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Kirby Battle Royale Review


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5aa2b80198cb6_KirbyBattleRoyaleboxart.png.f40b56c8482dd4528a84c9c57443fef6.pngWith so many experimental spin-offs under his belt (pinball, racing, touch-screen-platforming) I suppose it's only fitting that Kirby would finally make his way to the mini-game compilation format. Kirby Battle Royale draws from the style of Mario Party but ignores the board game system and instead just focuses on a handful of game modes that offer quick, bite-sized competitions—a decent idea for a Kirby spin-off, but lacking in execution. Although fun in short bursts you'll be left wanting more after only a few rounds of Battle Royale's mini-games.
 
The focus may be in the multiplayer but Battle Royale also features a short story mode. Kirby is invited to King Dedede's castle to compete in a battle royale, with a delicious cake as the prize. Naturally the pink puffball can't turn down that kind of incentive, and you'll need to battle through five competitive leagues to work your way up to the grand prize. It's a cute, brief adventure and serves as a nice introduction to the various mini-games that make up Battle Royale. There are ten battle modes on offer here, from standard modes like Battle Arena where you just fight opponents to more objective-based battles like Crazy Theater, which features a sequence of WarioWare-esque mini-games and the first to a certain number of points wins. Ultimately ten feels like a small selection though, especially since some mini-games feel pretty similar.

5aa2b801ee6f3_KirbyBattleRoyalebattle.jpg.b07bb29b97cd4b4cf37b674d857f6de7.jpgEvery game seems like it could have been taken straight out of Mario Party: matches are just a minute or two long and often include some sort of balancing that allows the losing players to catch up suddenly in the last few seconds (annoying when you're already winning, but satisfying when you manage a come-from-behind victory). There's even an option to award bonus points at the end of a match. Furthermore, there's a clear emphasis on intuitive gameplay—every mode is very easy to pick up quickly, and for the most part any level of player can jump right into the game. It's a perfect system for quickly diving in and just having a quick bit of competitive multiplayer fun in a 3DS game. As an accessible party game, Battle Royale does well.
 
The problem is that the games are also pretty shallow. Many of them feature just one stage to play on, and it quickly feels like you're just going through the same motions over and over. And the combat-oriented games feel too similar to one another, even if the ultimate goal is slightly different in each one. There really isn't a ton of room for strategy in most mini-games, so you'll very quickly feel like you're just doing the same thing in every match. On the brightside, there are a variety of different Kirby abilities you can select from (as well as a few free DLC abilities that are still being added) as well as boost orbs you can equip that make the gameplay feel slightly different, but not quite different enough. It's particularly disappointing that the story mode didn't take better advantage of adding a little more variety. Some of the later story matches add extra objectives or challenges that do a nice job of spicing things up, especially considering how repetitive the game can be while playing solo, but these twists aren't available in multiplayer. Playing for even just half an hour feels like a long time when battle after battle starts to feel the same. Battle Royale's biggest flaw is simply a lack of depth to the gameplay.
 
5aa2b80241ce2_KirbyBattleRoyalerobo.jpg.cd2b36eb183c6da89b2610c7a3bac606.jpgOf course, playing against other human players adds a bit more variety to the gameplay, and in Battle Royale you can play locally and online. With some caveats. Playing locally works just fine and you can even use Download Play if the other players don't have copies of the game (with some limitations of course). If you can wrangle up three friends this local multiplayer option can be a blast, for a little while at least. Online though, you're limited to playing exclusively without friends. The online mode is limited to Ranked matches, where wins earn you points and, at least theoretically, you compete against players of a similar rank. The fact that you can't link up with friends online though is just plain weird. It feels like a pointless restriction to only offer these anonymous matches and not include any kind of friend room mode. Thankfully at least, in my experience, there's a decent amount of players online. You might end up waiting for a little while to find a match but I always ended up finding one, at various times of day. The downside is that lag, particularly button lag, is an issue at times, which can be killer in the combat-focused game modes, and can easily put you off Ranked matches entirely.
 
5aa2b80280e18_KirbyBattleRoyalerocket.jpg.2cb94d2c141e4744294a1c1dc9b7658e.jpgThe visuals and music are more or less what you'd expect to find in a Kirby game. It's colorful, charming, and really not pushing the style of the franchise forward in any way—which is also a shame since a spin-off would be the ideal time to get experimental. Battle Royale doesn't even feature stereoscopic 3D, though with how uncommon 3D has been in recent 3DS releases it's debatable how significant this really is. The audio is similarly unremarkable. It's cute, and fits right in for a Kirby game, but lacks any real zest.
 
Kirby Battle Royale feels like a side mode that was elevated to separate game status without actually fleshing out the core mechanics of the game. The gameplay is fun for a bit but there just isn't enough depth to keep the game interesting after a few hours, and players might feel a bit burned by the full $40 price tag—the game definitely feels like it should have been a more modestly priced eShop title rather than a full retail game. If you have a few friends to play with locally there's some fun to be had in Battle Royale, just don't expect it to last.
 
Rating: 5 out of 10 Warp Stars
 

(And if you're looking for a second opinion check out Kirbymeister2's video review of Kirby Battle Royale here)

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