ZOOOOM! You know you want one of these keychains in real life

Kirby fans in Europe and North America can thank their lucky warp stars: a North American release date of 2nd May has finally been announced for Kirby: Triple Deluxe during today's Nintendo Direct; it arrives in Europe on 16th May.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata championed a "huge number" of collectibles to be found in the game, most notably a set of 8-bit keychains depicting characters from different titles in Kirby's 20-plus-year history. These keychains can be found in levels, but also received through the StreetPass feature of Triple Deluxe.

The friendly, bandana-sporting Waddle Dee from Kirby's Return to Dreamland will show up in levels to toss the pink hero items. If you have a StreetPass tag, the item will be more helpful, and if the tagged player also owns a copy of Triple Deluxe, Waddle Dee will toss out a keychain as an extra bonus. Kirby has to keep the keys to the Dragoon somewhere, we guess.

Sun Stones will also be collectible in levels and are used to unlock the way forward to bosses, although Iwata promised a special bonus for players who find them all.

Check out our First Impressions with the Japanese version of Kirby: Triple Deluxe for more info and tidbits on this anticipated release, including some of its additional game modes.

Are you enticed by the StreetPass and keychain collecting elements of Kirby: Triple Deluxe? Are you just dreaming May would get here sooner now? Sound off in the comments below.