/vr/ - Retro Games

As someone whose favorite Kirby is Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and on the topic of Kirby and remakes, I recently saw a video on someone's wishlist for a hypothetical Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards remake. Even I wrote a (what I thought the was) a fancruft remake wishlist long ago, so naturally I wanted to know how it stacked up. My initial reaction is that it was the saddest thing I've ever seen in the fanbase in a long time. He was asking for The True Arena and boss lore and hats, and fundamentally did not understand what made the original so special and unique. I ruminated on it and came to the conclusion that Kirby Super Star Ultra really sparked a renaissance and sense of redirection for the series, for better or worse. It came at the right (wrong?) time in the middle of a draught I like to call the Dark Ages of Kirby - a period after Sakurai left HAL, where HAL tried to emulate the anime in its games and the real Super Star sequel was put in development hell and retooled so many times over it in the interim. Some people stuck with the series (a few of you here I can tell have), but I think so many of the old guard have moved on during this time. As a remake of a classic-era game, it sits in this sort of interliminar space between the Dark Ages and Modern Kirby, which began proper about three years later. (For the Amazing Mirror fan reading this, I consider that game on the opposite end, between the Classic Era and the Dark Ages but not really in either.) As such, it won some fans back as well as a lot of new people. There's a reason the macro floating around recommends Kirby Super Star Ultra as babby's first Kirby game. In short, it's THEIR Kirby - the one we didn't grow up with but the one setting expectations for mainline games going forward. Old Kirby is dead and Fanservice Kirby reigns supreme, making "Kirby Guys" like us are a dying breed.