Kirby Star Allies

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Kirby Star Allies
Turn foes into friends with a little heart and a whole lot of Kirby!
Protagonist(s): Kirby
Genre(s): Platform
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
Release Date: WW: March 16, 2018
KOR: April 26, 2018
Developer(s): HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Country: Japan
Series: Kirby
Predecessor: Kirby: Planet Robobot (chronologically)
Kirby Battle Royale (by release date)
Successor: Kirby and the Forgotten Land


Kirby Star Allies is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The game was released on March 16, 2018, and is the first Kirby game to be released on the Switch.

Why It's Our Star Ally

  1. The primary mechanic in this game is befriending enemies by throwing Friend Hearts at them, similarly to the Helper feature from Super Star, which can be controlled by the CPU or human players. The AI for Friends is improved over that of Super Star, and the local co-op gameplay allows for up to three other players to control them.
    • Several of the Friends have also been Helpers in Super Star, such as Waddle Doo, Burning Leo, Bio Spark, Knuckle Joe, Gim, and even mid-bosses such as Chef Kawasaki, Bonkers, and Bugzzy.
  2. Excellent graphics that are a step up from the 3DS games, with a variety of environments throughout the many planets, including forests, caverns, islands/the ocean, volcanos, and Jambastion itself.
  3. Friends' powers are used in creative ways to not only explore levels, but also solve puzzles.
  4. The local co-op gameplay is much more intuitive than Super Star, Return to Dream Land or The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes.
  5. The gameplay is as good as always, with new abilities that add a layer to gameplay (those being Spider, Staff, Artist, and Festival Kirby) and several ones that make their return after years of absence (including Yo-yo, Plasma and Suplex Kirby from Super Star, Cleaning Kirby from Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Water Kirby from Kirby's Return to Dream Land).
    • Combined Copy Abilities (here referred to as Friend Abilities) make their return from Kirby 64 and Squeak Squad, this time consisting of Sizzle, Blizzard, Splash, Zap, and Bluster to use on weapon abilities such as Sword or Bomb (as they were in Squeak Squad), the Stone Ability transformations (Splash/Ice/Clean Curling, Rock Painter and Geokinesis) and specific elemental combinations (Rising Sizzler when combining Fire and Bluster, Icicle Lance when combining Blizzard and Water, and the interchangable Water/Plasma powers Thundersplash and Zap Splasher).
  6. Smooth controls as always, while also making them accessible to new players. This game also introduces "Type A" and "Type B" control schemes, which allow you to play the games in the style of the 3DS games (Type A) or the Super Nintendo games (Type B).
    • Each playable character has expansive move sets that feel inspired from the Super Smash Bros. series, with many of the Allies having unique skills such as King Dedede keeping his hammer when thrown, Marx's orbs and black hole, Susie's jetpack and Business Suit, and the Three Mage-Sisters' power to swap sisters at any time.
  7. In some sections of certain levels, you and three Friends gain access to a Friend Platform to create five new Friend Actions in order to progress the levels. These include the Friend Bridge, Friend Circle, Friend Train, Friend Star, and the Star Allies Sparkler.
  8. Great soundtrack composed by people such as Hirokazu Ando.
  9. There are several call-backs to previous games and even the anime, including Muscular King Dedede fought as the boss of World 1 (Dream Land) and Devil Kirby's face seen when selecting Soul Melter, both of whom are seen in the episode "Frog Wild" when possessed by the Demon Frog.
  10. Just like the Keychains and Stickers, the Picture Pieces are fun to collect and create pictures that reference Kirby's past adventures. You can also find Special Picture Pieces to fill in the red sections of the pictures.
  11. The Three Mage-Sisters (Flamberge, Francisca, and Zan Partizanne) are great secondary antagonists and their battles in Story Mode are engaging while having an elemental weakness for each of them. They also become allies once you defeat Heroes in Another Dimension. Meanwhile, Hyness is a creative yet creepy main antagonist who praises Void Termina and saved the Mage-Sisters from death in the past, and his boss fight is a good challenge for a semifinal boss.
    • The third new character, Morpho Knight (who originally would have appeared in the cancelled GCN Kirby game), appears as the final boss of "Guest Star ???" mode and resembles Galacta Knight crossed with a butterfly. He will also return in the next game.
  12. Excellent bosses, as one can expect from the series. Some of these include King Dedede, Meta Knight, each of the Three Mage-Sisters in Story Mode, Pon and Con (who make their return from Kirby's Dream Land 3 and also get upgrades in Goldon and Silvox), Hyness, and of course, Void Termina and its core.
    • If you throw Friend Hearts at most bosses, they become friendly once again (and in King Dedede and Meta Knight's cases, they can join you too!) and sometimes assist Kirby.
  13. In addition to the many Friends Kirby can create from enemies, there are also thirteen Allies you can play as, all of whom are characters from other games. Most of the ones introduced in future updates as free DLC are or have previously been villains.
    • Besides King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee, you can also play as Rick, Kine & Coo, Marx, Gooey (all introduced in the 2.0 update), Adeleine & Ribbon, Dark Meta Knight, Daroach (introduced in the 3.0 update), Magolor, Taranza, Susie, and the Three Mage-Sisters (introduced in the 4.0 update, with the Mage-Sisters only becoming playable after completing Heroes in Another Dimension with 100 or more Hearts).
  14. There is a lot of post-game content, unlocked after beating Story Mode once, that adds to the game's replay value:
    • The Arena in this game is replaced by "The Ultimate Choice," where you play as Kirby, Friends and/or Allies in a boss rush mode while selecting your difficulty. The higher the difficulty level, the more (and tougher) bosses you fight, all culminating in a fight against Void.
    • The time attack mode in this game is "Guest Star ??? - Star Allies Go!", where you are able to play as the Friends (in a similar vein to Super Star Ultra's "Helper to Hero" mode) or one of the thirteen Allies added via updates to set a best time, while collecting Upgrade Hearts for Health, Attack and Speed along the way.
    • "Heroes in Another Dimension " is a challenging sequel story to the main game where you collect Hearts using each of the Allies in four levels, all while trying to free the Three Mage-Sisters.
    • After beating the Soul Melter EX difficulty, you will unlock Kirby's classic look from Kirby's Dream Land.

Bad Qualities

  1. While the co-op gameplay is great, single-player is still good but lacking in a few areas due to the game being designed around multiplayer. However, this game's single-player mode isn't an obvious afterthought like the one from Tri Force Heroes.
    • Other players cannot join in until Kirby creates friends for them to control.
  2. The story mode is way too easy for Kirby standards and can be beaten in a few hours if you're good at the game. Fortunately, the "Guest Star ???" mode allows you to set a challenge by not collecting any Upgrade Hearts or summon any Friends.
    • Heroes in Another Dimension is unforgiving at times, as you will need to backtrack if you missed a Heart in a stage, and the higher difficulties of The Ultimate Choice (especially Soul Melter EX) are extremely brutal as well.
  3. There are only four main worlds this time around, which is three less than those of previous Kirby games.
    • Most levels in each world seem to be all over the place, without a consistent theme outside of Jambastion's levels taking place in and around the fortress.
  4. The two subgames, "Chop Champs" and "Star Slam Heroes", aren't as engaging or interesting as the ones from its predecessors.
  5. The puzzles in this game feel uninspired, as they tell you exactly what abilities you need and how to solve them, and sometimes even the CPU-controlled Friends solve them for you.
  6. As per usual in modern Kirby games, King Dedede and Meta Knight use the now-tired "ally is brainwashed to justify them as a boss" cliché, being possessed by the Jamba Heart.
    • On a similar note, you refight several bosses in the fourth world (two of which are upgraded versions, those being Yggy Woods and Goldon & Silvox), which makes them repetitive to fight.
  7. This is one of the biggest examples of Nintendo's "release it now, finish it later" model, as the game's content felt rather bare-bones when first released and only got better once the free DLC/updates added new characters and modes.

Reception

Kirby Star Allies received largely mixed-to-positive reception, scoring 73/100 on Metacritic and 7/10 on Nintendo Life. While the game's graphics, mechanics and soundtrack were praised, alongside the new layer of difficulty added by the updates' contents, but the lack of depth and low difficulty level of Story Mode were criticized.

Trivia

  • The first letter of each level in Planet Popstar spell out the word "FRIENDS" (Friendly Fields, Reef Resort, Inside Islands, Echo's Edge, Nature's Navel, Duplex Dream, and Sacred Shrine). This is a reference to the main mechanic of this game being the friends Kirby can make.

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