Kirby and the Forgotten Land Solidifies King Dedede As One of Nintendo's Most Malleable Character Designs

gamerant.com:

If Nintendo is known for one thing, it's the iconic characters. Some of those faces took a little while to settle, like Mario’s early days as Jumpman. The art depicting Nintendo’s mascot had to change styles and even colors multiple times before Super Mario Bros. 3 settled on his iconic design, and Super Mario 64 established the 3D equivalent. A lot of Nintendo’s oldest character iterations would look strange to today’s players, particularly the original Pokemon monster designs in Red, Blue, and Green, and Samus Aran’s original armor in the first Metroid.

Some characters have gone through a surprisingly large number of revisions over the years. Link, and The Legend of Zelda in general, have been constantly switching art styles ever since the NES. The biggest culprit of this in Nintendo’s catalog, however, comes from the Kirby franchise. Kirby’s original off-white design and his penchant for swapping hats are well-known, but his core pink appearance solidified quickly. Rather, Kirby’s long-time rival King Dedede is more prone to changing up his look in subtle ways. While Dedede’s outfit selection will always pale next to Kirby, the finer details of the royal penguin’s design have changed more than any other Nintendo character.

Meta Knight's Role in Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the Most Mysterious

Kirby, Meta Knight, the Waddle Dees, and plenty of Kirby’s other iconic foes settled on iconic designs a long time ago, but the good king can’t keep his story straight. His first appearance is closer to his usual modern look than Kirby’s, but strikes a smaller, slimmer figure and lacks his tan undershirt and mittens. He also resembles a retro cartoon character, something that fluctuates as the series goes on.

Sometimes, Dedede is