screen functionality is limited - designated to mini games and combining and using items/abilities. Whether that's a God send for traditionalists or not is open for debate.
Levels are interestingly designed, yet lack any sort of creativity that Canvas Curse exhibited. It's a very standard affair and there's no real surprising or interesting developments later on in the game. Levels are always themed in the predictable forest, snow, desert, cavern etc and although everything is nicely balanced and shows that Nintendo magic, it doesn't really sparkle.
The graphics are cute, bright, vivid and are so sugary you can taste the sugary goodness. The sprite animation is good and really brings character to everything and Kirby always delivers with the costume change. It's not really taxing the DS software. But what is here is admirable.
In the audio apartment Kirby Squeak Squad sticks to the established library of Kirby sounds and music. Everything is familiar, even the new themes and I can't quite tell if it's just laziness or a nod to the fans of the series.
The single player is short, around six hours, and it's painfully easy. The challenge comes from 100% everything. Collecting treasure chests and figuring out the hidden pathways is genuinely challenging but I think it's for insane purists only who need to get everything!!! And the multiplayer is fun for a bit but is severely lacking. A nice distraction, but nothing more.
Kirby Squeak Squad is nice solid Nintendo platformer that all people with a DS can enjoy. But it is by no means the best, original or innovative one. If you want one of them with Kirby in, I recommend the brilliant Canvas Curse/Power Paintbrush over this. Buy if you're a platform fan.