I agree with OP, I’m tired of Kirby being stuck in an outdated era. The way I see it, only 1/3 of Kirby’s complete history has been represented outside of the bare-minimum excuses like trophies and spirits which are just there.
Sakurai only ever focuses on the three main titles and Air Ride all of which he made, which overall hurts Kirby as he’s done so much since then. Just look at Star Allies and how many iconic characters have been created since Sakurai left. Are we really going to demean large characters like Adeline, Ribbon, Gooey, Magolor, Taranza, Daroach, The Mage Sisters, Dark Meta Knight, Galacta Knight, Morpho Knight, Susie, Prince Fluff, and the Animal Buddies! Not to mention the 4th member of the Kirby crew, Bandana Waddle Dee.
To take on some points though.. Let’s look at what others have said
1) Kirby doesn’t need new stages as the ones he has represents the franchise as a whole
This is false, how could three games represent an entire series that gets a multitude of new releases, about one every two years. It can’t, even if newer titles use the same atheistics, because there will always be gameplay tweaks and new scenarios to experience. While Kirby may be formulaic to an extent, I could say the same about the ‘loved’ New Super Mario Bros titles, which are so similar to each other and their NES grand fathers, but still get two stages that are unique based around them. Kirby can easily squeeze more stages out of the modern era from taking inspiration from the Robotic design of Robobot, taking in the Yarn or toy aesthetics from Epic Yarn and Canvas Curse, to the Extra Dimensional space theme prevalent in most modern titles following RTDL. They could also do monuments from titles such as the Lor Starcutter or the Haltmann Industry, or even the Mirror World. Heck, even a more common location would be better than another generic Superstar stage, why choose The Great Cave Offensive, when a more recognizable stage can be crafted around the design of Dedede’s reoccurring castle. Why restrict levels to references from only Sakurai titles, when he has easily accessible locals from his games that go into future titles?
2) Series aren’t completely represented by stages, so why does it matter. (Just look at Zelda!)
It matters as Kirby is treated unfairly compared to most. The difference between Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, heck even F-Zero is that they all have stages referencing all points in history. While not every game can have a stage or assist, you at least see what an era was like.
Take Zelda for example, as that was brought up.
We have Temple to reference Ocarina or Time, and Great Bay for Majora, showing the big titles of the N64
We have The Great Sea and Bridge of Elden to reference the GC era with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
We have the Wii/DS era with Spirit Tracks and Skyloft
Finally the Switch/ Wii U era has BOTW
As for Kirby it’s Super Star which represents the SNES, and the NES/GBA era is represented by Adventure and Dream Land and that’s it. 2 eras, 3 consoles, while Zelda has 4 eras and 6 consoles represented in stages alone. Kirby has half of what Zelda has and Zelda is considered to be one of the worst represented franchises. Take in game account and it looks worse when comparing stages, take in characters and assists and we could just keep adding as Zelda alone brings the 3DS into the equation and Link Between Worlds as a represented title.
The problem with Kirby is that his stages don’t show evolution or changes in eras, but rather stick to a small pocket of time in which Sakurai created the character. Every franchise has their newest title(s) get stages in the next Smash, so why should Kirby be any different? If F-Zero, a game with minimal aesthetic changes can get stages that represent 3 different consoles and show the main titles of each, why can’t Kirby get more being the far more popular and successful franchise. F-Zero, Pikmin, Mother, Donkey Kong, and others all got stages based on newer titles in previous entries. With Kirby being one of the ‘main four’ I feel he should be representing newer titles as much as these guys.
3) Bandana Dee isn’t a character
I hate this argument, I feel it really belittles BD’s placement in the franchise when he really is a reoccurring character, even if he is just now sort of breaking out of his ‘Luigi, Player-Two Phase.’ He is most comparable to Luigi, a character added for multiplayer, but doesn’t serve much of a purpose as Mario titles could just have Mario, Bowser, and Peach with no issues in story. I don’t think it’d be fair to say that these player two characters don’t have a place though as obviously Luigi is loved and so is Bandana Dee. Both are also rising stars and have been given more as time goes on. BD has been made out to be Dedede’s sworn protector, Kirby’s best friend, and someone who is looking to be a protector and equal star to the trio. In a way he signifies a new era in the same way Luigi getting a personality did for GC. The best way to describe BD is that he is Kirby’s Luigi, May not always be essential, but has grown as a character into an intregal part of the franchise and not just a player two. He also represents the modern era, the last 3rd of Kirby’s life as the past decade has turned him into a famous Kirby character with him being given characterization in the Super Star remake, becoming playable in RTDL, being seen as a 4th member by the Anniversary collection, a buddy cheering on Kirby in the 3DS titles, a buddy actively helping his friend in 3DS spin-offs like Battle Royal, to being the first Dream Friend of Star Allies, really presenting the idea of the mechanic. (He was also the only playable character in Rainbow Curse outside of Kirby) .
4) Assists?
How can you even argue this one. Sakurai picked 3 assists and one boss. The boss is from Super Star...of course and one assist is from Nightmare in Dreamland. Then we get two generic enemies mainly based on Super Star....Why? He could have picked an actual character, but instead he choose generic enemies for 2/3 of Kirby’s assists. No Daroach or Adeline, maybe even Dark Matter.
5) Spirits?
He did a good job, but it’s also spirits. He just needed a jpg of a character to put them in, then but a little though in to represent them. If this is what Kirby fans should see as great representation of the modern era, than Golden Sun fans can’t complain because they got an assist and spirits to supplement them. That is clearly just as good as stages and characters that all other franchises receive.
6) Sakurai doesn’t want to take other people’s work
No, just no...
Other than the fact that Smash is a compilation of other people’s work that Sakurai had no hand in, its just false. Sakurai was a supervisor for most Kirby games. And to dispel someone’s point, no he never got kicked out from working on Kirby. Sakurai left Kirby to a team he trusted as he didn’t want to make sequels. He clearly has no problem with Kirby continuing, so why act like Kirby doesn’t have a future or isn’t doing anything. He didn’t even have the courtesy to change the down special to have more modern rock formations, opting to reference Zelda and Mario instead of Kirby itself. The best he’s done is change Final Smashes, but that just doesn’t feel like it matters. Now 2/3 of Kirby have jpgs and three final smashes to represent them, while his early days have full characters, 4 assists, a plethora of stages, spirits, and items. It just ..... sucks.
