SMAASH! Puppy
Smash Legend
Fighter Review: #06 Kirby
TLDR: Kirby is a carefree little puffball known for his infectious joy and absurdly high power. Super Smash Bros. captures the spirit of this character almost perfectly, making him a highly unique beginner character that does everything possible to teach players how to play the game at a basic level without a tutorial; All while being super fun. However, once you gain some skill at the game, Kirby starts to fall off, with most of the strategies he enables being suited only for that low skill casual play. This leads to players finding his moveset not as creative as it could be, and for most of his special moves to feel useless outside of memey shenanigans.
I give Kirby’s design an A, and hope that the character is allowed to evolve, carrying that design excellence into the whole game. If that happens, he will become the easy S tier design that I think everyone wishes he was.
TLDR: Kirby is a carefree little puffball known for his infectious joy and absurdly high power. Super Smash Bros. captures the spirit of this character almost perfectly, making him a highly unique beginner character that does everything possible to teach players how to play the game at a basic level without a tutorial; All while being super fun. However, once you gain some skill at the game, Kirby starts to fall off, with most of the strategies he enables being suited only for that low skill casual play. This leads to players finding his moveset not as creative as it could be, and for most of his special moves to feel useless outside of memey shenanigans.
I give Kirby’s design an A, and hope that the character is allowed to evolve, carrying that design excellence into the whole game. If that happens, he will become the easy S tier design that I think everyone wishes he was.
Kirby is a little pink puffball who spends most of his days hanging out with friends and having fun on his peaceful planet. He is very much known for that peaceful, fun-loving disposition, even in the face of world ending catastrophes. He simply beats up the eldritch horror trying to destroy his planet or worse, and then goes back to living his best life.
The Kirby series is an incredibly beginner friendly platformer series that engages players less with it’s platforming or difficult enemies (though there are boss rushes for those that want a challenge) and more on puzzle solving for extra goodies. Kirby is able to fly indefinitely by puffing up like a balloon, and suck up enemies like a vacuum into his bottomless stomach. Once he’s swallowed an enemy, he can either spit them out as a projectile, or eat them, which can result in him gaining a power based upon theirs.
These powers are known as Copy Abilities, and are the most iconic aspect of the Kirby series. With them, Kirby has been able to wield anything from psychic powers to doctor’s equipment. His most iconic Copy Abilities are Sword, Cutter, Wheel, Fire, Ice, Spark, Beam, Bomb, Stone, Crash, Ninja, Mike, Parasol, Sleep, and Hammer. In modern Kirby, Copy Abilities are extremely powerful, and make Kirby feel like a character that can take on the eldritch horrors he so commonly faces at the end of his games. The fact that they come from enemies also teaches players how they work, keeping with the theme of the series being designed to teach players how to play the game.
A successful adaptation of Kirby should similarly be easy to understand, and utilize the Copy Ability mechanic in some way. Kirby’s power should be fairly accessible, and personality wise, he should be as happy and carefree as ever.
The Kirby series is an incredibly beginner friendly platformer series that engages players less with it’s platforming or difficult enemies (though there are boss rushes for those that want a challenge) and more on puzzle solving for extra goodies. Kirby is able to fly indefinitely by puffing up like a balloon, and suck up enemies like a vacuum into his bottomless stomach. Once he’s swallowed an enemy, he can either spit them out as a projectile, or eat them, which can result in him gaining a power based upon theirs.
These powers are known as Copy Abilities, and are the most iconic aspect of the Kirby series. With them, Kirby has been able to wield anything from psychic powers to doctor’s equipment. His most iconic Copy Abilities are Sword, Cutter, Wheel, Fire, Ice, Spark, Beam, Bomb, Stone, Crash, Ninja, Mike, Parasol, Sleep, and Hammer. In modern Kirby, Copy Abilities are extremely powerful, and make Kirby feel like a character that can take on the eldritch horrors he so commonly faces at the end of his games. The fact that they come from enemies also teaches players how they work, keeping with the theme of the series being designed to teach players how to play the game.
A successful adaptation of Kirby should similarly be easy to understand, and utilize the Copy Ability mechanic in some way. Kirby’s power should be fairly accessible, and personality wise, he should be as happy and carefree as ever.
Like in his home series, Kirby is a character designed to teach players the game. He has multiple jumps and floaty physics so that recovering with this character is more forgiving, all of his normal attacks (and most of his special moves) are simple, standard, and straightforward, and his Copy Ability has manifested in the ability to try out the neutral specials of the entire cast.
Most of Kirby’s moveset is iconic, with fun attack concepts like Twinkle Star (his neutral aerial) and Stone (his down special). Stone in particular is notorious for enabling the beginner strategy of jumping to the top of the stage and crashing down on your opponents. The aforementioned Copy Abilities even draw in players that don’t even care to play as him just to see all of the new hats he gets when copying the other fighters or to learn how exactly the copies neutral special moves work when they rely on fighter specific mechanics. Even some of Kirby’s taunts are iconic, with the enthusiastic “hi!” and the dance being two of the most memorable taunts in the series.
Playstyle wise, Kirby is a very slow brawler with stubby attacks due to having nubs for limbs. This doesn’t matter in casual play, but it’s caused him to be bottom tier in every game after the first, where he was top tier due to the combo system and some bafflingly large hitboxes on moves like his up tilt. On top of this, many of the strategies Kirby players employ are suited for casual play rather than competitive, and most of Kirby’s special moves aren’t very helpful against skilled opponents outside of niche situations.
Most of Kirby’s moveset is iconic, with fun attack concepts like Twinkle Star (his neutral aerial) and Stone (his down special). Stone in particular is notorious for enabling the beginner strategy of jumping to the top of the stage and crashing down on your opponents. The aforementioned Copy Abilities even draw in players that don’t even care to play as him just to see all of the new hats he gets when copying the other fighters or to learn how exactly the copies neutral special moves work when they rely on fighter specific mechanics. Even some of Kirby’s taunts are iconic, with the enthusiastic “hi!” and the dance being two of the most memorable taunts in the series.
Playstyle wise, Kirby is a very slow brawler with stubby attacks due to having nubs for limbs. This doesn’t matter in casual play, but it’s caused him to be bottom tier in every game after the first, where he was top tier due to the combo system and some bafflingly large hitboxes on moves like his up tilt. On top of this, many of the strategies Kirby players employ are suited for casual play rather than competitive, and most of Kirby’s special moves aren’t very helpful against skilled opponents outside of niche situations.
On paper, Kirby’s design is a complete success. His moveset is simple and easy to understand while providing a bunch of unique qualities to draw people in, essentially making him one of the few beginner characters who isn’t considered to also be boring. His personality helps as well, being bright, cheery, and inviting. I’d also like to point out that the fact he can stay in the air for so long, giving new players more leeway in their recoveries - the part new players struggle with the most - is just so perfect.
However, once you raise the skill level of the players, Kirby starts to feel wanting. He’s too slow for his brawler playstyle, and his special moves, what makes him feel powerful and unique in casual play, are incredibly hard to land and synergize dubiously with his kit. He is probably the character in the series whose main method of attack in his home series is straight up bad in Super Smash Bros., which is a shame because Inhale being good would lead to a vast amount of creativity with players using their opponent’s neutral specials against them.
I think this is part of the reason why players also generally find Kirby’s moveset to be boring compared to the wide breadth of Copy Ability attacks he has in his home series. In order to keep things simple, Kirby’s normal moves are either made up, or pulled from the Fighter ability with a move thrown in from the Backdrop, Suplex, and either Yo-Yo or Burning abilities. His special moves are Hammer Flip and Stone, two moves that are extremely slow, but powerful, making them only useful in casual play, Final Cutter, a mediocre neutral tool and recovery move, and Inhale, which would actually be super powerful and interesting if he could actually land it against a skilled opponent. This means that most of what Kirby is doing in any given match is usually pretty standard when he could be launching needles, breathing fire, building sandcastles, throwing pills, launching missiles, becoming a missile, discharging electricity, and a myriad of other things.
The thing is, I don’t agree that Kirby needs to be doing a whole bunch of cannon Copy Ability stuff in his normal moveset. What he has now is perfect for introducing players to the game, and changing it to let him do all this crazy stuff could lead to a visually confusing or mechanically wonky character to pilot. On the other hand, his special moves could use some work. They’re all iconic, so I hesitate to throw them out entirely (Stone and Inhale staying are non-negotiable), but I’d like to see them gain utility in higher skill environments.
Kirby isn’t supposed to be very fast, but the fact that he’s a slow, stubby brawler should be addressed. I think one thing that could help him is by adjusting his aerial mobility. Right now, Kirby is incentivized to only jump if absolutely necessary due to his abysmal aerial speed. I propose that Kirby’s air speed is raised significantly, slowing back down if the player double jumps. Optionally, fast falling would bring Kirby’s air speed back to normal until he air jumps again. This would make Kirby’s physics act similarly to how they work in the Kirby series, which would complicate things slightly, but in a way that I don’t think would impact casual play, and would elevate his aerial play across the board, and might even help make Inhale easier to land.
For the sake of visual interest, I’m not super opposed to moving Hammer Flip to forward smash, and changing his up and down smashes to something like Thunderbolt (a move from the Spark ability that fires electricity directly up) and Spin Slash (The Sword ability’s homage to Link’s Spin Attack) respectively. His throws could also be spiced up, but I think they’re pretty iconic as is, so I’d be perfectly fine with leaving them alone.
Kirby’s special moveset would greatly benefit from some extra utility. Inhale I think is actually fine in that respect, it just needs to be a move that Kirby can reasonably land, even if it requires some skill to do so like with Yoshi’s Egg Lay. Hammer Flip is kinda difficult to add depth to, which is another reason why I’m fine with moving it somewhere else. My pick for replacement is the Burning ability’s fire tackle, or some similar burst movement ability like Rolling Needle, Stealth Slash, or the Wheel ability. This would directly address Kirby’s difficulty in closing the gap due to his slow speed by giving him a new movement option.
Stone I think is fine as is, but I do have some ideas to add some more fun to it. Using Stone out of a dash would allow Kirby to slide into his stone sculpture, effectively making it an alternate dash attack, and performing Stone with a smash input would turn Kirby into a big stone sculpture that takes longer to form, but is even more powerful, essentially turning it into the Falcon Punch of stall and fall down specials. Neither of these would be useful, and both could easily be unnecessary, but I think they could also give the move a little extra depth in casual play.
Final Cutter is a little wonky as it’s the only move that doesn’t quite line up with his simplistic design, but the up and down nature of it is likely to make sure Kirby’s recovery potential isn’t too oppressive in casual or competitive play, so I think it makes sense that it’s here. However, I do think it needs to have more of a use in neutral and/or as a combo ender. In its current state, it just feels like a move that should behave like this, but doesn’t really. Perhaps it could be made like Wolf’s Laser, an attack that can catch opponents at close range and knock them away while also sending out a projectile to avoid, or like Ike’s Aether that can K.O. opponents at high percents if you catch them with it. Having the former property on the ground and the latter in the air could add quite a bit of depth to the move, allowing it to synergize with his kit a lot better.
I should probably address the elephant in the room though, and it’s that his Copy Abilities make Kirby a balancing nightmare. They’re probably the reason why a lot of his moves are the way that they are, and while I can understand this, I do think it’s possible to make a good version of Kirby even with the widely variable neutral specials, and even if he was still bad I think making changes to him similar to the ones that I suggested could make him feel a lot better in more competitive spaces without sacrificing his casual appeal.
Kirby accomplishes everything the designers set out to do. He just needs a little extra push to become just as great to players of high skill as he is to players of low skill.
However, once you raise the skill level of the players, Kirby starts to feel wanting. He’s too slow for his brawler playstyle, and his special moves, what makes him feel powerful and unique in casual play, are incredibly hard to land and synergize dubiously with his kit. He is probably the character in the series whose main method of attack in his home series is straight up bad in Super Smash Bros., which is a shame because Inhale being good would lead to a vast amount of creativity with players using their opponent’s neutral specials against them.
I think this is part of the reason why players also generally find Kirby’s moveset to be boring compared to the wide breadth of Copy Ability attacks he has in his home series. In order to keep things simple, Kirby’s normal moves are either made up, or pulled from the Fighter ability with a move thrown in from the Backdrop, Suplex, and either Yo-Yo or Burning abilities. His special moves are Hammer Flip and Stone, two moves that are extremely slow, but powerful, making them only useful in casual play, Final Cutter, a mediocre neutral tool and recovery move, and Inhale, which would actually be super powerful and interesting if he could actually land it against a skilled opponent. This means that most of what Kirby is doing in any given match is usually pretty standard when he could be launching needles, breathing fire, building sandcastles, throwing pills, launching missiles, becoming a missile, discharging electricity, and a myriad of other things.
The thing is, I don’t agree that Kirby needs to be doing a whole bunch of cannon Copy Ability stuff in his normal moveset. What he has now is perfect for introducing players to the game, and changing it to let him do all this crazy stuff could lead to a visually confusing or mechanically wonky character to pilot. On the other hand, his special moves could use some work. They’re all iconic, so I hesitate to throw them out entirely (Stone and Inhale staying are non-negotiable), but I’d like to see them gain utility in higher skill environments.
Kirby isn’t supposed to be very fast, but the fact that he’s a slow, stubby brawler should be addressed. I think one thing that could help him is by adjusting his aerial mobility. Right now, Kirby is incentivized to only jump if absolutely necessary due to his abysmal aerial speed. I propose that Kirby’s air speed is raised significantly, slowing back down if the player double jumps. Optionally, fast falling would bring Kirby’s air speed back to normal until he air jumps again. This would make Kirby’s physics act similarly to how they work in the Kirby series, which would complicate things slightly, but in a way that I don’t think would impact casual play, and would elevate his aerial play across the board, and might even help make Inhale easier to land.
For the sake of visual interest, I’m not super opposed to moving Hammer Flip to forward smash, and changing his up and down smashes to something like Thunderbolt (a move from the Spark ability that fires electricity directly up) and Spin Slash (The Sword ability’s homage to Link’s Spin Attack) respectively. His throws could also be spiced up, but I think they’re pretty iconic as is, so I’d be perfectly fine with leaving them alone.
Kirby’s special moveset would greatly benefit from some extra utility. Inhale I think is actually fine in that respect, it just needs to be a move that Kirby can reasonably land, even if it requires some skill to do so like with Yoshi’s Egg Lay. Hammer Flip is kinda difficult to add depth to, which is another reason why I’m fine with moving it somewhere else. My pick for replacement is the Burning ability’s fire tackle, or some similar burst movement ability like Rolling Needle, Stealth Slash, or the Wheel ability. This would directly address Kirby’s difficulty in closing the gap due to his slow speed by giving him a new movement option.
Stone I think is fine as is, but I do have some ideas to add some more fun to it. Using Stone out of a dash would allow Kirby to slide into his stone sculpture, effectively making it an alternate dash attack, and performing Stone with a smash input would turn Kirby into a big stone sculpture that takes longer to form, but is even more powerful, essentially turning it into the Falcon Punch of stall and fall down specials. Neither of these would be useful, and both could easily be unnecessary, but I think they could also give the move a little extra depth in casual play.
Final Cutter is a little wonky as it’s the only move that doesn’t quite line up with his simplistic design, but the up and down nature of it is likely to make sure Kirby’s recovery potential isn’t too oppressive in casual or competitive play, so I think it makes sense that it’s here. However, I do think it needs to have more of a use in neutral and/or as a combo ender. In its current state, it just feels like a move that should behave like this, but doesn’t really. Perhaps it could be made like Wolf’s Laser, an attack that can catch opponents at close range and knock them away while also sending out a projectile to avoid, or like Ike’s Aether that can K.O. opponents at high percents if you catch them with it. Having the former property on the ground and the latter in the air could add quite a bit of depth to the move, allowing it to synergize with his kit a lot better.
I should probably address the elephant in the room though, and it’s that his Copy Abilities make Kirby a balancing nightmare. They’re probably the reason why a lot of his moves are the way that they are, and while I can understand this, I do think it’s possible to make a good version of Kirby even with the widely variable neutral specials, and even if he was still bad I think making changes to him similar to the ones that I suggested could make him feel a lot better in more competitive spaces without sacrificing his casual appeal.
Kirby accomplishes everything the designers set out to do. He just needs a little extra push to become just as great to players of high skill as he is to players of low skill.
S
A
B
C
F
A
B
C
F
