Video Game / Kirby Battle Royale

Kirby has met his toughest rival yet... himself!

Kirby Battle Royale is a standalone Party Game spinoff of everyone's favorite pink puffball for the Nintendo 3DS. It's not based off of any sub-game from the other 3DS titles and is strictly its own thing, although it shares a lot of similarities to Kirby Fighters Deluxe where Kirby in multiple power-ups (and Waddle Dee, Meta Knight and Dedede) battle against each other - but now it plays in 3D like Kirby's Blowout Blast. It also features multiplayer co-op and online play.

The premise is King Dedede hosting a tournament in a special colosseum built to his own likeness, a battle among various forms of Kirby, where only one Kirby will stand victorious, featuring 10 battle modes, each with their solo and team versions. Kirby and Bandanna Waddle Dee partake in it to get the prize, a giant cake provided by the King. Meta Knight, meanwhile, is also in the game for his own reasons. In Story Mode, Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee have to go through "leagues", from Beginners all the way to Platinum; to advance to a higher league, they need to fill a completion gauge - which are filled by partaking in matches - and then win the qualifier match.

The battle modes are:

• Battle Arena: Standard free-for-all battle; beat the other contestants and be the last man (or team) standing. Fighters with depleted HP can revive themselves, with reduced health; the battle only ends when all of the enemy fighters lost their HP.
• Apple Scramble: Only available for team battles. Here, you beat apples from a tree, then throw it to your base, and pull a switch to make the apple fall into the hole to score points. Sometimes golden apples may appear, which are worth 5 points. Cannons may also appear to aid you in the battle. You may also attack your opponent and steal their apples or drop them down a hole.
• Coin Clash: Set in a haunted mansion, where contestants collect coins that appear. Attack other opponents to steal their coins. There will be ghosts, which will haunt the fighter who gets in contact with them, making them periodically lose coins; haunted fighters can tag others to make the ghost haunt other opponents. Periodically, a barrel of coins will appear, which the contestants must beat to get more coins.
• Attack Riders: Set in a ring-shaped arena, where contestants are given some coins; they then have to beat other contestants to steal their coins. Periodically, one, then two special vehicles appears, which one can use to run away and attack opponents. The one who has the most coins by the end wins.
• Crazy Theater: Set in a theater, where contestants have to complete a varying stated objective before time runs out; success gives the contestant one point, then another objective appears, and so on. The one (or team) who scores 5 points (or 10 in team) first wins.
• Rocket Rumble: Here the contestants collect green cubes and throw them into their rockets. Yellow cubes may appear which are worth 5 green ones. You can steal the opponents' cubes and also throw a time bomb onto their rockets which will make them lose their cubes. On the last 10 seconds, the contestants must jump into their rockets or they'll fail. The one who flies the highest (which is what the cubes are for) wins.
• Robo Bonkers: Set in a circular arena with giant Robo Bonkers in the middle. Throw missiles (or other opponents) into the cannons to beat the bot and score points. After firing enough missiles at it, it gets dizzy and lowers its head; beat the head to score more points. Then comes the second phase where you have to do the same thing over again, but with occasional golden missiles that deals higher damage and scores more points.
• Slam Hockey: Set in an arena with a giant hockey puck. Either knock the puck, or lift and throw it, towards the opponents to score points. Sometimes, a "double point roulette" will appear, which will give double points if one hits a certain selected contestant with the puck.
• Ore Express: Set in the mines with ores scattered around and train carts. Grab the ores, then throw them into the (open) carts to score points. You can attack other opponents to halt them and steal their ores. Sometimes a larger golden ore may appear, which scores more; and a special train cart that doubles the points you get may also appear.
• Flagball: Only available for team battles. Contestants have to throw a ball on the arena towards the flag of their color to score points; the one who scores 7 first wins. They can also carry the flag pedestal around - including the one of the opposing side. In the middle of the game, the flags become "double flags" which doubles the point gain. Some matches may also have the 2 flag pedestals merging into one, with a blue side and a red side.

It was released in Europe on November 3rd, 2017, November 30th in Japan, January 19th, 2018 in North America, and February 1st, 2018 in South Korea.

This game features examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: For the first time in the entire franchise, Sleep has become a proper ability with its own moveset.
• Ascended Meme: During the popularity vote matches to see what abilities would be added to the game in future updates, a popular joke vote was the Sleep Ability, since, in the main games, all it does is cause Kirby to fall asleep and immediately lose the ability upon waking up. As it turns out, these joke votes ended up being frequent enough that Sleep actually did end up being added to the game, this time as a proper ability with its own moveset and mechanics.
• Automatic New Game: The first time you start the game, the intro for the Cake Royale automatically starts. Only after completing the intro and watching the opening cutscene does the title screen appear. Subsequent start-ups always start at the title screen.
• Battle Royale Game: Sort of. The Battle Arena is a Last Man Standing mode where four players must fight until only one remains. The twist here is that characters can revive themselves to half health if given enough time; the battle is only won when all combatants but one are down at around the same time.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the Final Boss fight, Bandana Waddle Dee shows up on the ceiling's girders and throws Kirby a cannon that he can use to attack King Dedede's mech.
• The Cameo:
  • Knuckle Joe is an NPC you can talk to in the hub area.
  • Meta Knight's Headgear dress him as Dark Meta Knight, Galacta Knight and Mecha Knight.
  • Susie appears in Rocket Rumble's audience.
  • Taranza also appears in Coin Clash's audience.
  • The Animal Friends from Kirby's Dream Land 2 cameo in the audience for all three stages of Slam Hockey, one for each stage.
• Charge Attack: The game features one for each copy ability, even for those that lacked such attacks before. It's enforced since one of the Crazy Theater's objective is to attack with charged attacks and two of the Power Ups enhance those attacks.
• Climax Boss: Meta Knight and Axe Knight are your opponents in the Gold League's qualifier battle.
• Defeat Means Playable: Beating Meta Knight unlocks him as a playable character for those that didn't receive him through the demo. King Dedede is also made playable upon beating him in story mode.
• Demo Bonus: Speaking of which, it's possible to transfer Meta Knight data from the demo version of the game to the full version, making it possible to start playing as Meta Knight without defeating him in Story Mode first. It can also be done with the Battle Coins earned after battles in the demo.
• Easing into the Adventure: The story mode starts with Kirby on the way towards the castle, which serves as the tutorial level; there you'll learn the basic movements. You'll also meet Bandana Waddle Dee there.
• Graceful Loser: Unlike King Dedede, Meta Knight takes his defeat to Kirby in stride, to the point where he appears to assure Bandana Waddle Dee and Kirby that they earned their victory fair and square despite the former being flabbergasted that they actually beat him.
  Bandana Waddle Dee: We made it to the Platinum League, Kirby! I can't believe it! Even if it was a fluke... WE BEAT META KNIGHT!
  Meta Knight: It wasn't a fluke. (appears from behind them)
  Bandanna Waddle Dee: META KNIGHT!
  Meta Knight: You showed me your true strength... and for that, I must thank you. (to himself) I must train harder... I WILL TRAIN HARDER! (...) We will meet in battle again. And next time... I'll be ready. (leaps off-screen and vanishes)
  Bandana Waddle Dee: (back to Kirby) Meta Knight was pretty tough, huh?
• Grievous Harm with a Body: You can pick up a downed opponent and then throw them towards another to deal damage. In the Robo Bonkers battle, you can also load opponents into the cannon to be fired at the mech, although you'll get less points than if you load a missile. It is the only way to get the Dededestroyer Z into weapons range.
• Humongous Mecha: Robo Bonkers. The Dededestroyer Z as well.
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Time Bombs that look like dynamite strapped to a timer appear in several battle modes:
  • The ones with red dynamite appear in Battle Arena, when the match is still going after a minute, and Rocket Rumble several times. Interestingly, the last bomb in the latter mode is set to explode when the timer is at Zero.
  • A more powerful one with black dynamite appears in Crazy Theater as part of a challenge called 'Avoid the blast!' Anyone caught in the blast will get killed, including the one carrying it.
    • Both types of bombs can be carried by the players (Computer or Human).
• Interface Spoiler: Using amiibo before completing the Cake Royale will give you costumes for Waddle Dee and King Dedede. Although the game simply says they're special costumes, they both appear as unmistakable silhouettes in the outfits page. Subverted with Meta Knight as he was already publicly announced as playable character before the game's release.
• I Was Told There Would Be Cake: The prize for the tournament is a giant cake, and Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee go after it. And they get it in the end.
• Macross Missile Massacre: One of Dededestroyer Z's attacks when it's low on health is to cover the screen with missiles. There'll be one or two spots where he doesn't lock onto, so you have to guide Kirby there.
• No Ontological Inertia: All the copied Kirbys disappear when the machine is destroyed.
• Not Just a Tournament: Behind the scenes, King Dedede just wants Kirby to lose badly.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Normally, Bandana Waddle Dee is already considered to be quite a Badass Adorable already, but at the same time, he's had Kirby accompany him in those badass moments. In this game, if Kirby wins a solo battle in Story Mode, Bandana Waddle Dee will move up the ranks alongside him. He himself even states that he just barely managed to win them.
• Oh, Crap!: In Flagball, players will dunk the ball if they're holding it and close enough to a flag. If it's their opponent's, they will look horrified as they realize they just scored a goal against themselves.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: King Dedede is disappointed that Meta Knight joined his tournament, because he wants the Kirby copies that he made to be the one(s) to defeat Kirby.
• Our Clones Are Different: Dedede creates numerous Kirby clones in various colours that he hopes will thrash the real Kirby in his tournament. However, while the cloning captures Kirby's look and abilities, given Meta Knight's disappointment with his battles against them, it's implied that they are much weaker than the original.
• Parasol of Pain: Bandana Waddle Dee comes armed with a parasol instead of a spear like in previous games.
• Power Copying: Played With in that, story mode wise, Kirby's copy abilities in this game are gained by winning enough battles rather than actual copying like in the normal games.
• Power-Up: If you manage to reach Platinum League, the game will start throwing these at you; Boost Orbs are single use power ups that will help you win the battles, selected before the battle and can only be used once per battle. You can use up to 3 of these for any battles. The Boost Orbs available for Story Mode are as follows:
  • Super Charge: Widens charge attack range and increases attack strength by 20% for 15 seconds.
  • Big Speed Boost: increases movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds.
  • Quick Charge: Halves charging time for 15 seconds.
  • Maxim Tomato: recovers all of your HP.
  • Metal: Protects you for 10 seconds, but you become heavier and less mobile.
  • Big Attack Boost: increases attack strength by 40% for 15 seconds.
• Schmuck Bait: One of the dialogues with Waddle Dees outside of the stadium suggests that if you jump in the opponent's hatch in Apple Scramble you can eat all of their apples. The only result of doing that is having to wait to respawn.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Amusingly, Meta Knight has this going on in one of his unlockable pieces of headgear — trading in his usual sword and armour for a more dandy outfit that includes a wooden cane, white top hat, paisley tie, and a The Phantom of the Opera-esque venetian eye mask.
• Sore Loser: King Dedede doesn't take Kirby winning his tournament very well.
• Suddenly Speaking: One of the few games where King Dedede is given full lines of dialogue. Additionally, it's the second game since Kirby Super Star Ultra (the first being Team Kirby Clash Deluxe) where Bandana Waddle Dee has any form of dialogue.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Kirby would have no way to hit the Dededestroyer Z if it didn't shoot Kirby copies at him to shoot from the cannon.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: King Dedede ends up like this when he is launched into the sky by the explosion from the Dededestroyer Z.
• Video Game 3D Leap: While Kirby 3D Rumble and Kirby's Blowout Blast brought the traditional Kirby gameplay to a 3D space, they left the Copy Abilities untouched. This game helps rectify that.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The championship battle (available after you fill the Platinum League's gauge) plays like a qualifier battle with King Dedede and one of his Soldier Waddle Dees as your opponents. Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee win, but King Dedede gets angry and orders Kirby to face him in a 3-on-1 Battle Arena match. After Kirby wins that, an even angrier Dedede forces him into one final battle... with the Dededestroyer Z. Only after all that is done that the ending plays and the credits roll.

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