Last year was a busy one for Kirby fans. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby’s Dream Buffet and Kirby’s Return To Dreamland Deluxe were all released within the past 12 months. Kirby’s Return To Dreamland Deluxe, a remake of the original released on the Wii, is the latest of the 3 releases. Attention now turns to the future of the franchise.
Kirby director Shinya Kumazaki made this point to IGN at this year’s Game Developers Conference. There, Kumazaki mentioned that while he couldn’t give any specific plans for Kirby’s future, he did mention that HAL Laboratory’s goal is always to “provide a new gaming experience.” Although the most recent Kirby release was a remake, Kumazaki says remakes won’t just happen for their own sake. They want to make sure that something new is added to the game. For example, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe had a Merry Magolor theme park and a Magolor Epilogue.
That was not all that was discussed. Kumazaki also talked about whether there will be a mix of 2D and 3D games in the future. Kumazaki, again, didn’t say much about it. However, he said that 2D games, 3D games or “something completely different” are all things that are “within the reach” for HAL Laboratories’ future.
Kumazaki concluded the discussion by saying that “you might have experienced that if you’ve played Forgotten Land, because it’s not quite an open world. It’s really a 3D game that really uses, kind of inherits the playfulness and ease of play of the 2D Kirby games. And that is the unique 3D experience we want to provide. And so what we want to do going forward is to continue to provide that unique 3D experience and not necessarily be caught within the boundaries of existing genres”.
