With the ongoing success of the Nintendo Switch, more and more gamers are picking up the hybrid console and the next big new release will be Kirby Star Allies. It’ll be arriving just in time for Easter 2018 and it’ll be Kirby’s first outing on the Switch with traditional side-scrolling platform action.
While Kirby has been prolific in terms of releases on Nintendo’s hand held consoles, it’s been a little more conservative for the main console system. There is usually just one game on each system with the last being Kirby And The Rainbow Curse on the Wii U back in 2015.
However, KSA has arrived early on in the Nintendo Switch life-cycle, so it’s entirely possible that this could go on to be the start of something big and new for the little pink hoover. If the console continues to sell as well as it is and the game lands well then we might see more Kirby games for the Switch.
Release date
The Kirby Star Allies UK release date has been confirmed for March 16th 2018, so it’ll be one of the big game launches ahead of the Easter break this year. Sadly for any serious Kirby fans out there, Nintendo doesn’t have any specific Amiibo release to tie in with the game and it doesn’t look as though the existing Kirby Amiibo will work with the game. It’s possible that this could change after the release, depending on the success of the title, so we’ll keep you updated if there are any developments.
Story
An unknown deep-space threat looms over Dream Land and it’s up to Kirby and his allies to join forces and save it from the impending doom. There’s a whole host of nasty critters standing in their way, but it’s the mysterious force that seems to be the driving factor in the story progression for the game.
This could well be a new enemy for the pink punk to face, or it could be a return for previous gits from the series. Nightmare and Dark Matter are probably the most obvious, but we’ll have to wait for the release date to roll around to find out.
Kirby Star Allies trailer:
Gameplay
Kirby Star Allies will be one of the first new traditional side-scrolling platform games to be released on the Nintendo Switch. While Kirby will be the lead character, you’ll actually have a number of his friends along for the ride, which is where the “allies” part of the title comes from.
You’ll be able to form a party of up to four characters, including Kirby, when playing the game in single player mode. To do this, you’ll essentially recruit enemies to become your allies by throwing hearts at them, which will then give you a whole host of new elemental copy abilities.
In addition to single player party platform action, you’ll also have co-op play with up to four players, either using two sets of Joy Con controllers horizontally or four full sets. This will allow you to combine up in a range of different ways to take on the forces of the space invader threatening Dream Land. One of the coolest is the wheel ability, where all of the allies in the team join up to form a rolling wheel of doom to decimate anything that gets in its way. There’s also the Friend Train and Friend Star fly through ability, which you can see in the gameplay trailer above.
A number of moves from previous Kirby games will be returning in Star Allies, so it should feel like a continuation of the saga for fluff ball veteran gamers. This includes the Sword, Fire, Water, Bomb and Broom copy abilities.
However, there are also a few new moves that we’re looking forward to using, like the Spider ability, which you use to wrap enemies up in balls of spider web. There’s also the Artist ability, which you can use to draw characters to support you for a limited time or smash enemies with your brush.
The variety of moves gets even bigger when you take into account the way the game will let you combine copy abilities to create special Friend Abilities. You can check these out in the trailer above too, with both the Icicle Lance and Friend Throw featuring. All in all, it sounds like HAL Laboratory has thrown a lot into KSA.
Graphics
This is as cute platformer as it gets, and while the game is in HD, you shouldn’t expect too much in the way of cutting edge graphics from Kirby Star Allies. Instead, it’s sure to be a crisp and colourful side scrolling adventure with clever animation and its own quirky style, which will work well for the game.
First impressions
All in all, this is sure to be a platform crowd pleaser, but it probably won’t be the white knuckle effort that side scroll titles like Cup Head are. There’s bound to be a certain amount of challenge later on in the game, but this is all about the fun and creativity of the action.
The addition of the co-op mode should help to make Kirby Star Allies work well as an entertaining game with friends. Equally, the range of moves will give the game a fair amount of depth, and hopefully there will be a similar amount of detail to the level design, boss fights and scale.
