Parent's Guide: Kirby Battle Royale - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

What is Kirby Battle Royale?

Kirby Battle Royale is a multiplayer-focussed collection of fast-paced mini-games where players compete to beat up robotic monkeys, collect the most apples, refuel their rockets, and many more madcap tasks, either in teams of two, or as every Kirby for themselves. With ten mini-games on offer, and full support for single card Download Play, up to four players can play together with just a single cartridge. Meanwhile, a short single-player story mode arranges the mini-games into a tournament of sorts, where the titular Kirby competes in a contest for a chance to win the cake of his dreams, by winning the most mini-games.

How do you play Kirby Battle Royale?

Whether you're playing in single player or multiplayer, the mini-games you'll be playing in Kirby Battle Royale are the same, with plenty of variety on offer. From the basic brawling last-man-standing 'Battle Arena', to a race to collect the most apples or coins (where you can beat each other up to steal things), and even a quick-fire quiz that asks you to stand on the panel that shows the correct answer to a question (you can punch other people off it to stop them earning points too), it's all simple, silly fun. Others include beating up a giant robotic monkey by launching missiles (or even other players!) at it; a different take on air hockey, where you flick the puck into other players for points; and a race to get a ball to your flag to earn points (although your opponents can also pick up your flag and run off with it!).

To help keep things interesting, you can choose to give Kirby one of several powers, arming you with everything from swords and spears to whips and lasers - whatever you think will give you the best shot at winning the game you're playing. All of the games here are playable either in single player, or in multiplayer, with full support for Download Play, where only a single game card is needed.

How easy is Kirby Battle Royale to pick up and play?

In terms of accessibility, Kirby Battle Royale is a very easy to pick-up-and-play party collection, with simple controls, and fairly self-explanatory mini-games. In multiplayer, even younger children should have few problems getting involved here, so long as an adult or sibling can help them get started .

In single player, however, Kirby Battle Royale's story mode, and the explanations for each of the mini-games, are done entirely through text, so you will need to be able to read to get the most out of it. However, with a bit of help with the rules of each game - or indeed, just a bit of trial and error - it's perfectly possible to get through the story mode with a minimum of reading, skipping over the occasional (optional) story segments. The computer controlled opponents, in both story mode and in free play, tend to be pretty easy to defeat too, and shouldn't pose too much of a challenge even towards the latter half of the game.

Sample Sentences:

• "You're invited to Dedede's Cake Royale! Our grand prize is the cake of your dreams!"
• "Oooh… Can't take another step. I walked all night long. But, I have to get to the cake of my dreams! All I can THINK about is that tasty, tasty cake!"
• "After you pick up apples, throw them into your collection area, which is blue."

As with most of Kirby's games, Kirby Battle Royale is as family friendly as the smiling, brightly-coloured box art suggests - there's no bad language, no bloody gore and no sexual content whatsoever. Because many of its mini-games are either beat 'em ups, or at least involve some sort of combat, characters do fight with each other, using swords, bombs and magical beams to damage each other, with attacks accompanied by bright flashes of light and impact sounds. Defeated characters are merely 'knocked out', and in several modes either respawn straight back in, or turn into a "ghost", where they can mash buttons to come back to life.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS