Every Kirby Game, Ranked

– March 31, 2022

Updated March 2023 to add Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe

First appearing in 1992, the Kirby game franchise has gone on to span 15 main games and over a dozen spinoffs, with cumulative sales ranking it among the best-selling game properties of all time despite (or because of) being limited to Nintendo devices. Those games center on the titular character, a cute 8-inch-tall pink sphere (his species has no official name) hailing from the Planet Popstar and created on our planet by Masahiro Sakurai (then of HAL Laboratory, the Japanese developer of several Nintendo-exclusive series that continues to make Kirby games to this day).

Games in the main Kirby series are platformers (typically side-scrollers) that are usually distinguished from the competition by Kirby's unique abilities including inhaling his enemies and copying their powers. In the gallery on this page, we rank all 15 of the games in the series from worst to best by Metascore, which captures the consensus views of professional critics. (And, at the very end of the gallery, we rank all of those spinoffs as well.)

All photos courtesy of Nintendo unless otherwise indicated.

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BONUS: Kirby spinoffs

Our main ranked list only includes traditional platformer-style games in the main Kirby series, but Nintendo has also released many spinoffs from the main series over the past three decades in a variety of genres. Here's how those rank:

(tie) 1. 86 Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii, 2010) pictured above
A craftwork-styled, physics-based platformer originally developed as a separate game before Kirby branding and characters were incorporated at a late stage.

(tie) 1. 86 Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS, 2005)
A 2D platformer with a then-unique (for the series) control scheme utilizing the DS stylus.

(tie) 3. 83 Kirby Mass Attack (DS, 2011)
The final Kirby title released for the DS featured more button-free gameplay and a Lemmings-like concept requiring simultaneous control of numerous Kirby clones.

(tie) 3. 83* Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble (Game Boy Color, 2001)
One of the more unique titles ever released for the Game Boy, thanks to an oddly shaped cartridge containing an early built-in accelerometer, action/puzzle game Tumble effectively turns the Game Boy into a motion controller. But that technology was later used more impressively in other games.

5. 79 Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (3DS, 2019)
A handheld remake of the 2010 Wii game.

6. 77* Kirby's Dream Course (SNES, 1995)
Originally developed as a standard (albeit oddball) miniature golf game, it received a last-minute Kirby theme just prior to release.

(tie) 7. 74* Kirby's Avalanche [aka Kirby's Ghost Trap] (SNES, 1995)
Look closely and you'll see that Avalanche is actually the non-Kirby puzzle game Super Puyo Puyo, which was belatedly given Kirby branding for its release in the West.

(tie) 7. 74 Super Kirby Clash (Switch, 2019)
An expanded, free-to-start version of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.

(tie) 9. 73 Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U, 2015)
The only Wii U-exclusive Kirby title was a lesser sequel to the DS game Canvas Curse that asked players to draw rainbow-colored tracks to guide a ball-shaped Kirby.

(tie) 9. 73* Kirby's Block Ball (Game Boy, 1996)
A Kirby-themed version of the Atari classic Breakout—with Kirby as the ball, of course.

(tie) 9. 73* Kirby's Star Stacker (Game Boy, 1997)
One of several Kirby-themed puzzle games released over the years, Star Stacker borrows gameplay elements from Tetris.

12. 70* Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy, 1993)
A handheld pinball game with Kirby branding and Kirby himself as the pinball. (It's the role he was born to play!)

13. 69 Kirby's Blowout Blast (3DS, 2017)
An expanded, standalone release of the Planet Robobot minigame Kirby 3D Rumble.

14. 66 Kirby Fighters Deluxe (3DS, 2014)
A standalone, enhanced release of the brawler-style minigame found within Triple Deluxe.

(tie) 15. 65 Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (3DS, 2014)
A standalone, enhanced release of another minigame (this one a rhythm game) found in Triple Deluxe.

(tie) 15. 65 Kirby Fighters 2 (Switch, 2020)
A direct sequel to Kirby Fighters Deluxe that also failed to impress critics despite the more advanced hardware it ran on.

17. 61 Kirby Air Ride (GameCube, 2003)
This 2003 kart racer was criticized for being overly simplistic and shallow.

(tie) 18. 57 Team Kirby Clash Deluxe (3DS, 2017)
A standalone release of the Planet Robobot minigame (which was itself later expanded and reissued as Super Kirby Clash).

(tie) 18. 57 Kirby Battle Royale (3DS, 2018)
The worst full game to carry the Kirby name to date is this lackluster party collection of 10 minigames with little to offer after an initial play-through.

Not ranked (no reviews available): Kirby Slide (Game Boy Advance with e-Reader, 2003), Kirby's Toy Box (SNES, 1996, Japan-only release).

* score from GameRankings

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