Kirby Star Allies

Kirby Star Allies (sometimes written Kirby: Star Allies), known in Japan as 星のカービィ スターアライズ (Hoshi no Kabi: Sutā Araizu, meaning Kirby of the Stars: Star Allies), is a game in the Kirby series, set to be released on March 16, 2018 worldwide, and a demo on March 1 (EU) and March 4 (US). It is the first game in the series for the Nintendo Switch.

Story
In a part of space far away from Planet Popstar, an officiant casts a spell to a large crystal heart, causing countless Dark Hearts scatter as a result of a mysterious ritual. Many of them fall down to Dream Land, where they turn anyone they touch evil. When one dissolves into Kirby, however, it grants him the ability to throw hearts that befriend anyone they touch. He notices some Waddle Dees carrying a large amount of food to King Dedede's Castle, which has become surrounded by dark clouds. Kirby sets off to investigate this mysterious phenomenon.

Gameplay
Kirby Star Allies is a traditional platformer Kirby game, in which the player controls Kirby, whose objective is to get to the end of each stage through the use of Copy Abilities. Kirby retains his traditional moves; the Inhale, Star Spit, Slide attack, Air Gun, and floating.

The game is a 2.5D platformer, meaning that the characters move on a two-dimensional plane in a 3D environment.

Two game mechanics return from previous installments of the Kirby series; those of Mix abilities (from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby: Squeak Squad, though in this game they are called Friend Abilities) and Helpers (from Kirby Super Star and its remake, though they are here referred to as "friends"). In a manner similar to the mechanic shown in the trailer for the unreleased Kirby GCN, there can be four player-controlled or CPU-controlled friends at one time. Kirby can throw a Friend Heart at certain types of enemies in order to turn it into a friend by using the X button; friends can also throw Friend Hearts in order to change their ability. Kirby and his friends can also do the same with Copy Essences and Ability Stars. Even if Kirby has no friends, another player can join, taking Kirby's current ability similar to the helper mechanic in previous games; Kirby can also turn a friend into an ability item by performing "Unfriend," which replaces the Drop Ability function if Kirby has none; this can also be achieved by throwing a Friend Heart at an enemy while already having three friends, and opting to cancel the action instead of replacing one of them. Friends can assist Kirby in multiple ways, allowing for combo moves such as creating a circular formation that allows them to roll ahead in certain areas. The player can also mix Friend Abilities by holding up on the analog stick and having a partner using an attack on the player's character. Players can also revive a friend that has no HP, recovering only half of their total HP.

Additionally, there are two sub-games separate from the main game. They are small, competitive sub-games that also support up to four players at once. Star Slam Heroes is a timing-based game strongly reminiscent of Megaton Punch, where Kirbys power up a flaming baseball bat and attempt to smack a meteor the farthest distance. Chop Champs sees players using Joy-Con motion commands to try to chop as much wood as possible with their Kirby within a time limit while avoiding bugs and Gordos.

The game is set to receive two updates following the game's release, adding Dream Friends (including Marx, the original three Animal Friends and Gooey).

Game Modes

 * Story Mode
 * Chop Champs
 * Star Slam Heroes

Playable characters

 * Kirby

Friends

 * Beetley
 * Bio Spark
 * Birdon
 * Blade Knight
 * Bonkers
 * Broom Hatter
 * Bugzzy
 * Burning Leo
 * Chef Kawasaki
 * Chilly
 * Como
 * Driblee
 * Gim
 * Jammerjab
 * Knuckle Joe
 * NESP
 * Parasol Waddle Dee
 * Plugg
 * Poppy Bros. Jr.
 * Rocky
 * Sir Kibble
 * Vividria
 * Waddle Doo
 * Wester

Dream Friends

 * Bandana Waddle Dee
 * Gooey (Post-launch)
 * King Dedede
 * Marx (Post-launch)
 * Meta Knight
 * Rick & Kine & Coo (Post-launch)

Allies (cameo appearances)

 * ChuChu (Cleaning moveset)
 * Nago (Cleaning moveset)
 * Pitch (Cleaning moveset)
 * Popon (Goal Game)

Enemies

 * Anger Masker
 * Beetley
 * Bio Spark
 * Birdon
 * Blade Knight
 * Blipper
 * Bouncy
 * Bronto Burt
 * Broom Hatter
 * Bug
 * Burning Leo
 * Cappy
 * Chilly
 * Chip
 * Como
 * Coner
 * Dekabu
 * Driblee
 * Gabon
 * Gim
 * Glunk
 * Gordo
 * Grizzo
 * Jammerjab
 * Kabu
 * Key Dee
 * Knuckle Joe
 * Mamanti
 * NESP
 * Noddy
 * Nruff
 * Parasol Waddle Dee
 * Plugg
 * Poppy Bros. Jr
 * Propeller
 * Puppet Waddle Dee
 * Rocky
 * Scarfy
 * Shotzo
 * Sir Kibble
 * Squishy
 * Two Face
 * Waddle Dee
 * Waddle Doo
 * Wester
 * Unnamed enemy with a fire/ice shield
 * Unnamed red enemy inside a water bubble
 * Unnamed enemy that gives the Festival ability

Mid-bosses

 * Bonkers
 * Bugzzy
 * Chef Kawasaki
 * Mr. Frosty
 * Vividria

Bosses

 * Flamberge
 * Francisca
 * Grand Mam
 * King Dedede
 * Meta Knight
 * Pon & Con
 * Twin Kracko
 * Whispy Woods
 * Unnamed yellow Jambastion mage
 * Unnamed cloaked figure

Copy Abilities
The game will feature 28 standard Copy Abilities, as well as the ability to mix certain abilities together into Friend Abilities, similarly to how mixing abilities worked in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby: Squeak Squad. Abilities in italics are new, abilities in bold can be permanently imbued with an element.

Items

 * 1UP
 * Food
 * Invincibility Candy
 * Key
 * Maxim Tomato
 * Meat
 * Pep Brew
 * Picture Piece
 * Point Star
 * Treasure Chest
 * Warp Star
 * 3D Warp Star

Levels

 * World of Miracles - Planet Popstar
 * World of Peace - Dream Land
 * Donut Dome
 * Green Gardens
 * Honey Hill
 * Fruity Forest
 * Friendly Field
 * Reef Resort
 * Echo's Edge
 * Nature's Navel
 * Fortress of Shadows - Jambastion
 * Gatehouse Road
 * Eastern Wall
 * Longview Corridor

Objects

 * Apple
 * Cannon

Demo
The demo for Kirby Star Allies was released on March 1 in European regions and March 4 in North America. It includes only two levels with different difficulty, an easy Green Greens stage, and a hard Cave/Castle stage.

amiibo Compatibility
During Story Mode, the player can scan an amiibo. Scanning HAL Laboratory-related amiibo (Kirby series, their Smash Bros. counterparts, and Qbby from BoxBoy) will give two Point Stars, a Maxim tomato or a Pep Brew, and two picture pieces. Scanning any other amiibo will give two Point Stars, one food item, and one picture piece.

Trivia

 * This game greatly resembles the first attempt at Kirby GCN, a canceled game for the Nintendo GameCube. It resembles Kirby's Return to Dream Land as well, though this is because Kirby GCN was reworked into Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Helpers can be mixed with abilities themselves, a first for the series. This was seen in the portion of the trailer with Whispy Woods.
 * Helpers wear the hat that corresponds to their ability, unlike Helpers in Kirby Super Star and its remake.
 * Helpers reflect the colors of the player playing them. Any helpers who are player 2 are yellow, helpers who are player 3 are blue, and helpers who are player 4 are green. This concept is reused from Kirby GCN.
 * This is Nago, Pitch, and ChuChu's first appearance in the flesh since their debut 21 years before Kirby Star Allies in Kirby's Dream Land 3.
 * King Dedede, when he transforms, greatly resembles his transformation in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! when he was possessed by the Demon Frog.
 * This is the first Kirby game to be localized into Chinese, in both Traditional and Simplified forms.
 * Before Kirby Star Allies' release date was revealed to be March 16, 2018 in the January 11 Nintendo Direct Mini, the official Nintendo website's Game Store page listed the game's release date as June 30, 2018. This may have just been a placeholder release date/window before an actual release date was officially announced.
 * Kirby Star Allies is the fourth Kirby game to have an E10+ ESRB rating.
 * Kirby Star Allies is the first Kirby game to have a happy Kirby on the North American box art since Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.
 * Kirby Star Allies is the first Kirby game to see release worldwide on the same day.
 * This is the third Kirby game to have Helpers; the other two are Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra (if counted).
 * The power of the new Artist ability, when paired with the hat, is reminiscent of Adeleine from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
 * This is the third Kirby game to run at 30fps instead of the usual 60fps after Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby Battle Royale.
 * However, Kirby: Planet Robobot switches from 60fps to 30fps depending on the number of objects and effects onscreen.
 * This is the first Kirby game where Waddle Doo closes his eye, something only previously seen in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and Smash Run from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
 * On January 27, 2018, the My Nintendo rewards program released a Kirby Star Allies-themed calendar for the month of February. It was discovered to be a January calendar, as the month had 31 days instead of 28, and Valentine's Day was marked as the second Sunday of the month rather than the second Wednesday. This mistake was corrected shortly after.
 * When the official Japanese website of Kirby Star Allies launched on February 14, 2018, the URL initially misspelled the game's title as "Star Arise." This was corrected shortly afterward, and the misspelled URL now redirects to the correct one. (The English words "Allies" and "Arise" have the same spelling in katakana.
 * Kirby Star Allies is the first traditional platformer in the series to name individual stages.
 * Como is currently the only returning enemy in this game to receive a redesign between games, due to the inclusion of the Spider ability.
 * In the March 8 Nintendo Direct, when Gooey is shown as a future update Dream Friend, they state that his debut was in Kirby's Dream Land 3, when he actually debuted in Kirby's Dream Land 2 as a non-playable character.