Kirby is a classic Nintendo series that I have a peculiar relationship with. As someone who is an irrational Nintendo fanboy (as an earlier blog noted), you would think this would not be the case! While I have indeed played several Kirby games, I've never actually played a traditional Kirby game for more than a few minutes. Rather, I've played four of the peculiar spin offs.
Firstly, Kirby Dream Course is probably as far from a traditional Kirby game that you could get, being a mini golf game played from an isometric perspective. In a completely different genre, Kirby Air Ride was a racing game of three different genres, the "city trial" mode of which is still considered to be wholly unique and just ripe to be an inspiration for a modern game. Kirby: Canvas Curse (or Power Paintbrush in Europe) was my third Kirby game, and while a 2D platformer, it is a completely unique style of gamer, where the player draws platforms for Kirby who moves automatically. And finally, the most traditional 2D platformer, Kirby's Epic Yarn. While Epic Yarn appears to be a traditional Kirby game, it does not have the transformations that Kirby is known for, and is mostly known for the striking art style with everything made from yarn and crafts.
Regardless, before playing Triple Deluxe I was still familiar with the general play-style of Kirby - a simple 2D platformer designed to be easy enough for young children to play, where Kirby gains different movesets based on inhaling specific enemies. Typically, by the final level of most Kirby games you'll be fighting an Elder god or the concept of greed. Yet Kirby very rarely has much more motivation than trying to retrieve a stolen cake. For a quick and amusing breakdown of the basics of Kirby, Brian David Gilbert did an extremely normal video for Polygon dot com.
BDG, extremely entertaining explainer of normal things.
Triple Deluxe opens strong with a striking opening cutscene (in full 3D on the 3DS). Compared to other Kirby games, Kirby actually has somewhat of a motivation, in this case rescuing King Dedede after being kidnapped by a large spider. Sure, that's simple, but as far as Kirby motivations go, that's pretty big!
Very quickly into the process of playing this game I realised that this was a game not just worth playing, but actually finishing. In all I spent 10 hours completing this game, including one of the spinoff modes that unlocks after the first completion.
The unique gimmick that was most likely inspired by the system the game is on is the multi-plane design of most levels, which looks particularly good when using the 3D capabilities of the 3DS. Rather than just a single track that Kirby moves back and forth on, there are also others in the background (and occasionally foreground) that Kirby can swap back and forth between at set locations.
In this area, the waddle dees skiing on the background plane get flung forward by springs
This gives rise to several different twists on traditional gameplay not possible in other games. Some enemies will be able to attack from a different plane, requiring avoiding their attacks until you can get over to their track, or find something on yours that affects theirs. There's also unique puzzle platform possibilities, swapping back and forth to reach specific goals.
The other gimmick unique to this game is the Hypernova. At certain points in levels, Kirby will come across a small glowing fruit, which when eaten massively enhances Kirby's inhale ability.
For the most part, this isn't particularly smartly used, as you get the powerup just as you reach enemies or obstacles that you would not be able to inhale otherwise. Any other ability Kirby currently has is not usable until the Hypernova wears off, often forcing the sacrifice of an ability that made Kirby far more mavouverable. It is occasionally used for puzzle solving, where it can get more interesting, but typically nothing more complicated than moving large blocks around. There are also some very fun animations where Kirby inhales something gigantic.
As you may have seen from the screenshots so far, this game is not only visually quite impressive for a 3DS game, but has a wonderful art style, particularly when it comes to colour choices. The first world in particular has a striking pastel aesthetic.
The music has some absolute bops, and I'd recommend "Lollipop Land 1" for it's wonderful carnival theming, including the use of some very tasty brass, and "Old Odyssey 3" for it's haunting melody perfect for a location filled with ghosts and dangerous architecture.
The defining feature of Kirby games is arguably the copy ability. Around the stages there are various enemies that Kirby can inhale and copy, changing up his moveset. There's quite a decent number of them too: Kirby can hurl bombs, cast ice magic, weild a sword, throw kunai, Indiana Jones a whip, be basically Ryu from streetfighter, shoot a very cute bow and arrow, and even be a bug. And more!
New to this series is the somewhat terrifying Circus transformation:
Kirby, what are you doing.
This new move however is not particularly useful in combat, and has a somewhat unpredictable tumble move. You can at least make balloon art on command!
The absolute best copy ability, in my opinion, is the Beetle transformation. This grants Kirby a range of mid range attacks using the large horn on his head, as well as better flight mechanics than Kirby's usual bouncy style.
As I had expected given the reputation, the majority of the game is quite easy, although not to the point of removing all challenge. However, there are a few spots of frustration, particularly when it comes to the bosses. Kirby bosses are typically very difficult to fight unless you have an ability, yet most bosses attacks will force Kirby to drop his current ability. These can usually be recovered, as the ability bounces around the arena, but some boss arenas are over pits that mean the ability is immediately lost. Additionally, the boss fights tend to have very long periods where Kirby cannot attack at all, and while looking spectacular the first few times, they can wear thin, particularly if it is not the first attempt to defeat them. Possibly the only exception is the first boss, which through most attacks still have some options for counter attacking.
Overall, this was a pretty great game, and I'm keen to try out other traditional Kirby games. Particularly Planet Robobot, which built on the engine for this game, but is considered one of the best games in the entire series.
Some final additional thoughts:
- Just what is the deal with Waddle Dees? If they're Dededes loyal subjects, why do they attack Kirby when he is trying to save the king himself? And then why is Bandana Waddle Dee on Kirby's side?
- While the final boss was pretty spectacular, she was still basically just a giant hornet. Given the horrors Kirby fights in other games, it's somewhat tame.
- Oh no. I just realised "Triple Deluxe" as a name comes from a very hamfisted "3D" naming convention that some 3DS games had.
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