There’s a lot of water being treaded here. In that sense, you can almost see Star Allies as the series pausing to take stock before leaping ahead.

(The core Kirby games skipped Wii U altogether, with only the wonderful but decidedly nontraditional Kirby and the Rainbow Curse repping the franchise on that ill-starred console.) There’s no denying that, as with every classic franchise, experiencing familiar characters and beats through glossy high-fidelity visuals has a certain compelling charm all its own.

Yes, somewhat surprisingly, Star Allies marks the first time HAL Laboratory and Nintendo have published a traditional Kirby platformer in HD. It pulls together well-worn themes and elements while leaning on two key factors to make it feel fresh: high-definition graphics and four-person multiplayer. Instead, it comes off as something closer to a recap of 25 years of Kirby history. As the series’ first major outing on Switch, Kirby Star Allies seems like the kind of game that would have been designed with an eye toward pushing Kirby into the future.

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