@poll
Kirby Star Allies
It started as another great game in the series, in line with my expectations and on the top tier of it, the excellent pacing of game flow, with each chapter upping the scale of its universe while also being an amazing tribute to the series, from Dreamland/Spring Breezes to Dreamland 3, the Jambastion being very Revenge of Meta Knight and the galaxy in line with Milky Way Wishes and 64. Culminating in another excellent final battle that also one ups their 3 previous fights for me. It also played a lot with my expectations with Galacta Knight and the implications of Kirby's origins in the Ultimate Choice mode. At any rate, I was quite satisfied with the initial game.
But that wasn't enough for HAL, the Dream Friends updates both elevated the game's quality even more and transformed Star Allies into the ultimate celebration titles, of over 25 years of Kirb. Their move sets, the amount of references, the new celebration pictures and the amazing recreations of iconic levels from each main game in the Guest Star Mode, all ending on beautiful remixes and medleys of their respective games, seriously couldn't contain my hype with some like 64's with Zero/Miracle Matter/Ripple Star theme and Magolor's mix (his track name is just badass too "Supreme Ruler’s Coronation ~OVERLORD~")
And then there was the other extra mode, Heroes in Another Dimension, intense boss fights and really great puzzles and the main theme is another great celebration and send off to the style of gameplay from Return to Dreamland, this long music track that combines the final level tracks of RtD, Triple Deluxe, Robobot and Fountain of Dreams from Adventure, just beautiful.
Finally Soul Melter EX, the final final level of the Ultimate Choice mode. What a finale, the implications of Kirby's origins basically get confirmed plus his relationship to a celebrated character in the series, which we finally get, to an extent anyways, another shot at fighting it since Crystal Shard. A really emotional ending for me, the fight, the music, seeing the boss splash screen with the hyper zone behind it, beautiful.
Quite a journey ending on Nintendo's very own Dancing Mad with "Suite: The Star Conquering Traveler", tremendous composition for the final battle; and the cute music box rendition of the main theme in the final celebration picture, "A Farewell to Kirby: He of the Stars Heads to the Future".
Kirby is an important part of my gaming life, up there with Mario, The Legend of Zelda and the Tales of series and Star Allies was an absolute treat and quite emotional journey, my favorite game of 2018.
