The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!

Let’s discuss the Kirby series. This is quite a broad topic, with some amazing recent entries as well as several nostalgic masterpieces. What is your favorite one? What are your favorite aspects? What are areas that could be improved or don’t work for you? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let’s get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

  • Kirby’s Adventure: Nightmare in Dreamland for the NES is my favorite entry. The sprites are excellent, I love the overworld between levels, the music is top notch, and it’s one of the few NES games with an autosave and progress meter.

    Kirby Superstar for the SNES revisited the game, but it dropped the overworld, the music isn’t quite as good, and the powers don’t really feel right. They did include some newer abilities and co-op, which is nice, but it feels more disjointed than the original.

  • Kirby has never got enough love. DreamWorld and 64 were mainstays of my childhood. Kirby can be anything Kirby needs to be. Nintendo could make a Kirby card game, JRPG, racing or stick with the main line. The games would be fun and make sense thematically.

  • Apart from preferring Kirby in Smash, the only Kirby game I’ve played is Kirby’s Dreamland on Gameboy. They hadn’t yet figured out how to persist save data in those cartridges, and it didn’t have any codes. So you had to beat it in one sitting, which I could do as a kid, which was no small fear for that era of gaming. Replaying it meant finding where the secrets are, making runs quicker each time.

    I kinda like this concept of no save, I think there aren’t many games, even retro-themed ones, that make use of it as an element.

      • Yeah, I generally don’t like most rogue likes though, because they often lean on procedural levels and there’s usually not an “ending”. So I play it enough that I feel like I get it and then I’m done.

        Minit is one that comes to mind. It would actually be rad if someone put Minit on an OG Gameboy cartridge. I think it totally would have worked as a Gameboy game with no save data.

        Edit: ah I forgot that there is a bit of info retained between runs, like spawn position.

  • I had Squeak Squad on the DS and played through it many times. I’ve been playing through some of the others (still don’t have the recent 3D one), and my biggest complaint is just that I’m not the target audience anymore. Haha. Some difficulty settings would be wonderful. However, whenever I want to turn off my brain for a bit I’ll boot up Triple Trouble or Amazing Mirror sometimes.

  • My nephew absolutely loves Kirby anything. We played some of the games together on an emulator during his visit last year, but it’s a few more years before I’ll introduce him to Dream Course. The 2d platformers are more his speed currently. And by that I mean “as long as he crossed the finish line he beat the level” even if I helped. It’s been fun playing through them to practice for the cool points

  • I 100% amazing mirror several times on GBA. Loved that device and many games it had. I want a modern pocket emulator GB device but can’t justify it since I already have a Steam deck. Or a phone. I guess nostalgia doesn’t hold enough monetary value to me to profit off of.

    • I also have a steam deck, don’t like to play without buttons, so phone is a no go and the steam deck screen is too big for such pixelated games, so I got myself a RG35XX for 50€ from AliExpress and am super happy with it. It plays anything up to the PS1.

      • Same same. I really really want buttons, but I’ve been playing on touch screen emulators since the… I forget what it was even called, iTouch is a crime, so it was ipod touch? Idk, the first through maybe 3rd gen of those. 2012 hardware. I actually love the bigger screen and some graphic enhancements that the emulators/mods can do. But my steam deck is still a big thing to carry. Unless I know that’s the only thing I’m using when I’m out, I feel like I need a backpack to carry it and other stuff. I’ll have to dive into the rabbit hole of Chinese pocket emulators, I’ve only kept up with the us/euro Kickstarter type ones. Something pocket sized with buttons is really all I want. But again, do I need to consume that when I already have multiple options?