analysis, review, with gaming experience, trailer and price on Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch catalog has had several protagonists so far this year, including Kirby, who has starred in his first 3D adventure on Nintendo’s hybrid console with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, with good results. However, to the big N it is seen that she has not seemed enough and she has wanted to dedicate a new title to him with Kirby’s Dream Buffet.

The video game was announced by surprise from one day to the next and a priori it was presented as a fun proposal and with which entertainment seemed to be guaranteed. The question is, is it really worth it? That same question is what we are going to try to answer in the following analysis of the latest from Nintendo’s pink ball.

Feeding the gluttonous Kirby of all

Those who once played Kirby Super Star (also known as Kirby’s Fun Pack) will remember the mythical Gourmet Race minigame, in which the objective was to face King Dedede in a race and be quick to reach the finish line, although you also had to collect all the possible food along the way.

Well, one could say that the purpose of Kirby’s Dream Buffet it is exactly the same. Up to four players will face each other in a test competition in which they must do your best to make Kirby gobble up as many strawberries as he cansince in the end the one who is the fattest of all will win.

First they will all face each other in a circuit full of obstacles, with enemies in the way and traps to slow down progress, while all players have to do is roll and roll and move quickly, but without leaving strawberries along the way. Even so, there it will depend on the way each one plays, because the first one to arrive will win a succulent prize in the form of strawberries, but being very fast can cause food to be left behind.

Next, the group participates in a very simple minigame with a very short duration, since it does not even reach 30 seconds, which again consists of collecting strawberries. Then it’s another race and finally a pitched battle like Super Smash Bros. having to throw opponents off the stage.

In the latter you can choose to simply push, what will matter is to be a wolverine and huge to be stronger and more resistant, and there will also be items to use that will give Kirby temporary powersincluding some that will be very familiar to fans of the series, such as the stone, the spike, the tornado and many more.

Once the time is up, it’s time for the results, in which the tables may turn because a series of random prizes are awarded with a good shipment of strawberries. In fact, do you remember when stars are awarded at the end of a board in Mario Party and that sometimes they annoy a lot? Well, exactly the same thing happens here.

As you can read, the game has no mystery and it couldn’t be simpler. This is precisely one of its biggest problems, because within its extreme simplicity we find a proposal that in less than an hour he has shown you each and every one of his cardswhich causes it to become extremely repetitive due to not having a greater variety of mini-games or game modes.

The multiplayer, your lifesaver?

At this point you may be wondering what happens if you want to play by yourself without anyone else. Luckily, although the gameplay is clearly focused on multiplayer, you can also play solo games and in any of the aforementioned tests, in case someone prefers to practice one in particular or spend time just running or fighting.

In any of these cases, the rest of the gaps are filled by artificial intelligence, to which we can grant different levels of difficulty. Even so, grace is in getting together with other people with its local multiplayer, which means that at least the proposal earns more points because that way there are pitfalls. Plus, the controls are so easy to learn that anyone can get behind the wheel regardless of your level of driving experience.

The reason is that you only have to be aware of the stick to move, there is a button to jump or fly when necessary and another to use the powers, nothing more. Of course, that is to be appreciated so that the little ones can play and have fun with the local split-screen multiplayer for two. The other options are wireless local multiplayer for four, each with their console and game, and online multiplayer.

The latter is supposed to be the best of all, since it is usually easier to play with people from all over the world. However, after having tried several times in different parts of the day, I have been unable to find a game where three other players joined. At most I have found one or even two more, but never three. And that the game takes only two weeks for sale.

Could it be that the players who have acquired it have quickly tired of it or that it has not attracted enough attention? Be that as it may, it is very striking that in less than a month it costs so much to form a complete group, when the normal thing would be the opposite. Even so, as I have previously pointed out, it is not that the game offers too many challenges or excessive replayability.

Beyond all this, based on playing and collecting strawberries, Kirby will level up to unlock rewards in the form of cosmetic items that will make the pink ball change color or different hats can be placed on it, so this could be the only incentive to play nonstop.

iGamesNews’s opinion

It is certainly a pity that Kirby’s Dream Buffet has not turned out well, because it is difficult to imagine a video game of the franchise that is not fun, which this one is, but it is far from the level that we are used to seeing in the series and loses steam too quickly because of how repetitive and short it is shortly after putting yourself at the controls. In turn, it also does not help that there are no people in the online multiplayer.

Perhaps if the game had been published free-to-play instead of for 15 dollars, things would have been totally different. It will be necessary to see if Nintendo tries to remedy the situation in some way or on the contrary the last game of Kirby It ends up becoming a title that is fine to play with friends for a while, but nothing more.