

Kirby games have always been marketed toward children and families. Image: HAL Laboratory/Nintendo via Polygon Though stages are very straightforward, it seems as if the designers are worried that players will get lost: After beating a boss, a giant blinking arrow pops up to point to the end of the level, as if the one available exit would leave any doubt. It has collectibles, but they don’t gate anything in the story, instead unlocking challenge levels and rooms in which to play around with copy abilities. It has end-of-stage minigames, world hubs, and a recurring portal (in about a third of the levels) that leads to the same boss with minor differences. I was fascinated by that game, particularly its preference for humanmade settings like malls and carnivals, its deservingly hyped Mouthful Mode, and its bountiful collectibles, some purely aesthetic (like the gacha machine for minis) and others tied to progression in the story.īy contrast, Deluxe is traditional - as remasters are wont to be - but it’s also, in many aspects, dated.
#KIRBY META KNIGHT SERIES#
Perhaps it’s inevitable that I mentally compared Deluxe to last year’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the main franchise’s first fully 3D entry, which is another firm example of the series pushing things forward. Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the crafts-themed Wii game that came out just a year before the original Return to Dream Land, is an example of the latter. The Kirby series tends to vacillate between classic and experimental. The moments I most enjoyed in Deluxe were the ones where I experienced some friction, usually when the game tossed a new mechanic at me and I had to readjust
