Honorable Mention #1: Kirby: Planet Robobot
Managing Editor Ed McGlone: Kirby games are built to do one thing really, really well: put a smile on your face. They aren’t ever particularly challenging to most video game players, even children usually, nor are they very unique or different from one another. Sure, Kirby: Planet Robobot lets you pilot a robot suit this time around, but it’s nothing that dramatically mixes up the formula. But just about every game, going back to Kirby Adventure for the NES, has been a blast to play just because it’s so damn fun being Kirby. Kirby is an un-vanquishable, overpowered, unstoppable force, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
The robot suit added this time around is just another new toy for Kirby to dominate his opponents with as it can weaponize the copied abilities, making them even more destructive than usual. At first, I was worried that this game would boil down to boring gimmicky levels that would force this new feature down our throats. Thankfully that’s not the case. Piloting the mech is just as fun as controlling regular Kirby, and traditional Kirby gameplay still makes up the vast majority of the Planet Robobot. HAL Laboratories has once again gone back to the Kirby well and returned with another excellent game.
