But it's not the best-reviewed entry in the Kirby canon. That honor goes to the DS game Kirby Canvas Curse. A departure from the series' normal gameplay, Canvas Curse put the portable's touch screen to great use by asking the player to draw our hero's paths. With an average review score of 8.8, switching things up seemed to have been a smart move on Nintendo's part.
Below we've listed every Kirby game in order of its average review score, as culled from IGN's GameStats service. The series as a whole has an average review score of 7.7, so Nintendo has been pretty consistent in delivering the goods with this mascot.
Platform: SNES
Year: 1997
Average Review Score: 6.5
About the game: Dream Land 3 was the last game Nintendo released for the SNES. It was a standard platformer that didn't have enough pizazz for Nintendo Power.
Kirby Air Ride
Platform: Gamecube
Year: 2003
Average Review Score: 6.8
Critical Consensus: Kirby's arcade racing game was too simple and had clumsy controls. Consumers apparently didn't agree, as it's the second best-selling game in the franchise with over 860,000 units sold.
Kirby's Star Stacker
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1997
Review Score: 7.1 (Nintendo Power)
Critical Consensus: A decent falling-block puzzle game in the vein of Tetris or Puyo Puyo. It supported the Game Boy's link feature so player's could go at it head-to-head.
Kirby's Dream Land
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1992
Review Score: 7.2 (Nintendo Power)
Critical Consensus: Kirby's first game is a decent platformer but very basic compared to his later appearances. We blame the lower score on the fact that Kirby is white on the box art.
Kirby's Squeak Squad
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2006
Average Review Score: 7.2
Critical Consensus: A solid platformer with a lot of interesting powerups, but maybe a little disappointing following the inventive Canvas Curse.
Kirby's Block Ball
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1996
Average Review Score: 7.4
Critical Consensus: An Arkanoid or Breakout clone skinned with the Kirby franchise.
Kirby's Pinball Land
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1993
Average Review Score: 7.6
Critical Consensus: Before the Pokemon, Sonic, and Mario themed pinball games, gamers got to use the pink puff. A good pinball game, even without the Kirby skin.
Kirby's Dream Course
Platform: SNES
Year: 1994
Average Review Score: 7.6
Critical Consensus: An under-appreciated entry in the Kirby franchise that successfully mixes Marble Madness with mini-golf. Kirby powerups, plus inventive courses make for a deep and satisfying game.
Kirby's Tilt 'n' Tumble
Platform: Game Boy Color
Year: 2001
Average Review Score: 7.6
Critical Consensus: IGN loved this motion-controlled Kirby, giving it a 9. But some others felt it was more of a gimmick that was a little on the easy side.
Kirby's Avalanche
Platform: SNES
Year: 1995
Average Review Score: 7.8
Critical Consensus: The Puyo-Pop puzzle design saw a few different iterations, and on the SNES it was Kirby's Avalanche. Think Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, but switch out the Sonic characters for Kirby. Not terribly original, but fun.
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1995
Average Review Score: 7.9
Critical Consensus: A standard platformer that lets Kirby team up with his animal friends (the hungry hamster kicks so much ass). Very cute, very fun, but very much like the first game.
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Year: 2002
Average Review Score: 7.9
Critical Consensus: A remake of the original Kirby's Adventure that showed just how good the gameplay was back in 1993.
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Platform: N64
Year: 2000
Average Review Score: 7.9
Critical Consensus: Kirby in (sort of) 3D. The ability to combine powerups into stronger combos is fun. A good platformer, but it's a little too short.
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2008
Average Review Score: 8 (note -- since Kirby Super Star Ultra was just released this week more reviews will show up that could alter this score. But this number represents the opinions of several major game sites.)
Critical Consensus: This remake of the SNES game is short but sweet, and adds additional touch screen mini games.
Kirby Super Star
Platform: SNES
Year: 1996
Average Review Score: 8.2
Critical Consensus: Several short games wrapped into one great platforming package. Like a Kirby platforming sampler platter.
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Year: 2004
Average Review Score: 8.2
Critical Consensus: A solid platformer with a slightly confusing gimmick of traveling through mirror portals.
Kirby's Adventure
Platform: NES
Year: 1993
Average Review Score: 8.7
Critical Consensus: Kirby's first console appearance is a near-perfect platformer that showed, even after several masterful Mario games, Nintendo still had plenty of creative ideas left in the genre.
Kirby Canvas Curse
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2005
Average Review Score: 8.8
Critical Consensus: This divergence from the standard Kirby formula turns out to be the critical favorite. It's still a platformer, but instead of running and jumping players draw paths for their hero with the stylus on the touch screen.
We've also compiled the sales data the NPD group has on Kirby. The organization has only been tracking videogames since around the year 2000, though, so this list is incomplete. But here are the best-selling Kirby games of the past eight years:
While none of these reached the million mark, Nightmare in Dreamland came pretty darn close.
What are your favorite Kirby games? Let us know in the comments below.
