Kirby Star Allies

Kirby Star Allies is a culmination of the series' history. It is packed with Kirby love.

Kirby Star Allies makes the simplicity of smiling a lasting thing. The game is beautiful and has music that impresses by it's quality. The title is very amusing and if you can join three more friends, you will have one of the funniest experiences on the Nintendo Switch. It is an experience that should be appreciated in its entirety.

Whether it's the opportunity to recruit a mini-boss like Bugzzy after defeating him, or the puzzle rooms that test your skills like not many Kirby games before have done, Star Allies is the freshest the series has felt in years, and certainly the most fun to play with friends.

I don't think HAL is very interested in drastically altering the Kirby formula at this point, and that's perfectly fine.

Kirby Star Allies hits all the perfect nostalgia notes you expect from a full-blown Kirby adventure, and adds just enough new twists to make something so familiar at this point feel fresh and fun again. The pink puffball has never played so well (particularly with others) before.

When each Kirby game is so different, it’s hard to call any of them “the best Kirby game ever” by any objective measure. But Kirby Star Allies is a celebration of everything Kirby, delivering a solid and dynamic platforming homage to one of Nintendo’s star characters. Better yet, experiencing it with one or more friends is a special experience.

Though it’s not technically perfect by any means, Star Allies remains entertaining from start to finish. Let the puffball meet the misfits, it’s time for Kirby to shine on Switch.

Kirby Star Allies is HAL Laboratory’s debut game on the Nintendo Switch and is definitely the perfect reminder of why the franchise has been loved over the course of years and why Kirby is an adored gaming icon. Even though the game does not reach the standards of successful Nintendo releases that have already been released on the Switch, it holds the promise of a brilliant future lying ahead. Overall, it is a fun and enjoyable journey that should be experienced with friends or members of the family.

Kirby Star Allies is a fun entry in the traditional Kirby series. The co-op is fun, the CPU controlled helpers are competent, and the new abilities are a blast to use. Sadly, the length of the game and the lack of difficulty-scaling for bosses in multiplayer make it just shy of living up to its fullest potential.

Kirby Star Allies offers an interesting story, a good length and above all gameplay and mechanics that are truly fun, and some of which are innovative. The multiplayer game is very entertaining and has a good variety of modes.

Kirby Star Allies provides what was promised: the co-op mode is the main attraction, but it is still a fun game playing on your own. A beautiful game that features very entertaining gameplay and lives up to expectations.

Kirby Star Allies brings the classic Kirby formula back with a cooperative-focused spin in a fun, solid, and overall pretty refreshing 2D platform adventure, despite the fact that it doesn't change that many elements from previous iterations.

Kirby Star Allies provides the Nintendo Switch with a very solid Kirby adventure that'll be a sure hit for fans of Kirby's past adventures. With four-player local support, you'll definitely want to ensure you have some buddies over to fully enjoy this title. It's not an overly long game, clocking in at six or so hours depending on how much time you spend seeking out the various secrets. But the secrets are definitely worth hunting down as there are some pretty nostalgic bits hidden in there.

Kirby Star Allies remains faithful to the vision of Sakurai, though it's much easier and very funny at the same time. The journey will be anything but challenging (and there are a couple of interesting extra game modes), but it will be an entertaining one. Definitely recommended for a younger audience, or if you have children.

Kirby Star Allies is an incredibly fun Kirby game that will please fans of the franchise. If only there were a little bit more of it.

Whether you’re adventuring through Dream Land with up to three friends or playing with competent AI teammates, Kirby’s ever-rotating group of uniquely powered pals are the real stars of the show here. The creative ways you can combine abilities never gets old, which means there’s great potential for replayability especially with friends. I just wish the final boss battle hadn’t come just as the puzzles were starting to give me a challenge.

With good level design, charming graphics and fun multiplayer, Kirby: Star Allies stands as one of the best entries in the franchise. Its Story Mode may be easy, and it probably won’t take you much time to complete, but HAL Laboratory has packed a nice amount of content that will keep Kirby’s biggest fans busy for a while.

With its varied levels, colorful and never really hostile, Star Allies is an experience designed primarily for a very young audience and perhaps not yet accustomed to the beauty of platformers in two dimensions.

Simply put, Star Allies looks great, sounds great and plays great. [05/2018, p.47]

Kirby Star Allies is a fun little game with a lot of interesting characters, amazing new powers, great gameplay and an old-new mechanic that keeps players guessing and makes it a fun party game. Those of you who want a challenge might want to look elsewhere but those of you who are looking for fun should definitely check this game out.

Colorful visuals, a catchy soundtrack, drop-in-drop-out co-op; Kirby Star Allies checks all the boxes, making it a must-have for your next lazy Sunday gaming session.

While the allies mechanic isn’t technically new, this iteration borrows the best elements from some of the best Kirby games that came before it, forming an experience that remains entertaining throughout its short campaign. The only downside is that it costs as much as other Switch games that offer much more content. Nevertheless, Kirby Star Allies is a charming romp that is bound to make even the angriest puffballs smile.

If you have even one friend who will come over to play this with you, Kirby Star Allies is worth a try. Though shallow on the puzzle platforming side, there’s enough going on with different friend combinations to make combat varied and enjoyable, especially once you turn up the difficulty post-game.

Kirby Star Allies offers plenty of classic adorable Kirby action with oodles of exciting abilities to discover. It may not be the most fulfilling game in the long-running series but there's no denying just how much fun there is to be had.

Where Mario Odyssey demanded player skill, Kirby 180’s and demands you just have fun. It won’t challenge most of you reading this, but I bet you’ll be smiling and having a good time regardless.

Kirby Star Allies is a great entry in the franchise, its beautiful, charming and really fun to play with others. Sadly some of its great ideas such as the friend combos don't flourish as much as we would like.

Mixing in the four-player element makes for some hilarious antics, and the augmented powers that can be utilised make for some extremely exciting scenarios. The only drawback is the age-old concern of things being a bit simpler than desired, but HAL has packed in plenty of entertaining content to appease fans new and old alike.

A much more comfortable direction. The classic Kirby gameplay is enriched with some nice ideas such as the friend skills, which results in a fun, though for my taste a bit too shallow hopping-fight-puzzle-mix, which makes a good mood especially in multiplayer mode.

Kirby is an enchanting, colorful and well designed platform game, which is even better in four-player local co-op. Sadly, the game (which feels like a direct sequel to Kirby´s Adventure for Wii) is too easy and short.

Kirby Star Allies is another good game of a long lasting series. The game is fresh and gives lot of fun, and the gameplay, even if it's simple, is rock-solid.

Kirby Star Allies' friend-making gimmick adds layers of playful fun to this solid Kirby adventure. It's a perfectly pleasant way to pass a weekend by yourself, or with friends of your own—though the game is best enjoyed via the Switch's handheld mode.

The amount of room for experimentation in regards to mixing powers, the tandem abilities, and the tried-and-true level design are enough to make this feel like one of the better Kirby games in recent memory. But it's the drop-in, drop-out co-op that makes Kirby Star Allies truly stand out, making it one of the best couch co-op games to grace the Switch in this early life cycle.

HAL Laboratory may not be innovating here, but they’ve once again delivered an incredibly polished platformer that should appeal to all. Those looking for some cooperative fun will definitely want to check it out, as there are few better reasons to separate the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons.

Star Allies is yet another Kirby game, but it's up there with some of the best. It's an artistic showcase, and a great opportunity for co-op platforming. The one real complaint you can levy at it is that it gates off its more challenging aspects, but the fact that they are present to begin with will please anyone who's grown weary of the series' painless platforming.

Kirby Star Allies is a cute and chaotic traditional Kirby game with fantastic buddy AI and strong potential as a co-op experience. It pays fantastic homage to its roots while adding in new mechanics that work well. Unfortunately, the length of the experience will have some doubting whether it’s truly worth it, but Kirby Star Allies is one of the most wholesome Switch games you can try right now.

Kirby Star Allies is Kirby's debut for the Nintendo Switch. The games focuses mainly on its four player co-op mechanic, but is also perfectly playable for just one player.

Kirby Star Allies is by far the easiest and shallowest game in the series, but is still an enjoyable experience, especially when played with friends.

Kirby Star Allies rarely dazzles with innovations and is short enough to finish it in one bite. Still, it’s, most definitely, a victory dance for Kirby.

Kirby Star Allies is another solid addition to the Nintendo Switch, and it does everything it has to as a Kirby game, I just hope that in the future, Nintendo will try to expand upon what already makes Kirby so great as they have with titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey.

Charming as ever and great if you are looking for a cooperative experience. The bad thing is the innovation and level of challenge, but if you love Kirby everything should be fine.

Kirby is back and it’s as charming as ever, but this adventure isn’t as good as the best ones in the series. It is a good game, but it’s way too easy (even for a Kirby game) and a little uninspired.

A rare kids' game that lets younger players feel badass, but the post-sugar rush crash is steep. [May 2018, p.70]

Kirby Star Allies is a colorful, little adventure... that keeps doing what a number of other Kirby's colorful adventures have already done before.

A failed attempt to offer an excellent platformer with Kirby as its main character, because of its extremely low difficulty and a bad level design, despite being horribly beautiful and very fun when played with friends.

Despite its shortcomings, Kirby Star Allies is a fun, casual outing. [Issue #33 – May/June 2018, p. 67]

Star Allies is a respectable entry in the Kirby legacy, but it isn't likely to be held up as one of the better entries. Maybe with some more content, I'd be warmer to the whole experience, but I did have fun and definitely appreciate Nintendo making yet another co-op platformer I can enjoy with my family.

A wonderfully chilled out platformer perfect for those who just want to relax, also perfect for those who want to game with a partner who doesn't normally game. The easy to master controls and cutesy visuals are peak Nintendo and, while the game isn't very challenging, sometimes that is what is needed.

Kirby’s greatest strength lies in the versatility and inventiveness of the powers he can absorb. Forming a team and combining those powers only adds to that joy of experimentation, but it’s disappointing that the places you go don’t do more to make the most of those abilities. Kirby Star Allies does get better in its later stages, it just isn’t particularly memorable as a whole.

Its hero might be forever wearing someone else's hat, but there's something to be said for a series that's this comfortable in its own skin. [May 2018, p.112]

Some Kirby fans will undoubtedly have hours of fun with Kirby Star Allies, while many others will be put off by what they might perceive as fairly bland gameplay. With friends and kids, this is a great game to play, but if you’re looking for a hardcore platformer or something that will challenge you, this frankly is not it.

Kirby Star Allies is entertaining, but as usual Kirby doesn't offer any real challenge for the hardcore fans of the genre. Still, using a group of characters at the same time is great fun.

Kirby Star Allies is a fun, but short romp that doesn't do much to push the franchise forward.

Kirby Star Allies is an entertaining multiplayer game that’s as Nintendo as they come. Played alone, it isn’t as fun, though.

A dizzying array of ideas and a varied combat system overlay a disappointingly basic platformer. Kirby Star Allies is a super-sweet confection that lacks a little substance

Kirby Star Allies is good, at times enjoyable even. It’s lacking in the single-player experience, though, especially compared to Kirby’s recent outings on Nintendo 3DS. The multiplayer is fun, but the focus on it might leave some fans in the cold. As someone who enjoys everything Kirby, I was left somewhat flat until the end of the campaign and the post-game. On my second run with friends, I did see the true potential of the game.

At its core, Kirby Star Allies is just another Kirby game with a fresh coat of paint and slightly different mechanics from Kirby games of the past. It is a step up in quality and graphics but can be far too simple for older fans and doesn’t provide a way to change the difficulty setting.

Kirby Star Allies is pretty straightforward as a platformer, but it offers that sweet Kirby world. It is too bad the game is very short and the difficulty level is way too low.

​Star Allies is a fun callback to Kirby's earliest adventures, however it feels too much formulaic: level design fails to impress and the new gimmick becomes trivial too soon. It is also extremely easy to the point of being even boring.

Kirby Star Allies is a fun, relaxing game that does a good job of showing off what makes the main Kirby series so great. The slow pace, diverse powers, beautiful environments, adorable enemy designs, and light difficulty ensure that this is an enjoyable ride from start to finish. But with that being said, there’s a lingering sense that the developer was a little too keen to play this one safe, and the lack of new ideas may come as a disappointment to series veterans. This is not the Super Mario Odyssey or The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild of the Kirby series, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game.

True to the series' heritage, Kirby Star Allies asserts its apparent simplicity through a candid, somehow heartbreaking scenario, a vibrant artistic direction, and a sweet gameplay fundamentally built for conviviality, with enemies that can also become skillful buddies once befriended. This amicable approach creates sympathetic cooperative operations and wonderful sequences of grouped transformations, but it results in a constrained, hence linear level design. While the new powers reveal interesting and potentially overpowerful teamwork synergies, those are only exploited into the rather short additional modes. More generosity, imagination and even boldness were expected from this moving, then ultimately nostalgic adventure.

While it lacks the substance to properly satisfy longtime Kirby fans, Star Allies does at least seem genuinely earnest in its underlying belief in the power of friendship. The game is frequently chaotic and a touch under-baked, but it’s hard to be too upset at a game where you can break down long-standing bonds of enmity and heal foes with a kiss. Even if it’s on the brief and simple side, Star Allies demonstrates the polish and personality you’ve come to expect from the series.

Kirby's debut on the Switch is a vibrant and fun game that's best played with friends. It's cheerful, colourful and its blend of new and old mechanics works, but it's missing the inventive spark that separates good Kirby games from great ones.

Kirby Star Allies is at its best when played with a couple of friends (or some kids) on the same couch: it’s like a chaotic, colorful and messy party game. If you’re planning on going solo, though, just be aware that it’s also super easy and reaches the end in a handful of hours.

Kirby Star Allies sees the pink resident of Planet Popstar debut on the Nintendo Switch in a game that is fun but somewhat lacking in challenge. If you are looking for an entertaining platformer that can be enjoyed by all the family then this game is the perfect option. The Nintendo Switch has been a haven for some of the greatest, taxing indie platformers recently - Kirby Star Allies provides a pleasant palette cleanser for both young and old to enjoy.

Kirby Star Allies feels like a greatest hits collection rather than its own unique experience. It takes inspiration from the majority of classic Kirby games and while it doesn’t have quite the level of scope that Kirby Super Star had back in the day, there’s a great amount of fun to be had. It’s certainly more fun with friends and is well made, having plenty of nostalgia for the pink puffball’s fans, but it’s certainly the easiest Kirby game in years.

This new Kirby had the potential to become another great entry in the series, but that didn’t come to be. The blame lies on the difficulty: when you play Star Allies with friends, it’s just too easy, but when you play it with AI-controlled teammates, Kirby basically plays itself. [Issue#228, p.62]

Kirby Star Allies isn’t the greatest game in the series, nor is it the most original. Yet, with its fun gameplay, ample content and modes, and gorgeous presentation, it remains an irresistible title for Switch owners. While I hope that Hal continues to experiment with Kirby as it did in games like Planet Robobot, Star Allies remains a good, yet predictable, title that platformer fans in particular should have fun with.

Its levels are predictable, the puzzles are obvious, and the four-player co-op adds little besides the literal ability to have four people playing at the same time.

AL delivers a polished Kirby experience here that plays well, but it ultimately amounts to a forgettable adventure that demands so little from the player that I sometimes felt like I was barely involved at all.

Well crafted, but lacking depth. [Issue#199, p.82]

Kirby Star Allies is a good landmark for the series, as it provides a whole set of elements that fans of the iconic Nintendo character will appreciate, including the unavoidable ability to copy an enemy's ability. Where Star Allies falls behind is on its exaggerated simplification, which feels too lenient even by the Kirby standards and ends up harming the experience of what should be a more enjoyable game.

Kirby Star Allies won't bring any new fans to the series. It sticks to the tried-and-true gameplay strictures of the franchise for better and worse. Co-op is nice, and the HD visuals do bring Kirby's world to life in a fresh way, but overall this is a totally by-the-book sequel that adds little of value other than a chance to play another Kirby game.

The allies mechanic rarely feels like it’s enhancing the gameplay, and at times, drags it down.

For its first outing on the Nintendo Switch, Kirby offers the minimum with a very weak challenge as a seasoned gamer can beat it in one afternoon. One of the least memorable experiences we had on the Switch so far.

While it’s not a bad game by any means, Kirby Star Allies for the Nintendo Switch is far too easy and does little to evolve the established Kirby formula.

While we thoroughly enjoyed our 4-6 hours with Kirby Star Allies, it definitely was lacking in some areas on top of its short length. Levels are decisively easy and lack extra exploration, boss fights are simplistic, and the minigames are fun but shallow. It’s difficult not to feel like Nintendo was playing it safe when designing it.

There are loads of combinations possible when it comes to abilities and co-op-options. But the feeble difficulty level will underwhelm players of all ages and experiences.

Star Allies isn’t bad, it’s just dull. Perhaps that’s worse.

When all is said and done, Kirby's powers are diluted when spread out across four players, yielding a more carefree experience. Meaning that in the case of Kirby Star Allies, sharing isn't caring.

Every puzzle, every platforming sequence, and every boss fight is an absolute cakewalk — even by Kirby standards. Kirby looks good on the Switch, but this latest visit to Dream Land is too brief, too familiar, and too safe to provide more than forgettable fun.

While it looks lovely and isn't a bad game by any means, Star Allies is aimed at a very specific age group, and most others will find it far too easy and, sadly, rather dull.