I recommend that you have him have hammer attacks, make so jumping has a small shockwave when you land, and the breath in ability. Also he should have more health than Kirby.

While I haven't really reported this fellow to Nintendo, he is actually engaging in IP theft. Whether you make money off it or not is irrelevant.

The chances of Nintendo taking a kid to court? Pretty slim, unless he produced a game a few hundred thousand people download. Then he's screwed.

They let Abobo's Big Adventure slide. As long as it's free, fan-made, and not intended to compete directly w/ their products, I think they'd let him slide. I mean, why shoot such an innocent thing down? Unless it obliterates Mario Bros./Kirby, I think they'll ignore it.
EDIT:

Exactly.

I highly doubt Nintendo would sue someone for IP theft when it doesn't really hurt them at all. All this is going to do is spread brand name and get people interested in buying, or re-buying, a Kirby game. Look at all the Pokemon fansites out there. Heck, Serebii isn't owned by Nintendo, and it's really big in the hardcore Pokemon community.
Still, my point might be moot. I remember something about Nintendo taking down a few Pokemon fansites several years ago. Then there was a sizable response from the community and it didn't work out too well for Nintendo. I'm not entirely sure I'm right about this, I read it several years ago.
Regardless, one thing you should do is try to teach how to play the game through level design. I'm talking about stuff like Mega Man games. You know those dissapearing block sections? In each game the designers make sure to have a little room where there is little to no danger at first so the player can understand how the game works, then puts danger into it right after. There was one level in one game (can't remember) where there were enemies with a certain flight pattern introduced then a secton where blocks fell once you stood on them. They were both easy by themselves, since you had leeway to kill the enemies and you could just run right to avoid falling with the blocks. Then they're both combined, so that when the player inevitably dies, they can't blame the game. I'm not saying make it play like mega man, but take some nods from the experts.

Nintendo has confiscated at least one fan game, Super Mario Bros. X, which is an extremely well made Mario clone with a really extensive level editor. Your not supposed to distribute it over the Internet anymore, but there are people who do! Also, I have another game (a platform shooter) that I'm also working on, my Dedede game is really just for my own amusement.

to be fair, this is just part of Nintendo's philosophy to never allow a level editor in a Mario game that isn't a mediocre Lemmings ripoff

Making a shockwave when ever Dedede jumps might make it too easy but he could have a ground pound style attack that causes shockwaves.

Ever heard of Mari0? (With an 0 not an o.)

no, no one has mentioned that game ever before. Also have you heard about this new game called Minecraft?!

New?! It's from 2009 I think.

Well, it's new to me. It doesn't matter how everyone who already cares about the game already has it, thus making my point...well, pointless. I must tell people for no apparent reason! OVER 9000 ARROW KNEE NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP THAT TIME KANYE WEST INTERRUPTED TAYLOR SWIFT

Yeah it's pretty new to me too. But I think it's stupid hat the only reason everybody's playing it is because everyone else is.

ok, the punchline is irony, I'm getting bored of this so...there you go.

I say metroid 2D style. MAke it an adventure. ^-^