Mirror Kirby 3DS Home Theme Released! ...Oh, and Kirby Battle Royale

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't know if the theme is the best thing to come of this game, but it probably is. (Plus, a special programming note for this weekend.)

We have come a long way from Nintendo's September 2017 Nintendo Direct which debuted Kirby Battle Royale. We all seemed to instantly want the game. Then, we actually learned what was in the game... which isn't much. We thought it would be the closest thing to a Kirby fighting game with online multiplayer, and it's really just a party game with one mode being the fighting part.

Some time ago, they released a free demo of Kirby Battle Royale on the 3DS eShop which features “demo tickets”, or treating the demo as a wait-to-play game. You can play three modes with it, and in your choice of free-for-alls or teams: Battle Arena, Apple Scramble, and Crazy Theater. Battle Arena is the fighting mode and it's quite shallow. Apple Scramble features you trying to attack Whispy Woods to get apples to fall down, and then you throw the apples down a trap door. Get more apples than your opponents. And Crazy Theater asks you to do things like stand on a panel on the ground that answers a prompt, or avoidance tasks, or whatever, and do that successfully enough times to win.

Basically, the game lacks depth, but it features a dozen or whatever copy abilities. (You can play as Sword, Cutter, and Beetle.) 

It's Beetle Kirby! (You can change the colour of your Kirby. This is blue.)

Without depth, there isn't any point to getting the game as THE game our staff will all play, so we decided on Rocket League instead. (In case you were wondering, we haven't played Rocket League a single time since we got it weeks ago.) I wanted this article to be about the result of the Kirby Copy Ability Poll final round, but Nintendo decided they won't reveal the results yet because they want Kirby Battle Royale to have some legs past its release day. Fair enough, I guess. Because we'll definitely write about the result whenever it's announced.

We'll just remind you that Kirby Battle Royale isn't worth $40 and that we're all looking forward to Kirby Star Allies on the Nintendo Switch, releasing in a few months.

Meanwhile, Nintendo followed through on putting Mirror Kirby up as a free theme on the Nintendo 3DS theme shop.

The Mirror Kirby 3DS home menu theme looks a lot better than the Mirror Kirby desktop wall paper.

It's free, so you might as well download it.

It also features a port (as in, not remixed) of Marshmallow Castle from Kirby Super Star as the background music. In case you forgot what Marshmallow Castle sounds like because it has failed to be part of the Kirby series reoccurring music stable, take a listen:

The sound effect for launching a game or application is when Kirby obtains a Copy Ability in Kirby Super Star. Pretty neat.

You can bet if some other ability won that wasn't introduced in Kirby Super Star, you wouldn't get music from Kirby Super Star. That said, Simirror (the Mirror-granting enemy) and the Mirror ability don't first appear in the Marshmallow Castle level of Kirby Super Star, which is stage 2 within the sub-game Dyna Blade. They first appear in the first sub-game, Spring Breeze, in stage 3, known as Bubbly Clouds.

Kirby getting the Mirror ability in Kirby Super Star. (SNES.)
Screengrab from RockmanKenny's walkthrough of Spring Breeze.

Kirby closing his eyes below Simirror in Kirby Super Star Ultra. (DS.)
Photo taken from Ludwig's 3DS as he was playing the game to see when Simirror first appeared.

Marshmallow Castle, weirdly enough, was renamed to Mallow Castle in Kirby Super Star Ultra. Anyway, why is the theme Marshmallow Castle instead of Bubbly Clouds? Well, while Simirror and Mirror first appear in Bubbly Clouds, it's sort of a throwaway appearance. Simirror doesn't appear again until Marshmallow Castle, where the Mirror ability is the most straight-forward and immediate solution to unlock a secret passage to get access to a hidden bonus level, Trial Room 1.

Once Kirby sucks up Simirror and breaks the block Simirror is standing on,
if he uses the Mirror ability's Reflect Force attack, the mirrors will reach the bomb block and reveal a door to the Trial Room 1 Switch.

Unlocking a secret bonus stage filled with free Copy Essences so you can choose which ability you want (including Mirror) is a lot more memorable for Mirror than one random appearance where a Simirror happens to be standing around, so that is why they picked Marshmallow Castle as the background music.

Besides, Bubbly Clouds gets enough attention throughout the series.

What's that? An article about Kirby Battle Royale stopped paying attention to Kirby Battle Royale? Well, good riddance.
 

When the Kirby 25th Anniversary Copy Ability poll final round winner ends up getting announced, anticipate an article devoted to just that. KoopaTV doesn't spend enough time talking about Kirby's franchise, anyway. If you have any thoughts on Kirby Battle Royale now that it is released, feel free to share them. By the way, important programming note: KoopaTV will give details on a mini-contest tomorrow on Saturday that lasts the weekend, so don't forget to check KoopaTV during the weekend!


Here is the mini-contest article!
Here is the article devoted to just the final round winner: Sleep Kirby!
Just two months later, a much better Kirby game released. The article was much more enthusiastic.