''Kirby Fighters 2'' is a 2020 fighting game for the Nintendo Switch and is the direct sequel to ''

Kirby Fighters Deluxe ''Kirby: Triple Deluxe'' is the thirteenth Platform game, platform and tenth mainline installment of the ''Kirby (series), Kirby'' video game series, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was release ...

''. Developed by

HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...

and

Vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...

and published by Nintendo, the game features characters and assets from the '' Kirby franchise'' and uses the '' Super Kirby Clash'' game engine. The game released worldwide in September 2020, but was accidentally leaked prior on the Play Nintendo website.

Gameplay

''Kirby Fighters 2'' is a platform fighting game for up to four players from the ''Kirby'' series through local and online networks. Each player can choose an ability based on copy abilities from prior ''Kirby'' games, and each comes with a different moveset. While most characters are different variants of

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

, additional characters such as

King Dedede is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Kirby'' video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. Dedede first appeared in the 1992 video game '' Kirby's Dream Land'' as the main antagonist, but gradually bec ...

and

Meta Knight is a fictional character and antihero in Nintendo's ''Kirby'' video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. He first appeared in the 1993 video game '' Kirby's Adventure'' as a nameless character, remaining un ...

are playable as well.

Development and release

''Kirby Fighters 2'' was developed by

and

, and published by Nintendo, using the '' Super Kirby Clash'' game engine. The game released worldwide on September 23, 2020, on the Nintendo eShop, six years after the previous title, ''

''. Shortly after, the game received a free

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

. Although the game was released in September, the game was accidentally showcased on the Play Nintendo website as a downloadable title prior to release. Game developer Tadashi Kawai created a blog post describing the development process of ''Kirby Fighters 2''. He wrote how the "single-player mode evolved from the idea that "this is a multiplayer game, but I want to develop a mode that is fun, even when playing alone." He also described the game's development during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Japan Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, when all developers were remote workers.

Reception

The game was met by "mixed or average" reviews, according to the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games Kirby (series) video games Nintendo Switch-only games Nintendo Switch games 2020 video games Fighting games Multiplayer and single-player video games 2.5D fighting games Platform fighters Video games developed in Japan HAL Laboratory games Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry Video games scored by Hirokazu Ando Video games scored by Jun Ishikawa Vanpool games