

And having allies makes this simpler, especially since elemental characters can strengthen cohorts bearing weapons.
Kirby star allies review reddit series#
The majority of the game’s levels are banal, requiring players only to get past a series of foes. Time and again, Kirby Star Allies fails to commit to its innovative partner mechanic. That’s certainly one way to avoid being dragged down by the weakest link: by creating a single-player game that offers only the illusion of shared control. In an ironic contrast, the actual couch co-op is rather stingy with the controls: What the first player does, goes, and if the other players fall too far behind, they’re simply teleported to the leader. allies will clear out obstacles for you, leaving you to simply scroll from one side of the screen to the other, a task made even easier by Kirby’s ability to indefinitely float.

This affable approach is a bit too generous when it comes to single-player, as your A.I. It makes an already easy game even easier. And this effectively saps the already comforting environments of Dream Land-with their bright color palettes and chubby, smiling foes-of any danger. His latest adventure, Kirby Star Allies, offers a twist on that formula: Though he can still devour his foes and copy their powers, Kirby can now throw Friend Hearts at them, converting up to three enemies at a time to his cause. He unhinges his jaw, swallows enemies whole, and absorbs their powers. Weeee.Adorable, pink, marshmallow-like Kirby, mascot of HAL Laboratory’s Kirby series, has always been greedy. But you can use a Joy-Con so you can swing instead of press a button. It’s like a basic golf game with nothing but the swinging. You just have to time two button presses on two meters to hit the meteor as far as you can. One of them has you swinging a bat a meteor. You have Time Attack and Boss Rush-style modes and then two incredibly basic mini-games. The small assortment of bonus games are also uninspired. Even the new copy abilities - Staff and Spider - don’t feel all that different. Star Allies takes a simpler path, rarely doing anything to twist things up and offering few new mechanics. You’ll find little here you haven’t seen in past Kirby games.Įven Kirby’s two 3DS entries - Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot - did some clever things with 3D effects and level designs. But Star Allies constantly plays it safe. With the debut on the Switch, an exciting new system from Nintendo that has helped revitalize the company, you’d think that this would be a good time to try something new. This is the 12th entry in the main Kirby series, which started in 1992 with Kirby’s Dream Land for the Game Boy. Image Credit: GamesBeat What you won’t like For example, a character with the ability to turn into a rock can work with another player who can use ice attacks to shoot the rock character out like a curling stone, which can give him momentum to reach out-of-the-way switches. Sometimes, Star Allies requires cooperation to combine abilities to get through puzzle rooms. But playing with friends can still be fun. It can be easy to lose track of yourself. When everyone is running around and attacking, the screen becomes cluttered.

But while Super Star only supported two players, Star Allies stuffs four on the screen.Īnd the screen really can feel stuffed. Even Kirby’s ability to turn enemies into player-controlled friends comes from Super Star. Star Allies plays like Kirby Super Star, which came out for the Super Nintendo back in 1996. The Kirby formula has worked so well that it’s been relatively unchanged for decades. And while we’ve had plenty of games to get used to Kirby’s signature copying ability, it’s still fun to swallow a new enemy and see what powers the round guy gets. The character himself is so adorable, and his world is colorful and cheery.
