Why Kirby? - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 26 October 2011 / 6,275 Views
As of late the Kirby series has been getting quite a bit of Nintendo's spotlight across both the home console and the portable gaming space. Not only can you download the original Kirby's Adventure off the eShop's Virtual Console, but there's also a 3D Classics version of the NES release on the way. Then, of course, we had Kirby's Epic Yarn just over a year ago in North America with the last big slew of Wii titles before the 2011 drought. Much more recently, we've had Kirby's Mass Attack on the Nintendo DS and Kirby's Returns to Dreamland, which just hit store shelves a few days ago. Kirby is everywhere, but why?
It's not that Kirby isn't a huge franchise for Nintendo, it definitely is. It's just not one of their real heavy hitting titles. The franchise rarely fails to move at least one million units, but the nearly 2.8 million copies sold by Kirby Squeak Squad, one of the most successful Kirby releases, hardly compares to franchises like Mario. In a traditional Kirby experience, it makes sense. If you were to strip many of the visual elements away from Kirby's Return to Dreamland, you could probably still point out that, it is indeed, a Kirby title. Other releases, however, have or had almost nothing to do with the Kirby franchise.
Kirby's Mass Attack is probably the most stand out of all the recent Kirby titles. Aside its visual presentation and more lax pacing, it's hard to say that the title is truly a Kirby entry. We don't know the history of the title's development, but it does really feel like they suddenly had an idea, and being Hal Laboratories, slapped Kirby on it. The question is, really, why Kirby? From a mechanics perspective, it feels more like Pikmin. It may have even been more interesting as a 2D Pikmin title with a different pace with the use of a variety of Pikmin minus just using 10 identical Kirbys. From a sales perspective, I could imagine Nintendo could have even slapped Mario on it and replaced the Kirbys with Toads or Mini-Mario's from the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. The fact that Hal Laboratories developed it probably played a part in the title becoming a Kirby release, but even just having the original company may not be the reason.
Kirby's Epic Yarn was originally developed as an original IP from Good-Feel, the team behind Wario Land: Shake It. After showing it to Nintendo, Kirby was slapped all over it. It did help push the project along, but at the same time any franchise character could have fit the bill. Again, aside from the team wanting a simple main character, Mario could have probably been thrown on it. Sure, it wouldn't be Mario, but it wasn't Kirby either, so why not.
It's not that there's anything horrifically wrong with Kirby. With how many titles get canceled in the Kirby series as well as occasionally lengthy gaps between entries, Kirby fans should be pretty happy considering what they've got. It's just strange that Nintendo took two very flexible titles and put Kirby on it instead of something else, as well as release so many Kirby releases in such a short period of time.
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It's largely coincidence. Epic Yarn became a Kirby was one of the better fits out of Nintendo's roster and Mario was already made of paper, Mass Attack because Nintendo tries to pump out a Kirby handheld title of some sort every one or two years (Nightmare in Dreamland in 2002, Amazing Mirror in 2004, Canvas Curse in 2005, Squeak Squad in 2006, and Super Star Ultra in 2008) so that was overdue, especially considering the series' strength on handhelds. Return to Dreamland has been in the works for over half a decade, so it's about time it released. And 3D classics seem to have been conceived as a way to highlight lost retro gems, and the original Kirby's Adventure was released late enough in the NES's life so that lots of people missed it.
Sometimes, a spoon is just a spoon.
Why this article?
Seriously, I read this twice and was not sure of the point. Less than 6% of all the games listed by VGChartz have logged 2M in sales. And the author is being critical of a game that sold 2.8M because it features a pink puffer ball!
Kirby is one of NIntendo's older icons. If you look at the franchise history, you could make the case that it has been to handhelds what Mario has been to consoles (with respect to game releases and their selected system).
Additionally, Kirby is widely-recognized and appeals to a segment of gamers that is often forgotten by those who think that the pinnacle of gaming are FPSs shown in green, gray, and brown -- pre-teens (tweens). They (and their parents) were haunting shops looking for the latest Kirby yesterday while those who believe they are the only true gamers were sleeping after staying up at midnight to get the third installment in one of the many FPS series.
Mike from Morgantown
It isn't strange that Kirby would get thrown onto other games.
Outside of Mario and maybe Pokemon, Kirby is Nintendo's most flexible character. His ability to absorb powers means he can do several things, his round shape is easy to fit in most games and his cuteness just makes him all the more family friendly when they want him to be.
Other Nintendo attempts to mash their IPs into other genres outside of using the Mario stable have been less then successful, but Kirby and his franchise have always done well with experimentation and benefited from it, in several cases.
your wrong. i love kirby. he can do no wrong. Kirby is the best character ever made, and this game will continue to rock socks off. more kirby more kirby
more kirby more kirby more kirby more kirby more kirby more kirby!
thats right.
damn straight
