My copy of Kirby Triple Deluxe turned up early (for the PAL release) a couple of days ago, and I've been playing it. It's pretty excellent. It's shaping up to be one of my favourite Kirby games. There's a real energy and life to the game, the sort of thing that was completely absent from the incredibly dull, soulless Yoshi's New Island.

The graphics are excellent, the game is beautiful, the music is great and the gameplay is super fun. Kirby once again pushes the unique features of a Nintendo handheld in Triple Deluxe. That's not to say the game is as unique as Canvas Curse was, but the game does an excellent job of implementing 3D, with Kirby switching between foreground and background parts of the level (similar to Mutant Mudds) and things moving from the background into the plane Kirby inhabits (and beyond). It also has some enjoyable, if not simple, use of the system's motion sensing features that are miles better than the attempts Yoshi's New Island made to implement the feature. Kirby's suction power becoming overcharged is also a fun little gameplay gimmick that I've yet to get sick of, thanks in part to HAL repeatedly finding new ways to implement it.

It's really weird that Nintendo chose to bury this under Mario Golf World Tour's release in the US. Barring some sort of awful thing I've yet to come across, Kirby Triple Deluxe looks like it's an excellent entry into the series. If you passed it up for Mario Golf, I recommend picking it up at some point. If you're in Europe/Australia, go rush out and get it. I'm already extremely pleased with the purchase, and I haven't even touched the SSB-esque mode or the King Dedede rhythm game thing.

I was totally a little disappointed to visit this game's wiki entry/forum and discover that noone had been talking about it, hopefully more people will play it now that it's being released in other regions.

Thanks for the impressions man. Nice write up. I cancelled my preorder but i will definitely get this game for sure at some point this summer. Kirby just makes me smile :D The reason i have cancelled is that i am playing Child of Light atm, also started Scram Kitty, plan to replay all DS Castlevanias AND want to get back into DayZ again as well as War Of The Vikings...Then there's the job, social life, girlfriend - all that stuff. Edit: Oh, Mario Kart 8 too. Sigh...

yeah hearing about this game the day mario golf was released was painful, but i (grudgingly) made my choice. always love me a kirby game, BRAD.

I still need to pick this up, been recommended to me incessantly since it came out. Kirby Super Star was the best game on the SNES and I will fight people over that.

I 100%ed the game and thought it was fun. Like most Kirby games, it's not the hardest game around. The visuals are nice for the screen and the music is nice.

Now where is my Kirby Air Ride 2?

@jjor64: There's a Kirby Air Ride City Trials mode in the 3DS version of SSB4.

I'm interested in it, but there's too many other games coming out this month. I always thought it was weird that they put so much emphasis on Yoshi's Island in Nintendo Direct videos when this game looks much better. I didn't even know this game existed until I randomly stumbled onto a video of someone playing the Japanese version on Youtube a couple of months ago.

I will indeed let it evade my radar; Mass Attack wasn't exactly bad, but it wasn't all that great either. I wish I cared about this game, but I just can't.

You do know Mass Attack was not a traditional Kirby game right? Triple Deluxe is a traditional Kirby game more in the vain of the criminally overlooked Wii Kirby sans the multiplayer.

Is there really such this as a traditional Kirby game? There's always some kind of gimmick, right?

Traditional Kirby games are more or less straight platformers.

How does it compare to Return to Dreamland? I'm playing through that now and it's fun but I find myself bored after like 2 stages. I've played pretty much every Kirby but Canvas Curse (though I own it) and this one doesn't really appeal to me. Maybe I'm fatigued on the series.

That actually makes me slightly less eager to play it. I mean, I will no question. But the weird crazy stuff they do with the handheld Kirby games are some of my favorite things Nintendo has done in recent years. Both Canvas Curse and Mass Attack were such shake-ups of the franchise. It felt like Kirby was Nintendo's testing chamber, using new fun ideas there. If this is more of just a straight platformer.... Like I said, I'll play it, but I'm no longer chomping at the bit for it.

It's definitely a more straight-forward platformer, but it also goes out of its way to implement the unique features of the 3DS (except for the touchscreen/stylus) in creative ways. It's one of the very best on the 3DS in that regard.

If they do a quick look of it I will consider it.