Kirby Star Allies was partly made to lay the groundwork for future Kirby games
Nintendo Dream recently had a special celebratory edition for Kirby’s Anniversary in which Kirby general director, Shinya Kumazaki, took part in an interview with the Japanese Nintendo-centric magazine. Mr. Kumazaki spoke about the first 3D Kirby game Kirby and the Forgotten Land and its predecessor, Kirby Star Allies He revealed that they wanted 2018’s Kirby Star Allies to set “the groundwork” for the Kirby franchise going forward, as they knew at the time that they would create the first Kirby 3D adventure as their next project. He mentioned that Kirby Star Allies and Kirby and the Forgotten Land were thought of internally as a “single large connected project.”
First, can you talk to us about the thought process behind the creation of Kirby and the Forgotten Land?
Kumazaki: For the first fully 3D Kirby game, there were many challenges that needed to be overcome. One of those was overcome in our previous game Kirby Star Allies, which had been the culmination of a lot of hard work in 2D.
The final battle there also had some 3D elements right?
Kumazaki: Yeah, we thought of it as laying the groundwork for future works and we were sure that the next game would be 3D. The Kirby team and particularly HAL Laboratory considered Star Allies and Forgotten Land to be a single large connected project.
So it was all part of a larger plan?
Kumazaki: Star Allies was a game made with a tempo and scope in mind that would allow both long-standing series fans, but also young children, to finish the main mode. In contrast, the theme of Forgotten Land was made with deeper, full 3D action in mind, since we had many fans asking for ‘meatier action’. There were still things we were not able to achieve in Star Allies, and deriving from that we wanted to make a ‘deep and accessible fully 3D Kirby game’, while also continually rethinking the amazing traits of the ‘strange ad surreal thing’ that is Kirby. And that became the theme for the game.
Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!
1 thought on “Kirby Star Allies was partly made to lay the groundwork for future Kirby games”
That’s very strange, and I’m not quite sure I buy it. For one, it uses the same engine and core gameplay as the 3 previous games.
Second, Kirby games have historically come out late in the console’s lifespan, almost without exception. Star Allies came out VERY early in the Switch’s life, not to mention pretty quickly after being announced. I think it’s extremely likely Star Allies began as a WiiU game, since the WiiU never got a main line Kirby game and there’s nothing about the game the WiiU couldn’t handle.
Third, the content of the game. This is even more true about the DLC, but everything about the game’s ending, themes, characters, even the music, plays like a grand finale to the “Return to Dreamland” era of Kirby games. It doesn’t set up anything new to build off of gameplay-wise or otherwise.
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