Nintendo has been celebrating Kirby’s anniversary with a number of games such as Kirby and the Forgotten Land and the recent Kirby’s Dream Buffet. When the latter game was announced, many immediately drew a connection to Fall Guys, but that quickly proved itself to not be an accurate comparison. This is another bite-sized spin-off, but one that has a lot of potential to be added to over time.
Kirby’s Dream Buffett is an incredibly easy game to get into, but the actual competitive mode online is surprisingly intense. All you really do in the game is roll Kirby around and tap buttons to jump, but the competitive nature makes online multiplayer rather intense. It is a bit deceptive in this way, as you do not realize how quickly you need to learn to adapt to other players.
The game is about collecting strawberries and other fruits in order to win against other players in a variety of events, races and mini-games that can be played by yourself or with others in local or online multiplayer. Local multiplayer allows you to play 2-player with a split-screen, and up to 4 players with local wireless. Either way, you will be competing in races in 3D stages where the goal is to collect the most strawberries and at the finish line, collect a parfait that may award 50, 20, or 10 bonus strawberries so winning the race will definitely be worth the effort.
There are of course other parts to the game such as mini-games and the battle royale sections that have you scrambling to get strawberries and attack other players to earn fruit. There is a surprising amount of variety in the game and the switching between races, mini-games and battle arenas does help stop the game from getting stale. The issue is there could be so much more done here that was not.
This does not mean that the game should become a Fall Guys clone like some thought the game would be, but rather that the game, which is already good on its own, could be expanded on. More variety in the content besides just races as the main feature would be nice since even with mini-games and battles breaking things up, the focus is still mainly on the races. More major events could be added over time that can truly give a different experience and keep players hooked.
This is not to say that the game is bad, but it feels like the true potential of the title was not reached. Yes, this was made to be a smaller game, but the idea behind it is too good to just leave it as a one-and-done. Build this up over time with more content and make it a game that people keep coming back to and enjoying competitively. It could even become a hit on streaming platforms.
Kirby’s Dream Buffet is still a good game and is gorgeous to look at, and Kirby has always had great games. The online could be a bit better, but the many unlockables are a nice touch (and another thing that can be expanded on over time), showing that there is something worth pursuing in this game. I just wish it had more staying power because the potential of the game is sadly not realized to the full potential the idea has.