Team Kirby Clash Deluxe

Genre: Fighting Game / Action-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless), Street Pass Support

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND USES WAIT MECHANICS

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2017, is a free-to-play combination of Fighting Game and Action-Platformer that would later go on to form the basis of the gameplay for Super Kirby Clash on the Nintendo Switch a few years later in 2019. In fact, the games are so similar that I’m just going to copy-paste most of that review here.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe is an expanded version of a minigame in from Kirby: Planet Robobot. The gameplay here largely consists of one to four players fighting boss characters from the Kirby series, along with larger versions of more common Kirby enemies.

Like I said in the warning above, this game makes use of microtransactions, pushing players to pay to keep playing after a certain number of battles, or to unlock helper characters or other content. Normally, I’m pretty understanding of free-to-play monetization mechanics when the game they’re in is actually, you know, free. That is the case here, although I’m given a bit of pause by the fact that the Kirby series generally targets a younger audience. That kinda’ bothers me.

Well, it would, if this game were more addictive to play. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), it kinda’… isn’t. Players can choose one of four different move sets for their Kirby to use (sword, hammer, magic rod, and a healing-focused flask), recruit and assign 3 other bots or friends, and then the boss battle commences with a lot of repetitive button-mashing.

Yeah, apparently, since the game encourages players to drop cash to upgrade their characters, battling in the game comes down to wailing on the bosses until their health gives out, with very little strategy involved. It wouldn’t work as well if there were strategy required anyway – the characters are sluggish, making the game feel like a slog.

To the game’s credit, it looks good. This is about on par with other modern Kirby games, although it’s lacking in the series’ usual imagination. Likewise, the sound is good, albeit nothing extraordinary.

All things considered, Team Kirby Clash Deluxe was already mediocre from the get-go, and then it was loaded with microtransactions. I suppose if you wanted you could give it a try, since it’s free, but most players will likely become bored with it before long, and certainly before feeling a desire to open their wallets. Add to that the fact that this game was copy-pasted onto the more recent and relevant Nintendo Switch in the form of Super Kirby Clash, and there’s not really much reason to play this game.

tl;dr – Team Kirby Clash Deluxe is a Free-To-Play Fighting Game / Platformer hybrid. It’s a co-op game that has up to four players fighting various Kirby bosses in extremely repetitive button-mashing affairs that are mediocre at best… oh, and then the game drags things down with sleazy microtransactions. To make things worse, this game was made obsolete when it was copy-pasted onto the Nintendo Switch in the form of Super Kirby Clash. As such, there’s pretty much no reason to play this game.

Grade: D

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