Over the weekend everyone’s favorite baby voiced, swallowing crazed pink blob celebrated a birthday — yup, Kirby is now 20-years-old. Nintendo will be releasing a compilation disc in honor of the Kirby franchise’s 20th birthday later this year, which is sure to feature Kirby standards like Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby Super Star, but what about less well-known stuff?
The Kirby series has never been afraid to experiment, and whether a person has played through obscure games like Kirby’s Block Ball or Kirby’s Dream Course is really what separates the Kirby casuals from the Kirby fanatics. So, take it from this Kirby fanatic, these are the lesser-known Kirby games you should be playing in honor of the marshmallow’s 20th birthday…
You can ride a giant cat in this game, and the 2nd player gets to play as an, uh, “special” gumdrop. What’s not to like?
Kirby’s Dream Land 3
Show of hands, who knew they actually made a 3rd Dream Land game for the SNES? It came out very late in the SNES’ lifespan (as in, over a year after the release of the N64 late) so nobody played it, but I actually really like it. It has a nice visual style, and while it’s not as ambitious as Kirby’s Super Star, in my opinion it’s often more actual fun. Then again, I like my Kirby games a little more laid back, which definitely describes Dream Land 3. Still, even if you find it inferior to Super Star, it’s worth checking out.
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Kirby: Canvas Curse still represents one of the best uses of the DS touchscreen — not bad considering the game is now over seven years old. Plenty of platformers where you draw the platforms have come along since, but none of them have felt as fast or smooth as Canvas Curse.
Ah, the good ol’ days when you could draw your box art in five minutes and call it day.
Kirby’s Dream Course
Why aren’t there more mini-golf titles out there? It seems like a perfect subject for video games, and yet the only mini-golf game I can think of is Kirby’s Dream Course, which is awesome. The game may seem a bit plain at first, but there’s a deceptive amount of strategy and depth to Kirby’s Dream Course. I’d love to see this game get a sequel on the 3DS.
Kirby Tilt N’ Tumble
During the early to mid 2000s Nintendo made a number of portable games with special tilt controls. Some of them were good, some of them were bad — Kirby Tilt N’ Tumble was one of the good ones. It was surprisingly complex, sometimes even requiring you to solve simple puzzles — in fact, with it’s overhead view it, at times, almost felt like a simple, tilt-controlled Zelda. This is another game that could do with an update — it’d work great with the WiiU’s tablet controller.
Kirby: Mass Attack
This one only came out last year, but it’s pretty much already been completely forgotten, so it makes the list. Beat things to death with a mob of angry Kirby’s! How doesn’t that sound fun?
What about you guys? Any obscure Kirby games you particularly like? Come on, there’s gotta be at least one person out there who actually liked Kirby Air Ride! Let yourself be known!