I was a big Kirby fan growing up: Kirby’s Dreamland 2 on Game Boy is one of my all-time favorites, and my love of the series continued up through Super Star on the SNES and beyond. Aesthetics are important to me, and though I know some will disagree, the series’ jump to polygonal 3D on Wii (albeit still with a side-scrolling perspective) was not a move that I found appealing in the least.
Despite its apparent repeat of Return to Dreamland‘s art style, I won’t deny that I’m still plenty excited by Nintendo’s recent announcement that Kirby: Triple Deluxe will hit Japan on January 11th. The date is far sooner than I expected a vague “2014” would indicate, and let’s be honest: how long will localization of a Kirby game really take?
We’ve known about a new Kirby coming to 3DS for some time now, but it wasn’t until a follow-up email sent out by Nintendo after its recent Direct video stream last week that the title and release date of the game were confirmed. There’s a trailer you can revisit from last month if you still haven’t taken a look at how this thing will play, but rest assured – it still looks and plays like Kirby. We did get a bit of official art as well, and it seems Nintendo is maintaining the American “hardcore Kirby” status quo for this release as well. Fine by me!
I can appreciate that 2.5D Kirby probably makes development a bit easier, and casual players likely want to see their Kirbys and DeDeDes hopping around in 3D space. That said, I think I’ll always prefer the charm of 2D sprites when it comes to the hungry pink puff. Kirby: Triple Deluxe doesn’t look like it will be the game to revive 2D, but I’m sure it will be a blast to play come the new year regardless.
Published: Nov 18, 2013 09:32 am