Kirby's Dream Buffet is a Great Example of the Series' Archival Nostalgia
Fans of Nintendo's pink puffball mascot started 2022 with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Mainline Kirby games in the 3DS era were often followed by spin-offs expanding different sub-games, such as Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe or Kirby's Blowout Blast. Most of the side activities in Forgotten Land were diegetic — Kirby plays Tilt-and-Roll or goes fishing in Waddle Dee Town — so it appeared less likely HAL Laboratory would follow up with a related spin-off. Kirby's Dream Buffet shows the studio is more than willing to experiment.
While Dream Buffet is consistent with older Kirby fare such as Dream Course or Air Ride in that it drops the character into an unprecedented situation, it retains the spirit of HAL's 3DS releases. Shortly after Kirby's Return to Dream Land in 2011, the series celebrated its 20th anniversary with Kirby's Dream Collection on Wii, and following titles like Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot, and Star Allies included more nostalgic elements. Forgotten Land set Kirby on a wholly original adventure, but Dream Buffet capitalizes on many of the same nostalgic, archival strengths of its predecessors.
Kirby's Dream Buffet Could Use Master Hand's History to Its Advantage
Outside a celebration concert featuring Kirby's voice actress Makiko Ohmoto, there hasn't been a ton of fanfare for the series' 30th anniversary — which is a shame considering how robust Kirby's Dream Collection was a decade prior. It featured six games updated for then-modern hardware, but also a soundtrack encompassing the whole series up to that point, a museum with art and videos, as well as episodes of the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Future releases clearly carried elements of that celebration. Though just about every Kirby game
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