30 years of Kirby: Kirby games that should exist
There are already so many Kirby games, spanning a number of genres. There should be even more Kirby games, though.
August 1, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the North American debut of Kirby. Throughout the month, I’ll be covering Kirby’s games, creating rankings, and thinking about the past and future of the series. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.
Kirby has been in a few video games in his 30 years. Not counting the Wii’s Dream Collection to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series, there have been 37 Kirby games released, including remakes, in the past 30 years. And around twice as many sub-games. Despite showing up in around 100 games of varying sizes, there are genres Kirby hasn’t fully explored, or touched on at all — but he should.
This whole month has focused on games Kirby has been in, but let’s break from that to talk about those he has yet to appear in: the Kirby games that should exist — Shinya Kumazaki, I’m very easy to find.
A Kirby RPG
Kirby Quest is fun and all, but it’s a sub-game found within Mass Attack. We deserve something with more meat on it, and it’s not like the subject matter of a Japanese role-playing game would be out of character for Kirby, either: he does, after all, constantly vanquish demon lords and dimensional beings and terrifying foes from the vast, dark reaches of space on the regular. And hell, he’s piloted a mech before, too, we’ve got all the bases covered here.
There is loads of potential in a Kirby RPG, given it could combine traditional platforming with basically any kind of battle system capable of leaning on Kirby’s copy ability powers. Turn-based? That’d work. Something more active, with cooldowns? That kind of freedom would be nifty, especially with the vast array of powers and skills Kirby could deploy. An action RPG? You don’t need to ask me how I’d feel about throwing elements of Kirby and elements of Ys together into a blender, because you already know the answer.
Have Kirby level up specific copy powers to make them more powerful. Let him travel around the greater Kirby universe on foot, via warp star, riding the Halberd around like this is Final Fantasy IV. Build a party of companions out of the likes of every defeated foe who decided it would be easier to just be pals with Kirby from now on, like Dedede, Meta Knight, Susie, Marx, and so on. Pair each of them up with an upgradeable buddy whose copy abilities will grant elemental enhancements to their own skills. Rope in the animal friends to help traverse Pop Star, or to be used as summons in battle. If Yakuza could convincingly pull off a Dragon Quest impression, then there is no reason why HAL couldn’t try to fit Kirby into other existing JRPG conventions.
Mario had the name recognition to make him the obvious pairing with Squaresoft and, later, for his own internally developed RPGs, but Kirby has the richer universe to draw from, and, given the significant differences in platformer playstyle, would be able to exist very easily without being considered a doubling up on what Nintendo already has on offer through Paper Mario.
A Kirby shoot-em-up
HAL has made some shooters before — Trax and HyperZone — but those both released before Kirby even existed. Strato Patrol EOS is one of the best Kirby sub-games in existence, and really should have received its own fully fleshed out spin-off like has happened with the sub-games from the last decade or so. Alas, it hasn’t happened. It still could, however! And given that we know HAL can develop shoot-em-ups from a variety of perspectives, a Kirby STG could go the Axelay route of being both a horizontal and vertical shmup, rather than settling on just the one. Hey, it’s not like Konami is doing anything with the property and its dormant-for-decades ideas.
What would make a Kirby STG really stick out, though, is ensuring that, like so many prior spinoffs that landed in non-traditional Kirby genres, the copy abilities take center stage to make sure that it’s truly a Kirby game, and not just a STG featuring Kirby. Mix in some platforming elements that allow for taking multiple paths, finding secrets, and a need to swap between powers rather than just relying on your favorite for shooting all the time, and you’ve got yourself a game.
It’s also an excellent genre for the kind of difficulty scaling that Kirby strives for: designing a game so that beginners can acclimate themselves while pros find something worth striving for is what they do, and that’s perfect for a shmup. Mix in multiple difficulty levels with the kind of imaginative scoring system that made Strato Patrol a good time, throw in some Arena-esque challenge mode for sickos, and call it a day.
A Kirby Musou
Just picture it: 100 foes converging on Kirby, all at once. Claws, beams, swords, all at the ready, more foes pouring out from some stronghold by the second. Your special ability meter finishes filling, and Kirby inhales half of the enemies in front of him, clearing the way for Meta Knight to start picking off the ones that are left from the air, while Dedede orders some Waddle Dees around to do his fighting for him. How there has not been a Kirby x Dynasty Warriors mashup yet is simply beyond me, but Nintendo has already had Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and The Legend of Zelda crossovers alongside KOEI Tecmo, so maybe this is an eventuality.
Warriors games are fun because you face seemingly overwhelming odds, and then have to find a way to basically single-handedly turn those odds on their head while deploying ridiculous attacks from soldiers whose prowess would make ancient Greek storytellers blush. Being able to run through entire armies with Kirby, who we all can agree is the most powerful character in all of media, would be perfect. Maybe too perfect, even… so that’s why this game doesn’t exist yet. It would ruin every other Warriors game.
Well, fine. I would also accept a Kirby x Earth Defense Force game. I’m not that picky.
A Kirby cooking game
Not every game needs to be focused on violence, you know. Food is a significant piece of Kirby games and also marketing the little guy outside of those games. Food is how Kirby and pals heal up in games. A stolen piece of strawberry shortcake is what started the entirety of Squeak Squad’s escalating narrative. In Japan, there is literally a chain of pop-up restaurants under the banner of Kirby Café, and they were popular enough that some of the locations became permanent. I don’t know how long I’m going to be upset that I couldn’t get my hands on the Soul Melter Kirby hot sauce that actually existed in real life, but I can tell you that I’m not over it yet.
Let Kirby and friends cook! Host a cooking show, keep a Kirby Café going as its manager and chef, compete in a cooking-based competition in a game that’s actually about a different genre altogether, a la Battle Chef Brigade, I don’t care. Just let Kirby get some cooking in, so HAL is forced to come up with additional creations as inspired as the Carby Cake.
A Kirby sports game
Kirby’s Dream Course came out in 1994. Kirby Air Ride released in 2003. Kirby sports games have been so good in the past, but they’re just aren’t many of them. It’s time for that to change! Mario already has things covered in the arena of “what if video game characters played baseball,” and HAL maybe mined “what if Kirby was the ball?” for all that’s worth, so let’s think about what else we could see in this arena.
Well, you could… hmm. I guess that… huh.
Alright, just make Dream Course 2, why not. We’ve got the technology, people, let’s use it for good.
A Kirby dungeon-crawler
Kirby Super Star is a collection of smaller games, and one of those is The Great Cave Offensive. It sees Kirby taking part in some pretty standard platforming action, but what makes it different and worthy of its own mode is what your goal is: you’re supposed to find every treasure in this enormous cavern Kirby tripped into, all while making your escape from it.
Blow that up into a larger game with even more secrets, lean more into the challenge of being trapped inside of a cavern/dungeon/whatever. Include leveling up, make retrieving loot vital to the experience — let Kirby crawl dungeons! It’s pretty easy to see ways where this would work better for Kirby than it does for Pokémon, especially since, as previously mentioned, HAL does such a great job of finding ways to make games and genres accessible to less experienced players while knowing how to ramp up for those expecting a bit more challenge. It doesn’t need to be like, Kirby’s Etrian Odyssey, but, you know. The idea is out there now, wild and free, just like Kirby will yearn to be while trapped in the depths of a dungeon.
A Kirby crossover game
I don’t mean like, Namco x Capcom-style crossover when I say this. Bear with me for a second. One of the things I really enjoyed in the NES Remix games is how sometimes they’d take a character from one series and plop them into another one, so suddenly you were trying to get through, I don’t know, a bit of Metroid while playing as Toad from Super Mario Bros. 2, or what have you. These were just little seconds-long bits, nothing substantial on their own unless compared to similar chaos from a WarioWare microgame, but more could be done along these lines.
Drop Kirby into another game’s universe entirely, and let him do his thing. What is playing Mario like if Kirby can suddenly turn into any of the foes he sees, or inhale the many bricks and use them as projectiles, or if he put on a Tanooki Suit? “A cuter version of Super Mario Odyssey,” you say? Don’t be a smartass. Fine, fine, forget a crossover with Mario, let’s put Kirby into Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Let Kirby travel to Planet Zebes and take on Ridley after inhaling some metroids. Partner up with Capcom, who is always down for any kind of crossover, and let Mega Man and Kirby swap places in their respective worlds. Break down what we know about how existing games work, and make them work a different way! Get weird with it.
…make a whole game that is just Kirby endlessly transporting from one established property to another, trying to find his way back home and the source of all of this unexplained dimensional travel. That’s Kirby’s genre pliability cranked up to the max, let’s go.
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I hadn't thought of a dungeon crawling Kirby game before, but now I really want HAL to make one! I would also like to see a sequel to Air Ride or another Metroidvania style Kirby game.