Kirby Triple Deluxe Review

Among the pantheon of video game characters, Kirby is quite the oddball.  Whereas most games tend to drive more for grueling challenge, well-written plots, or epic sense of scope, the Kirby series is one of the rare examples that focuses exclusively on being fun.  These games tend to be more leisurely, more easy going.  Some criticize them of being too easy, and while that may be true, they're still fun.  Just pure, simple fun.  Enter Kirby Triple Deluxe.  This is one of Kirby's more traditional adventures.  He's not made of yarn, split into several tiny versions of himself, or formed into a ball that you lead along on the touchscreen.  He's the same enemy-sucking, power-stealing, floating, pink puffball we've come to know and love over the years.

Kirby Triple Deluxe begins on a sleepy night in Dreamland that is suddenly ripped asunder by a Kirby's house being lifted up into the sky by an enormous plant stalk, Kirby still inside, sleeping.  When he wakes up, he finds himself in the aerial kingdom of Floralia.  And that's not all.  King Dedede has been kidnapped!  One has to wonder why Kirby should bother going to save the penguin regent after all the trouble he's caused to Dreamland.  Regardless, Kirby isn't about to forsake his sometime rival, and races after his kidnapper in pursuit.

As per the usual for Kirby games, the presentation is delightfully bright and cheerful.  The character designs are absolutely adorable.  Kirby is as charming as always, but he has firm competition with the game's floral fairies, who are brought in at the tail end of the game and instantly made me go “D'awwww”.  I wonder why they didn't show up more, being the denizens of Floralia and all.  I also liked the designs for the new group of enemies in the game, a race of insectoid aliens.  The final boss was especially awesome and vibrant.

As this is a 3DS game, you can expect to see a lot of the stereoscopic effects.  The game really likes to play around with this feature in interesting ways.  You'll see enemies jumping between the background and foreground, just like Kirby can with the help of special stars.  One of the bosses, a floral re-imagining of Whispy Woods, attacks Kirby from the background.  It looks really great in 3D, and it helps in the middle of gameplay, but, as is usual protocol when reviewing a 3DS game, I must make it clear that the game can still just as easily be played without it.

Of course, the meat of a Kirby game lies with the power-ups, and Triple Deluxe has them in spades.  There's the usual Sword, Beam, Bomb powers and those are as fun to use as ever.  But the new power-ups are worth mentioning too.  The Beetle ability is one of my favorite new powers.  It allows Kirby to impale enemies on a massive horn and throw them aside or drive them into the ground.  Getting a three Waddle Dee shishkabob, swooping around in a loop de loop, and pile driving them into the ground is just so satisfying!  The Archer power lets Kirby do his best Legolas impression while also giving him an obviously overpowered cover move that makes any enemy attack pass right through him.  The one new power-up that failed to impress me was the Acrobat.  It has Kirby leaping about the stage almost uncontrollably, usually right into an enemy attack.

Then there's they Hypernova ability.  It seems like overkill, making Kirby's sucking capabilities even suckier, to the point where he's swallowing objects far larger than himself whole.  It's so empowering though.  There's a kind of maniacal satisfaction derived from watching Kirby's enemies vainly struggle to escape the massive vortex, only to be swallowed into oblivion at the end.  Sure, it does make an easy game even easier, but my motto is, “if it's fun, it can't be bad!”

Another new addition comes in the form of collectible key chains scattered through each stage.  They don't bestow any special bonuses, but, man, are they fun to collect.  They take sprites from previous Kirby games and even put a little HAL Labs logo on their back.  Subtle, but cute.  You can even get them over Streetpass.

Most games would be content to leave it there, but Kirby is known for offering a versatile amount of content in his games.  Sure, they're usually nothing more than side attractions, but they call them “attractions” for a reason.  Best among those is a light fighting game that pits Kirby's numerous copy abilities against each other in Kirby Fighters.  It has several stages with their own sets of hazards and a multiplayer mode with download play, but there's no online, so don't expect to get much mileage out of it.  But those of you wanting some on-the-go Smash Bros. will be hard pressed to find anything better until the 3DS version comes out.

There's also a boss rush mode that has you taking on all the bosses in a gauntlet, which can prove to be deceptively challenging as the bosses of Triple Deluxe were really quite tricky.  In addition to that, you can unlock a second quest version of the main game that has you playing through as King Dedede himself, trying to finish the adventure as quickly as possible.  And speaking of King Dedede, he gets his own minigame.  It's a rhythm game, I think, that has you navigating the self-proclaimed king of Dreamland over a line of large drums, bouncing off them to beat of famous Kirby music.  It's floaty and frustrating, so I wouldn't blame you if you were to leave it be and not bother with it.

Kirby Triple Deluxe may not set the world on fire, but it doesn't have to.  It's simple and fun, a bit on the easy side, but if you just want to have a good time, it won't disappoint.  Not to mention, there are several side games to toy around with if you find yourself getting bored with the main campaign, unlikely as that may be, as it's fun to play through stages with different power-ups or perhaps no power-ups at all.  In short, just have fun with Triple Deluxe, and you can't go wrong.