E3 2017 has come and gone and with it, a bunch of new trailers were released.
So it’s that time of year where we tune up the old Analysis Machine and get ready
to take a closer look at some of the big new games.
And one that got me really excited was the announcement of a new Kirby game for the Switch.
Kirby’s been on a bit of a roll lately with Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot so what kind
of surprises does the pink puffball have in store for us this time around?
Well, let’s see what secrets and hidden details the Analysis Machine has found!
We’ll start with the levels as there’s only a handful that were really shown.
The game will stick to a 2D plane with 3D models and backgrounds just like the past
few Kirby entries.
Our first level sticks to the tried and true Green Greens-inspired design.
There are swirling clouds in the background along with cube-shaped bushels of leaves in
the trees.
In addition, some pieces of the ground appear rolled up with large holes in the center to
the point where we can see the trees’ roots growing through them.
At another point, we can see more of the background with water flowing through the middle of one
rolled hills but no clear indication of the water’s source.
I guess this is Dream Land after all.
Or is it?
We don’t actually have solid confirmation of that yet.
The next level has a somewhat knitted appearance based on the foreground; there’s the fabric-like
texture of the flowers and other patchwork adoring the stage.
And in the background, many of the hills actually seems to have tea cozies on top.
It certainly gives it a unique look considering Kirby himself doesn’t have a different style
like in Epic Yarn or Rainbow Curse.
A later scene better shows off that the background is filled with rainbows adding to the soft
and happy aesthetics.
There were only two more levels shown during the trailer though.
The first appears to be in a sandy cave with a crescent moon-shaped hole in background
ceiling, allowing bluish light to filter in.
But the main source of light seems to be the torches that line the foreground.
The other is a beach level with palm trees in the foreground and islands and the ocean
in the background.
There’s really not too much else to note about the levels themselves although another
portion of the trailer actually shows off the world map.
From what we can see, it seems that the world map will loosely reflect what Kirby sees in
the level itself.
We can see plains, the square trees, plateaus, and even mountains.
The only features missing from the overworld is the tea cozie hills and the beach which
are likely found in another section of the world map.
What we do know is that Kirby can freely roam around this map, similar to how Yoshi could
in Woolly World.
And just like in that game, it doesn’t mean that Kirby can enter any level in any order.
Most of the levels are marked with a yellow star in a orange circle with an orange and
yellow border, but there’s one with a yellow star inside a blue circle and a red border
which seems to indicate that it’s already been completed.
But there’s one more level to point out.
Just to the right is an orange circle with a yellow border and no star.
We believe this indicates that it’s an extra level and a secret exit must be found in the
previous stage.
Or maybe all the items in this world must be found to unlock it, just like the 3DS games.
But there’s definitely going to be at least some exploration in this Kirby game.
The big draw here though is Kirby himself along with the enemies he’ll encounter and
the Abilities he’ll be able to use.
Now there are a few standards to be found here as far as level design.
Kirby can collect stars in order to earn extra lives, there are switches to activate certain
things though we don’t see what this one does in particular, food will act as health,
and the level will end with these special doors.
Yep, this is definitely a Kirby game and we see that again with some of the returning
enemies.
Not all of them provide Abilities of course such as Bronto Burt here, Chip just a little
bit later, and then the stone faced Kabu and the jumping Bouncy.
All four are pretty prominent returning enemies with Chip becoming a more popular choice after
his appearances in both Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot.
Of course, there’s the return of the Waddle Dees as well, but that was never going to
be a question of whether they’d return.
The first enemy we see that provides Kirby with an Ability is Blade Knight, another enemy
that commonly makes an appearance.
This naturally allows Kirby to become Sword Kirby.
But it’s not long until we’re thrown a curveball in the form of Cleaning Kirby, an
Ability that hasn’t been seen since Dream Land 3 on the Super Nintendo.
Now, the most common enemy that this power was obtained from was the Broom Hatters, marking
the only time they’ve actually given a power.
They seem like the most obvious answer to who will make an appearance in Kirby Switch.
However, looking at Dream Land 3, this power could also signal the return of Keke, Bukiset,
and even the mid-boss Haboki.
New enemies could also give the power, but Kirby games do love to draw on the past so
we’d expect at least one of these other enemies along with Broom Hatters.
We then see Cleaning Kirby in action as he uses his broom to juggle this brand new orange-colored
enemy before tossing it away.
Unfortunately because this new enemy is only seen during this scene, we don’t really
know what it’s capable of as this piece of cloth on the left may be part of its attack.
That cloth may even indicate that this new enemy is how Kirby obtains the Cleaning Ability,
but there’s no concrete proof of that yet.
What’s really interesting though is Cleaning Kirby’s running attack which actually summons
Nago, one of Kirby’s Animal Friends from Dream Land 3.
The move turns Kirby into a washcloth as Nago pushes him forward, which both clears the
pile of leaves and takes out the Poppy Bros Jr.
And as we’ll see later, this does indeed mean that Bomb returns as an Ability as well.
But the appearance of Nago is especially interesting, mainly because there’s no other sign of
the Animal Friends so they’re likely just cameos related to Kirby’s Cleaning moveset.
After all, in Dream Land 3, each Ability only had one thing they could do rather than the
more complex options introduced in Super Star.
So in order to bring Cleaning up to speed, a new moveset needed to be created and why
not pull from the past by having Kirby temporarily work with a different Animal Friend for each
maneuver while also inventing new ones since there are only six Friends in total.
We next see that the Water Ability returns as well, making its first appearance since
premiering in Return to Dream Land.
In that game, it was obtained from Water Galbos, Pluids, and the mid-boss Water Galboros so
they could all come back as well.
But as we see later, there’s also a brand new enemy that gives Kirby Water.
It’s called Driblee, and it seems to be some kind of water snake or maybe even tadpole
based on its tail.
Returning to where we left off, we see another classic enemy in the form of Sir Kibble and
once again, we see that Cutter returns as an Ability later on.
But that’s not the interesting part here.
Instead, rather than destroy it, Kirby tosses a heart at it which appears to be a new way
of recruiting enemies to your side.
This was last seen in Super Star where the technique was a bit different.
There you took the Ability from the enemy and then pushed a button to eject them and
create an ally controlled by either a friend or the computer.
The concept here is pretty much the same though there are a few differences.
For one, when Kirby first brings out his heart, a smaller heart appears above Sir Kibble and
we’ll soon this again with Poppy Bros. Jr, Burning Leo, and every other enemy Kirby recruits
meaning that there’s a handy visual guide to who Kirby can have join him.
Although it does make us wonder what would happen if Kirby threw his heart at an enemy
without that symbol.
At any rate, this recruitment also causes a physical change to Sir Kibble.
His helmet is given a yellow Cutter-like visor with Kirby’s face that even has the small
wings on the side.
So it’s still Sir Kibble but with a Kirby flourish.
And the same thing happens to Poppy Bros. Jr where his hat changes to more of the pointy
wizard hat that Kirby wears when he has the Bomb Ability.
And this happens again with Burning Leo, who returns from Super Star and Mass Attack, to
grant the Fire Ability.
The biggest change to a recruited Burning Leo is that his color changes to green.
So all three of these new allies reflect the color of the player controlling them and we
see an example of this when Burning Leo is yellow rather than green.
So it’s time for a crazy theory.
What if Kirby’s other Kirby friends have lost their bodies and his adventure is all
about getting them back, but in the meantime he’s able to throw their hearts at certain
enemies in order for the friends to possess them and help Kirby on his quest.
It would explain the new process of recruitment as well as why the enemies change to reflect
the actual Kirby powers or at least the color of the Kirby.
It would tie into the theme of possession that was so prominent in Super Mario Odyssey,
not that these games are linked in any way.
Still, it is one idea of context for all of this if the game even cares about making sense
that is.
Continuing on, we see the return of Mr. Frosty as a mid-boss meaning Ice Kirby is back as
well.
Again, something that will be confirmed later in the trailer.
As far we can tell though, Mr. Frosty doesn’t seem to have any new moves, at least not yet.
But Kirby and his friends do, or at least they have a returning ability.
Kirby and his allies are able to merge their powers in order to create Combination Abilities,
similar to the idea from both Kirby 64 and Squeak Squad.
The first one we see is the Fire Sword which is closer to the one from Squeak Squad than
Kirby 64.
This allows Kirby to slam the sword into the ground to create a burst of fire that engulfs
the returning Puppet Waddle Dee.
But what’s even cooler is that we can see an exclamation appear about Burning Leo before
a series of explosions occurs within that fire.
This could mean that combo attacks are possible leading to a whole new sense of cooperative
gameplay to really show off what everyone could do.
In a way, Burning Leo further enhances the attack.
But another Ability Combination we see is Bomb and Water thanks to Driblee.
This is a brand new combination though as the Water Ability didn’t exist in those
previous games.
It’s design is also closer to the ideas from Squeak Squad as the bomb is covered in
flowing water, similar to the Ice and Thunder Bombs from that game.
This bomb is certainly effective against these new fire enemies though, taking them out in
a single explosion while also destroying their shields.
Now some of you may be worried that all the combination powers will be a bit more conventional
like they were in Squeak Squad, but that’s definitely going to always be the case.
After all, the next Combination Ability we see is thanks to the returning Chilly, who
by the way now sports the frozen hat of Ice Kirby rather than his own cap, merging his
powers with Stone Kirby to form the Curling Stone Ability, back from Kirby 64.
The demonstration of this power shows Kirby being quickly launched ahead to take down
a line of other Chillys, a Cappy, and a set of Kabus.
But just as this scene ends, we can spot Rocky just to right.
It makes that he’s here since Stone is obviously an Ability.
But there’s more hidden details to this scene.
Slowing it down shows a series of hearts surrounding Kirby as Chilly’s animation suggests that
he’s actually the one who launches Kirby forward for another team move, much like the
one with Burning Leo.
The Curling Stone is then shown to freeze the enemies while launching them forward.
However, the Cappy somehow avoids being hit by Kirby directly and is instead instantly
destroyed by the ice trail, even becoming a banana health pick-up.
The next scene not only shows that Kirby has the Beam Ability, pretty much guaranteeing
that Waddle Doos are in the game, but it appears that some areas cannot be accessed unless
you have enough partners, something that should be pretty easy to manage.
However, throughout this trailer, every partner has been different so that may actually be
required.
It would make it pretty easy to break through that stone if you could just respawn the same
enemy enough times to fill the quota, but this is Kirby so it may really be that simple.
Maybe the trailer just wants to show off as many Abilities as possible.
Specific Abilities will be required though as you can work together in order to find
secrets.
In this case, an actual player is taking the role of Parasol Waddle Dee, colored yellow
based on Kirby’s influence, and using the Parasol Ability to block the flowing water
and allow the fuse to reach the explosive barrels.
But this also indicates each Ability will have some kind of special heart function as
a heart appears as Waddle Dee makes the Parasol extra large.
The question is whether these can be accessed when a player isn’t in control.
Will the computer be smart enough to recognize puzzles and help you solve them?
That could even affect what’s hidden beneath that loose collection of rocks that’s about
to be blown apart.
If computers can work with you for puzzles like this, it could be a hidden door or collectible.
If not, then it’s likely an extra life and stars.
But unfortunately, we don’t actually get to see it.
The last bit of teamwork we see involves this new platform which allows the team to form
a rolling circle that can jump to collect star as well as instantly destroy any enemy
in their way.
It’s nothing too significant, but it does emphasize the team aspect.
And that goes for the fight against Whispy Woods yet again.
He’s a staple, you can’t escape from the woods.
And he definitely has at least one new attack as we seem him drop tons of apples on the
party though it doesn’t seem as if all of them are damaging as the characters lose very
little health, especially compared to Whispy himself.
More interesting is the final set of Abilities shown during this fight.
Wester returns meaning Whip Kirby does as well while Kirby himself has the Hammer Ability,
likely implying that Bonkers is back as a mid-boss.
However, there might also be some new enemy since we don’t know for sure that mid-bosses
can be recruited as allies.
Kirby’s Hammer is also imbued with Water meaning that there’s another combination
closer to Squeak Squad.
But let’s return to Wester really quick.
The chaos of the scene makes it hard to see, but there is a small change to Wester’s
design as his hat now has blue stars around it, just like Kirby with the Whip Ability.
More importantly, Wester’s Whip has been combined with Spark implying that not only
is Sparky back as an enemy, but your allies can combine their special abilities as well.
It’s not something that only Kirby can do.
In fact, even Sir Kibble’s Cutter has been combined with Fire to create a Fire Cutter.
However, we wouldn’t be surprised if these combinations can only happen when playing
with friends.
Speaking of combinations, Fire and Cutter should have made the Sword of Fire from Kirby
64, but that may have been deemed redundant for this game since we already have the Fire
Sword.
After all, the Sword Ability wasn’t in Kirby 64.
But Abilities from that game likely will make an appearance.
There were only seven main ones in that game: Burning (or Fire), Ice, Spark, Cutter, Bomb,
Stone, and Needle.
All of these except for Needle have been shown in Kirby for the Switch so we could definitely
see other returning combinations besides the Curling Stone.
Could we even combine Spark and Cutter to form the Double-Blade Laser Sword once again?
And will we see other unique combinations that form something brand new or will most
of the new ones be more along the lines of Squeak Squad’s Fire Sword, Ice Bomb, Ice
Sword, Thunder Bomb, and Thunder Sword?
So far, that is the more common type of combination.
While we’ve only been shown the basics so far, there’s a lot of potential to Kirby
on the Switch.
Popular ideas from past games are returning with new twists and possibilities.
And who knows what other ideas the developers will concoct?
We personally can’t wait to see more of this game.
Of course, if we missed anything, let us know in the comments.
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