Parent's Guide: Kirby Triple Deluxe - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

What is Kirby: Triple Deluxe?

Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a platforming game on the 3DS. With a low difficulty level and a focus on accessibility, players get to play as the titular pink blob, Kirby, a happy little chap who can swallow enemies to absorb their powers, and use them to either beat up other baddies, or solve the game's basic puzzles, whether it's making use of a sword, bomb or laser beam as he waddles through the game's simple platforming levels.

How do you play Kirby: Triple Deluxe?

The perfect game for youngsters who are keen to play the likes of Mario, Sonic and Donkey Kong, but find them a little too challenging, Kirby is a game that's really easy to get into. With a lack of reading, simple controls (including the ability to infinitely jump, and effectively float through the levels), and plentiful health pick-ups, it's a great platform game for beginners - although it's not only for them. Anyone who likes platformers should have fun here - but younger children will be able to join in the fun too.

A particular highlight is Kirby's new Hypernova ability, which, after picking up a hypernova star, lets him inhale absolutely everything that's nearby, from screens full of enemies, to trains and 100ft long pink eels. Often used within the game's (very basic) puzzles, the Kirbster makes use of his new-found power to roll snowman heads back onto their bodies, peel away backgrounds to reveal secret passages and even sucks down Waddle Dee (baddie) houses in a rip off of The Three Little Pigs.

For multiplayer fun, there's also a four player, download play mini-game here called Kirby Fighters - a kind of Super Smash Bros style beat 'em up game that's proved popular amongst our families. As it's a download play game, only one copy of the game is needed - all the other players will need is their own 3DS, before downloading the multiplayer component over local wireless.

How easy is Kirby: Triple Deluxe to pick up and play?

In terms of accessibility, Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a game designed to be easy to get into. While the game doesn't have unlimited lives, there are plentiful extra lives you can collect in the level to give yourself a healthy back-up stash. Losing a life will see you usually simply pick up from pretty much where you left off, without losing that much in the way of progress, although a game over does see you going back to the start of the level.

Kirby in general is pretty tough, and can take a lot of damage before losing a life - when he's swallowed an enemy to steal their power-up, he's even tougher. Health restoring food is also found pretty frequently throughout the levels, helping keeping your life topped up.

For the youngest of players, even the game's tutorials are entirely handled through images, making them easy to pick up even if they can't yet read. Perhaps the only issue very young players may have is that some sections do require the use of the 3DS' gyroscope, which see you tilting the console to pour water on a fire, aim a cannon, or light a fuse, and the fine motor control required for them may prove a bit fiddly for players at the very young end of the spectrum, although even then, it's unlikely this will cause any problems.

In traditional Nintendo style, Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a game that's safe for all ages - there's no blood, bad language or sex in sight. While Kirby does fight enemies with everything from swords to laser beams to flaming juggling balls, it's never especially violent, with enemies simply disappearing in a puff of smoke when defeated.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS