Delzethin Remakes Kirby's Moveset

Ever wonder how veteran Smash Bros. characters might be like with a fresh makeover? Well, Delzethin's Remake It! video series explores what redone movesets could be like! His latest Remake It! video is focused on Kirby, so let's take a look.

Kirby's had a long history in his own series AND in Smash Bros. Unfortunately, while his abilities have evolved a lot in the former, they've hardly at all in the latter. How about we revamp his Smash design to better embody how far he's come?

Check it out on Youtube now! pic.twitter.com/mrAU3FTSQM

— Delzethin (@Delzethin) September 7, 2023

Delzethin's got a challenging task to tackle, modernizing Kirby’s design in Smash. His moveset has largely stayed the same over the years and has certainly lost some luster. Luckily, Delzethin has some solutions in mind, which are intended to do quite a bit to help. Firstly, the changes should showcase more of Kirby's modern self. Secondly, these should bolster his competitive viability. And finally, Kirby should still feel like Kirby, not merely a collection of references.

So with all that said, it’s unsurprising that he opts for not altering Kirby’s basic attributes very much. However, Kirby’s moveset itself is another story, as many things here have changed. For example, Kirby’s side-smash is no longer just a kick, but instead involves Kirby swinging his Hammer. Another example would be his up-aerial, which now utilizes Kirby’s Cutter ability. And that’s not all the copy abilities he uses, far from it. In fact, Kirby’s side and up-special both use some of Kirby’s copy abilities as well. I’ll give you a hint, side special’s a burst option, and up-special is, you guessed it, a recovery tool. So, which copy abilities are we talking about? You’ll have to watch the video to find out, we’re not spoiling!

The full video also contains more than what we just discussed. It includes things such as cosmetics, taunts, those specials we mentioned, and even a new final smash. So, as always, we recommend you go watch the full video.

Author’s Note: Gotta say, I really like Delzethin’s changes personally. I do think changes like these would help make Kirby fresh again, and would love to see something like this. Also, were you able to guess which copy abilities the side-special and up-special used? Please let us know in the comments below!

Credits:
Writing & Editing: Zerp
Thumbnail Graphic: Zerp
Social: Zerp

 

If he's just going to make a cluttered mess of references that make the moveset thematically disjointed, no thanks.

 

Why the hell are people so obsessed with revamping the perfectly fine 64 and Melee characters and not the godawful Namco characters?

 

Why the hell are people so obsessed with revamping the perfectly fine 64 and Melee characters and not the godawful Namco characters?

Because they haven't been updated in a long time, or something like that.

 

Keep in mind that, while references are indeed used, Del does so with game balance in mind.

 

Why the hell are people so obsessed with revamping the perfectly fine 64 and Melee characters and not the godawful Namco characters?

I blame the "revamp Ganondorf" crowd; now their attitudes have spread to the whole early portion of the roster.

 

I blame the "revamp Ganondorf" crowd; now their attitudes have spread to the whole early portion of the roster.

Pretty much due to Ganon being a Captain Falcon clone.

 

If he's just going to make a cluttered mess of references that make the moveset thematically disjointed, no thanks.

He specifically tries to avoid this in the video.

 

He specifically tries to avoid this in the video.

Then in that case he really shouldn't have an almost 20-minute video when Kirby can just get a down-tilt Slide and be done with it.

 

Why the hell are people so obsessed with revamping the perfectly fine 64 and Melee characters and not the godawful Namco characters?

Because Smash 4/Ultimate characters like have been more of a 1-to1 translation of their source game mechanics.

 

Because Smash 4/Ultimate characters like have been more of a 1-to1 translation of their source game mechanics.

So why don't people want to upgrade those characters instead of the older ones?

 

So why don't people want to upgrade those characters instead of the older ones?

Because they don't like the way some veterans feel/play? Same as you with newcomers.

I'm somewhere in the middle myself. I think most vets are fine as they are with maybe just a handful of tweaks here and there every once in a while. Not a huge fan of FLUDD for example but I like most of what Mario has.

That said there are a handful of characters I wouldn't mind seeing revamped like Samus (who I have never had much fun playing as) or yes, Kirby who feels like he could use some updates. As for more recent characters, I'm not too fond of how MinMin or Steve play either.

This is a subject where no one's going to agree with anyone though.

 

Personally, I think it's possible to find a good balance between keeping 64/Melee sets familiar to veteran players and adding new material to both make them more competitively viable and up to the same sort of standard of Namco-era sets when it comes to pulling references from their games. The problem is a lot of fan reworks dive too deep into the latter, compromising what people liked about that character to squeeze a few more references in there without thinking about if they make sense. I could do with a few changes to older characters, but I'd argue very few of them need a from-the-ground-up overhaul, and those that don't shouldn't have their core playstyles drastically changed for the sake of source material.

(I should note that this is also the case for Namco-era newcomers; A lot of them are cool designs, but the source-faithfulness of some of them are a detriment IMO.)

On the topic of this particular video, I think Delz does an alright job with Kirby - I don't think he needs Needle and Spark as part of his smash attacks, and the new Up Air is really reaching for a Copy Ability reference, but the rest is solid IMO.