Kirby: Dark Aurora

Kirby: Dark Aurora is an entry in the Kirby franchise and a follow-up to the fellow Nintendo Switch title Kirby Star Allies. Uniquely, this entry in the series marks the first full-length three-dimensional outing of the titular character, technically following Kirby's Blowout Blast but including several more features such as the famous ability to copy enemies' powers the series is known for. The game was developed by HAL Laboratory in collaboration with Candy Dynamics.

Plot

Kirby wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing an engine starting up. He looks around and wakes up Gooey, who is soundly sleeping next to him, and they hear the noise of the engine again. Unhappy that he's been woken up, Kirby heads towards the mysterious sound with Gooey to find the Meta-Knights preparing the Halberd for liftoff. Meta Knight turns around to see the duo, who looks confused about why the Knights are leaving. Meta Knight points to the night sky and Kirby looks up, noticing that the stars are being blacked out. The other Meta-Knights signal to Meta Knight that the Halberd is ready to lift off. They set out into space, but not before Kirby and Gooey jump onto their ship; Meta Knight notices the stowaways and promptly knocks them off of the Halberd and back down to Dream Land. After landing, Kirby decides to look for another way to get to outer space and heads towards Mount Dedede, where King Dedede is asleep, followed by Gooey.

Gameplay

Kirby: Dark Aurora is based on the engine that was produced for Super Mario 3D World which was lent to HAL by Nintendo EPD and 1-UP Studio so that they could be able to fully realize a three-dimensional Kirby game. Like in most games in the series, Kirby's movement is controlled by the left stick, but most of his other controls have been changed to better suit the 3D environment. By default, Kirby jumps with either the or buttons and inhales or attacks using either the or buttons, though these can be mapped to different buttons in the options menu. When Kirby jumps in midair, he will instead begin floating for a limited amount of time. Interestingly, because Super Mario 3D World's engine does not allow the camera to be controlled, this game utilizes the right stick for attacking when using copy abilities. Such copy abilities are gained after Kirby inhales enemies and swallows by pushing the right stick in any direction while in Kirby's base form. Clicking the left stick allows Kirby to guard against incoming attacks, but pressing in the right stick will make him slide in the direction he's facing instead. Finally, pressing both the jump and inhale buttons at the same time will allow Kirby to discard his ability. Gooey takes the role of the second player and functions identically to Kirby except that he grabs enemies with his tongue instead of inhaling and he flies instead of floats. In 2-player mode, the camera stretches out when players are on opposite sides of the screen until they cannot move away from each other anymore, but both can teleport to each other using one of the D-Pad buttons.

Also returning are Kirby's Animal Friends, of which there are three in this game: Nago, Pitch, and Chuchu, returning from Kirby's Dream Land 3. Their control schemes are identical to Kirby's, but they have different attacks. Kirby can join them by pressing the guard button near them, and he can leave them in the same method. Like several Kirby games prior, Dark Aurora also includes sub-games that change up the gameplay. The two unlocked by default are the Adventures of Lololo game, a puzzle game modeled after the classic Kirby character Lololo's original Adventures of Lolo series, and another yet unannounced game.