HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KIRBY

The popular and pleasing Nintendo game character “Kirby” celebrated his 28th birthday in April, and it would be awful if we didn’t give credit where credit is due.

In April 1992, Nintendo started up the Kirby game series, with developers Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata being the main driving force. Sakurai and Iwata were great partners for many years and made plenty of amazing Kirby games together, but in the year 2015 that all changed: That July, the beloved game creator Iwata died, leaving behind a beautiful legacy of video games.

This would mean Sakurai would have full control of Kirby games, from that day forward. Sakurai made sure that his close friend and partner’s work wouldn’t fade, so he pushed himself. While Sakurai is also the lead on the “Super Smash Brothers” series, along with some others, he has never forgotten about Kirby.

Kirby’s first game came out in 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The game had simple controls and a very bright color palette, compared to games like “Metroid” during the time. Kirby has had three staple abilities ever since this game came out: the ability to float, to suck in his enemies, and to steal his enemies’ abilities by swallowing them. Kirby uses these abilities in all his games to save the day from a big, evil force that seems to change with every single game he’s in.

Four years after the first game came out, Nintendo released “Kirby Super Star,” which contained eight tiny Kirby games, each exploring a different new concept. This way, players can use the feedback in future Kirby games. The next big Kirby game that seemed to get a lot of attention is the one on the Nintendo Wii, “Kirby Return to Dreamland,” which came out in 2011.

This game was such a huge success because it was made to bring friends together in a fun platform adventure, especially because it’s hard for 2D platformers to have a good multiplayer experience.

While not known for its high difficulty, Kirby is known for the pleasant feeling you get from playing it. The warm colors and cute art style is supposed to make you feel happy and at ease. This doesn’t mean every Kirby game is a good game, but each has the power to make it fun to play.

Kirby is now seen as a classic and is a popular series within Nintendo’s library of series. Sakurai has done a great job in keeping the series going strong even though Iwata has passed. In the most recent installment of the Smash Brothers series, “Super Smash Brothers Ultimate,” there’s a story mode where all of Nintendo’s characters get kidnapped, except for Kirby. It is Kirby’s job to save all of his friends, and I’d like to think this was a beautiful tribute to Sakurai’s own old friend.