Topic: Kirby: Very Underrated

Kirby will never be in the same category as Mario, Link, and Pikachu. That said, he is still one of nintendo's best secondary franchises. I would say Kirby, Starfox, Metroid, DK, Earthbound, F-Zero, Animal Crossing, and Fire Emblem are all great franchises, but will never see the same respect as the big three and are interchangable as underrated.

I actually think the games are slightly overrated. All of the Kirby games I've played have felt like generic, uninspired snooze tests. Even the "good" ones aren't that amazing.

Canvas curse saved the DS back in the day being the best selling game for the DS.

oh yeah, I remember that. DS had this pretty awful early lineup and then Kirby Canvas Curse comes out and is an actually original, major title that uses the touch controls really well. I put a ton of time into that game, more than any other Kirby game outside of maybe if you combine the 20+ times I played through Adventure and its remake.

Kirby always seems really experimental - and I love it! The original had brand-new ideas that had never been done before; namely floating and eating enemies. This wasn't too out there, though. The next one, Kirby's Adventure, added the copy abilities - again never done previously. Later games were even more experimental: Canvas Curse showed us new ways the touch screen could be used in a game; Kirby's Epic Yarn gave us a unique, experimental art style (that has spawned a pseudo-sequel in Yarn Yoshi), Kirby Mass Attack had an experimental gameplay mechanic in the "10 Kirbys on screen at once", and Triple Deluxe looks to be setting out to show just what the 3DS can do (use of the 3D and the motion controls). And this, above all else, is what I love so much about Kirby.

with the exception of Mass Attack, I think the series is doing fine. Even Epic Yarn was fun despite it not being like a traditional Kirby game.

Looking forward to triple deluxe btw.

These games are incredibly boring. I own a few, and I don't think I've enjoyed or even beaten one fully. They're just too easy or uninspired.

To me, it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy with Kirby. I like some of the gimmicks in the series, but I feel like the games could be more fleshed out. I think that other people might feel the same and not pay much attention to Kirby, thus creating a loop where it makes him a bit less popular than other franchises, so a bit less is put into Kirby, repeating the thing all over again. Just my guess though, judging by comments here maybe I'm right.

At least Kirby isn't as neglected as some other Nintendo franchises, though.

Honestly, I can maybe see people's points if I...play a Kirby game in a bad mood and become obsessed with super challenging games, but that's missing the point. The series has always been made for beginners while still usually keeping a decent amount of challenge for people who want to 100% it and it does that really well.

But in terms of underrated games, Klonoa is so much more underrated in terms of cute 2d platformers that begin with a K and focus on a land of dreams. I wouldn't be too surprised if the most popular Kirby game has sold more than every Klonoa game combined.

I love Kirby, and do think the games are underrated, especially some of the spin-offs, but at least the game series still exists, unlike Star Fox or Z-Zero.

I'd say Kirby is rather overrated than underrated. His games are nice for the most part, but hardly among the best in their genre. They deserve love, but not as much as they often tend to get.

Not really. Kirby games are for the most part mediocre platformers. Ones that present little challenge or good design due to the mechanics of the game. The latest I played (Mass Attack) had me bored after world 1, so I stopped playing. That's pretty bad value in my eyes for a full price retail title.

I would say overlooked is a better term rather than underrated.

It makes me sad reading this thread and seeing all the people who don't like the series simply because it's too easy. Not every game needs to challenging, but I digress, that's a topic for another day.

Man, he is underrated. One of my favorite games when I was young was Kirby Super Star. The games are easy but fun as hell

Honestly, i always seem to enjoy his games more then a lot of new Mario and other main Nintendo games. I suppose his games are easy but beatng Boss Rush and stuff can get really hard later on. Especially on Super Star Ultra. I seem to like my games either very easy or very hard mostly.

This is my exact opinion!

At least Kirby is still getting games once in a while, what about Startropics?

Kirby is the type of franchises you can do whatever with due to how mallable the hero and the world he inhabits is. Its probably the game series I would start my kids or smaller games out with, before ramping them up to Mario and Sonic Platformers.

@shingi_70: Yeah that's actually a very good point; Kirby Mass Attack was actually one of the first games my little sister was able to play very far in - she made it to the fifth world before running into trouble. She made it pretty far in Kirby Super Star Ultra, too. And, even though I'm much better at video games than her, I greatly enjoyed both of those games, too.

No, but they do need to be satisfying, which is my problem with the series. I you're gonna make the series easy, go all out with the rest of it. That's why the Wii entry is one of only two games in the series I like - it goes big with the animations and makes everything extremely flashy and cool-looking. If you're not gonna have substance, at least have the courtesy to have flash instead. :/