Kirby Fighters

Kirby Fighters is a sub-game in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, which features both a single-player and multiplayer mode. Kirby Fighters is a fighting game (as the name suggests) in which Kirbys can fight each other while wielding a Copy Ability. On-stage hazards appear in some of the stages. The game also has a multitude of items, which will randomly appear in each stage.

Single Player
Single Player mode allows one to play with one of the ten Copy Abilities like a classic fighting game. The player may choose from one of the ten copy abilities that follow: After choosing an ability, the player has to select a difficulty. The difficulties are Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. After choosing a difficulty, press start. The first stage will always be Flower Land in which the player will fight an opponent. The following 3 stages will not be in a set order however. The next three rounds are chosen randomly from Castle Lololo, Bubbly Clouds, and Coo's Forest. Round 2 will be one one of the mentioned stages with another opponent. Round 3 will be on one of the three stages that wasn't used in Round 2 (once an arena is used, it cannot be used again). The player will fight two CPUs with the same Copy Ability. Note that rounds with more than two Kirbys are not one-sided, as the CPUs can attack each other. Round 4 will be in the stage not chosen. The player will fight another pair of CPUs but with different copy abilities.
 * Sword
 * Cutter
 * Beam
 * Whip
 * Parasol
 * Archer
 * Bomb
 * Hammer
 * Fighter
 * Ninja

The next two rounds are chosen randomly from Dedede Arena and Factory Tour. Round 5 will be on one of the mentioned stages. The player is up against 3 CPUs of the same Copy Ability. Round 6 will be the unchosen stage with the player against 3 CPUs of different Copy Abilities. Round 7 is always Another Dimension, where the player will have to fight against Shadow Kirby. Shadow Kirby will always wield the player's Copy Ability as well as having much more health than usual. After defeating him, he will explode. Upon completing all seven rounds, the player will receive his/her total time. If performed on Easy, Normal, Hard, or Very Hard, he/she will receive a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Rainbow Ribbon respectively. If the player is defeated, however, he/she is given the choice to continue or to quit. Upon continuing, the time for the round is the same as when the player was defeated instead of resetting.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer allows one to play with up to three friends. Other spots will be occupied by CPUs, however these can be deleted. Players with the game get to choose one of the ten Copy Abilities. Players without the game are limited to Sword and Cutter. Each player can choose to handicap oneself, those being Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. Colors can be changed by pressing R or L. Each player can then proceed to choose a stage which will be randomly picked for the fight. However, the player hosting the room has access to more rules. Items can be set to Normal, Many, or None. Hazards can be turned on or off. Ghosts can be Enabled or Disabled. Handicap can be set to Manual or Auto (Auto sets all Handicaps to Normal by default. Handicaps will change based on performance). Once a stage is picked, the battle commences. If Ghost in enabled and a player or CPU is defeated, the Kirby can return as a ghost. Ghosts can attempt to attack other players to get back into the game and recover a little bit of health. However, ghosts cannot KO a Kirby. A similar mode, Training, can be played instead if one doesn't have any friends to play with at the time.

Handicap
Handicap is a feature implemented into Kirby Fighters. It is set to Normal by default. Changing the handicap increases or decreases the difficulty of the gameplay as follows:
 * Normal: Receive full health, standard damage, standard guard time, and standard recovery. No autoguarding.
 * Easy: Receive full health, 75% of standard damage, increased guard time, and 150% of standard recovery. Some autoguarding.
 * Very Easy: Receive full health, 50% of standard damage, further-increased guard time, and 200% of standard recovery. Common autoguarding.
 * Hard: Receive 75% of full health, 150% of standard damage, decreased guard time, and 75% of standard recovery. No autoguarding.
 * Very Hard: Receive 50% of full health, 200% of standard damage, further-decreased guard time, and 50% of standard recovery. No auto guarding.

Balancing
In order to make the Copy Abilities balanced, some tweaks were made so that no Copy Ability was better than another. All invincibility frames were removed. If a Kirby is using a combo move on another Kirby in a corner, the attacker will be pushed back so the defender has a chance to escape or counter. Most projectiles and some standard attacks have shot-cancelation properties
 * Sword: None.
 * Cutter: Cutter-throwing-rate has been decreased.
 * Beam: Wave Beam attack has limited range, does not have shot-cancelation properties.
 * Whip: None.
 * Parasol: Delay before using the Parasol Drill attack, using the Parasol Drill in mid-air is finicky.
 * Archer: None.
 * Bomb: Bombs can be destroyed by anything, even Beam's attacks.
 * Hammer: Delay before a Hammer Nail, Giant Swing, and Ultra Giant Swing. Longer delay before Hammer Swing. No additional delay to Hammer Flip.
 * Fighter: Force Blast and Mega Force Blast have limited range and stop after hitting one target.
 * Ninja: Knife-throwing-rate has been decreased. Knives don't do knock-back. Can properly wall climb.

List of Items

 * Food which replenishes health to the Kirby that touches it.
 * Maxim Tomato which replenishes a health bar.
 * Timed Dynamite which acts like it does in Story Mode. However, upon exploding, it hits multiple times.
 * Spike-less Gordo, which can be picked up by players and thrown. When it lands, it will become larger and it will grow its spikes.
 * Mint Leaf, originating from Kirby's Dream Land, allows a Kirby to float and rapidly shoot air puffs, six at a time, four times, before finishing off with a big air puff.
 * Microphone, also originating from Kirby's Dream Land. Upon touching it, Kirby will yell into the microphone, sending nearby players flying and taking massive damage.
 * Bomber, which can be picked up by a Kirby and thrown at the other players. After being thrown, it will walk around. After being attacked, falling off a ledge, or if its time limit runs out, it will explode. Multiplayer only.
 * Invincibility Candy
 * Cracker
 * Blue Box, which, when destroyed, can drop one of any of the above.
 * Action Star
 * Dash Shoe, which increase any Kirby who touches it's speed and jump height, giving that Kirby a blue aura.

Trivia

 * Kirby Fighters' gameplay bears a striking resemblance to the Super Smash Bros. series of games, which was created by Masahiro Sakurai, the same person who created the Kirby franchise.
 * Like such, Flower Land acts as Battlefield and Another Dimension acts as Final Destination from Super Smash Bros.
 * On July 9th, 2014, it was announced that a standalone, but upgraded version of Kirby Fighters, called Kirby Fighters Z, would be released in Japan on July 23, 2014 to the Nintendo eShop, alongside an upgraded Dedede's Drum Dash. It includes additions such as new stages, more abilities, bosses, and more. It is costs 750 yen. There has been no announcement for the release of Kirby Fighters Z in any other country to date, but it was released in Japan on the originally scheduled date.