Just less active... I hope

He'll still take care of the Most Wanted thread.

Kirby Triple Deluxe Stays True to the Series' Roots

Is it safe to admit Kirby games feel intended for a younger audience? I think so, and I also believe that’s OK. Kirby games involve simple platforming with fun abilities. Where Mario games scale from easy-to-slightly-difficult platforming challenges, Kirby takes a friendlier approach of empowerment. A life bar helps keep the pink hero alive longer, so he’s never the victim of occasional one-hit deaths. Kirby can float out of bottomless pits if you have semi-quick reflexes. He can swallow enemies and copy their abilities. In a way, he’s kind of like Peter Petrelli from NBC’s Heroes TV series, only Kirby can’t keep these borrowed powers once he abandons them -- I guess that happened to Peter too before the show was finally canned.

Each Kirby game emphasizes the power of choice by enabling you to trade power ups as you travel between stages. And much like previous entries in the series, Kirby Triple Deluxe follows the same approach. I played Kirby’s 3DS installment for roughly 30-minutes, and in that time I saw abilities and modes that felt approachable for anyone curious about playing video games. Maybe that’s what helped the pink hero endure for so many years.

I played three levels of Kirby Triple Deluxe’s main campaign. The story has Kirby climbing a beanstalk to save his frenemy King Dedede from a mysterious new threat. The graphics look cute and, more importantly, maintain a kid-friendly art direction that never felt overbearingly so. The same goes for the music, which never devolved into the incredibly grating toddler-style music of Yoshi’s New Island.

But being approachable doesn’t mean Kirby Triple Deluxe sacrifices depth. Enemy ability I copied gave me a unique set of special moves. So holding up with the sword ability launched Kirby into the air at an angle. A downward strike would cause him to drop sword first to the ground. It doesn’t take many hits to kill a standard Kirby villain, but these new abilities set up cool combo opportunities. The new combos are refreshing, and the developer extends it into Kirby Fighters, an additional mode that plays like lite version of Super Smash Bros.

Copy abilities have new layers of depth in Kirby Triple Deluxe.

I got to use a few more of Kirby’s new abilities during my session. One dressed him up as a circus clown, and he could use a mix of unpredictable acrobatic moves to defeat opponents. I also tried new Bell and Beetle abilities, and each one had its own interesting applications and combos. The weirdest thing I saw during my demo was Hypernova, an amped up version of Kirby’s inhale ability that allows him to manipulate large pieces of the environment. I watch the tiny hero change colors and swallow a tree at least five times his size. The idea seems a little excessive and fits along the same line of thinking as the egg-dozer in Yoshi’s New Island, but thankfully it appeared to have a few more applications.

Fellow IGN editors Marty Sliva, Ryan McCaffrey, and a Nintendo rep joined me for a few rounds of Kirby Fighters, a mode where you pick a single ability and try to beat down your competition. The Smash Bros lite comparison I mentioned earlier isn’t hyperbole. You can attack, dash, and block using very similar controller inputs. We bashed and brawled for just a few stages, but it felt like a fun and simple alternative until the 3DS version of Smash releases later this year. Kirby Fighters supports download play from one cartridge. If not there’s a short single-player mode that pits your Kirby against A.I. controlled opponents.

Kirby Fighters looks and plays like a lite version of Smash Bros.

The Kirby series has definitely settled into approachable territory and that’s fine. Anyone looking for a kid-friendly alternative to Mario, Kirby games are probably a good place to start. But I would caution writing off depth in Triple Deluxe. The new stages, abilities, and puzzles I tackled in my short play time all seemed fun and intuitive. The added bonus of collectible 8-bit inspired digital keychains and other mini-games add fun distractions and replay value. The game itself looked well made. But the downside for some folks could be that Kirby is too simple. But I’d argue that Kirby Triple Deluxe doesn’t have to sell itself as a hardcore game. If that’s what you were expecting, you might not be as familiar with the Kirby games as you think.

Source:http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/28/kirby-triple-deluxe-stays-true-to-its-roots

I all I got to say is... day one buy! :)

Kirby is starting to look pretty good, I must say.

It's like the only 3DS game left to buy in 2014 for me :(

Also... is this thread usually this quiet? I mean this site has a much higher user base for Nintendo than Xbox, but it's not nearly as active as that thread. Just an observation. 

Off topic, hope you put your dog on a  leash. :)

From what I can gather, xbox fans tend to be more territorial and close their ranks a bit more, sticking inside a few threads. This thread is mainly a hub for weekly events, daily news that doesn't warrant its own thread, and the ocassional Pokemon trade. Note that many Nintendo faithful, like Rol, rarely frequent this thread.

Oh, and to the kind people about ten posts up; I'm not dead or anything. I'm still going to pop in pretty regularly. I'm just accepting one less duty than usual on this site, due to scheduling conflicts.

Yeah that's pretty much what I had thought. I see a lot of Nintendo fans who don't post in this thread, but are regulars outside.

The Xbox fans, myself included, tend to stay in that one thread.

Today has been rather quiet, but I've been busy with other things so haven't done much here. I'm sure it's the same with others. But yeah, it's less active, but there you are.

Then, shouldn't Nintendomination be the most populated of all?

That sounds reasonable.

Wii U news of 01/04/2014: April begins, and I welcome you the new "news guy"

• SSB4 gets a Xenoblade stage and a character!
• EA acknowledges their mistakes and becomes a partner to Nintendo again!
• A trio of games are now priced $89.99 on the eShop!
• Here's a lot of footage from the DS VC!
• A big congratulations to ConeG for becoming a mod!
• And Sladealpha, welcome to Nintendomination!