I never thought I’d be so excited about paint and spiders, but here we are with the latest update on Kirby Star Allies. Thanks to the surprise Mini Direct, we’ve gotten a new trailer showing off abilities, Helpers and plenty of teamwork for Kirby’s next big adventure.
Kirby’s got some brand new hats!
Starting off with a couple brand new hats, Kirby’s donning a paint splattered beret as an Artist. You’ll be able to dash and splatter with a rainbow of colors, but that’s not all this one can do. Unlike Super Star’s Paint, this isn’t a one-time use ability, but instead a shoutout to a couple other painters from the series, Ado and Adeleine. These two wore similar hats, but more importantly their paintings came to life, just like Kirby’s will with the new ability. These simple doodles evoke poses and animations from earlier sprites by the look of things, with a Dedede portrait coming off a little less Switch and a little more SNES.
Up next was Spider, a brand new ability. With a decorated top hat on his head whole body, Kirby becomes a tarantula trap master. Might have to chalk this one up to Taranza’s continued popularity since Triple Deluxe, but it looks to offer some unique effects. It’s able to gather up enemies in webs and kick ‘em around, and with all that silk and thread it could be a fun addition to his ever-growing haberdashery.
Helpers make everything better
It looks like we have a name for the mixing and matching of abilities offered thanks to the returning Helpers: Friend Abilities. This seems to most commonly give elemental properties to your attacks, like adding a spark effect to Yo-Yo’s Gazer Spiral. But there are other ways to mix and match too, like having Chilly (an Ice Helper) send his cool breath into Water Kirby’s Geyser for an Icicle Lance attack.
The big surprise here was that Suplex is making a grand return as an ability as well! Not seen since Super Star (and its remake), this throw based ability is perfect for showing off Friend Abilities. Have a Stone ally like Rocky around but nothing to toss? Just grab your partner and give ‘em a Friend Throw to send your hardheaded Helper flying around the room!
Friend Abilities aren’t all about attacking, either. You can get around stages with your buddies as a Friend Train or take a four-person ride on a Friend Star. In seeing this we also got confirmation that Wing and Beetle are coming back as abilities, and saw the Helpers for Artist, Spider and Throw (the returning Bugzzy).
New (and old) foes are coming soon, too
We’ve already seen Whispy Woods and King Dedede, but now another Pop Star staple is back as a boss: Meta Knight! We also get a look at a new boss, Francisca, who’s ready to winter blast Kirby and friends. For the returning bosses (including Meta Knight), they’ve all appeared to be possessed or afflicted in some way, but Francisca here looks perfectly clearheaded as she takes on Kirby. We also hear of an “unknown deep space threat,” see a strange cloaked figure and notice a lot of heart motifs on both good guys and bad.
All these mysteries won’t go unsolved for long: Kirby Star Allies now finally has a release date! Grab your friends, because this four-player co-op adventure is worth jumping into with company. One of my most anticipated games of 2018 will be out on Switch, March 16th.
Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
