Kirby: Triple Deluxe
By Carolyn Koh,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Fresh, forgiving Kirby platformer's levels ramp up smoothly.
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Kirby: Triple Deluxe
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Based on 2 parent reviews
Good, but a little violent and dark.
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What’s It About?
Everybody's favorite pink puffball Kirby is back in KIRBY: TRIPLE DELUXE, his latest platformer following the classic Kirby Super Star and new adventures like Kirby's Return to Dreamland. In this adventure, Kirby falls out of bed just in time to see King Dedede get abducted by a strange monster. Kirby follows, braving and besting fantastical creatures and bosses along the way. As usual, Kirby has the ability to inhale his enemies and copy their abilities, but he's got a new skill this time. It's called the Hyper-Nova, a very powerful inhalation which may seem too powerful a weapon at first, but players will quickly find it mighty useful as they move through the game.
There are also two other game modes that older kids will enjoy. Kirby Fighters, a local multiplayer game mode where Kirby's new skills come into play as each player chooses one skill and take it with them to duke it out in Super Smash Bros. style. Dedede's Drum Smash is the other, and is a short hybrid rhythm-platformer which helps extend the game.
Is It Any Good?
Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a conventional platformer that will be familiar to kids who have played previous Kirby games. This game makes use of the Nintendo 3DS's 3D capabilities with plane switching mechanics so Kirby can travel from background to foreground. You can often see things in the background you want to collect or enemies coming straight out at you. This provides a rich environment and a puzzle-like appeal to the game. The levels are diverse and challenge the player to make best use of Kirby's copied abilities. In one level, Kirby enters a circus where kids will have to keep an eye on the mirrored background to check for ghostly traps that aren't visible on the foreground plane. In others, kids can make use of the 3DS's gyroscope capabilities and tilt the 3DS to pour water from a jar or move a floating boat.
Kirby: Triple Deluxe is forgiving, especially in the early stages, and the smooth ramping means that even younger kids won't get frustrated. Older, more experienced players may end up speeding through the game, but the game's use of the 3DS's capabilities make it just that much more fun.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about skills and how learning more than one can help a person on his journey through life. What skills do you think are involved in buying groceries? Is it better to learn to fish or to get a fish from someone?
Families can also talk about logic and puzzle solving. How does Kirby use his single skill to solve all these different problems?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo 3DS
- Subjects: Hobbies: collecting
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: decision-making, solving puzzles
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release date: May 2, 2014
- Genre: Arcade
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures
- ESRB rating: E for Cartoon Violence
- Last updated: March 8, 2019
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