Kirby Fighters 2 Review
Kirby Fighters 2
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Website: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Kirby-Fighters-2-1839925.html
Genre: Fighting
Platform: Switch
Age Rating: 7
Release Date: 24/09/2020
Price: 17.99
A code was provided for review purposes.
Kirby Triple Deluxe had a side game where you got to play with different Kirby abilities in a Smash Bros-like setting. The following year, Nintendo released a small game in the form of Kirby Fighters Deluxe which was focused on that side game. Fast forward to today and Nintendo out of nowhere revealed and launched Kirby’s Fighters 2. Is Kirby Fighter’s 2 worth the purchase? Did I enjoy my time with the game? Or was Kirby Fighters 2 a cheap cash-grab? Read on in order to find out.
Kirby Fighters 2 is a game full of re-used assets but I will be honest that for the most part, this did not bother me. Reusing assets to save time on development is completely fine and the game does occasionally offer its own new assets. The presentation of the game is nice and I just love the menu screens as they have this nice style to them. The OST of this game is great and catchy which I enjoyed very much.
I believe that the re-used assets start being a problem with the gameplay of Kirby Fighters 2. While I believe saving time by re-using assets was great for that sense, they didn’t balance the copy abilities. The hammer is absolutely broken, as well as the staff and bell. For the most part, the game has this great balance to it but these abilities really removed the fun from the game for me when I faced them.
Fighter’s Rank
The way to unlock is by using something called the “Fighter’s Rank”. When that levels up, you can unlock stages, fighters, music, story items and other things. Some levels can even give you more than one thing. For the most part, I really enjoy this ranking system although, in order to make this better, I wish there was a way to unlock the stuff you want first VS what the game decides to give you.
Kirby Fighters 2 Modes
The modes in this game range from online, regular offline matches and two other modes: story mode “The Destined Rivals”, and “Single Handed Mode”. Single-Handed Mode is basically a series of nine battles where you go through multiple battles either fighting one other fighter or up to three by yourself. In the end, you square off against Shadow Kirby, who is basically the shadow version of who you are using. In my opinion, this mode is unfair most of the time and unless you are using a cheap ability or are a master at the game, you’re going to fail a lot.
Story
As for the Story Mode? It is hardly a story at all. Basically, Meta Knight and King Dedede are getting sick of getting destroyed by Kirby. As such, they made a tower to try to challenge and defeat Kirby while choosing to be united and take him down. It is simple but I have a problem. They haven’t had a normal fight with Kirby for a long time. Every time Kirby faces them, they are either mind-controlled or not the real version. So I have no idea where this tiredness comes from when they haven’t been trying to defeat Kirby for more than a decade.
Enough talking about the story for now, how does the mode play like? The mode is split into chapters. the first two chapters are fairly easy and pose no challenge at all. Chapter 3 for the first half is also the same, but then the game receives a difficulty spike out of nowhere and you actually have to try. I blame everyone who said “Kirby Star Allies was sooooo easy” because Hal took that to heart and made this game HARD. Joking aside, the game does pose a great challenge until the final chapter becomes incredibly hard.
You’ll go through battles that are RNG and fight to win them. At the end of every battle, you get the chance to pick what item you want. These include increasing attack power of you and your partner, increasing the time, increasing the power against a certain enemy, and many more. The bad news is, as mentioned previously in the review, most of these items are locked behind the unlocking system. The worse part about that is, this is the best mode of grinding for the ranks. So replaying these stages for a better score later might be your best strategy.
Online/Offline Battles
As for the normal and online battles, with offline, you can set your own rule sets and choose to do a 2v2 match or a general versus mode. However, you are able to have your 1v1’s as well. Also, you can turn off stage hazards and alter other aspects. As for the online, you can play with friends or random people where you play a 2v2 match. I didn’t have much fun with the random mode and finding a match was very difficult to do. On the other hand, the online mode for fighting friends is much better, since everything you can do offline is possible online. This honestly saved the game for me since playing with friends was so much fun. I experienced some hiccups whilst playing online but never anything too serious.
Kirby Fighters 2 is a game that I loved playing. The presentation, music, abilities, and the modes are for the most part all good and fun. However, I didn’t enjoy the Single-Handed Mode at all, and the final chapter of Destined Rivals was disappointing. Despite that, I enjoyed the game and if you have friends, then you should especially buy this game.
You can purchase Kirby Fighters 2 on the eShop
