By pressing the inhale button, you will pretty much obliterate whatever is in your path by inhaling everything, including enemies, trees, and even bosses. Hypernova is utilized in some puzzles as well, where you must pull boxes and other obstacles with the force of your lungs to advance. Hypernova literally gives Kirby superpowers, and you pretty much will not die unless you accidentally fall into a pit of some sort while inhaling. As a result, Hypernova was kind of polarizing for me. On one hand, it was a ton of fun to totally destroy everything in my path pretty often. However, it also made portions of an already easy game way too easy, to where you were almost just going through the motions, unless a puzzle was involved.
The 3D feature of the Nintendo 3DS has never been something that I have used too often, except when I first get a game, but Kirby: Triple Deluxe is one that actually had me keeping it on throughout most of my time playing. Thanks to the aforementioned movement between the foreground and background, 3D was very useful at adding depth to the field of view. There were some portions that were certainly made for 3D, as you could clearly see which enemies, typically Gordos, were actually in your path and which were actually in the background, to where you could walk right by them. With the 3D turned off, it appears that single one is blocking your path, which will likely lead to you taking a good bit of damage.
There has always been one element of the Kirby series that has plagued it for years and it once again shows up here, Kirby moving too slowly. To make matters worse, there is no actual run button, but rather you have to double tap the analog stick or d-pad to move just a little bit faster. This could have been utilized much better by simply letting you run by holding down Y. It also could have been better if we could have adjusted the controls to have Y as inhale and B as jump, rather than B as inhale and A as jump.
While this control scheme did bother me, you will adjust to it before too long and realize that the control physics found in the game are fantastic. You really feel like you have full control of Kirby at all times, whether on the ground or in air. The game even uses the 3DS’ gyroscope a good bit with cannons and water disbursement areas that are controlled entirely by moving the handheld left or right. Luckily, the game didn’t overuse this type of control, but rather sprinkled it throughout to keep it fresh.
The single player campaign in Kirby: Triple Deluxe is actually pretty short, though full of incredibly fun boss battles everywhere. Luckily, there are plenty of other game modes to make up for it. Upon completion of the game, you will get to replay the game in an interesting time trial like way with a certain character that is quite popular in the Kirby franchise, who is looking to face off against another fan favorite at the end of the campaign. To keep the mystery alive, I’ll let you find out who these two are for yourself when playing the game.
The game also features some separate mini-game like game modes in which to choose from on the main menu. Kirby Fighters is the game’s take on Super Smash Bros., which HAL Laboratory has a little experience with, by allowing you to pick a specific Kirby’s power-up and face off against others in either single player or multiplayer combat. Dedede’s Drum Dash is a rhythm mini-game where you can listen to your favorite classic Kirby themes like the one from Green Greens. Lastly, we have The Arena which is a boss battle time trial, where you can use any of the power-ups in the game.
Adding further to the length, Kirby: Triple Deluxe provides a number of collectibles for you to search for in the game, with Sun Stones being the most important, as you need a certain number to unlock each world’s boss stage. However, that is far from all, as HAL Laboratory has filled the game with collectible keychains that you must find, which are based on past Kirby games. I know I found myself going back multiple times searching for these to add more to my collection, so needless to say, keychain collecting can be a little addictive.
Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a very worthwhile entry in the long running Kirby franchise. Taking the core elements of the series and adding upon them even further is always a key to success in platformers. The lack of a one-press run button and the fact that the game is almost too easy do detract from it, but those are just elements that we’ve pretty much come to be used to with the Kirby series. By bringing everything together that makes Kirby great, including an incredible number of power-ups, there is no reason for you not to add this one to your collection if you are a fan of the franchise or platformers in general.
[Editor’s Note: Kirby: Triple Deluxe was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
