So... cool funny fact! Including the ones from the extra levels, there are 100 different sun-stone collectables across all the stages, and you can in fact get all of them on your first go through each stage and before reaching the final fight, which it's exactly what I did. And after collecting the last one, it turns out the reward a keychain… of the final boss. I did know who the final enemy was before playing the game, but like… it never makes an appearance before the very last level, so those who decided to get everything before finishing the game, their reward was a spoiler, which I don’t know if I find it awful or fucking hilarious.

Taking into account hoy much I adore this pink ball of destruction and entropy, it’s surprising how I haven’t actually beaten a large number of his catalogue, and it’s doubly surprising how, despite loving Plantet Robobot and Return to Dreamland as much as I do, I didn’t even try any of the other two modern Kirby 2D platformers. Looking back, it was clearly a mistake, since many of the things that Triple Deluxe does would have impacted me way more if I played it before the absolute juggernaut that is Robobot and maybe I would be less severe with it in certain aspects, but at the same time, as good as this game can sometimes be, Triple Deluxe doesn’t nail things in the same way its predecessor did, so its problems can’t be summarized by simply saying ‘’is just a worse Planet Robobot’’, ‘cause just that eclipsis both its negative and positive aspects as well.

Triple Deluxe was very much designed for the system is on, and I don’t say that just because of its admittedly cheeky name; while the gyroscope controlled sections and the change and interactions between the background and foreground could be pulled off in any other console, it’s clear that this implementations where made with ‘’let’s showcase what this bad boy of a handheld can do’’ mindset, and yet, for things that could have ended up as mere distracting gimmicks, I don’t know man, I actually really enjoyed how these expand upon the original gameplay. The game does extremely neat things with this basis; all of the mirror sections are honestly fantastically designed and by far the best parts of the game (tho I wished there were more), the gyroscope on old stage hazards like the cannons put a really interesting spin on things and open up a ton of possibilities for puzzles and secrets, and the mere act of jumping between perspectives is always satisfying and never confusing. Plus, this might be the first game in the entirety od 3DS catalogue where I actually needed to put the 3D on, which depending on who you are may be a positive or a negative, and I’m someone that thinks the former; it’s implemented in an awesome way in boss fights and truly shows how 3D can enhance the moment to moment action, even if is just really solving a problem that itself created, it’s super satisfying to feel like there’s actual depth and dodging attacks that actually feel like they come out of the screen. Kinda funny it’s Kirby of all series that pulls this off the best, but oh well. It also holds up pretty well visually; I still defend that its successor it’s one of the best looking games in the entirety of the console’s library, but Triple Deluxe, even almost 10 years later (Jesus fucking H. Christ I’m withering alive…) has managed to stand tall as a visual spectacle; the colors, intertwined with the nature aesthetic that keeps changing across the entire game and the fantastic animations in the mini and normal bosses, make a 240p game look outright gorgeous. Oh, and before I forget, people always tend to praise Kirby’s OST, however, I’ve never seen many kind words towards TD’s soundtrack, which after playing the game kinda surprises me considering IT FUCKING SLAPS, sadly it does re-use a ton of Return to Dreamland’s songs, and I say sadly because every single level and boss theme is like silk. You’ve heard Masked Dedede theme. I don’t have to tell you how hard it goes, everyone knows it, and for good reason.

The game feels like it’s PROUD to be a part of the system its on, trying to be a kind of technical demo on steroids, and truly uses everything new it can to it fulles potential, and yeah, if Triple Deluxe is something, is sure is a fantastic showing of what the 3DS can do for 2D platformers. But that’s the thing, sometimes it feels like that’s everything it is: a game to go ‘’Wow, cool!’’ from time to time, and it seemingly forgot to try to craft the same sound and fun core that made up the games that came before and after it. Don’t get me wrong, as I said, Triple Deluxe it’s good, it’s fun, and it’s very much competent, it has a ton of interesting puzzles, the boss fights are varied and fun even if they are on the slower side this time around, and most of the new power-ups are great additions to the roster, specially Beetle and Circus (or as I call it and always will be in my heart, CLOWN), and all of that is nice yeah but… it’s what I expected from a Kirby sequel. Nothing really blew me away, it was consistently fun yeah, but not as fun, not as impressive. There’s a ton more stuff going on in the levels than ever before, but it doesn’t feel like it, even if it’s adorable to see Waddle Dee’s chopping trees in the background, the levels themselves are very ‘’by the numbers’’, and I don’t mean that it’s too simple, that’s how Kirby games are and I love them for it, but this is not that, it's not that it’s simple in its design, it’s that it’s simplistic on its layout; they follow the same beats and the same conventions that Return did while not being as fun or thrilling as that game was, and that makes Triple Deluxe feel like an overall lesser game. Hell, you could say it’s simplistic even on its story, Kirby was never strong on the moment to moment narrative, yeah, but here is basically nonexistent until the very end! And the Hypernova… oh how good could it have been… look, I’m not gonna act like the Super Abilities from Return were the best thing ever, ‘cause they weren’t, they were a small power fantasy that made one thing and one thing only, but at least: 1. They ended with unlocking a secret more challenging part of the level, 2. Their sections where still pretty interestingly designed and felt fun and organic, and 3. They were indeed optional. Hypernova throws ALL this out the window, sure, the sections when you have to use it can be fun and have great animations, specially the mini-bosses, but what ruins the re-playability it’s how you ALWAYS have to be Hypernova when you reach a certain moment of the game, the levels from that point onward are designed around the Hypernova, and they just result in the end of the level itself. As such, Hypernova doesn’t feel as much of a power-up as it is just a game saying ‘’NO! We gotta do the cool thing I want to do NOW!’’ and maybe that’s what they wanted to do, making cool sections to add variety in, but it just doesn’t translate into the levels that well, and I’m ever so glad that for the nex game, they designed the Robobot around what this type of mechanics should be, an expansion of you arsenal and a great utility instead of some glorified cutscenes and simplistic levels.

Maybe is wrong of me to be this harsh at Triple Deluxe, on their first go on this new system they laid down a ton of the basis that made what would end up coming after so incredible, and the game does manage to accomplish what it initially wanted to do, but that just doesn’t justify its shortcomings. I’ve seen this series do better, and this series would go on to even better, and so Triple Deluxe exists in this weird limbo, sandwiched between two games better than it, while still managing to be a pretty damn good snack on its own. It is fun, it is inventive, but it’s not exceptional…

… but that doesn’t matter ‘cuase the main objective of rescuing this game is rescuing DEDEDE, AND YOU CAN PLAY AS HIM IN A SIDE MODE, AND THERE’S AN ENTIRE MINIGAME DEDICATED TO HIM, WE ARE SO BACK, THIS GAME KNOWS THAT DEDEDE IS THE BEST AND I LOVE IT, I KNEEL, MY TRUE HERO OF DREAMLAND, 10 OUT OF 10, MASTERPIECE!