how on earth do you go from the masterwork that is planet robobot to this? star allies is even simpler than the usual kirby formula, which is saying something. i’m not expecting complex ideas from kirby, but i am expecting memorable level designs and a great gimmick. star allies has neither.

let’s take a look at the couple kirby games prior to star allies. return to dreamland had the super abilities, triple deluxe had hypernova, and planet robobot had the mech suit. the largest difference between these 3 abilities and the ally gimmick in star allies is player control. all 3 prior games gave kirby himself some extra ability, while star allies simply makes kirby’s job easier. the previous abilities are also designed for very specific sections of the game, which allows for the level design to adapt to kirby’s extra powerful abilities at the time. star allies, on the other hand, must assume the player doesn’t have friends at all times, which forces the level design to be extremely basic and one-note.

the story also lacks the impact of many of kirby’s previous adventures. while kirby’s never been a particularly story-focused series, triple deluxe and planet robobot had pretty solid characters and a decent emotional core. star allies more or less ditches this, and the story fails because of it.

everything else is pretty solid; it’s still a kirby game. visually, the game is stunning. beautiful colors and models, which is to be expected for kirby. the game’s also got great music - once again, a standard for kirby. it’s not a bad game, per se, it’s just a much less interesting game than the games released prior and since. it’s an odd dip for a series whose quality is generally very high.