Sometimes it feels as though Kirby has fallen through the cracks. The little pink fella isn’t remembered amongst the original kings of the platform genre like Mario and Sonic, nor is it part of the new wave that arrived with Spyro and Crash. As platforming embraced bigger environments, we think of the rise of Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, and as the more recent games have ramped up the difficulty and classic level tactics, the era is defined by Super Meat Boy, Shovel Knight, and Celeste. There's no era that Kirby defines, or even that we think of it as belonging to, but he has been there for all of it. Kirby's Adventure, its second title (and my personal favourite) turns 30 today, so that's a fitting time to give Kirby the roses it was always due.
Kirby has always done its own thing. For all it has consistently put out games that were at least solid in the past 31 years, it has not moved with the times so much. I charted the evolution of platformers, but all Kirby has done is look a little better with each passing generation. Right up until 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kirby and the Forgotten Land last year, Kirby used the same basic framework of moving from the left of the screen to the right, tackling enemies on the way. Even Forgotten Land, which explored 3D for the first time, was really just the 'into the camera' form of linear Crash Bandicoot pioneered in 1996, plus some open spaces, like Super Mario 64 had, also back in 1996.
Part of the reason why Kirby is not that attached to any given era is because it's timeless. It has a simple formula, and while the effectiveness of that formula has wavered at times with the likes of Star Allies, Kirby deserves our respect for understanding exactly what sort of game it needs to be. I'm happy to see it grow with Forgotten Land, but that feels like a natural evolution, maybe even an overdue growth to allow Kirby's bouncy personality to impact the gameplay more, and not a desperate attempt to be relevant. Thanks to this reliability, Kirby has never been rebooted. Every game is a continuation of the last in one solid, cohesive story, and not even Mario can claim that.
Kirby’s games are very cosy thanks to this. Platformers have built-in replayability, and as such they're the genre I replay the most. With other series, there are games that have aged well (Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped) and games that have aged poorly (the original Sonic the Hedgehog). With Kirby, there is none of that. There is only Kirby. Great games, good games, and only-okay games, sure, but age has no impact on this. Kirby is eternal.
I noticed this most sharply when Kirby's Dream Land first came to the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch. I blasted through it, and it was as good as I remembered. Then I jumped right over to Kid Icarus, just as I did at my cousin's house as a kid, and it kinda sucked. It didn't kinda suck back then. But it does now. Kirby, as ever, is just Kirby.
Kirby's Adventure plays out like a sharper, more refined Dream Land, and though some prefer the original, it's from this pair of games that the Kirby philosophy seems to have been formed. 'Dream Land was great, so let's just keep making it'. It's an approach that might feel lazy with an inferior game, but Kirby has consistently delivered inside its reliable frameworks that it's hard to want anything different. 30 years on, Kirby's Adventure hasn't aged a day.