Kirby Features
Feature Kirby Café Tokyo - We Go Full Mouthful Mode Beneath The World's Tallest Tower
Kirby and the Forgotten Diet
If you’re a long-time Nintendo Life reader, or a devout Kirby fan, then you might remember that time Nintendo opened a small chain of Kirby-themed pop-up restaurants across Japan – christened Kirby Café, appropriately enough – in 2016. Beginning with its first temporary location in Osaka, that was quickly...
Back Page Ranking The Kirby And The Forgotten Land Enemies By How Much I Don't Want To Kill Them
They're ALL friend-shaped
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have (paper) pages on the internet, but we still love terrible...
Soapbox Kirby Returns To Remind Us That Escapism Isn't A Dirty Word
A source of simple joy
Soapbox articles give our team a chance to share some personal perspectives; today it's the turn of Tom Whitehead to talk about why gaming matters more to him than ever before. I've always been someone eager to lose myself in my imagination and intriguing worlds; from childhood to the present day my biggest passions remain...
Back Page Why The Heck Does Kirby Hate This Tree So Much?
Kirby vs a literal tree - 30 years of animosity
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have (paper) pages on the internet, but we...
Feature The 20 Best Kirby Copy Abilities
ctrl+c, ctrl+k
In 30 years of Kirby, it’s fair to say he’s seen a broad swathe of powerful abilities come his way. And here at Nintendo Life, with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land fast approaching, we’ve decided that it’s time someone picked the 20 best and made a list of them, darn it. After all, it’s the least we could do...
Poll Kirby And The Forgotten Land Looks Mighty Impressive - How Hyped Are You?
A whole new world
There's little doubt that when Nintendo announced Kirby and the Forgotten Land last year, the reveal trailer caught the eye and imagination. It needed to, as well, with the franchise very much in danger of becoming overly predictable and safe. There had been some experimentation in recent-ish times, such as Kirby and the Rainbow...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube764k Watch on YouTube Soapbox 10 Years On, Kirby's Epic Yarn Is Still The Pink Puffball's Finest Outing
Fluff and nonsense
It's time for a Nintendo Life Soapbox confession. Ready? While the majority of the gaming world takes Masahiro Sakurai's most cherished child heartily to their collective bosom (squeezing his squidgy body in their embrace, no doubt), I've always found Kirby a bit... what's the word? Oh yes: rubbish. I'm not talking about how he...
"Publishing our own title has been one of the goals since we established Good-Feel"
Japanese developer Good-Feel is the company behind a host of heart-warming Nintendo games, including the excellent Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yoshi's material-based platformer Yoshi's Woolly World on Wii U and the more recent Yoshi's Crafted World on Switch. A couple of...
Feature A Kirby Retrospective: From Game Boy To Nintendo Switch
Kirby your enthusiasm
The upcoming Kirby Star Allies marks a triumphant return to 2D platforming for everyone's favourite inflatable pink ball, so we figured it was high time we had a good long look at the franchise to see just how far it's come. Kirby's adventures started all the way back in the early nineties on the Game Boy, and his latest...
Preview Fighting Foes With Friends In Kirby Star Allies For Nintendo Switch
Three's company, four's a party
With the first month of 2018 having gone by, many of us are looking to the horizon for the next big Nintendo Switch games to hit. The console remains every bit as popular as it nears the end of its first year on store shelves as it did in the weeks and months following in its launch. At E3 2017, Nintendo...
Preview Mechanised Cuteness in Kirby: Planet Robobot
A gem from HAL
Occasionally Nintendo reveals a game out of the blue with a nearby release date, reminding us of the company's ability to deliver delightful spontaneity. Kirby: Planet Robobot is one such release, announced in the early March Nintendo Direct and all set for an early June release in the West. Having sampled what it's offering over a...
Feature A Celebration of HAL Laboratory - Forever Focused on Fun
Kirby, Pokemon, Smash Bros., and Box Boy...
From now until the start of the new year we're going to be republishing some of what we feel are our best features of 2015. Hopefully this will offer the chance for newer readers to catch up on content they might have missed and allow long-time fans to reacquaint themselves with features they enjoyed the...
Feature Here Are Our Fondest Kirby Memories
Rainbow Paintbrush finally launches in Europe this week, so we talk Kirby
This week sees the release of Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush (Rainbow Curse to you North Americans) in Europe, and we thought it would be the ideal time to share some of our most treasured Kirby-related memories with you, our dear readers. Since he bounded into our lives in...
Feature A Fit-To-Burst History Of Kirby Games
In 22 easily swallowable installments
Kirby has always existed to present an appealing leaping-in point for beginner players, a job he has performed well for nearly two dozen years now. And yet, many of the players who helped cut their gaming teeth on a Kirby title still stick with the series after all this time. As more games are added to the Kirby...
Developer Profile Masahiro Sakurai
About the man behind two of Nintendo’s most significant franchises
"I decide what goes in the game; nobody else." These were the words of Masahiro Sakurai during a 2008 interview with Official Nintendo Magazine about Super Smash. Bros. Brawl. It's a quote that stands out because it contrasts quite starkly with the modest way in which the man...
First Impressions Moulding Clay With Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Rainbow Country
Kirby has always been a flexible little guy; from his humble beginnings as a placeholder sprite, he’s been moulded into a pinball, a golf ball, and an animate collection of yarn - not to mention the many hats he wears as part of his trademark copy abilities. Kirby’s workable versatility is a huge part of his identity as a...
Month of Kirby A Series With Rewarding Game Design
The Great Cave Offensive, anyone?
It’s been 22 years since Kirby made his debut in the 1992 Game Boy confection Kirby’s Dream Land. In that time, players have seen the lovable pink puffball grow to become one of Nintendo’s biggest stars, scoring it big in hit after hit on both consoles and portables. Those not quite in the know about...
Look cute, lose friends
Kirby’s now comfortably over twenty years old at this point; HAL’s pink puffball is firmly entrenched in gamer’s minds as a Nintendo icon and the star of many, many games. When he’s not off saving Dreamland from the gluttonous King DeDeDe or going toe-to-toe with Mario in the latest Super Smash Bros., however, Kirby...
Month Of Kirby Kirby's Lost Levels
Kirby's Cancelled Curse?
In the first of a series of features that'll form a mini Month of Kirby — ahead of the release of Kirby: Triple Deluxe in May — we look at a few games starring the pink mascot that never saw the light of day. Kirby has had a storied run as one of Nintendo’s most recognizable characters, having appeared in traditional...
Feature Let's Celebrate Kirby's Spin-Offs
Kirby's had a busy 20 years
Earlier this month, at his apocryphal 20th birthday celebration, we're sure Kirby was able to blow out his candles with trademark gale-force and reflect on what has been, even for a Nintendo character, an astoundingly diverse career. While keeping his day job of walking from left to right and inhaling enemies, Nintendo's...
