While we are on the subject of Kirby viability, I had an interesting thought recently about a unique way to buff him (since the balance team clearly wants to avoid creating 50 Marios).
Tell me what you think about each of these:
a) Kirby starts the round with the enemy's power. Some sort of animation would account for the logistics of this, or he could just start with the hat sans animation and it wouldn't be directly un-cannon
b) once kirby has a power, he cannot lose it by being hit. Being hit and losing powers feels random now, and is really frustrating considering how hard you have to work to get the power, and how much of a difference in a MU it can make. Someone is timing you out, and you've got their projectile and 2 minutes to get a stock? Not bad, but one bad hit and you're totally screwed.
Obviously both of these together would be best case for Kirby, and wouldn't really make him polarizing-ly strong or even top 10 in my eyes. When the start of the game is basically always the opponent just chucking their free projectile at Kirby while he stares at it enviously, I'd like to see these changes to help him have a chance early (a) or late game timeout (b) situations.
Now, I know these kinds of changes are definitely not what the balance team is doing, especially by now. There is almost no chance either of these changes will ever see the light of day, or even the light of beta testing... but hypothetically, what do you think of these?
To me, Kirby's signature thing is his copy ability! But against wary and skilled opponents, there is a very real chance you won't even get a chance to have the power.