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The Time for Kirby is Nigh!

Contributed by DJMMT

I love Kirby games. I’ve been a fan of the pink powerhouse since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000). Man, I’m old. He was even my main in the originally Super Smash Bros. (1999). Kirby has been around for a long time. His first game was released in 1992. Since then, there have been numerous games on multiple platforms, an animated series, which I used to watch as a kid, and multiple manga/comic series. Kirby is a beloved character that even creator Masahiro Sakurai has stated to be his favorite among his creations. It’s the reason he’s the starting character for the World of Light mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

One of the most notable qualities of Kirby games, at least in the modern era, is that they’re known to be extremely easy. Even by Nintendo first party standards, Kirby games are the training wheels version of action platformers. The easiness of Kirby games is often thought more of as a feature than flaw. In my own experiences over the years, Kirby games were always great to play cooperatively with girlfriends who didn’t play video games much and younger relatives who wanted to play games but weren’t old enough to fully grasp how to succeed at them. Personally, I don’t have a problem with games that are easy. As long as they’re fun to play, I’ll play them. But this feature has also been seen as a major put off by “serious gamers” for many years. Even those who play games on Nintendo consoles often discount Kirby titles for not being challenging enough.

While I think the entire line of reasoning of games not being playable because they’re too easy is stupid, one has to acknowledge that this mindset is rather common among gamers and has definitely had a negative effect on the sales of the Kirby franchise. And while I don’t agree that Kirby games are too easy, I do agree that some Kirby games feel like the developers didn’t push the experience as far as they could have because they seemed overly committed to making sure the game remained easy. Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which I absolutely loved, felt like it could have been way more interesting if they hadn’t been so committed to keeping it easy.

Recently, like pretty much every other Kirby fan out there, I’ve been playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land. While I will not say that it’s my favorite Kirby game of all time, since that’s still Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, because power mixing is still the greatest game mechanic known to man, it is without a doubt the best Kirby game that has ever been made. The gameplay is legit. The hidden collectibles are challenging and meaningful. The graphics are awesome. It easily stands next to other Switch AAA titles like Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and The Legends of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for how much it revolutionized and polished its respective franchise. Really, it’s yet another testament to how much Nintendo first party development has evolved in this generation.

One of the most noteworthy things that needs to be said about Forgotten Land is that it’s actually pretty challenging. While it’s certainly not the hardest game ever, I think it might be the hardest Kiby game since before the N64 era. While you can’t get a game over, which I like, I have died multiple times so far. And that’s not a bad thing. One important detail that needs to be acknowledged in the discussion of difficulty in Forgotten Land is that it has difficulty options. They’re quite simple, but there are technically two difficulty modes to choose from. I’ve only tried the harder of the two in the five worlds I’ve played so far. So I can’t fully describe how much less difficult the easier mode is. But the fact that the player has an actual choice in the difficulty of their Kirby experience puts the franchise on the road to producing a game at the difficulty scale of other Nintendo first party titles.

A lot of Nintendo games don’t actually have difficulty settings. Thankfully this works, because they’re never that hard. But I see the potential of using difficulty to scale Kirby game difficulty up rather than down, as is usually the case with most games. Imagine if Kirby games operated on a traditional easy, normal, hard difficulty scale. This latest gameplay model would be able to implement that easily. Forgotten Land shows us that this model is not only possible, but it works. I also really liked that Wild Mode, the harder difficulty in Forgotten Land, gives you additional rewards for playing in that mode and can be changed in the menu at anytime during a playthrough.

I think Kirby is ready to be designed and judged at the same level as other traditional platformers but doesn’t have to sacrifice its traditionally easy nature in the process. And I believe there’s a clear demand for that in the market as well. There’s no reason for Kirby to be seen as a children’s game series. The games are well designed and fun. If the only thing holding them back is damage ratios and repercussions, that’s an easy thing to add in.

Let me be clear in saying that I don’t think Kirby games should lose their appeal as easy games. As I already said, they’re a great starter game for new gamers. To lose that would be a tragedy. I’m saying that I think there’s room in the Kirby franchise for both easy and traditionally challenging without having to reinvent the wheel. I don’t want to see an end to easy Kirby games. I just want to see the addition of harder modes to an already great formula. And also power mixing. For the love of Kirby, please, Nintendo, bring back power mixing.

XPG Terrence

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1 Comments

Gio ,01 Jun, 2022

this game bring back my memories