Depending on how you count, there are around 45 to 50 different Kirby games. When you think of Kirby, you probably picture the little pink, blobby hero starring in many platforming adventures. However, the vast majority of Kirby’s games actually fall into the spin-off category. With his cute, squishy appearance and malleable powers, Nintendo often turns to Kirby as an easy lead for its more experimental game ideas.
You’ll see Mario headlining sports games or Donkey Kong — who, until recently, wallowed in obscurity — but Kirby is the character who steps up for the weird stuff. That includes multiplayer genre-benders, myriad puzzle games, hardware experiments, and more.
With *Kirby Air Riders* on the way as a marquee title for the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo is doubling down on making Kirby the poster child for first-party cult classic contenders. Normally, you’d think following up *Mario Kart World* with another racing game might be a bad idea, but these games don’t occupy the same space.
As we wait for *Air Riders*’ emergence in late 2025, let’s look back on the kaleidoscope of antics everyone’s favorite pink puffball has gotten up to over the years.
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### Golf, Puyo, and an Elusive Toy Box
While Kirby established himself with the *Dream Land* trilogy and hit an enormous home run with the multigenre *Super Star* (which honestly defies easy categorization), he also spent much of the ’90s skipping around various hobbies on the Game Boy and Super Nintendo.
Titles like *Pinball Land* (1993), *Block Ball* (1995), and *Star Stacker* (1997) brought different kinds of compact Kirby experiences to the Game Boy. Meanwhile, *Dream Course* (1994), *Avalanche* (1995), and *Star Stacker* again (1998) offered a bizarre golf-themed adventure and family-friendly Puyo-style puzzlers on the Super Nintendo.
*Kirby’s Toy Box* (1996) deserves its own mention as a nightmare of game preservation. Using Nintendo’s Satellaview platform, it offered different minigames on a rewritable Super Famicom cartridge. Eight different minigames were available, but they were released over time and subject to overwriting and deletion, making it a rare and elusive piece of Kirby history.
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### Tilting, Sliding, and Riding: Hardware Experiments in the 2000s
In the 2000s, Kirby’s knack for experiments extended beyond software and into hardware.
*Tilt ‘n’ Tumble* (2000) had Game Boy Color players literally tilting their handhelds to control the game. *Air Ride* (2003) was a unique racing game with an elaborate battle mode. Although it didn’t perform spectacularly, it achieved enough cult classic status to inspire the upcoming *Air Riders* sequel.
*Slide* (2003) was an e-Reader title made to advertise the Kirby anime, with the card distributed through magazines and toy stores.
*Canvas Curse* (2005) offered a fresh take on traditional Kirby adventures: players controlled Kirby by drawing rainbow lines with the Nintendo DS touch screen to guide him, instead of using conventional controls.
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### Multiplayer Madness: Kirby on 3DS and Switch
Things got really experimental for Kirby across the 3DS and Switch eras. With digital marketplaces like the eShop taking off, Nintendo used Kirby to tinker with smaller game ideas, free-to-play formats, and more.
On the 3DS eShop, we saw titles like *Fighters Deluxe* (2014), *Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe* (2014), and *Blowout Blast* (2017), which were smaller experiments turning minigames into standalone downloads. *Battle Royale* (2017) was a full retail release expanding on that approach.
*Team Kirby Clash Deluxe* (2017) marked Nintendo’s first dip into freemium gaming on its own platforms as a free-to-start title. Meanwhile, *Canvas Curse* got a Wii U sequel with *Rainbow Curse* (2015), notable for being the only Kirby game released on that platform.
With the Switch’s success solidifying the eShop as a vibrant destination, a second wave of Kirby games emerged. *Super Kirby Clash* (2019) continued the free-to-start model, and *Fighters 2* (2020) expanded on the first but remained a single-purchase game. Inspired by the success of *Fall Guys*, Nintendo released *Dream Buffet* (2022), another quirky take on multiplayer chaos.
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### Back in the Driver’s Seat: Kirby and the Nintendo Switch 2
Kirby is already starting strong on the Nintendo Switch 2. The critically acclaimed *Kirby and the Forgotten Land* was among the first batch of Switch 1 games to get a Switch 2 Edition with expanded content.
However, the first brand-new Kirby title for the platform is a spin-off and a sequel: *Air Riders*. Despite the original game’s modest success, Nintendo appears to be going all-in on *Air Riders*, giving it marquee treatment and leveraging superstar director Masahiro Sakurai’s endearing presence with multiple Nintendo Direct presentations ahead of its November 2025 release.
This strategy is a testament to how cult classics from the past continue to draw audiences today, and how Kirby remains a versatile character capable of filling important niche spaces with games that break the usual conventions.
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### What Could Be Next?
With Kirby, it could be anything. But chances are high it will be something unusual, multiplayer-focused, and sold at a budget-friendly price.
That’s the power and utility of a spin-off superstar like Kirby—always ready to surprise us in new and unexpected ways.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146119/kirby-spin-off-retrospective