It’s hard to believe, but this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Kirby franchise. The super tough pink puff has arguably proved himself to be Nintendo’s most flexible character yet, showing up in spinoffs spanning a wide variety of genres over the years. His latest game—Kirby: Planet Robobot—was pretty darned good, and barring a few mini-games releasing on the 3DS over the rest of the year, the future for Kirby is still open to speculation.
Although the 25th anniversary for Kirby was on 27th April, Shinya Kumazaki—general director of the Kirby series—recently took to Miiverse to share a few words on the lovable puff’s big milestone. Here’s what he had to say:
What do you think? What’s your favorite Kirby game? What do you think the first Kirby game on Switch will be like? Drop us a comment in the section below.
[source miiverse.nintendo.net]
Comments 50
My goodness, Kirby is old.
Happy Birthday, Kirby! I've been hard at work crafting decorations to celebrate the occasion:
@Kayfios That looks awesome!
Kirby always getting the red carpet. Metroid sure as heck didn't. And the Zelda anniversary was laughable last year as was Mother3's nonexistent 10 year.
Happy Birthday, Kirby !
Happy birthday kirby!
My favourite kirby game is kirby and the rainbow curse because its the only one i played. Great style that gets lost a little bit on a small screen. I dont know why i havent played more kirby games yet. Im sure i would enjoy a more direct control even more. Ill definetely play more kirby games.
KIRBYYYY
@Killer7IsDead Kirby's earned it. I love the Metroid series, too, but the series is much less popular in Japan, which is probably why they don't give it any attention, or if they do, they outsource the series to Retro Studios or Next Level Games. At least last year brought a pseudo-confirmation that Metroid Prime 4 is still in the works.
As far as Mother goes, we got EarthBound on New 3DS last year, and for me, that felt like the best way NOA/NOE could celebrate the milestone without having to localize Mother 3.
Lastly, how was Zelda's 30th laughable? Sure, Nintendo couldn't release Breath of the Wild by the year's end, but we did get a game that celebrated almost the entire series, Hyrule Warriors Legends, an HD remake of Twilight Princess, and dozens of goodies from My Nintendo. If anything, Zelda had a great 30th!
Happy birthday Kirby!
Happy B-day little buddy! My all time favorite Kirby games have to be Kirby Adventure/Nightmare in Dreamland and Block Ball. Well Squeak Squad was pretty great too, personally. I should use this occasion as an excuse to go back and finish Planet Robobot...
They remember this guy but Metroid?
@SLIGEACH_EIRE nintendo gonna nintendo.
Happy birthday, Kirby! Though King Dedede is my favorite of the series, I love 'em all. My favorite is actually Triple Deluxe, but Adventure, Dream Course, I love the pink puffball! 💖
Yes, Metroid's mistreatment is lamentable.
Kirby gets a bigger birthday celebration than Metroid or Zelda.. and probably still has better games as a whole than Sonic.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Wasn't Metroid's Anniversary last year?
@Reverandjames You mean like the three Kirby games we're getting this year, all the Zelda stuff we got last year, and Super Mario Maker the year before that? Yes, good times indeed.
I hope switch is hetting a big 3d game and nit being left to hanb dey in favor of 3ds .
No rainbow curse style a propwr platformer this time please.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Well Kirby is property of Hal Laboratories. Why would they not celebrate their own creating?
Your suggesting a company like Game Freak were to celebrate the F-ZERO franchise, which they don't own.
Man, 25 years old already? And to think that Sakurai was only 19 years old when he created this pink cute-ball! Sure hope we'll see a Kirby game on Switch sooner rather than later. A sequel to Return to Dreamland with multiplayer focus would suit the system well imo.
@GoldenGamer88 Seems like we're getting another spin-off after the Robobot Sub-Games. Kumazaki described it as "a new fighting action game."
I'm hoping it's a completely fleshed out Kirby Fighters Deluxe, with even more abilities and online multiplayer! But if it's something different, that'd be cool, too.
@Kayfios Honestly I'm kinda sick of those cheap Kirby eShop releases where they're just reusing assets again and again. But a proper fighting game with Kirby's many transformations and maybe even other characters like Dedede or Meta-Knight? I'd be all over that. If it comes for Switch that is.
@GoldenGamer88 It's already confirmed for 3DS, which... I feel like that system got enough Kirby games, except for some VC releases I'd like, such as Dream Land 3. I'm not too disappointed by the lack of a console title this year, but I do hope another co-op game can come to the Switch in the near future.
@Kayfios At least last year brought a pseudo-confirmation that Metroid Prime 4 is still in the works.
Must have missed that. Got a source?
Love the series - I feel it''s stepped up a gear since return to dreamland. Long may it continue!
Top 5, in no particular order
Planet Robobot
Dreamland
Mass Attack
Rainbow Curse
Kirby 64
@MarcelRguez It's in Federation Force's Secret Ending.
@Kayfios Yeah, I know which is really a shame as it makes it smell like just another cheap eShop release of reused assets. 3DS would be fine if you could play locally with friends with just one copy. Like a Download Play function would be nice. Though I'd still rather play that game on the big screen.
@Kayfios Oh, that.
Well, Corruption did the same thing back in 2007, yet here we are.
I still love the NES original most of all - just a perfect platformer. Would love to see a Mario Galaxy/Odyssey-style 3D Kirby platformer someday.
@MarcelRguez Yes, 9 years, and they're still teasing it, which means it still might happen, and given that Retro Studios has been quiet since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, it seems even more likely that they got something big planned, hopefully for E3.
When the author mentioned "flexibility" my mind oddly connected Kirby to Splattoon. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Kirby in that kind of third person combat, using his ability to steal weapons from other players, or in turn see his own abilities stolen by others?
Just a thought. Kirby really is a solid franchise. Here's hoping they make a new entry on Switch, especially a new pinball or golf game.
@Kayfios Don't expect Retro to be working on a Prime game. I'm having an ongoing conversation in another article about the topic and why I don't think it will be the case.
@MarcelRguez Okay, that is legitimately disappointing. What the hell are they teasing Sylux for then?!
@Kayfios Looks great!
My favorite Kirby game is Kirby Mouse Attack!
Such a fun game with a lot of collectibles.
@Kayfios I'm sure Tanabe wants to make another one, it just might not be the right time. His line about "not being able to collect a team or the resources for it" suggest the higher-ups don't fancy his idea that much.
Am I the only one who is very sad about the Nintendo Anniversary situation? The little pink ball is great and cute and all but man, nintendo, where is the love for Metroid? Cutness just sells for Nintendo I guess. But kirby games are not that great, they are decent but allways the same more or less.
@TommyTLG Mouse Attack? Are you talking about Squeak Squad?
Kirby is easily one of Nintendo's best franchises. I think Super Star Ultra on DS is the best game, but there are so many good games in this series that it's hard to pick just one.
I'm looking forward to whenever the next Kirby platformer's announced for the Switch.
Happy 25th Anniversary Kirby! By far my all time favorite gaming series. I started with Nightmare in Dreamland (the remake of best version of Kirbys Adventure imo) so I've been with the series for 15 years now. My favorite entry is a 2 way tie between Nightmare in Dreamland and Planet Robobot. Triple deluxe and Super Star Ultra are tied for second.
If I had to choose a least favorite it would be Squeak Squad. It was a very unambitious title that reused far too many assets from the gba titles. Also the level design and bosses were kind of lackluster. Even then I would say it's still a decent title.
Anyway, here's to another 25 years Kirby!
my first Kirby game was Kirby Super Star for the SNES. Man I loved playing that game with my younger brother....we did the treasure game together and ended up getting them all. Another fav was Milky Way Wishes although to unlock you had to beat the Metaknight and Great Cave Offensive which was hard for me to do alone. I have Super Star on my Wii U. I should play it this year and see if I can beat it.
Kirby just got a 20 year one for the Wii collection.
Kirby should be sacrificed to the gods in favor of Metroid's return.
@96OopAmgems Well, they largely ignored Zelda's anniversary just before dumping the biggest Zelda of all time...there's hope!
Happy birthday to one of the cutest little protagonists in gaming history.
@Kayfios It's called that in Europe
@TommyTLG That's weird, and I was half convinced you meant Mass Attack, but were using a speech-to-text program or something.
@Kayfios Well, they often have different titles for Europe and US. Like Kirby Rainbow Curse / Rainbow Paintbrush
@TommyTLG Yeah, I know Return to Dreamland is simply called Kirby's Adventure, which makes some sense, given its similarities to the NES game of the same name, but that's gotta be confusing if you're talking about one game and people assume you mean the other.
@Kayfios I still don't understand the need to make two different titles, though. lol
America and Japan got a nice Kirby Collection on Wii for the 20th anniversary. I'm still sad about Europe missing out on that one
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