003 - Buffet of Games

KIRBY DREAM BUFFET REVIEW

Once in a while, there is a weird game that comes along that I like to coin “a Jordan game” – it’s not a big time FPS game or a role playing epic, but almost, always, it’s a quirky indie game with a fun mechanic that is silly, but enjoyable to play. Fall Guys is an easy example from it’s game show – mechanic. Bugsnax, with it’s munch-monster characters is another.

But it’s seldom, rare, that it would be a first-party title for Nintendo Switch, but here we are. Kirby’s Dream Buffet.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a mini-game munchtravagana, and yes you will hear “munch” a lot in this review. The game reminds me of Tilt and Tumble (but not motion controls) and a bit of Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land with the mini game collection, but essentially, somehow, they made a Fall Guys Kirby, or as it is more likely to be compared – Mario Party.

You play as Kirby, the lovable pink puffball that loves to munch, only here you can customize the korb by being yellow, blue or even, burger. And yes, you can even have different hats, including a hamburger, or the Kirby Cake, or even a cute bandana like Kirby’s best friend, the waddle dee.

Each game is broken up into 4 parts – a race, a mini game, another race and a battle royale.

The object in all counts is simple – munch the most strawberries to win.

Races take anywhere between 4 to 8 minutes and are all based on foodstuffs, like cake, waffles, donuts and, yes, hamburgers.

Collecting strawberries on the course is important, but also being the first on the track, as you earn bonus strawberries for your placement. This is almost make-or-break.

Then, a relaxing mini-game that best is described as a 20 to 40 second game where you catch strawberries, jump on enemies or just punch a crate to get berries. It’s very quick and you’ll probably forget about it.

Then we do another race level, because it’s the one thing they really have with this series. At this point, I should say that the controls in this game are actually really good, and the logic of the game does make sense – hey, having a condiment on the track will slow a player down, if you fall off, you can puff your way back to the track. But a major problem is the cameras, it isn’t really helping guide you to wear you need to go. In many ways, the race mode feels an awful lot like a game you would’ve seen on Nintendo 64, and plays on-key with a Pokemon Stadium in that regard.

As we conclude another race and a 50 strawberry bonus, we now conclude with a battle – in the battle royale you try and knock your three other friends (or online randos) off the floor and collect their strawberries, but be careful, master hand has tongs, and is looking for desert, and if you get picked up, you also lose strawberries. This is the Fusion Frenzy finale but Kirby, with nothing saved and no end goal, just bonking Kirby into the void, while collecting strawberries and powerups.

Once time is up, it’s not over yet – because like Mario Party, we gotta do some bullshit bonuses, maybe you floated the most on a race, or maybe you ate a blueberry somewhere on the track – here you get 40 bonus strawberries and often times, when the game is close, these bonuses make or break the game.

Now, luckily, while Mario Party, it would be frustrating, because you spent half an hour to a full hour playing, a typical game of Kirby Dream Buffet is roughly 15 minutes, so just like a fortnite or a fall guys before it, if you have the time, you might just have room for another game, and forget about what happened back then.

But unlike those titles – this is NOT a free to play title, it costs $15, which considering the mini games and races and multiplayer capabilities, I would say is exactly at the value you would put a title like this.

As a way to pay tribute to Kirby for the 30th Anniversary, this is one frantic-fun game, that I am sure will be forgotten like the Kirby Fighters series, but if your favorite games for Kirby were the SNES mini games like Gourmet Race and Dream Course, this will be right there in your favorites list.

For anybody else, it will be seen as a fun minigame series that you can enjoy for a weekend, and then go back to whatever you were doing.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

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We got Jordan’s History of Kirby, PLUS a review of Rumbleverse, PLUS a review of WB Multiversus, PLUS a Breakdown of Jackbox Party Pack 1, and the NEWS SEGMENT where we talk HBO Max and More!