Kirby: Star Allies
Kirby: Star Allies is the twelfth and latest mainline game in the Kirby series, released for Nintendo Switch in 2018. It is very reminiscent of the cancelled
Kirby for Nintendo GameCube, and features the four-person helper system advertised for that game. While the core game isn't very different from the three games that preceded it, there's a ton of new additions here that cement this as number 1.
To start, four new abilities are introduced: Artist, Spider, Staff, and Festival. Festival is nothing special as it's essentially a duplicate of Crash, Cook, and Mike, but Artist, Spider, and Staff are all a blast to use, with my personal favorite being Artist. Believe it or not, these new abilities bring the total ability count to 28, the most in the series yet. The selling point of the game is the same as the aforementioned
Kirby for Nintendo GameCube: the helper system from
Super Star returns, enhanced to support four players instead of two. Making helpers is absolutely seamless; all you have to do is press X to make Kirby throw a Friend Heart at an enemy, and just like that, the enemy joins your cause. In addition, Kirby can utilize Friend Abilities, which involve mixing two different abilities to make something more powerful. This includes adding elements to weapons, a concept that wasn't quite fully explored back in
Squeak Squad. There's also Ice Curling (based on the Ice + Stone combo from
Kirby 64), Geokinesis (by using ESP on Stone), and lots more. The possibilities are endless, and the game encourages mixing and matching your helpers to try them all. In addition, at certain points Kirby and his friends team up for one of four Friend Actions; think of this as
Star Allies' equivalent to Super Abilities, Hypernova, and Robobot Armor. Friend Circle is essentially a mega romp that destroys everything, and like the Super Abilities, it's fun to watch but otherwise not all that deep. Friend Bridge allows Kirby and friends to form a bridge that enemies can cross, and is primarily used for puzzles. Friend Train is pretty fun to use, playing like a fast auto-platformer. But Friend Star is easily the most interesting of them all, allowing Kirby to fly freely through a stage and blast stars at anything he desires. The kind of ammo he gets changes based on his ability; for example, water stars can eliminate fires, while sword stars can cut through chains. It's a blast to use, and it's really used to its full potential, especially with a certain boss fought with it, where more than one ability is required to defeat it.
The general level design is pretty solid for the most part, and there are some parts where it shows the same brilliance as
Triple Deluxe and
Planet Robobot. And it is kinda disappointing that this brilliance isn't nearly as prevalent here, and part of that is likely due to the fact that levels now only play on one plane, like in
Return to Dream Land. However, the game makes up for it in several areas, with a ton of references to past Kirby games. Several abilities, such as Plasma, Yo-Yo, and Cleaning, make a return after having been absent for years. Pon and Con, the long-forgotten boss duo from
Dream Land 3, make a return, as do the animal friends Nago, Pitch, and ChuChu, who cameo in the Cleaning ability. The Artist ability has lots of references to
Kirby 64, with powers similar to those of Adeleine as well as the ability to paint Refrigerator Kirby. Heck, even the enemy Two-Face, who hasn't been seen since the original
Kirby's Dream Land, shows up here out of nowhere! It's enough to make any Kirby nerd scream.
But believe it or not, none of that is why this game is at the top. You see, the game launched on March 16, 2018, but HAL was not done then. Throughout the year, new Dream Friends were released via updates. These Dream Friends were legacy characters from past Kirby games that were fully playable and could be recruited as Friend Helpers via Dream Palaces. It started out as simply King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee, the former two respectively representing
Dream Land and
Adventure, and the latter thrown in as a little extra because---surprise!--Waddle Dees have appeared in every single Kirby game to date. But these Dream Friends gradually grew into something kinda like the
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate of the Kirby series. The first wave introduced the Animal Friends Rick, Kine, and Coo from
Dream Land 2, Marx from
Super Star, and Gooey from
Dream Land 3. Wave 2 threw in Adeleine and Ribbon from
Kirby 64, Dark Meta Knight from
Amazing Mirror, and Daroach from
Squeak Squad. And then Wave 3 tied it all up with Magolor from
Return to Dream Land, Taranza from
Triple Deluxe, and Susie from
Planet Robobot, as well as
Star Allies' own Three Mage-Sisters Francisca, Flamberge, and Zan Partizanne. These updates resulted in 13 total Dream Friends, all from legacy Kirby games and many of which were beloved characters with a long absence until this point, such as Gooey, Adeleine, and Ribbon. Several of them such as Marx, Magolor, and the Three Mage-Sisters are also an absolute blast to play.
And...this may come as a surprise, but this was actually my first Kirby game. Yes, I'd tried several demos of Kirby games in the past, but this was the first one I actually owned and played all the way through. And it was these very Dream Friends that showed me how vast Kirby's history was, and inspired me to go back and play the others. Every Dream Friend trailer they released set me off on a total hype train, not just because more playable characters, but because it was another chance to look into more of that history I'd missed out on. These Dream Friends are probably best enjoyed by someone who has past experience with to series, but to me, they were "man, I have got to go play these games!" Hence I am the Kirby nerd you know me to be.
Like you could expect from pretty much any Kirby game these days, there's a fair number of side modes here that will take a good chunk of your time. Guest Star ???? is a time attack mode similar to DededeTour and Meta Knightmare, although this time you can choose literally any Friend Helper to play the whole game through as. This includes Dream Friends too, and this could become DededeTour, Meta Knightmare, or Waddle Dee Riot if you so choose. Additionally, every Dream Friend added through an update has their own legacy levels from the Kirby game they represent. For example, Adeleine can play through remade
Kirby 64 levels, while Magolor can play through remade
Return to Dream Land levels. These extra levels give plenty of incentive to play through Guest Star mode as every Dream Friend, and as such add a lot of replay value to the game. The Ultimate Choice is a revamped version of The Arena, now with an adjustable intensity gauge, and those higher difficulties can pose a serious challenge, with the DLC-added Soul Melter EX difficulty being perhaps the toughest challenge Kirby has ever seen. Heroes in Another Dimension is an extra story campaign added in Wave 3, and what the level design was lacking in the Story Mode is fully made up for here, showing the same level of brilliance as
Triple Deluxe and
Planet Robobot. Bosses here are seriously challenging, especially the last few, and there are also several areas where Kirby must utilize Friend Abilities in ways the Story Mode never utilized, and others where Dream Friends are used in unique ways. The mode is absolutely top-notch and definitely my favorite of the three, but all of them are probably the best postgame modes Kirby has seen yet. There's also the sub-games Star Slam Heroes and Chop Champs, and while they're fun multiplayer minigames, they're rather simplistic and just don't compare to the ones in
Triple Deluxe and
Planet Robobot, nor do they have a whole lot of potential in a standalone Deluxe release.
Star Allies has been the subject of much debate within the Kirby fanbase, but I'm proud to say that I'm very much on the side that loves it. With a total of 38 playable characters, 28 Copy Abilities, three spectacular postgame modes, and tons of the purest Kirby tribute and love, you can tell that
Star Allies was a game built to be the best. While the next Kirby game hasn't received an official announcement as of yet, HAL has teased it several times, stating that Star Allies has transitioned the series to its "next phase" and that the next game will be seen as "the pinnacle of the series". I'm excited to see what HAL has in store. Perhaps...a fully 3D Kirby game at long last? We'll just have to wait and see.
| PROS | CONS |
| 4-player helper system concept returns, and is a lot of fun with friends | Level design in Story Mode is somewhat lacking compared to its two predecessors |
| Dream Friends are full of wonderful tribute to Kirby's past | |
| Three postgame modes are the best in the series yet | |
