STACK #250 August 2025

GAMING FEATURE

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• Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star Crossed World is out Aug 28

KIRBY’S KAREER!

Everybody’s favourite pink glob of gaming goodness hits the Switch 2 this month in Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World . So, we reckon it’s a great time to take a wander down memory lane and look at more than three decades of fun with Kirby. Words Amy Flower BACK IN THE PINK! PINK!

from the established gaming story, and introduced some darker themes to proceedings, but all under the watchful eye of Kirby’s creator and guardian, Sakurai. Kirby has also been the subject of several manga series. Kirby may look cute and harmless, but all fans know that the rotund hero is also bold and courageous. As we return to one of his classic adventures in Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World this month, we can but wonder at what new escapades await our spherical pink popstar in the future. 1992: Kirby’s Dream Land Game Boy A blob is born! 1993: Kirby’s Adventure NES A colourful introduction to copy abilities. 1995: Kirby’s Dream Land 2 Game Boy Kirby makes some animal friends. 1998: Kirby’s Dream Land 3 Super Nintendo Multiplayer arrives, with a pastel aesthetic. 2001: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards Nintendo 64 Kirby gets into the 3D act, and King Dedede gets playable. 2003: Kirby’s Air Ride GameCube Time for a racing game, Kirby style! 2004: Kirby and the Amazing Mirror Game Boy Advance Kirby does Metroidvania. 2006: Kirby Power Paintbrush DS New controls for Kirby via stylus. 2011: Kirby’s Epic Yarn Wii Kirby makes his way back to consoles. 2014: Kirby Triple Deluxe 3DS Three games in one – platform, rhythm, and fighting. 2015: Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Wii U it was sequel time again. 2018: Kirby Star Allies Switch Introducing dream friends and turning enemies into pals. 2022: Kirby and the Forgotten Land Switch Kirby gets to explore like never before. 2023: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe Switch A Wii classic reborn, with subgames, four-player, and the all-new Mecha Copy. 2025: Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World Switch 2 Kirby’s post-apocalyptic adventure expands!

I t was 1992 when the world first got to play with Kirby, in the side-scrolling platformer from developer HAL Laboratory, Kirby’s Dream Land – known as Kirby of the Stars in Japan. As much as we all now know and love Planet Popstar’s most famous export as a bastion of pinkness, the ever-positive young Kirby started

life colourless, mainly because the original Game Boy was also resolutely monochromatic. On the initial box art, the little guy was just a plain white blob. But creator Masahiro

SEEING STARS!

many charms of the character were acknowledged and were allowed to live on. And live on Kirby has, having appeared now in more than 40 games,

The Switch 2 exclusive new Star-Crossed World mode sees Kirby rescuing intriguing little

Sakurai, for whom Kirby’s Dream Land was a first go at creating a game, had always intended Kirby to be pink, despite Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto wanting the little ray of sunshine to be yellow. As soon as Kirby’s world turned to colour, in 1993’s Kirby’s Adventure for the NES, pink was the order of the day. As for that rotund shape, the Kirby that we know started out as a simple placeholder before the

characters called Starries, which have been trapped within crystals. In fact, it’s all very much about crystals, with meteors formed from the substance crashing into and changing the lay of the levels. Bosses are also not immune to the transformations brought by crystals, so look out!

running the gamut from starring roles through to various spinoffs and, of course, there’s been a regular spot for the brave battler in every Super Smash Bros. release since the series debuted back in 1999 on the Nintendo 64. The field of video games hasn’t been able to contain our lovable blob of pinkness though, with a starring role in the Japanese anime

series Kirby: Right Back at Ya! . Over some 100 episodes, it took detours

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

Yoshi’s Crafted World, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, LEGO Horizon Adventures

AUGUST 2025

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