Nintendo Scene

This week’s issue of Coro Coro Comic magazine has revealed the release date for the new Kirby game as the 7^th July in Japan. The Japanese name of the game is Atsumete! Kirby (集めて! カービィ), which translates to Collect! Kirby, the final name for the probable PAL and NTSC release has not yet been disclosed. This will be the fourth and likely final Kirby game on the DS.  In Japan, the game will be retailing at a lower than usual price of 3,800円.

Atsumete! Kirby was first announced last year in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. Little was known at the time, except from the concept of the playing being able to guide up to 10 little Kirbys (Kirbies?) at a time through stages using the DS stylus. Since then, more screen shots have been published detailing that the player must use their little Kirby army to collect items and fight against big bosses.

The character Kirby was created by HAL developer Masahiro Sakurai at the age of 19, and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy game Kirby’s Dream Land – known in Japan as Hoshi no Kābī (Kirby of the Stars). Today, Kirby is one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, with around 20 games and appearances in all games from the Super Smash Bros. series since 1999, which was also created by Masahiro Sakurai.

But why was Atsumete! Kirby not developed for the 3DS? As a big player in the Nintendo sales team, it’s curious that this game was not considered as a 3DS launch-window or even future title, which would have surely boosted the frankly “disappointing” (Iwata) sales of the 3DS console. What is your opinion about the reasons behind the DS release, and what do you think about the game?