Kirby Fighters 2 (Nintendo Switch) Review

The premise is extremely simple: this is a fighting game where Kirby is the only playable character, save for three buddy characters to choose from. You can play against the computer in 4-way battles à la Super Smash Bros. or against human opponents in local or online multiplayer. CPU levels can be tweaked individually and team battles are included. In battle, items fall from the sky that can be weapons or classic Kirby food items to regain health. This is all extremely similar to the Smash Bros. series then, save for the fact that the goal is to defeat the character by depleting their health and not by launching them off the battle arena. Kirby comes in 17 forms encompassing most if not all of the classic powers that Kirby can steal from enemies in the mainline games, like Sword, Beam, Yo-Yo, Bomb, Wrestler, etc.

At the start however, only a few of these are unlocked. The same thing goes for available battle stages. To unlock more, the player has to play through either the classic battle mode mentioned above, or through the story mode called "The Destined Rivals". In this mode, Kirby chases King Dedede and Meta Knight up a tower, fighting Kirby clones along the way with the help of either another player's buddy help, or a CPU controlled one. Story mode cannot be played in coop online however. Playing through either modes, the player earns experience points that raise his or her Fighter's Rank. With each new rank, a new Kirby form, battle stage or some other unlockable becomes available. Not counting those already unlocked at the start, there are about 100 unlockables to go through, which should take avid players a decent amount of time.

That is assuming that they will stick around for the otherwise somewhat repetitive gameplay. This is a very repetitive game indeed where, in essence, the character controlled the whole time remains Kirby, using his classic powers to do nothing more than hitting on opponents with very little variation. For Kirby fans, the familiar settings and classic music recycled from past Kirby games will be endearing enough that they should stick around till the end. For anyone else however, this is a slightly tougher sell. Kirby controls here just about like he does in his other platform game appearances, save perhaps for the fact he can't inhale quite as well. Stars dropped by enemies can pop sometimes but all Kirby can do is open his mouth to grab them if they are right next to him. If they are not, well... tough luck! The pace of battles is a bit too slow to be engaging for fans of more adrenaline pumping fighting games. However this makes it more ideal for kids perhaps, who might appreciate the more approachable nature of things here, which is much easier to process for untrained minds.

If only this was more about bringing together lots of different looking Kirby characters. Instead, picture for a second a fighting game where 17 of the 20 playable characters have the exact same skin, with palette swaps to differentiate them in multiplayer, and only their moveset varies. In any fighting game this would come off as weird or even weak. Sadly, this is mostly what Kirby Fighters 2 is about. This is otherwise a game beyond reproach by Nintendo Switch standards in terms of technical prowess and art direction that is bound to tickle the fancy of any Kirby fans with the overdose of nostalgia inducing elements. The music kicks ass and the battle stages mixing old and new together look great. Beyond that however, it just falls short, even at its lower price point than most other fighting games on Switch.