Released in 2018, this was the first Kirby game for the Nintendo Switch, but certainly not the last.

Also, this is a mainline game, which means you have all the basic elements from the franchise: Multiple abilities, platforming, Whispy Woods as the first boss, and all the good stuff. However, this time the gimmick is that you can turn enemies into allies, so most of the time you will play with three NPCs (or players) helping you.

To take advantage of that, most levels have some puzzle that needs a specific combination of abilities, like stone+psi, or blade+water. Thankfully, they put enemies with these abilities throughout the level so you don't have to go to previous stages to get them, which is appreciated and avoids having to repeat a level just because you couldn't do a puzzle.

The bosses also take into account that there are four characters at once, so they are chaotic and fill the screen with attacks, which is fun at first, until you realize the best strategy is to protect yourself while the NPCs do all the job. Also, the final bosses are so chaotic and full of special effects that the Switch starts lagging during the battle, which is funny because you wouldn't expect a Kirby game to be so demanding for the console.

Aside from the main mode, you have two minigames that you will probably play for 2 minutes just to get 100% completion, Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!, where you play an abridged version of the story mode with a random character instead of Kirby (similar to Helper to Hero and Meta Knightmare Returns from previous games), the classic arena, and Heroes in Another Dimension, which is like a post-game story that happens after the main events and was added through a later update. You will complete all of them in like a week, so don't expect anything like Kirby Super Star.

And, to be honest... There isn't much to say about the game. It isn't bad by any means, but it's pretty middle-of-the-road for the franchise. The gimmick doesn't change the gameplay that much and makes the game so easy that you will have more than 100 lives when you arrive at the final boss, the story is interesting to read in summary, but not so much in-game, where the best parts are the boss descriptions from the arena mode in the hardest difficulty, something you will do after doing all the other content.

The level design is generic and feels like a downgrade after Planet Robobot, and if you are familiar with the franchise, you won't get anything new from Star Allies. Considering this was released a year after Breath Of The Wild and Mario Oddysey, it feels underwhelming, like they were working so hard in Forgotten Land that they forgot to add more substance to this game.

In conclusion, this is far from the best Kirby game, but if you are a fan of the franchise and enjoy the classic formula without any major changes, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable.” -C.S. Lewis, The Four Love

.

Kirby Star Allies in many ways bolsters a lot of Nintendo stereotypes. The game does feel too familiar, for one.

2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey in my opinion reinterpreted and repackaged both characters in foundational, influential games for a new generation without sacrificing the fundamental concepts of their respective histories. Breath of the Wild emphasized pure exploration and the joy of discovery in the open-world structure of games that was quickly becoming full of stale fetch quests, and for its part Super Mario Odyssey spared no expense in blowing up the game design of unlockables. They’re not without their disparagers, but both games did receive an overwhelmingly positive critical response.

Meanwhile, Star Allies seems entirely like it’s retreading old ground. That’s coming from someone who lays no claim upon having played all the Kirby games. The ones I have played (Dream Land 1 and 2, Adventure, Dream Course, Block Ball, Nightmare in Dream Land, Super Star, Crystal Shards, Dream Collection, Epic Yarn) are enough of a resource to give me the impression that Star Allies is nothing new in scope or scale, in concept or design, or even in refinement, for Nintendo’s pink puffball.

For instance, the leading gimmick for Star Allies (a turn of harsh phrase, I know, but one which suffices) is the ability to befriend enemies in stages and form a party. Other players can jump in at any time by grabbing another controller to play as the befriended foe, something easily furnished thanks to the utility of the Joy-Cons. This highlights one of the basic novelties of the Switch as a versatile system but in the context of Kirby’s series, it isn’t a new idea. Kirby Super Star [] featured the ability to make helpers out of monsters, helpers which were controllable by a second player. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land would later expand multiplayer for four players playing simultaneously.

That feature reappears here with up to four playable characters at once, each with their own health bars and unique powers. Kirby can convert any enemy into an ally by lobbing hearts at them and there is a benefit to having even CPU-controlled allies following you around. They are surprisingly smart, perfectly capable of using their own abilities to trigger switches, light fuses, blow up walls, douse fires, bequeath elemental powers, and tout umbrellas.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2018/03/22/kirby-star-allies/