One such spin-off was Kirby’s Blowout Blast in 2017, an expansion of the “Kirby 3D Rumble” puzzler sub-game from Planet Robobot. Many embody different genres, from the party-fighting game Kirby Fighters to the rhythm game Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe. A particularly basic concept with potential is “Kirby Quest,” a mock RPG sub-game from 2011’s Kirby Mass Attack on DS. While it wasn’t a true RPG, it shows how Kirby could thrive with a similar treatment to AlphaDream’s Mario & Luigi franchise.

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How the Mario & Luigi RPGs Evolve Their Source Material

AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy in 2019, having become well-known for its RPG spin on Super Mario that carried forward the legacy of Square’s Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. While Super Mario RPG gave players a cycling team of Mario, Peach, Bowser, Mallow, and Geno, AlphaDream’s Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga cut things down to just the titular brothers. Yet it still used the action command system Square implemented to make combat more engaging than traditional turn-based RPGs.

The now-defunct studio also developed games including Tomato Adventure and Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue, but Mario & Luigi is its main legacy. Part of that comes from how it redefined elements of the original series to develop RPG elements. Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, Bowser’s Inside Story, Paper Jam, and Dream Team each had their own gimmicks, like teaming up with baby versions of major characters; but the brothers’ typical skills range from jumping, hammer strikes, and fire (or thunder) attacks to using items like Koopa Shells. Characters like Bowser and Peach also see deeper development because RPGs are stuffed with dialog by their nature.

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Where a Kirby RPG Could Thrive

Kirby Quest from Mass Attack is more about timing. Players encounter a succession of enemies across four chapters, and the power of Kirby’s attacks against them is determined by players stopping an oscillating gauge on the DS’ bottom screen. These attacks range from moves utilizing various copy abilities like wheel to full-on “summons” like Dyna Blade from Kirby Super Star.

Players may not have direct agency in their attacks or stats, but the game’s presentation is steeped in RPG fanfare. Not only is the combat screen clearly inspired by classic turn-based Final Fantasy games, with each level up adding an extra Kirby to the party for more damage-dealing, its title screen is also a reference to HAL’s 1992 dungeon-crawler RPG Arcana. This also isn’t the first time Kirby has referenced RPGs, as one notable boss from Super Star named Computer Virus imitated turn-based battles against enemies like slimes, mages, knights, and dragons.

A legitimate Kirby RPG could go further than Kirby Quest, offering the pink puffball another genre to conquer rather than simply using its aesthetics as set dressing. Super Kirby Clash had RPG elements with upgradeable gear and stats, but a turn-based combat system akin to Mario & Luigi — with action commands or not — could recontextualize Kirby’s copy abilities as different classes or jobs that level up. As in AlphaDream’s popular franchise, verbal characters like King Dedede or Meta Knight could be secondary party members with more to say about the dangers around every corner.

HAL Laboratory is also no stranger to introducing cosmic horrors into the Kirby universe, from Dark Matter in Dream Land 2 to Void Termina in Kirby Star Allies, as well as themed villains like the Squeak Squad or mirror dimension Meta Knight. Any one of these could serve as the big bad in an intergalactic RPG, and it’s easy to imagine HAL pulling out all the stops for an apocalyptic climax featuring a new threat. With the series as successful as ever, it would be interesting to see what Kirby’s developers would do with a full RPG.

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