Our favourite little pink puffball has been the star of a fair few platformers over the years, and seems to have made himself a bit of a home on Nintendo's handhelds in particular. The DS was home to four different games, from the more conventional platformers of Mouse Attack and Superstar Ultra to the slightly different stylus controlled puzzle games of Power Paintbrush and Mass Attack - but the 3DS has been relatively lacking in the Kirby department up until now, preferring to stick to Virtual Console downloads of his classic adventures instead. Initially announced a few months ago, before being shown off in today's Nintendo Direct show, Kirby Triple Deluxe marks our favourite pink hero's 3DS debut, in what at first glance may appear to be a fairly standard Kirby game, with plenty of beating up bad guys, floating over gaps and bashing his way through obstacles - but Nintendo have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Splat!
First off, there's the all important use of perspective. Now, when Kirby grabs onto a specific star he finds at specific points in the level, he can fly to a deeper layer in the game's world, landing in the "background" so to speak, and carrying on his adventure there. But Kirby isn't the only one who can play with perspective - the trailer also showed enemies leaping from the background into the foreground, huge fragile rocks smashing into the distance, and a pirate ship taking pot-shots at the pink protagonist from far away. Aside from the level design, the Kirbster also has a new set of 'Hyper Nova Abilities' - mega super powers that activate when he eats a specific stripy fruit in a level. With this item, his trademark inhale ability gets powered up considerably for a short time, letting him swallow everything in sight - trees, massive screen-sized eel things and shoals of jumbo fish. Each one opens up a new route through the level, perhaps unravelling a giant scroll, sending a wrecking ball smashing through a fragile wall and more.
And while we're on the subject of inhaling, we can't really forget the second part of Kirby's stomach skills - his copy abilities. By inhaling an enemy and then swallowing it, he can steal their powers, perhaps wielding a sword, firing a laser or turning into a solid statue. Being the eagle-eyed Kirby fans we are, we spotted a couple of new ones, such as a rhino beetle that lets you charge at enemies before sending them flying up into the air and slamming them to the ground, while a new bell hat lets you pull out a couple of handbells and destroy surrounding enemies with powerful jingly sounds. Meanwhile, some rather unusual circus tent-esque headgear sees Kirby rolling about atop a stripy ball, running over bad guys, and finally a feathered purple fedora gives him a bow and arrow power.
Poor little Waddle Dee won't know what's hit him...
A Kirby game wouldn't be a Kirby game without the inclusion of a few mini-games too, of which only a few have been revealed so far. 'Kirby Fighters' pits four variations of Kirby, each with a specific copy abilities against each other in a battle to the death, whether it's four friends brawling it out or a single player facing off fighting computer-controlled foes - all you have to do is pick your favourite power-up and prepare for battle. The second new mode foregoes Kirby entirely, and instead focuses on his sometimes-enemy, sometimes-friend, the portly penguin King Dedede in a drum-bouncing rhythm action game. By pressing buttons in time with the music, Dedede leaps along a series of bouncy drums, collecting coins and avoiding spiky balls and other perils.
Kirby Triple Deluxe is due out on the 3DS some time next year - in traditional Nintendo style, we have no fixed release date whatsoever besides a vague '2014'. While 2013 was dubbed the 'Year of Luigi', it seems 2014 may as well be the 'Year of Kirby', as our favourite pink puffball is also getting a look in for the upcoming Super Smash Bros for the Wii U too.
