Developer: HAL Laboratory, Vanpool
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Kirby fighters 2 – Review
Nintendo’s loveable all-consuming pink blob, Kirby, has been going strong for many years now. He has had his own series of games, but also starred in many spin-off titles. One of those spin-off titles was the Kirby Fighters game, a bite-sized Smash Bros clone, that was ideal for short playing sessions. Nintendo now surprised us with its sequel, Kirby Fighters 2, which is basically Smash Bros for kids. We were quite happy to dive into this one, seeing if it could swallow us whole.
Story
There isn’t that much of a story in Kirby Fighters 2, as it all revolves around beating Meta Knight and King Dedede, who have banded together. They have clearly taken over what for Kirby seems like the world, and that’s just basically the entire plot of the game. You get a few snippets of text to read through, but the overall story value and its presentation are basically non-existent.
Graphics
Graphically this game checks all the boxes when it comes to a Kirby title. You get the adorable protagonist, in many different outfits, as they represent his different powers and skills, but also several famous buddy models and of course boss character models. Everything looks neatly handled and the overall smoothness makes the game very appealing to look at. Add to that the many different stages in which you can duke it out against your fellow pink blobs, you’ll be in for a treat. We have to say that the stages are exceptionally well handled in this tiny Kirby adventure.
Sound
The soundtrack consists of proper Kirby music, which certainly makes everything feels very authentic. There are a few iconic tracks to be heard when battling, but overall things stay fairly in the background. The effects are decently handled, and each character has its own attack sounds, making the cast a bit more diverse than initially thought.
Gameplay
Kirby Fighters 2 is brawler much akin to the Smash Bros series, albeit for a younger audience. In this game you’ll be fighting in tiny arenas against one another, but you don’t have to knock each other off, you just deplete your opponents’ HP bar. During combat, you can find some items that give you an edge on the opposition, but this remains fairly barebones. When playing the story mode, you will also fight bosses, which do add a bit of variation. The different fighters in this game are basically all Kirbys with different powers and outfits, but there are also a few side-characters you can choose from.
The control scheme of the game is very simple, as you only have an attack button, a jump button, a swallow button and a guard button. Every action speaks for itself, except for the swallow button. Unlike the normal Kirby power, where he steals the power of your opponent, in this game you just suck in your opponent, and then spit him out to deal damage. That is basically it. Even though attacking is done with a single button, you have slight variations when tilting the stick in different directions when actually pressing the attack button.
This small Kirby title actually has more content than you’d expect, albeit without any proper variation. You’ll just be doing the same things over and over again, to gain experience, to unlock more and more Kirby variations, power-ups for the Story Mode and new stages. The game does motivate you to keep playing, even though the Story Mode always resets your progress per chapter, and just makes the next chapter longer. This formula becomes a bit of a drag the more you play. Luckily you can play this together with a friend. You can also just battle up to three friends locally, and still gain experience to unlock more stuff. The game basically rewards you for just playing it.
In the story mode, you’ll come across bosses from time to time. These are a fun variation from the normal enemies, but they are also poorly scripted at times. More than often you can jump behind them, deal damage for a long period of time, and not take any damage yourself. This feels like flawed design on Nintendo’s part.
Conclusion
Kirby Fighters 2 is a fun bite-sized Smash Bros clone for kids. The game does offer a fair amount of content, different versions of Kirby, and a proper progression system. Nonetheless, the low difficulty, the lack of variation and the simplicity of the game might not cater to everyone. We have to be honest and call this a kid’s title, rather than a full-blown fighting game for veterans of the genre. That being said, the game is amusing, especially when played with friends, considering its fairly low price.
Kirby fighters 2 - Review,
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