Ranking Every Kirby Game | The Best & Worst of Kirby's 39 Adventures

[Music] half a million april 2nd 2022 i surpassed 500 000 subscribers that's mind-boggling figured i would dress up a little bit for the occasion it has been quite a crazy ride to get to this point so i don't care if you were subscriber 1 or subscriber 500 000 and beyond i want to thank you all so much for joining me on this journey it's time to celebrate listen it's kirby's 30th anniversary this could not have happened at a more perfect time and i figured why not now's as good a time as any let's rank all the games the kirby fan base tends to be a little bit more on the civil side so the fighting in the comments should be pretty minimal from 1992's dreamland to 2022's forgotten land we are leaving no kirby video game stone unturned and we have 39 entries to go over you may think that you know everything this series has to offer but i'm gonna assume you don't because we got some bottom of the barrel scraping to get done to make sure this list gets done properly so without any further ado 39 kirby slide you see i told you [Music] it's just one of those panel sliding things that that's that's it the most interesting part about this was that it's software tied to a special e-reader card ooh there's not even a credit sequence for this so like nobody knows who even made it it kind of just like happened okay 38 kirby's toy box this one is a bit of an anomaly released exclusively for the super nintendo satella view service toybox offered different simple minigames depending on when you connected to the network pinball baseball pachinko these games really aren't all that interesting but it does get some bonus points for just how these games exist since this was kind of essentially a streamed game rather than released in retail many of these games were seemingly lost for years since you had to find someone with a satellite cartridge that hopefully still had the games downloaded on it ball rally was only recently discovered in late 2020. that is really cool is it fun though ah no but i will be damned if gaming preservation isn't a more interesting topic than many give it credit for 37 kirby battle royale hey look at that an actual video game i cannot help but think this is the most wasted effort in the series thus far when this game released the switch had just gotten off of its first killer year to get this random minigame collection on 3ds that wasn't awful but didn't necessarily feel like anything special it ended up just feeling unnecessary at the end of the day in its own bubble battle royale it's okay the games are decent enough for what they provide though they don't really feel all that creative the rise the ranks themed campaign is also kind of okay pretty short too and the best part about the entire thing they gave the sleep ability a move set that's that's awesome but it is clear that multiplayer was meant to be the best way to play this game and when nobody wanted to play it because they didn't want to play the device it was on you lose almost all interest it would be really cool to see this concept revisited on a grander scale one day but as it stands it's a big shame 36 kirby's avalanche it's puyo puyo or for you less cultured people out there it's dr robotnik's mean bean machine but now on the super nintendo which hey if you're a puyo puyo fan you're set kirby does say poyo a lot as well so realistically this partnership makes total sense you drop colored blobs you match them up with other colored blobs you send your opponents to the shadow realm as a result it's a formula that works and will continue to work until the end of time it's just kind of bizarre because avalanche feels so not kirby i mean he speaks in this one like perfect english though whether or not the game should be higher on the list as a result of that is entirely subjective please don't tread all my roots it would not be a wise decision i feel like some apple pie oh man savage and thus angry kirby was born neat footnote in the series timeline but you'll probably get the most enjoyment out of just watching the cutscenes online squishy 35 kirby's blowout blast based off of kirby 3d rumble from planet robobot kirby's first ever full-blown 3d game kinda that's it's pretty neat though i do think i'm in a bit of a minority for not digging this one all that much but i can't help it rather than coming off as a proper platformer this more so plays like a series of real-time puzzles where you have to perfectly time and angle you're sucking and blowing in order to maximize your score for each stage no abilities in this one either just your core moveset something the game doubles down on by also acting as a bit of a reimagining of the original dreamland the music aesthetics you got lololo and la la making a grand return it's all very reminiscent of that original adventure and when you beat king dedede at the end that's a pretty obvious callback that i loved as i said before this is based off of an earlier sub game a trend during the 3ds era to take said sub games and make them more grand for standalone eshop releases compared to that original version we got more boss battles more enemies more stages hard modes 4 said stages for what it's worth they definitely did get a good amount of content out of this formula i just don't really like it all that much realistically this is when we start to get to the every kirby is at least a decent conversation blowout blast fine experiment but easily one of the weaker side games in my eyes 34. kirby's star stacker this one really boils down to me being an absolute sucker for block falling puzzle games honestly especially since unlike avalanche this goes for its own thing rather than piggybacking off of another idea you're not just matching symbols of the animal buddies here but also sandwiching star blocks between them for more points it's certainly not challenging or groundbreaking in the genre but it's still pretty satisfying nailing those long combos whether you anticipated them happening or not you got the usual fare of options to play around with too there's time attack difficulty based challenge stages adorable reward images the nostalgia is pretty strong with this one and it fit the game boys pick up and play nature perfectly but nowadays if you are interested you are much better off going with 33 kabi no kirakira kizu or adopted by the fans kirby's superstar stacker part remake part sequel this is basically the same game with upgraded sounds and visuals for the super nintendo a more accessible multiplayer option as well since you don't need a link cable anymore and there's a story mode you gotta put mr star back together or something whatever it's an excuse to plow through enemies in a puzzle game format i'll i'll accept whatever they say there's really not much more to this one it's a fun little puzzle game with a neat art style and also it's the game that debuted the masked dedede theme song so hey even better 32 team kirby clash deluxe based off of team kirby clash from planet robobot in this one you take up one of four not abilities but classes and team up with the rest of your squad to go on missions and take down the forces of evil all while leveling up your stats along the way this is easily the closest we have to a kirby rpg here and i will take what i can get it's pretty cool it's also a free-to-play game which i know a lot of people hate without spending any money you can play pretty consistently for a while but you will eventually be locked out behind a time limit which yes it's very annoying but see for me i went ahead and bought the maximum amount of gem apples as soon as i could to treat this like a standard release instead and once i did well then you're free to upgrade things whenever you want keep tackling challenges with no restrictions your gem apple harvests are greater than ever before the game is so much better without any of that free to play garbage it's still a pretty grindy experience but it's really satisfying understanding how to best utilize your class and coordinate with your teammates upgrading said classes with fancy new weapons and costumes taking down the big enemies and bosses you were too weak to handle before and it finishes pretty strong too by essentially bringing back dark mind from amazing mirror which is pretty crazy i am a sucker for random fan service like that and in my opinion it makes a game go from good to great but if only there was a sequel that could make this experience even better 31. super kirby clash yeah sure why not by simply being on the switch giving us better visuals and better opportunities to team up with friends since you are no longer tethered to a handheld anymore this is easily better it's just not very different it is free to play once again and even better the maximum amount of gem apples you can buy in one foul swoop is no longer 20 dollars but 40. didn't stop me because i'm unhinged but still to be fair it's not entirely the same classes can level up higher than before you got new bosses to tackle like greater doomer suzy even the returning nightmare from adventure oh my god that is really really cool the costumes are also more fabulous than this one so yeah i think it's worth it considering how much is unchanged from its prequel you could argue this should be lower on the list but looking at the game as its own thing i can't deny that i had a really good time whether you play in bite-sized increments for free or go all in like a crazy person like me and lie to yourself by saying this game is totally worth 40 dollars these kirby clash games are really fun but please don't do this free to play stuff again nintendo i'm begging you 30 kirby's dreamland back where it all started as soon as this little dude hit the scene he created such a strong identity for himself that would really be a great basis that the rest of the series would fall back on we don't have access to copy abilities just yet so all you can do is inhale and exhale but we still have really varied and detailed locations a very memorable soundtrack a ton of charm with those level opening cutscenes and even without the copy abilities we still have things like the random mic item that would later become an ability and the mint leaf leading you to a shooter segment which would become a pretty common trope in future games the biggest thing holding dreamland back nowadays is its length it only takes about 20 minutes to complete there is the genuinely challenging extra mode which hey given how modern games have arenas and then the true arenas that's another series staple right there too definitely elementary by modern kirby standards but by game boy standards this is without a doubt one of the best on the console 29 kirby star allies kirby's first hd adventure after the adventures on 3ds there were a lot of high expectations going into his first game on the switch and unfortunately it's pretty lackluster the core mechanic here is the friends you make along the way rather than co-op being an option like it was in the wii game taking over the souls of enemies and forcing them to join you is star ally's claim to fame and for whatever reason interesting level designs and environments really suffered as a result it's not like anything is necessarily broken here but this is the most yep this is a kirby game alright of the bunch a game that is better when played with others but at the risk of making the single player experience noticeably weaker it's not all dire though as post-launch dlc the fan service was dialed up to 11 bringing back a ton of forgotten characters like marx who the game considers a friend because as we all know marx did nothing wrong this fan service ultimately made guest star mode way more enjoyable than the story mode and while the story is pretty meh throughout most of said story mode the lore behind the final boss voy determina oh boy okay yeah that is a that is an entirely different conversation maybe another time it is it is far too dark and depressing to get into now dude and then morpho knight is another thing they threw into guest star mode and oh my god that is an entirely different rabbit hole that will take too long to discuss here but it's so so cool on the lorefront star allies is godly it's a shame the gameplay itself isn't better to really make this the ultimate package the dlc did give us retro kirby though and that's just nice kirby's pinball land it's pinball yep i genuinely love that there was a time where nintendo took a bunch of their main characters and decided you know what pinball is definitely the best way to utilize them at this very moment considering how fresh this franchise still was at the time with so many of the series staples not even existing yet pinball land still provides a really charming adventure with the little kirby content there was to work with we got three different tables to play on covered from top to bottom with recognizable kirby enemies we got gimmicks like the chicken eggs which isn't one of the most annoying things ever i assure you classic boss fights that translate to the pinball style shockingly well despite the game also misspelling wispy wood's name not sure how that happened a few fun minigames on top of that a soundtrack that is better than it has any right to be this game is incredibly straightforward but it is very addictive and highly replayable certainly better than the abomination they put mario through when it was his time to become a pinball 27 kirby's dream course now this is definitely more in line with what a kirby spin-off should be on top of having pretty fun mini golf-like mechanics which makes about as much sense as pinball mechanics do because hey kirby can be a ball why not there are copy abilities here too thank goodness this alone gives dreamcourse a whole lot more personality since not only are you simply trying to get kirby to the hole in one piece sometimes you gotta time a high jump use spark to take down a line of enemies speed past hazards with the wheel it is really really cool stuff i'm not really all that good with the single player mode i always miss like one enemy and then get very mad and stop playing that is why it's not higher on the list if you were wondering but really while the single player is fine the multiplayer is where it's at you take someone like me who's not good at the game and compete with someone else who's not good at the game and it is a recipe for a beautiful disaster at that point it's not just a race to the hole you can actively screw over your opponents at any given time and it's perfect easily the game's best feature and it needs a sequel asap 26 kirby fighters deluxe based off of kirby fighters from triple deluxe genius idea give us a smash brothers style fighting game but instead of unique characters it's a handful of different copy abilities perfect with that context it's kind of exactly what you would expect you pick one of a dozen different abilities go through the single player arcade mode or bring a friend along for multiplayer and just have a good time there's a good amount of fan service here too we got stages based on adventure dreamland 3 the factory from kirby 64. oh my god yes but ultimately it is still a pretty bare bones experience you could argue that controls are a bit too simplistic since it really plays like a mainline game just with constant arena fights which is fair but the idea of purely pitting all of your copy abilities against each other is still a pretty novel concept something that battle royale should have really dived a bit more into but i digress it's the lack of online multiplayer that really shortened the replay value with this one with no online community there's not much of a reason to get better outside of unlocking all the cosmetics so as it stands it's a pretty fun and potentially replayable time with clear potential for this to be taken even further if only there was a sequel 25 kirby fighters 2 oh yeah they did it story mode more abilities one of which is making its first and currently only appearance with wrestler other characters besides kirby are playable as well and online multiplayer yeah okay this this is way better this is simply a much more polished experience that stands on its own way more than the 3ds version the story mode is what really surprised me it's not just an arcade mode with some extra text boxes it's practically a roguelike giving you a selection of random power-ups to choose from in between stages making each run unique and as you progress to later chapters each run gets longer therefore your arsenal of items gets way bigger there is an overload of unlockables too making it so you're working towards new things at all times it is kind of repetitive sure but since you're constantly unlocking things i had no problem with it the online community never really got super populated but hey the fact that it's there is really cool so at least friends can play wherever they are the game runs at 60 fps two so by god it actually feels better to play than the proper main game star allies kirby fighters 2 came out to like no fanfare which is very upsetting it's not going to set your world on fire but it is clear the developers tried to squeeze this idea for as much worth as they could and it is a really fun game as a result also canonically thanks to the story mode uh kirby doesn't know how to read so that's important 24. kirby tilt and tumble now going against my own word kinda we have a kirby spin-off this high on the list that doesn't feature copy abilities however its main gimmick is really really cool the cartridge came built in with a gyroscope meaning way before this feature was considered standard we have a video game that requires you to tilt the entire game boy console in order to get our pink puff where he needs to be and you flick the game boy up to jump that is especially satisfying the minigames all use this functionality pretty well too i was always a fan of the ball rolling one it just felt very natural to tilt the entire game boy watch the curvy balls go where you want him to really good it's a true shame the gamecube's sequel was never released this is a concept that could easily find a place in a modern setting considering how ahead of its time the gyroscope functionality was and taking a look at one of the sub games in forgotten land it's very clear that idea is not off the table when it comes to the actual adventure it's not the most varied in the world especially in the boss department where you fight this eyeball thing far too many times so this is a prime example of what you see is what you get and if you remove the tilting functionality which is actually possible with the rom hack now funnily enough you will be in for a less exciting experience so whether you play this on original game boy hardware or honestly emulating it on the wii with a wii remote that works perfectly fine as well it is truly a refreshing and charming take on the typical marble rolling formula quite frankly the best thing to come out of tilt and tumble is seeing people speedrunning it by tilting an entire gamecube big fan of this visual 23. kirby's blockball there may not have been much to work with in this franchise during the gameboy days but damn it kirby can turn into a ball nintendo is going to get as much out of it as humanly possible this time we play a pink puffball version of breakout the gameplay loop is about as classic as you can get bounce the ball back and forth destroying all of the blocks and enemies in your way and you move on to the next stage until you're all done but sometimes you can get kirby to expand from his ball form to remind you that this is in fact a kirby game but nah actually the real reason why this is so high on the list is we have copy abilities too you can use spark to go through multiple blocks without stopping you have stone to stop dead in your tracks and shoot downward fire does the same thing but going upward instead this infuses the gameplay with the perfect amount of kirby charm breakout or pong with the twist is a very underrated gaming genre honestly also it has like one of the best soundtracks on the entire game boy too world 5 in particular has been stuck in my head for almost this entire 30 years you could argue with this gameplay style that it is very repetitive but i was always a big fan and since it only takes about two hours to get through and you still take out king dedede at the end that is enough for me 22. kirby's extra epic yarn to be frank this remake remaster port whatever you want to call it has always rubbed me the wrong way in the grand scheme of things yes epic yarn is really good clearly because the original has not shown up on the list yet but in terms of what this version brings to the table i feel like it really misses the mark while the original game was all about this calmer and less intense take on the franchise extra epic yarn adds a slate of ravel abilities giving kirby new and or enhanced moves that he didn't have previously you got a sword bombs whirlwind this film real yo-yo thing it's not like they're not fun to use but i can't help but feel like these are all out of place in a game that was clearly not built for them it makes a game that people already think is too easy even easier and the big problem is you can't disable them either i was kind of hoping i could just get a pure epic yarn experience with this one but sadly that's not really possible and no avoiding all the abilities as you're walking past them is not a viable solution there's the new devilish mode too where like this floating animated gif of a craft devil kinda gets in your way sometimes you can attack it and it goes away so you can resume your playing for a bit like it never existed uh i don't i don't know why this is a thing it adds nothing it's not harder it's just more annoying the brand new ddd and meta knight sub games are kind of neat though i will give the game that much but they don't really add a whole lot to the overall package i know i'm sounding really negative here but at the end of the day having epic yarn on the go is really really cool so if you have never experienced this game before this is not a terrible way to play it but i do think the original's more limited scope makes for a better product 21. kirby canvas curse of all the spin-offs in this series this is the one where it started to feel the most like a proper adventure as well in the early era of the ds where we just had to put touch controls in every game possible well let's go ahead and chop off kirby's appendages make him a ball once again and get him a touchscreen game too even better let's also make a really weird commercial where kirby goes on a date with the finger the typical kirby format is here linear levels a few treasures to collect in each and end of stage minigame copy abilities everything you could possibly want the big difference though is rather than having direct control of the pink boy he rolls around slowly on his own and with the touchscreen you have the power to make him faster and draw these rainbow paths to get him where you want him to go that instant responsive feeling of kirby moving across platforms that you made and also being able to use said platforms as a way to block obstacles it is really satisfying in terms of the entire adventure though i do think things get pretty monotonous when played in long sessions the gameplay loop remains pretty constant throughout and the levels kinda bleed together without many memorable moments it makes for a fun game but just like one or two levels at a time the boss minigames are also really enjoyable each one of them bringing in their own unique touchscreen gimmick but there's only three of them that you do twice each and that's kind of disappointing too canvas curse is still fun but eventually that touchscreen novelty does kind of wear off and when that feeling finally sets in we are left with a pretty average adventure unique but average although drastia is a super cool villain credit where credit's due that soul form is really creepy ew gross 20. kirby's dream collection at first i wasn't sure if this was even gonna make it onto the list since its main selling point is the collection of six actual kirby games all emulated really well might i add aside from the lack of color in dreamland too i will never forgive nintendo for this but actually this collection has this spot on the list because there is a good amount of neat side content added here to make this whole package a worthwhile celebration of kirby's then 20th anniversary you got a nice extensive history section filled with box arts trailers and fun nuggets of trivia like how in 1993 intel released their first pentium processor this means intel is canon in the kirby universe by the way we even have three episodes of the kirby anime right back at you and anytime this show gets acknowledged quite frankly it's a miracle and the best part there is also a pretty lengthy set of brand new challenge stages based off of those from return to dreamland which give you a series of gauntlets tailor-made for specific abilities that you replay over and over again to perfect your scores and one of those abilities is smash which isn't even in return to dreamland this is its second appearance after it debuted an amazing mirror so the fact that it's here really really cool oh man and then when you beat all the challenges there's this great remix of dreamland one's credits theme that transitions into the original chiptune version and oh oh it's so good it got me emotional the first time i heard it yes obviously the actual collection is the best part of dream collection but i have to hand it to them for the sheer effort they put into everything else it really puts super mario all-stars on the wii to shame no matter how played out this comparison is it really goes to show which franchise nintendo actually prefers 19 ddd drum dash deluxe based off of ddd drum dash from triple deluxe a kirby themed rhythm game i can't believe there aren't more of these when you have a series with as many fantastic soundtracks as this one this is really a perfect fit in this first full outing with king dedede across seven different songs with two difficulties each up from only four in the original drum dash rather than having you simply press buttons in time with the music you also have to constantly move forward make sure you land on the drums centers grab all the coins either bounce normal height or super jump to the top screen it can actually get pretty intense the fun and replayability in rhythm games typically comes in learning how to perfect the stages and get perfect combos and that experience in drum dash deluxe is something i don't think you can find elsewhere the track list could be more varied it's mostly music from triple deluxe but one of the songs is the city theme from air ride so that's an instant win of all the expanded sub games that eventually got individual eshop releases this is arguably the least expanded of all of them but why mess with an already great formula right it's all because i have a big rhythm game bias don't don't take me too seriously here 18. kirby's dreamland 2 yes it's finally time we start knocking out some more of these mainline games huh talk about a big jump in quality between dreamland 1 and 2. you know with adventure releasing in between these two this means of course copy abilities were going to make their portable debut and on top of that kirby's made some new friends rick the hamster coo the owl and kind the fish not only are they really adorable and not only do they give you great movement options for land air and water respectively but you can also combine them with each of the abilities opening a whole new world of moves that you cannot get with kirby alone big shout outs to kind with spark putting the fear of god in the fish's eyes i like that one in general it's a fun little kirby game the level designs are solid the music is top notch thanks to the super game boy every world provides a different color palette very pleasing on the eyes it's just not overly remarkable by today's standards you could tell the designers really wanted to expand the scope of what these levels can offer but the game boy could realistically only do so much certainly more advanced than the first game but still pretty basic plus the main collectible the rainbow drops are pretty annoying to get requiring specific ability combos in one random level of a world without much reasoning they don't warn you ahead of time it's kind of annoying 100 in this relatively short game is more of a slog than it should have been still fun but kirby has clearly gotten better over time also this is the game that introduced dark matter to the franchise and the world has never been the same since 17. kirby superstar this is the big boy of all the kirby games right rather than giving us one big adventure we get a bunch of smaller ones instead we got a remake of dreamland with spring breeze a more standard adventure with a dynablade a 1v1 against dedede with gourmet race a wide open treasure hunt with the great cave offensive an epic battle against time with revenge of meta knight and the interplanetary quest of milky way wishes all platformers no doubt but each providing unique mechanics and narratives and marks arguably one of the most satanic demons of all there's nothing really tying all of these games together but it is practically non-stop kirby madness and it's great this is also the most advanced kirby has controlled yet no longer are we working with basic single button abilities here almost all of them now have multiple attacks based on your inputs giving each one way more utility than ever before something kirby would finally adapt a little bit more as a mainstay with return to dreamland on the wii 15 years later superstar was ahead of its time the only thing really holding this game bad for me is actually it's control don't get me wrong the advancements in the move sets are fantastic but something about how kirby moves in general has never really stuck with me he's always felt a little too loose which made the game as a whole not as enjoyable to me as it is for many others but keep in mind this is something a certain remake would address so don't get mad yet superstar fans this game is still great just hold on a second 16. kirby mass attack as somebody who was in love with the ds's touchscreen gimmick i knew immediately that 10 kirby's was gonna be way better than one especially if i'm tossing them around my screen like i'm some sort of omnipotent god being able to guide and drag around a literal mass of kirbys at any point in time and popping them off individually to attack enemies is just so satisfying it also feels rewarding to keep as many of them alive as you can see if you screw around too much some of them can actually die dropping your number down and potentially limiting what it is you can unlock in the level and you wouldn't want the kirbys to die right that would be very cruel and sad it does get fairly repetitive though a similar issue that canvas curse suffered from as well there simply isn't much in the way of interesting set pieces the game really hopes that you enjoy throwing 10 kirby's around at a time at all times and going back to play it again yeah you know what they were kinda right it's a lot of fun the side games deserve an extra special mention too offering up a whopping eight different games to play whack-a-mole a return to pinball land this 100 meter dash that damn near feels like a brain age game and there's more complicated ones like a full on space shooter called strato patrol eos and a timing based rpg battle system with kirby quest each of which pulling references out of thin air and it is so cool escargoon from the anime is here in the rpg nightmare is in the shooter oh oh it's good the sub games in the kirby franchise are usually fun distractions at most but the ones here really round out the entire package a fun campaign with the unique control scheme a bunch of cool mini games this is a definite showcase for the end of the ds's legacy 15. kirby squeak squad in the grand scheme of things this is definitely one of the alright mainline games in the series as it doesn't really bring anything new to the table but taking it at face value it's an enjoyable kirby game with a really cool group of antagonists and new abilities that are kind kind of bad but i don't know i'm finding it more interesting to talk about at least squeak squad does exactly what it needs to we got fun levels to explore a bunch of collectible treasures to find in every one of them enjoyable boss fights including yes the fabled squeak squad themselves it is not original in the slightest but it's still fun the worst part though is the stuff that they did implement to try to spice things up kinda fell flat the rewards aren't all that worthwhile most of the new abilities are kind of okay like i really like animal and magic but then you have metal objectively a terrible new ability the final boss dark nebula is really lame compared to the typical series main baddies and having kirby's stomach on the touchscreen where you can just mess with his insides whenever you want to combine items and whatnot is just it's just it's just kind of weird all right i get it like a few of the games we discussed before we're on the ds now we got to use the second screen somehow but filling kirby's belly with combinable bubbles that was the best you can come up with at best it is item storage to make the game even easier and at worst like i said it's just it's just weird when looking at what this game tried to do to be different there's a lot not great about it but thankfully the traditional kirby gameplay is as fun as it always is and those nagging little issues don't detract from things too much plus the squeak squad is very cool so that's nice as a standard kirby game it's fine and you know what that's fine 14. kirby air ride now this is a game where its reputation precedes itself when people think about kirby air ride they typically only think about one thing city trial and this mode oh baby this mode you and three other kirbys get dropped in the middle of a big old city filled to the brim with a ton of interesting landmarks and you are tasked with simply gathering a bunch of stat items in order to help you out for the randomly selected challenge at the very end and the amount of absurdity that can take place in the short five minutes you have oh man boss fights meteors bouncing items everybody suddenly moving at mach speeds maybe you'll find a new star to ride on to replace your basic one maybe you'll run into other players and you can sabotage them before they get to sabotage you maybe you'll find the three pieces of a legendary machine to tip the odds in your favor and maybe none of it will matter because you'll spend the whole game upping your power to then just have a speed challenge when all is said and done and then you'll fail you never know with city trial it's great this is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable multiplayer experiences you can get not exclusively on the gamecube not exclusive to nintendo but like ever super smash brothers would attempt this format with smash run on 3ds but man city trial is still better with all that being said though air ride does offer more than that we have traditional racing as well in the form of both behind the back style and top down both of which are incredibly simplistic almost to a fault you only ever use one button to break and use your abilities kirby even accelerates by himself there's also a ton of achievements to work towards for all three modes so replay value is definitely there but while city trial clearly shines the other two modes i mean they're not bad but if they were the only options in this game i feel like people would not be talking about air ride as fondly as they do i was considering putting this higher up on the list just because of how good city trial is but realistically the actual racing being pretty standard drops us down a few points give a city trial battle royale nintendo i'm begging you 13. kirby's dreamland 3. this game always got kind of a bad rap by not being as advanced and technical as superstar despite releasing after it but to me i always really liked how this game did stick to the more traditional style and expanded on the ideas that specifically came from dreamland 2. didn't get enough of rick kind and coo last time around well they're back along with more friends nago the cat pitch the bird and choo choo the octopus i guess i mean yeah it's supposed to be an octopus but it just kind of looks like goo to me speaking of we also got this dumb blob of happiness too gooey love them to death there's only one new ability now with cleaning but with 6 animal friends there are more combinations than ever before when compared to superstar dreamland 3 is certainly a lot slower in its pacing and abilities are back to having basically only one move each and i'm not saying that that part is better but in the context of this more simplistic game design it's not really something i missed with this adventure the art style is something special too almost looking like everything is drawn with crayon and then you got these crazy transparency effects all over the place which hey for the super nintendo it looks really damn good the one main nagging complaint i have with this one is every stage essentially offers a unique puzzle to obtain the main collectible heart stars real creative there and admittedly this can be kind of annoying it doesn't take long for them to start feeling fairly obscure in what you're supposed to do and will basically require revisiting stages in order to simply know what to do bring specific animals to their partners destroy the flowers protect all the flowers bring choo choo to this one random spring thing and tickle him yeah this part's not that good but hey one of them is samus so that's pretty rad i take the good with the bad here also as a direct follow-up to dreamland 2 we get a continuation of dark matter in the form of a giant bleeding eyeball neat 12. kirby and the rainbow curse yes a full-blown sequel to canvas curse people thought it was never going to happen it was definitely one of the biggest shockers of the wii u's lineup it makes total sense though since the selling point of that console was the gamepad there's a perfect place to revisit that idea along with being a massive graphical showcase with this gorgeous claymation art style this is honestly one of the greatest art designs nintendo's ever worked with just a constant pleasure in comparison to the previous adventure rainbow curse lacks copy abilities mini games of any sort it moves at a bit of a slower pace on paper all downsides but i think it made for a much more concentrated and refined experience each level now brings in unique set pieces with level hazards enemies and fantastic music that make each of them stand out and while we don't have copy abilities here there are these occasional vehicle segments that change up how you use the touchscreen and while the boss minigames are nowhere to be found we have actual boss battles now and thanks to the extra screen real estate provided here there is plenty of room to move around and make said fights work you do repeat the boss battles which is pretty upsetting but considering canvas curse kind of did the same thing i guess that's being faithful to the series roots klasia is also a pretty cool antagonist due to the final boss against her soul giving us one of the best final boss music tracks in the franchise the fight itself absolutely sucks but man the tune slaps overall this is a fantastic and inventive adventure but if anything the big downside is since the game is so gamepad focused it's hard to really enjoy the visuals on a big screen while you're playing it not a huge deal but an even bigger downside it seems like this will be one of the few games locked to the wii u at least for a good while so many people won't even get the chance to play it fingers crossed so that changes in the future because this game definitely deserves a second chance 11. kirby and the amazing mirror it is wild to me that this idea has yet to be tackled again all the way back on the gba we essentially got an open world kirby game gone is the typical level by level format we now have a large interconnected world with doors littered all over the place that change your trajectory at first things are pretty linear but before long you have so much freedom to tackle levels and bosses in any order you want in order to repair the titled amazing mirror and collect a ton of treasure along the way it sort of feels like a mashup between a traditional kirby game and superstar's great cave offensive and you're not alone on this journey either there are three other kirbys exploring with you in single player they don't really accomplish anything but you can see that they're constantly moving around the map which is neat it's like they have one brain cell bouncing between all three of them but the real star power comes from being able to link up with other real life people and all go your separate ways to tackle your own objectives while all going for the same goal unlike star allies this is a game that has multiplayer as the intended way of going through it but the single player is not compromised in the slightest if anything it's funnier because man the other kirbys are dumb in terms of its level designs and gimmicks it's not like there's anything unheard of here but it's open world setup keeps the game moving at a really fast rate and also master hand shows up sure okay and defeating him gives you the debuting smash ability which yes is based off of kirby's moveset in smash i love it so much it's such a cool idea and i wish more kirby games had it in the age of modern online gaming it is mind-boggling to me that something like this has not been attempted again going through a massive kirby world with friends not restricted to the same screen like in modern games is something i would love to see again 10 kirby's return to dreamland the first mainline console kirby game in over 10 years after the crystal shards this was such a big deal for me when this game first released obviously kirby games never stopped releasing especially on handhelds but the world was definitely lacking a super polished and modern take on the traditional kirby formula and that's exactly what we got here essentially the format is as traditional as you can get with kirby but the new additions come in the form of bringing in multi-functional abilities from superstar a long-needed change that makes each and every ability way more enjoyable to use than ever before as well as the brand new super abilities where the music gets all intense and you go ultra instinct on basically anything that stands in your path it's not difficult to function like at all you're basically an unstoppable machine during these segments but damn it if it doesn't feel cool to do the rest of that makes returns a great adventure is the polish aesthetically all the environments are super pleasing and detailed the soundtrack is filled with a bunch of new tunes that would soon become iconic like sky tower levels are consistently adding new mechanics like holdable items gimmicks like dimensional space portals puzzles both ability based and not it is a simple and super fun kirby time there's even co-op here too properly acting as an additional way to play the game that does not detract from the overall experience like it did in star allies in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really add much to the formula the major appeal at the time was hey kirby's back and in that context this did its job perfectly as evidenced with the fact that this basic model would be the framework for the mainline adventures that would soon follow and big shout outs to magalore by the way introducing a whole new generation of kirby fans to the concept of being massively skeptical to any new friends kirby makes along the way thank you thank you for that nine kirby 64 the crystal shards during this console generation when the hot thing was to bring everyone to the third dimension kirby said no well sorta we still have a 2d platformer here but with a constantly rotating camera it may not be as revolutionary of a jump as some other franchises during these days and it only led to people begging for a proper 3d kirby game for like 22 years after this but it's honestly kind of refreshing seeing a polished 2.5 d platformer on this console it's one of those things where level design wise it's not like we get much that we haven't seen before but this new presentation is enough to keep it compelling we even get some new friend moments in stages like adeline painting up some items for us to use and letting us ride on top of king dignity like he's a yoshi the music oh man the soundtrack is also unnaturally good like okay i get it all these games have good soundtracks i understand but there is a level of ambiance delivered with these songs that cannot be found in other games and it's given us some of the best tracks in this franchise quiet forest factory investigation the boss battle theme all of them are just outstanding the big gameplay gimmick this time around are the ability combinations there are only 7 core abilities to choose from but they can each be combined with another for some wacky results giving us a whopping 35 different toys to play with we got absolute bangers like the flame sword for fire and cutter and the refrigerator with ice and spark gotta love kirby fridge who doesn't love kirby fridge and then we got some duds like a burning ice cube all right listen this is still a cool idea when it comes down to the players simply playing around and experimenting to see what you can get and running with it it's awesome when the game expects a specific combo from you so you can break an oddly colored rock and get one of the collectible shards well that's where it gets kind of annoying the game acts as a direct follow-up to dreamland 3 and that sort of obscurity with the heart stars can be found here with the crystal shards it can be a bit annoying but it is not enough to detract from the fact that this is also the adventure that puts you on a post-apocalyptic frozen over earth and ends off with a fight against a dark matter evil angel in 0-2 so you really really gotta take the good with the bad one of the best final boss segments in the franchise eight kirby's adventure this may not be the first game in the series but it is definitely the one that became the backbone for nearly every single traditional kirby game that would release after and even then adventure still holds up incredibly well what we have here is one of the most colorful and vibrant adventures the console has to offer a soundtrack absolutely filled with iconic music returning world opening cutscenes another fantastic addition that brings in a ton of charm really memorable boss encounters like paint roller and the mr shine and mr bright duo dude you like fly to space for the final boss against nightmare with the unique star rod ability it is so damn cool there's a couple of neat sub games with the crane game egg toss and super frustrating quick draw you could tell me that you beat the final one on this and i will not believe you and yes the introduction of the copy abilities no longer are you just being cute and plowing through enemies with this great superpower of suck but now you can blaze through said enemies as a fireball assort your dominance by swinging a massive sword or maybe be lucky enough to become a ufo not all of them are awesome i mean light exists while later games would sometimes base puzzles and collectibles around specific abilities that's not so much a thing in this one it's definitely there a couple of times but for the most part you're free to go about the game with any ability you see fit or no ability at all if you're up for a bit of a different challenge let's be honest here not many games of the nes era really hold up super well nowadays but kirby's adventure is the strongest exception to that rule occasionally dealing with some slow down since clearly the nes isn't strong enough to handle everything this game offers if only we were able to play the game without any lag 7. 3d classics kirby's adventure the 3d classics line on the 3ds was certainly an interesting experiment and thankfully as a result of said experiment we got a perfect remake of kirby's adventure the visuals have remained seemingly untouched but if you look closely you can see backgrounds now sport a nice subtle gradient something made even nicer if you do take advantage of the 3d feature but also and most importantly all of the slowdown has been completely removed if you are used to the original console version it is sometimes a bit unsettling seeing just how smooth this version runs it's the same game but made better and i wish nintendo did this for more of their classics it's unfortunate that this was only ever released on a handheld but hey hopefully in the future they can do something like this again but yes also speaking of remakes 6. kirby nightmare in dreamland it's been a constant debate as to whether or not the original adventure or this remake is superior and clearly i fall into the remake camp it's generally the same game with cleaner more detailed sprite work with mostly untouched game mechanics and that is more than fine for me the big additions the remake brings are its new sub games bomb rally air grind and a modified quick draw with samurai kirby still impossible on the final character but hey it's neat as well as the additional full mode meta nightmare where you go through the entire game as the masked sword slashing cool guy meta knight i mean obviously this edition is really awesome because they would revisit it multiple times in the future playing as meta knight is something i want in every single kirby game even the original dreamland where he didn't exist it would still be really cool quite frankly at the end of the day i don't care which version of adventure you play nes 3ds or gba this game is great and deserves to be played catch me on a different day and i'll probably prefer the other version of the game but as it stands yes nightmare in dreamland is superior five kirby triple deluxe you would maybe think that taking the return to dreamland formula and shrinking it down to a handheld would result in a weaker game but nope it turns out that was the exact change that was needed to make one of the most consistently fun platformers in nintendo's handheld history by this point in the series timeline there was zero messing around with this formula the usual platforming copy abilities big bosses collectible hunting it's all there but thanks to the 3d effect we now have frequent layer swapping with the platforming oh that's really cool we gotta wow people with the 3d and there's the new hypernova move where you thought you were used to kirby's ability to suck in the past but now you get the power of super suck it works in a similar fashion to the super abilities of return where you become an invincible monster for a while but this is far more satisfying there's no longer a time limit like there was for the super abilities you can go about sucking without a care in the world for as long as you want and it's used for more thoughtful puzzles like pulling back a wrecking ball to break away a giant structure or putting together a happy little snowman couple as for the whole multiple layers thing it's not just for jumping back and forth between them are often mechanics attached to paying attention to what's going on in both layers at the same time and then for the level of themes we get more out of the box ideas here too there's a bright and colorful circus canyons with giant waddle d trains coming right towards your face haunted houses with sweet mirror-based platforming this is a level of originality that is highly appreciated it's almost better that we have less screen space to work with now they had to jam pack all of these ideas into much smaller spaces and they absolutely succeeded and then we have dd detour where you go through most of the game as the penguin king himself there's fighters deluxe and drum dash showing up as sub games before getting expanded later on plus when we start talking about taranza queen sectonia and the really depressing lore that goes into them oh man this whole kirby fighting crazy final bosses thing has been around for a while but this is where things start to get pretty deep and i will always appreciate triple deluxe for that and by the way the whole triple deluxe name is triple deluxe 3d nintendo's filled with a bunch of gamers you can tell four kirby and the forgotten land kirby is finally in 3d baby and for his first true outing in the third dimension oh man he knocked it out of the park everything that was done to get this traditionally side-scrolling adventure upgraded like this was done perfectly play control is exceptional the abilities are really fun to use the landscapes and general art direction is simply gorgeous giving us level designs that feel like real natural places kirby can wield a gun and also become a car it's amazing it is really easy to meme the fact that hey kirby can rock a firearm in this one but there's a lot of puzzles and collectibles surrounding that ability that are actually really clever mouthful mode is also such an amazing addition being able to take on these really large vehicles or items and tackle the obstacles put in front of you is so much fun at first at face value it may seem like it is the same kirby you know and love just now in 3d and while that's not entirely untrue it is clear that this game was done with so much polish to expand everything you would normally think of when it comes to this franchise the stages all now have a handful of challenges to keep things consistently engaging for collectors trying to go for the best times in the treasure challenge rooms offer a great challenge for every ability and mouthful mode transformation in the game the boss fights with some of the best in the series partially thanks to now being able to upgrade every single ability in the game not only making them more powerful but also changing up some of their properties and when you want to take a moment to step back and relax waddle d-town offers really fun mini-games like running an item shop fishing and even a spiritual successor to tilt and tumble i was definitely a little bit skeptical initially thinking the first jump to 3d was going to show some growing pains i can only expect bigger and grander going forward but as it currently stands the most polished of the 2d adventures still reigns supreme 3. kirby's epic yarn without a doubt one of the most charming adventures ever not just for kirby but in general when it comes to the traditional kirby gameplay epic yarn actually lacks a lot of what makes this franchise special the pacing is slower than it's ever been it's probably the easiest adventure in the franchise and there are no copy abilities you see kirby is see-through in this one he basically can't swallow enemies now that's part of the plot but that doesn't matter man because the amount of originality and creativity on display here is remarkable the yarn-filled arts and crafts aesthetic isn't just purely an artistic choice it regularly plays into the gameplay pulling zippers to expose parts of a level when you go into a building you're a bump in the fabric as you weaken bosses their yarn gets thinner before deteriorating entirely when you unlock new levels they're all greeted with this adorable cutscene giving you an insight as to what to expect in said level which will be completely different than what you just experienced in the level prior and man you may not be able to inhale anymore but grabbing an enemy with your yarn whip rolling it up into a big ball and tossing it at another enemy oh man it feels so good there's also a ton of vehicle segments too in almost a yoshi's island style you get handed a brand new control scheme with a new set of obstacles to take down and as someone who really likes the wii's motion controls performing actions like tilting the controller to aim the fire engine's hose or pointing at the screen to guide a train i love those things so much it is so cool to me that the developers at good feel stripped away so much of what made kirby a great series and instead gave this character an adventure the likes we had never seen before and that's why additions like the ravel abilities and devilish mode in extra epic yarn left a lot to be desired for me is it challenging or intense no not at all not whatsoever and i am more than okay with that this is one of the finest games you could play if you just want something happy 2. kirby superstar ultra arguably one of the best remakes nintendo has ever made not only do we have all of the content from the super nintendo original but now there's even more modes to play through there's revenge of the king a sort of recreation of the extra mode from the first dreamland meta nightmare ultra where you go through all of the superstar modes with meta knight and a completely unique moveset ending with one of the coolest characters this franchise has ever seen with galactanite there's helper to hero and arena playable as any of the game's helpers and the true arena one of the toughest challenges in any kirby game ever as far as the direct comparisons to the original game go not only do i think ultra looks a lot better with a much more vibrant color palette and some of the best sprite work in the series but also like i alluded to with my complaint before kirby feels a lot tighter to control here it is very apparent that work was done to really fine tune how responsive kirby played so now this wide ability moveset pool introduced with that original game finally feels as satisfying to use as initially intended to me i know that's not for everybody but it is to me and that's not even mentioning all the other quality of life improvements like keeping track of the treasure in the great cave offensive being easier now because of the map letting you know when you fully clear out an area milky way wishes does something similar with the collectible abilities constantly showing up on the touchscreen we have a much better king deity sprite yes this is 100 improving my quality of life i am aware that many people still consider the super nintendo originals superior just based on it being on a console especially if you're into that game's co-op but clearly for me ultra blows the original out of the water this is the quintessential kirby game for anyone new wanting to give this series a shot this is also the game where we got masked dedede for the first time with one of the best boss battle themes of all time so yes ultra is better and finally one kirby planet robobot there is so much to say about how amazing this game is let's take the already incredible refined formula from triple deluxe make every single level themed around industrial objects and technology put us in locations like cities trains deserts with kitchen appliances in the background all areas that kirby never even thought to visit before make a soundtrack filled with so many beeps and boops it sounds like they sampled a malfunctioning floppy disk drive at times and it still sounds amazing remixing a bunch of old classics in the process like dark castle from dreamland 2 and factory investigation from 64. the game does this cool thing where the story doesn't really start showing up until about halfway through where we get one of the best side characters in the series susie and oh my god the story behind her and the haltman works company oh my god it's one of the most depressing things i've ever read in my life and oh yeah a giant robot that you can take control of on a regular basis that like the animal buddies of dreamland's past can be combined with a bunch of copy abilities opening up possibilities where you are overpowered like the gimmicks of the previous two games but not invincible so you still gotta be careful making for a way better balance we have one of the most wild final boss segments i have ever seen in my entire life even thinking about it now gets me very excited we got meta nightmare returns and you know no disrespect to the king and ddd tour of before but a playable meta knight is so much cooler and within said mode we are treated to fights with the returning dark matter and galactanide at the end oh my god it's so cool and this is all on top of simply bettering the things that triple deluxe did so well like the perspective based level design and puzzles this is one of those games where the more i think about it and the more i replay it i think it's the perfect kirby game i didn't think we would achieve it in a gameplay style where you play as a robot for like most of the adventure but damn it it's so good i can't complain i can't even be mad about the amiibo support using random figures to get random abilities sounds whatever but you actually get abilities based on the characters that you use dr mario gives you dr ness gives you esp that is so so cool sometimes i do lean towards adventure when it comes to strictly my favorite game in the series purely due to nostalgia but it is hard to deny all of the awesome things planet robobot does easily the best game kirby has ever been a part of and i can only hope a future adventure whether 3d or 2d even comes close to this level of quality phew okay that's that's my list one of the beautiful things about kirby well aside from the character himself is that when these games are at their worst they're still pretty good so that means everybody's list is going to be different and your favorites are going to rank differently than mine and that's really cool but yes with that done i want to thank everybody once again for 500 000 subscribers that is quite a big milestone and the fact that it happened on kirby's 30th anniversary right after his big 3d debut i mean come on you can't write a better love story than that all right uh can we get some green screen confetti happening right now perfect there we go now it's a celebration i guess what the next big milestone is one million right that that makes sense to me i have no idea how long that's gonna take but for those of you out there who have joined me for this ride hope you continue to join me for that one because that hike that hike up to seven digits it's probably going to be even crazier than what we've already been through so should be fun but until then take it easy play some kirby games tell people who say kirby is too easy to just learn how to get chill and until the next video you all have yourselves a good one bye [Music] you

Channel: AntDude

Views: 921,010

Keywords: AntDude, AntDude Kirby, AntDude Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby and the Forgotten Land review, Kirby Forgotten Land, AntDude Kirby Forgotten Land, AntDude Kirby Switch, Kirby series, Ranking Every Kirby Game, ranking kirby games, best kirby games, worst kirby games, every kirby game

Id: K2aXb1xgbLQ

Length: 61min 3sec (3663 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2022