Kirby Star Allies Review
The Nintendo Switch has had a great run of first party games since it first released last year. But now, Nintendo has started bringing their other popular series to the Switch, and that includes the pink puffball Kirby. Kirby is well known for having fun and relatively easy games. This is in addition to most games having some sort of gimmick, such as robot suits or being made of yarn. Well, Kirby Star Allies has the gimmick of being able to recruit enemies to fight with you, and combining abilities to make stronger attacks. However, does this gimmick make for a good game, or a mess of new techniques?
Story
As it’s a Kirby game, the plot isn’t very hard to understand. A large purple heart explodes due to a mysterious ritual, and sends fragments across space. However, when characters such as Meta Knight and King Dedede touch these fragments they become evil. So, Kirby has to help his friends as well as figure out what to do with the shards.
Gameplay
Kirby Star Allies has gameplay similar to most Kirby games, but with some small, but significant additions. Kirby can now not only absorb the abilities of his enemies, but also make them help him. Kirby can recruit three other characters to help you along your way, but the computer controlling them can be replaced with other human players. But when it comes to the enemies you recruit, the best thing you can do is combine certain abilities. So, if you have a fire character on your team and Kirby has the sword ability, they can combine powers to make a flaming sword. There are many different combo abilities like this, which leads to some creative level design using these new powers.
Presentation
Kirby on the Switch looks beautiful. Seeing well known characters and locations in HD is such a surreal experience, yet it looks completely natural. But when it comes to the visuals, Kirby Star Allies does not disappoint. There’s the normal levels from most games like the forest, oceans, and volcanoes. However, Kirby actually ends up spending a fair amount of time up in the stars, which all look great. This is in addition to the very dark and menacing aesthetic of the villains, who’s stages have lots of dark colors and red.
Final Thoughts
Kirby Star Allies is definitely a good game, but maybe not a great one. It’s a fun time, but it doesn’t last to long. When I beat the main story I had already completed over 75% of the game. There are a few other small modes, but they’re just minigames that won’t keep you very engaged. EIther way, this entry into the Kirby series is fun and can be great with friends, but it isn’t a masterpiece.
