Video Game / Kirby: Triple Deluxe

Wait until you see his Hypernova ability!

Kirby: Triple Deluxe (Hoshi no Kirby: Triple Deluxe in Japanese), released in 2014, is the first Kirby game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld system, and first original mainline handheld entry^note as in, traditional gameplay, unlike Kirby Mass Attack, and not a remake, which excludes Kirby Super Star Ultra since Squeak Squad.

The plot revolves around the kidnapping of King Dedede, Kirby's on-again-off-again rival, by a spider-like entity named Taranza. Kirby himself witnesses the kidnapping after a strange beanstalk grows over his house and pulls it up into the sky along with Dedede's Castle, and chases Taranza through a series of floating islands known as Floralia, with the help of the beanstalk, referred to as the "Dreamstalk".

The gameplay is very similar to Kirby's Return to Dream Land with Kirby sucking up enemies and stealing their powers while heading to the goal. Such abilities now include Beetle, Bell, Circus, and Archer^note Sniper in Japanese Kirby, along with a super powerful Hypernova^note Big Bang in Japanese Kirby that enhances his inhale powers, allowing him to swallow trees and giant eels, or move wrecking balls to clear a path.

Like its predecessors, it features several minigames, namely Kirby Fighters, a multiplayer battle arena styled after Super Smash Bros. with players fighting with permanent copy abilities in a variety of classic Kirby locales, and Dedede's Drum Dash, a Rhythm Game starring King Dedede and featuring remixes of various classic Kirby songs, as Dedede jumps on drums and avoids enemies to the beat. Both minigames received standalone Updated Rereleases as Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe, with the former getting a sequel on the Nintendo Switch as Kirby Fighters 2.

This game got a sequel in 2016 on the same handheld: Kirby: Planet Robobot, using the same engine and mechanics (such as traveling between foreground and background) as in this game.

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Tropes used in Kirby: Triple Deluxe:

• 100% Completion: It's a lot tougher to get it this time around, as not only do you need to beat the main game, the hard mode version, and both of the Boss Rush challenges, as is standard Kirby fare, but you also need to beat Kirby Fighters with all powers, beat all four levels of Dedede's Drum Dash (which requires you to get three gold medals to unlock the fourth) and get all of the keychains.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Although it's no Star Rod, Master, or Landia, you still briefly use a cannon manned by Dedede and the Floralia citizens against Queen Sectonia. But you do get to use Hypernova one more time to deliver the final blow to her.
• 2½D: The foreground-background mechanic lets Kirby and some enemies move in limited 3D space, bringing the series closer to the Video Game 3D Leap than previous games.
• A Day in the Limelight: Given his continuous and massive presence in the game, this game is one for King Dedede. Not just being the secondary protagonist in-story, his appearance alongside Kirby within the minigames and being one of the game's more celebrated boss fights, but he actually has his own adventure after being saved by Kirby, wherein he tracks down and destroys the true source of Sectonia's fall to madness.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The names of each level are composed of two words that start with the same letter: Fine Field, Lollipop Land, Old Odyssey, Wild World, Endless Explosions and Royal Road. If the repeated letters are combined, they spell out "flower", referencing the game's setting, a giant beanstalk that is about to bloom.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Endless Explosions' levels have a bunch of moving walls that Kirby must run away from.
• Agent Peacock: Flowery Woods may be a more colorful and pretty (and, well, flowery) version of Whispy Woods, but they are actually way stronger than the latter. Especially in their DX version.
• Ambiguous Gender: Flowery Woods does not have a known gender, nor is it known that Flowery Woods has a gender at all.
• All There in the Manual:
  • Reading the pause screen descriptions when fighting bosses provides some insight into the character of otherwise Generic Doomsday Villains.
  • The now-defunct official Miiverse channel provided many tidbits of worldbuilding, such as the origin of the Sun Stones (they were created to trap the sun's energy by "someone who dislikes the sun") and the Miracle Fruit (they are the Dreamstalk's fruit, and they have different effects depending on who eats them).
  • One step further removed than that, the capital city of Royal Road is named "Sectratoa" in the Japanese soundtrack and nowhere else.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: The third and seventh stages of Royal Road take you through a sequence of areas based on the previous levels. It's suggested on Miiverse that Queen Sectonia is attempting to take over the other islands of Floralia using the Warp Holes found in these stages.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The US commercial makes the game sound like an epic by playing Dies Irae, Libera Me, but with fake Ominous Latin Chanting lyrics instead of the normal ones. See the Japanese commercials for comparison. Averted with the game cover, which has the same art with the same Angry Eyebrows in all regions.
• Annoying Arrows: The Archer ability's uncharged arrows cause the least damage out of any attack in the game, and won't even make your opponents flinch in Kirby Fighters. A fully charged arrow, on the other hand...
• Another Side, Another Story: There's an extra mode where you get to play as King Dedede, complete with buffed-up attacks and a new final boss, in a Time Trial run similar to Meta Knightmare, Meta Knightmare Ultra, or the Extra Mode from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Unlike the Super Abilities from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the Miracle Fruit doesn't cause Kirby to lose his current power, as he will revert to his previous form upon clearing the level. Justified in that the Hypernova is required for finishing the levels it appears in. A similar system is also in effect during the game's few mirror sections, where the room removes your ability before entering one, as it will give the ability back to you in the form of a Copy Essence at the section exit.
  • In sections where the game makes use of the 3DS' gyroscope, if the 3D slider is on, the game will automatically turn the 3D off, as tilting the system distorts the 3D effect. Once Kirby leaves said sections, the 3D will gradually return.
  • Losing lives against bosses causes them to become weaker on subsequent attempts, with less health and more delay between attacks. If you lose several lives against a boss or mid-boss, Bandana Waddle Dee gives you a Revival Tomato.
  • Like other Kirby games, if you die during one phase of the final battle, you'll restart from there instead of the beginning, regardless if you get a Game Over.
  • If you're hit by a hazard that knocks you against the screen, the hazards will stop until you recover.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Taranza uses extravagant magic to create or disturb most of the bosses Kirby faces. But for Pyribbit, the last main boss, he just chucks a boulder at him and blames Kirby for it.
• Art Attacker: Paintra, being made in Drawcia's image (in a rather literal way), also attacks with paintings.
• Artifact of Doom: The Dimension Mirror became this since its debut game, spawning a dark copy of King Dedede and unleashing Dark Meta Knight on him once he finds it. It was also responsible for turning Queen Sectonia evil.
• Artificial Stupidity: Sometimes, if an CPU opponent is cornered and you throw a Gordo in front of them in Kirby Fighters, rather than fly over it, they'll repeatedly run into it until it disappears.
• Art Initiates Life: Paintra was born from a painting (by Taranza), just like Drawcia before her. It's not a coincidence, as the game implies the two are sisters who were separated at birth.
• Attack Drone: Sectonia, after merging with Dreamstalk, uses big, flying flowers with eyes in them that act like drones. They can either fly towards Kirby like a spinning disc or fire lasers, among other attacks.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: The first phase of the final boss has a theme called "Sullied Grace," which combines Ominous Pipe Organ with heavy metal.
• Auto-Revive: Die enough times to a boss and Bandana Waddle Dee will give Kirby the Revival Tomato, an upgraded, yellow Maxim Tomato that will automatically resurrect him from death.
• Background Boss: Almost every boss in the game spends some amount of time in the background and so do many enemies. Queen Sectonia's One-Winged Angel form barely interacts with the foreground for most of the battle.
• Badass Boast: Queen Sectonia asks why Kirby would risk his life for this land, saying that she is the ruler of the heavens, whose beauty rivals the divine, and whose power will crush all that he holds dear.
• Badass in Distress:
  • The hammer-wielding King Dedede ends up being outmatched by Taranza in the opening cutscene and whisked away high above to the floating islands of Floralia, prompting Kirby to go after them.
  • Later, Kirby himself is caught in Queen Sectonia's vines after his supposed victory over her, but is eventually rescued by King Dedede and Taranza.
• Barely-Changed Dub Name: The level names are all in English in the Japanese version, but some were tweaked slightly for the localization: Fine Field was changed to Fine Fields, Ever Explosion was changed to Endless Explosions, and Eternal DreamLand was tweaked to Eternal Dreamland.
• Bathos: A minor example, but in the final battle, Kirby gives Queen Sectonia a Death Glare. The catch is that he's all puffed up from inhaling Sectonia's laser in Hypernova mode. He uses it to disintegrate her afterward.
• Beam-O-War: Queen Sectonia's last-ditch attack to finish off Kirby is a massive energy beam. Kirby must counter it by inhaling it as Hypernova Kirby. The two must struggle to have their beam/inhale overpower their enemy's efforts.
• Beanstalk Parody: The game begins with Kirby and King Dedede's homes being risen up to the sky courtesy of the Dreamstalk; a beanstalk-like plant which has been planted by the People of the Sky in order to summon a hero from below to their aid.
• Big Bad: Taranza, an odd spider person who bears a slight resemblance to Magolor, kicks off the plot by kidnapping King Dedede. Subverted when it's later revealed that he is working for Queen Sectonia.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The main villain of the Story Mode is Sectonia, who wishes to conquer Pop Star and rule over it with an iron fist. The post-game modes reveal that Dark Meta Knight is the one responsible for corrupting Sectonia into a tyrant, and has now made his way back to Kirby's world seeking revenge for his previous defeat.
• Big Boo's Haunt: A few of the stages in Lollipop Land and Wild World are set in a haunted area. There are ghosts roaming around, fake floors that reveal spikes beneath them, fake doors that try to bite you, and invisible ghosts and platforms in the mirrors section.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Hornhead, a mid-boss introduced in this game, is a big beetle, bigger than Kirby. He (and his smaller counterpart, Beetley) gives Kirby the Beetle ability.
• Big Damn Heroes: King Dedede and Taranza come to save Kirby when he's trapped by Queen Sectonia.
• Big "WHY?!": Taranza screams this after Queen Sectonia blasts him for not following her orders properly. It's what led him into realizing that his master has gone completely and irrecoverably off the deep end.
• Bittersweet Ending: Queen Sectonia's plans have been thwarted and the People of the Sky are free from her tyrannical rule, along with Pop Star getting a new landmark with the bloomed Dreamstalk. However, Taranza has now lost his friend, and if Planet Robobot's description of Sectonia Clone is anything to go by, Sectonia's genetic information was still in the Dreamstalk's flower, meaning that she ultimately got her goal of eternal beauty...at the cost of herself.
• Black-Hole Belly: The Hypernova ability, which allows Kirby to inhale even bigger objects than usual, like huge trees and blocks.
• Bonus Dungeon: The EX stages, one for each level, unlockable only if you get all the Sun Stones in a particular level. As well as a second EX stage in Royal Road, unlockable only after you get all the Sun Stones in the other EX stages.
• Boss-Altering Consequence:
  • The fight with Flame Galboros in stage 5 of Wild World can be bypassed in a similar manner to the Bonkers example from Super Star. If you quickly bring a Time Bomb into the fight and destroy the blocks in the centre of the arena with it as it spawns, the boss will hop into the pit, defeating itself in the process. Not as easy to pull off for its DX counterpart in Dededetour!, though...
  • Endless Explosions Stage 1 has some Invincible Candy placed before a battle with Mr. Frosty. Much like in Super Star's Float Islands stage, it's entirely possible to enter battle with the invincibility in effect, taking out Mr. Frosty within seconds.
• Boss Bonanza:
  • The final level is comprised entirely of a sequence of boss battles: Masked Dedede, Queen Sectonia in her regular form, then a section where Kirby must destroy walls of vines with Dedede's help, then Sectonia again after she has fused with the Dreamstalk, and finally Hypernova Kirby vs. Flowered Sectonia. In Dededetour, this is changed so Dedede fights Queen Sectonia's first form, Shadow Dedede, and Dark Meta Knight instead.
  • There’s one level where you face off against a bevy of mid-bosses, but Kirby has Hypernova and thus they are all Zero Effort Bosses.
• Boss Remix: The boss theme incorporates "Green Greens" into it. Also, when refacing the bosses in Royal Road, during the first phrase of Masked Dedede's battle and the first phase of Dark Meta Knight's Revenge's battle, a remix of the game's main theme called "Revenge of the Enemy" can be heard.
• Boss Rush:
  • The last stage of Endless Explosions is a mid-boss rush, and some of the levels of Royal Road involve fighting slightly harder versions of the previous bosses in the game. And after that, there's the obligatory two Boss Rush modes, The Arena (fighting all of the mid-bosses and bosses), and The True Arena (fighting all of the extra mode mid-bosses and bosses, and one extra boss).
  • Stage 8 in Royal Road has you fight against all the Hypernova bosses, such as the Mowlee Bros., the Winged Eggers, the Waddle Dee Steel Fortress, and the Gigant Chicks. They're all souped up in difficulty.
• Botanical Abomination: The giant flower plant Dreamstalk isn't really an abomination until Queen Sectonia merged with it, after which the plant grows out of control and starts sucking the life out of not just the Floating Continent Floralia, but also Planet Popstar. Merging with the plant also gives Sectonia immense powers, as well, as seen in her boss fight.
• Bouncing Battler: Pyribbit has an attack where he ricochets off of the ceiling and the ground. When he Turns Red, he also adds the floating rocks on the background for him to bounce off from.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: King Dedede briefly becomes brainwashed by Taranza, and changes into Masked Dedede. As a bonus, he's being brainwashed using puppet strings again.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the fifth stage of Royal Road, Hypernova Kirby has to suck up Flowery Woods; first its clumps of leaves go, draining its health, and then its health bar peels off the screen and gets inhaled along with its trunk. The same thing happens when Kirby inhales Sectonia's laser in her final form.
• Brick Joke: The second time after you fight the Winged Eggers, they're found at the end of the stage in bandages. You proceed to bowl them over with yet another enemy.
• Brutal Bonus Level:
  • "Distant Traveler" from Dedede's Drum Dash. The music is ridiculously fast, so just getting the rhythm right is hard enough and the backbeats even more so while retaining enough concentration to navigate the massive amount of obstacles. Some of the platforms break as soon as Dedede lands on them. It is also a considerably long level. You need gold medals on every prior level to access this stage, but that does not prepare you for the pain that Distant Traveler brings. Thankfully, it doesn't matter what rank you get on it, as just clearing it is all you need for 100%.
  • The True Arena makes its third appearance, and it is still just as nasty as ever.
  • "C-R-O-W-N-E-D (Reprise)" from Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe makes Distant Traveler look like the tutorial level. Enormous spiked pillars, tiny platforms, tiny platforms that break when they're landed on, tiny platforms that move, platforms that flip over to reveal spikes, platforms that move in and out of the path, giant Gordos, coins that must be collected in a certain order, Magolor appearing to obscure the view with a curtain, spiked hoops, and a gauntlet of enemies make for two minutes of terror. It is slightly slower than Distant Traveler, but there is very little room for error.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After their long absence, Rick, Coo, and Kine, last seen in Kirby's Dream Land 3^note not counting cameos where they don't appear as actual characters within gameplay, return as stage hazards in one of the Kirby Fighters stages (with said stage's theme being a medley of Rick and Coo's themes from Kirby's Dream Land 2).
  • Blocky, the rock mid-boss from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, appears as a mid-boss for this game, the first time in years. He even has an updated look in this game, and with it comes a new arsenal of attacks. This also marks Mr. Frosty and Grand Wheelie's first 3D appearance.
  • Kracko returns as a boss after being mysteriously absent from Return to Dream Land.
  • The factory robots from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards return in Kirby Fighters, as does Dyna Blade in Kirby Fighters Deluxe.
  • Fighters Deluxe's Butter Building stage features a cameo from U.F.O. Kirby^note Granted, in its 8-bit sprite form from Kirby's Adventure, who had yet to appear in a Kirby platformer since Squeak Squad.
  • Kirby Fighters in general marks the return of many past Kirby characters, objects, and locations; Castle Lololo has Lololo & Lalala, players turn into Ghost Kirby when defeated, item boxes are taken from Air Ride, and the arenas include Kracko's cloudtops, Dedede's fighting ring, a forest area from Dream Land 2, and Return to Dream Land's Another Dimension.
  • A character that previously had only appeared in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror: Dark Meta Knight, who turns out to be the final boss of King Dedede's story. After the boss fight, he's sent back into the mirror world through the same mirror as the one that appeared in said game, which promptly gets destroyed by the king himself to prevent Dark Meta Knight from coming back.
• But Thou Must!:
  • The game won't let you go on if you refuse to inhale the Waddle Dee's house within the homage to "The Three Little Pigs".
  • The game won't let you skip the first Sun Stone you come across.
  • The game won't let you continue without getting the Miracle Fruit if it appears in front of you. If you try to float way over it, Kirby will stop at an invisible wall and fall without control to right in front of the fruit.
• By Wall That Is Holey: One of the obstacles midway through Stage 2-3 is a series of walls with large holes in them that will fall over after Kirby comes in front. Kirby needs to be standing in front of the hole as the wall falls or he will be crushed by the wall.
• Call-Back:
  • Taranza makes his exit through the roof of King Dedede's castle. Just like in Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby Super Star, the eye-like windows change to look sad.
  • During the final battle, Kirby and Dedede run back and forth with shocked expressions on their faces, just like in Kirby's Adventure when Nightmare is summoned.
  • One of Shadow Dedede's attacks has him fire spheres of dark energy from his belly, just as the Dark Matter-possessed Dedede did in Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. In fact, it's implied that he's also possessed.
  • Some of Soul of Sectonia's attacks are taken directly from the previous Soul bosses: Drawcia Soul, Marx Soul, and Magolor Soul.
  • The first of two bosses marked with "Revenge" is Masked Dedede's Revenge, referencing Revenge of the King from Super Star Ultra, where most bosses end in the word Revenge, and the final boss is Masked Dedede. Speaking of said boss, he is controlled by puppet strings, just like he was in Epic Yarn.
  • Dededetour! is pretty much Meta Knightmare (Ultra) meets Return to Dream Land's Extra Mode while also celebrating the tenth anniversary of Amazing Mirror.
• The Cameo:
  • LOTS with the keychains. Almost every character, good or evil, that's appeared in the series, from Chuchu to Roly-Poly, makes an appearance as one, unless they appeared only in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby's Epic Yarn (with the exception of Yin-Yarn), or Kirby's Return to Dream Land (with the exception of Magolor).
  • Like in Return to Dream Land, the Stone ability is a walking cameo machine. It has, among others, the Animal Friends, Lor Starcutter, and Drawcia and Dark Nebula as its forms.
  • Aside from being a rare keychain, Magolor appears as a random balloon summoned by the Circus Ability (others include Meta Knight and Nightmare's Power Orb), as well as a background painting in Level 4-3. He also makes an appearance in Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe.
  • Four characters from other games make an appearance in the 100% video: Meta Knight, Magolor, Marx, and Galacta Knight.
• Camera Abuse: As a new feature of being a game on the 3DS, some hazards and enemy attacks are capable of slinging Kirby to the fourth wall, face first. Ow.
• Combat Tentacles: The vines and roots version of this is used by Flowery Woods, especially after it Turns Red.
• Competitive Balance:
  • In Kirby Fighters, Kirby can't fly indefinitely to prevent stalling. While this makes sense against other Kirbys, this can cause a jarring problem in Fighters Deluxe, which has bosses whose attacks one would normally fly over until they're done. In this case, a player may attempt to fly over an attack only to notice that Kirby's running out of flight stamina, and then drop into the same attack they were trying to avoid.
  • Abilities were also tweaked, such as Sword, Hammer, and (in Deluxe) Beetle's dash attack having startup lag and Ninja's kunai throwing speed reduced. Many attacks also lost their invincibility frames, although they are kept for boss fights.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Paintra, the second boss of the game, is a clear homage to Drawcia. The pause menu even heavily implies that they're sisters.
  • One of Paintra's attacks creates pictures of Landia that try to scorch Kirby with flame breath. Paintra DX summons paintings of Landia's EX form.
  • In a bit of Continuity Porn, in the second EX stage of Royal Road, there is a scroll you have to open which contains the sprites of Kirby from Kirby's Dream Land to the current Hypernova form. Pulling the scroll out further reveals a mural of Game Boy-era Kirby and King Dedede fighting in the moonlit sky. Anybody who's played past Kirby games should know to check the moon for a hidden doorway.
  • An Easter Egg can be found by attempting to enter the moon in Royal Road Stage 1 after defeating the Gigant Edge, just like the secret room within Kirby's Dream Land's Bubbly Clouds level.
• Circus of Fear: One level in Lollipop Land takes place in a haunted circus.
• Cool Mask: Masked Dedede from Kirby Super Star Ultra makes a reappearance as the Pre-Final Boss, controlled by Taranza. This time, when defeated, part of the mask breaks and he is promptly revived by Taranza, turning into Masked Dedede's Revenge, who fights with a powerful poleaxe.
• Creator Backlash: Discussed in-universe with Paintra DX's pause screen blurb: "One must wonder if the painter who created her regrets giving her form."
• Cue the Sun: A more figurative take on this is on the usage of Sun Stones to open pathways for Kirby so he can advance through the levels. Then comes a more traditional example near the end of Sectonia's boss fight: After Kirby is freed from Sectonia's clutches and given the Miracle Fruit, the background changes from a moonlit night to a rising sun, coinciding with Kirby's 11th-Hour Superpower.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Flowery Woods appears (for the third time in the whole game) at the end of stage 5 of Royal Road, where Kirby is granted Hypernova. It is then swiftly eaten. Any mid-bosses you encounter with the Hypernova will also go down as easily as a Waddle Dee.
  • Same goes for encountering a mid-boss with the Crash ability.
• Cute Witch: Paintra is much more girly-looking than Drawcia was, especially with those bows on her hat.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Unlike nearly every previous Kirby game in existence, the Select button doesn't drop your copy abilities — it pauses the game instead. Pressing X now drops your copy abilities, which was used to create helpers in Super Star Ultra.
• Damsel in Distress: Late in the game, you'll find some imprisoned fairy-like People of the Sky in the Royal Road stage. Free them and they'll open a path for you.
• Dark Action Girl: Queen Sectonia, the Big Bad, does both magic and swordplay.
• Dark Reprise:
  • The theme for the fight with Queen Sectonia when she's attached to the Dreamstalk (called "Fatal Blooms in Moonlight") is a slower, more elegant and ominous remix of the main boss theme.
  • The late-game boss theme, called "Revenge of the Enemy", is a more serious remix of the title theme.
• Deadly Disc: Flowery Woods can throw out his giant flowers like spinning sawblades. They can be inhaled for the Cutter ability.
• Deadly Ringer: The Bell ability first appears in this game. Kirby dual-wields handbells that attack with sound waves.
• Death Glare: Kirby, in his Hypernova form, gives this to Queen Sectonia before blasting her own laser beam that she fired at him right back at her.
• Death Mountain: Old Odyssey involves Kirby climbing a huge mountain, from the rocky cliffs to the snowy peaks.
• Delayed Causality: Ninja's dash attack doesn't deal damage until after Kirby's sheathed his katana.
• Determinator:
  • Queen Sectonia just does not want to stay down. After first being beaten once in her normal form, she merges with the Dreamstalk and, after an intense fight, gets the jump on Kirby and throws him around like a ragdoll until she starts to put the squeeze on him, only for Kirby to be rescued by King Dedede and Taranza, and then Sectonia gets blasted in the face with her own attack by Hypernova Kirby. But then (if you count Soul of Sectonia as a real continuation of her) she clings onto life long enough to ingest 4 Miracle Fruits and comes back as an undead Dreamstalk hybrid, and even after that, she just simply rips her own upper body off to fight Kirby one more time before finally biting the dust in an explosion of petals. She must really hate Kirby.
  • The pause screen blurb for Kracko DX states that, as long as there are clouds, Kracko will never stop trying to beat Kirby.
• Distressed Dude: Apparently, Taranza took a page out of Bowser's book about villainy. Except Dedede's the only "royalty" in Dream Land, so no princess kidnapping this time.
• The Dog Bites Back: Taranza does not take kindly to Queen Sectonia blasting him out of the castle.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Paintra can paint copies of herself to confuse the player. Dark Meta Knight also does a similar thing with mirrors after he Turns Red.
• Dragon Ascendant: Dark Meta Knight goes from the enforcer of Dark Mind to one of the key players in the game's backstory and a threat at least as big as Sectonia.
• Dual Wielding: Bell Kirby wields a pair of hand bells. Queen Sectonia wields two Magic Staffs she can transform into Royal Rapiers.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Two abilities had their names changed in localization — Big Bang to Hypernova and Sniper to Archer.
  • Key Holder to Keychain, Helmehorn to Hornhead, Whispy Flowers to Flowery Woods, Paincia to Paintra, Togu Ro Garaga to Coily Rattler^note which is a close translation, but "Coil E. Rattler" would've better preserved nuance, Volgerom to Pyribbit, the World Tree to the Dreamstalk, Floarald to Floralia, Black Dedede to Shadow Dedede, and Sectonia Soul to Soul of Sectonia.
  • Daiō no Dedede de Den^note "King's Dedede Beat" to Dedede's Drum Dash and Dedede de Go!^note "Go with Dedede!" to Dededetour! The two standalone games end with "Z" in Japan and "Deluxe" overseas. Like in Super Star, (True) Path of the Fighting King becomes The (True) Arena.
  • Like Super Star, this game also has a subversion with its final boss. "Queen Sectonia" is written more closely to "Queen Sectnia" in Japanese, but is officially romanized as Sectonia.
  • In a subversion, two copy abilities had their names reverted back to their original Japanese names for their keychains — Cupid is referred to as Angel, and Cook is referred to as Chef.
• Easter Egg:
  • As with Kirby's Return to Dream Land, HAL rooms^note rooms containing scenery shaped like the letters "HAL" can be found hidden in a few levels. Along with the returning Stone statue, Archer Kirby can also occasionally put up the HAL logo as camouflage.
  • Like in Adventure and Return to Dream Land, if you intentionally land on 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 in the Goal Game, landing at the 1 right after that will net you 30 1-Ups.
  • Like in Kirby's Dream Land, Adventure and Super Star, it's possible to enter the "moon" in the background — this time, this appears in stage 1 of Royal Road (after beating Gigant Edge) and the final EX stage in the game, right next to the exit door. Entering it gives you some extra keychains.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Taken further than usual with this game, thanks to a lot of the bosses making use of the background. Even Flowery Woods, the Warm-Up Boss, is quite surprising in how versatile its attacks are.
• Eating the Enemy: Thanks to the Miracle Fruit, Kirby can now gobble bigger baddies than ever.
• Eldritch Abomination: Although this tends to occur in Kirby fashion, this version isn't quite so visually horrifying as its connotations are. Sectonia, after being defeated, merges with the Dreamstalk, which she also sends into overgrowth and begins visibly choking the life out of Popstar. Not only that, she's content to consume her own kingdom as well, almost immediately burying her castle in a tangle of vines. Beyond that, she can spawn eyes from any flower on any vine to personally see in that area.
• Emergency Energy Tank: The Assist Stars are used like one, in that you hold one at a time and it's used to Heal Thyself. While they more commonly contain normal food like cherries that replenish small health, on rare occasions (usually before bosses) you may also get an Energy Drink (which heals about a third of your health) or a Maxim Tomato (which fully heals you).
• Epunymous Title:
  • Like the puns in the Meta Knightmare modes before it, Dededetour! is a pun on both the protagonist's name and the term "detour", referencing the Warp Holes that can be used to skip large chunks of each level.
  • Triple Deluxe is itself a reference to this being Kirby's first 3DS game, as well as incorporating "X" to represent it being the 10th main series title, and making a pun on how Dedede becomes a major presence in the story (triple D).
• Eternal Engine: Some parts of Royal Road takes place in machinery-themed areas, where hazards called 3D Securitrons attempt to push Kirby out.
• Evil Puppeteer: Taranza, described as the "Master of Puppetry", is a creepy anthropomorphic spider who kidnaps King Dedede, forcing Kirby to save him. He later attaches puppet strings to Dedede, forcing him to fight Kirby once again. However, Taranza turns out to be not as bad as he seems. Once he realizes how cruel his boss, Queen Sectonia, is, he even pulls a Heel–Face Turn to help Kirby defeat her.
• Evil Twin: Shadow Kirby, who serves as the final boss of Kirby Fighters. There's also Shadow Dedede, who serves as one of the final bosses of King Dedede's mode. Meta Knight's evil twin from the mirror world also appears, but not Meta Knight himself.
• Expy:
  • The People of the Sky are very similar to the Ripple Star fairies from Kirby 64.
  • Hornhead, the mid-boss that gives you the Beetle ability (itself an Expy of Super Star's "Suplex" ability) is one of Bugzzy. Bonus points for also being a kind of beetle. Kirby Star Allies later made Bugzzy and Beetley (the standard Beetle enemy) Japanese Beetle Brothers.
  • The second boss, Paintra, is almost a carbon copy of Drawcia, looking extremely similar, sounding the same, and using some of the same attacks. The info on her in the Pause screen during the boss fight implies that she's actually Drawcia's sister and was attacking Kirby to get revenge.
  • Pyribbit is very similar in design to Fatty Puffer of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. The difference is that Pyribbit is a frog instead of a fish, and he's a flame-user instead of a water-user. Pyribbit's straight flamethrower attack is a lift from Fatty Puffer's water stream shot attack.
  • Taranza is also one to Magolor from Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Both have a mysterious, mage-like appearance both have Floating Limbs, and are villains who Heel–Face Turn in the end.
  • Going by their attack patterns, if Magolor and his Soul form are reminiscent of Nightmare and Marx/Dark Matter respectively, then Sectonia and her Soul form are reminiscent of Drawcia (in more ways than one) and Marx Soul from Kirby Super Star Ultra (who drew some of his new attacks from Drawcia as well).^note Aside from both being female villains, Soul of Sectonia draws a lot of attacks from Drawcia herself, especially in her True Arena incarnation. Her attacks include Drawcia's "Rain of Paint" (Sectonia can aim it this time), the bouncing attack, and the Fireball/Meteor attack, with the latter attacks having more difficult patterns than the Drawcia Soul's versions.
• Extremely Short Time Span: Putting together the pattern of the sun falling into night around World 3 and rising during the final fight with Queen Sectonia, the entire game is set over the course of a single day and night.
• Face–Heel Turn: According to the pause-screen descriptions, Queen Sectonia used to be on good terms with Taranza before becoming obsessed with beauty, which, in fact, corrupted her and caused the citizens of Floralia to suffer under her cruelty. The creators' comment in Miiverse developer's room says that it's the Dimension Mirror that is behind her obsession with beauty in the first place.
• Fairytale Motifs: It's subtle, but the main story has a fairytale vibe to it. The plot begins when the Dreamstalk grows under Kirby's house, Kirby's mission is to rescue a kidnapped royal from an evil sorcerer (although it's Dedede and not a princess), the People of the Sky all resemble fairies, and the ultimate Big Bad is an evil queen obsessed with beauty not unlike the queen in Snow White. And, as revealed in Dededetour, the Greater-Scope Villain is a Magic Mirror (or, more accurately, what's in the mirror).
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • When you beat anyone except for Shadow Kirby in Kirby Fighters, you see their souls leave their bodies, their last memories being beat up by some crazy guy with a parasol/hammer/bow, etc. Of course, if you're playing multiplayer, then you can control the soul and potentially come back to life.
  • Instead of blowing up like most of the other bosses in the game, Pyribbit gets driven to a bottom of a lava lake by the four rocks he summoned into the arena. Ouch.
• Fake Longevity: Anytime you get a non-rare keychain, which one you get is random, and it's possible to get duplicates, requiring several playthroughs and/or constant walking around with the Nintendo 3DS to get the play coins needed to unlock them. The system does at least prioritize giving you keychains you don't have yet, but it ultimately comes down to luck whether you'll get the ones you need.
• Fictional Painting: Paintra, who used to be a normal painting until Taranza gives her life. Her Flavor Text describes her as coming from a painting that depicts "a pair of sisters separated at birth".
• Fighting Clown: Quite literally, thanks to the new Circus ability.
• Final Boss: Queen Sectonia for the main game and The Arena, Dark Meta Knight for Dededetour!, Soul of Sectonia for The True Arena, and Shadow Kirby for Kirby Fighters.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: The game features grills that consistently shoot out flames.
• Floating Continent: The whole game takes place in Floralia, which consists of many of these. Kirby must reach them with the Dreamstalk and advance forward with the help of Sun Stones.
• Floating Limbs: Taranza, who has six floating hands, which is supposed to help him resemble a spider. Queen Sectonia also lacks arms, but still has delicate, feminine-gloved hands to fight with.
• Flunky Boss: Kracko still summons some Waddle Doo mooks here. Queen Sectonia occasionally summons her Antler troops as flunkies. She might also hit them with attacks while trying to hit Kirby.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The Bell ability, which lets you wield handbells in combat. You can bang them against enemies, or leap in the air with them to create a giant shockwave.
• Foreshadowing: Throughout the game you chase Taranza, but as soon as you hit Royal Road, there are banners and icons with someone else's face on them...
• Foul Flower:
  • The first boss is Flowery Woods, a colorful flower-themed version of recurring boss Whispy Woods. It used to be a small innocent flower before Taranza enchanted it.
  • For the final boss, Queen Sectonia possesses the Dreamstalk and transforms into a giant Eldritch Abomination flower.
• Frame-Up: In one cutscene, Taranza frames Kirby for throwing a rock at Pyribbit.
• Fun with Acronyms: Like in Return to Dream Land and Dream Collection, if you take the first letter of each level's name, it spells out FLOWER. One of the unlocked videos references this with the title of a video being "FLOWERED", with the "E" and "D" coming from the name of the final level, "Eternal Dreamland".^note And yes, the lack of a space between "Dream" and "Land" is on purpose, as it refers to Kirby giving Queen Sectonia an "eternal beauty sleep", rather than the name of the land that Kirby inhabits.
• Fusion Dance: Queen Sectonia fuses with the Dreamstalk after she's defeated for the first time, becoming a gigantic plant/insect hybrid that's a threat to the entirety of Popstar.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: At first, the Dimension Mirror seems to come out of nowhere after you defeat Queen Sectoria in Dededetour!. However, the end credits show a picture of a silhouette of Shadow Dedede inside a darkened Dimension Mirror, meaning that its existence is foreshadowed.
• Giggling Villain: Paintra uses the exact same cackle that Drawcia did. Queen Sectonia also does plenty of giggling during her attacks, though she's got a proper laugh, as well.
• Given Name Reveal: This game was where Bandana Waddle Dee was officially called such.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Sectonia, who was said to have ruled the skies before her vanity turned her towards evil. Taranza wanted to get rid of her for a good reason after she betrayed him.
• A God Am I: Queen Sectonia declares herself the "ruler of the heavens" and claims that her beauty "rivals the divine" shortly before making her appearance, suggesting that she thinks of herself this way.
• Good-Times Montage: The game's intro cutscene uses this to show Kirby's day as being perfect for him before the Dreamstalk grows.
• Gotta Collect Them All: Keychains can be collected and put onto your main menu screen. Keychains depict sprites of things in previous games, while also giving unique sprites to a few 3D characters such as Yin-Yarn, Magolor, Taranza and Queen Sectonia. Collecting all 256 of them contributes to the 100% completion.
• Green Hill Zone: Fine Fields, the lush flower garden of Floralia, serves as the player's introduction to the game and Kirby's introduction to the Miracle Fruit.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: In the intro, when Kirby realizes the Dreamstalk sent his house high into the sky, he runs out to investigate, hangs in the air for a moment, and when he looks down, gravity does its thing.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Queen Sectonia was corrupted by an evil influence from the Dimension Mirror when she gazed into it. The evil influence in question is strongly implied to have been Dark Meta Knight.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In the rematch against Queen Sectonia with Hypernova, the game doesn't really hint that you have to suck up the beam that Sectonia fires at you. Playing through the battle the first time will probably have you trying to dodge the beam once or twice before you figure it out.
  • There are a lot of little (not mandatory) things that the game doesn't bother to tell you or hint at anywhere, not even in the digital manual, and the player, if they discovered them at all, would have to do by complete accident. For example, stars do more damage if exhaled when dashing, and air shots also do more damage when exhaled closer to an enemy. While these mechanics were in Return to Dream Land, they weren't explained there either.
• Hailfire Peaks: All of the levels in the game combine setting tropes in different ways.
  • Fine Fields is Green Hill Zone, Level in the Clouds, and The Lost Woods.
  • Lollipop Land is Level Ate and Toy Time.
  • Old Odyssey is Death Mountain, Level in the Clouds, and Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
  • Wild World is Jungle Japes and Temple of Doom.
  • Endless Explosions is Lethal Lava Land, Underground Level, and Under the Sea.
  • Royal Road is Ominous Floating Castle and Eternal Engine.
• Harder Than Hard: Very Hard difficulty in Kirby Fighters.
• Heel–Face Turn: Taranza turns good after Queen Sectonia betrays him and tries to kill him.
• Helpful Mook: Bandana Waddle Dee shows up from time to time with goodies to give you via the game's Player Data Sharing. You can't actually interact with him otherwise, however, and his appearance just makes it all the more confusing as to why the other Waddle Dees are attacking you (unless you knew beforehand that he's one of the few Waddle Dees to be an ally of Kirby).
• Hitbox Dissonance: Despite the fact that King Dedede is about 2 times Kirby's size, they both have the same hitbox, meaning that King Dedede can move through one-block wide gaps that he should be too tall for, and squeeze between enemies without getting hurt, even when he's visibly touching them.
• Horn Attack: Beetle Kirby mainly weaponizes his beetle horns, either for doing multiple cuts, grabbing enemies or smashing pegs.
• Interface Screw:
  • Some of the bosses block out portions of the screen, making fighting them much tougher.
  • In Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe, in the bonus stage, C-R-O-W-N-E-D, Magolor may sometimes block a part of the screen with a scroll of paper to throw off your timing.
• Interface Spoiler: If you collect all of the Sun Stones before facing the final boss, you'll unlock the Queen Sectonia keychain before actually meeting the character in question.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kirby can catch up to three enemies on his horn with the Beetle ability. He then has the choice of slamming them into the ground, throwing them, or walking around with one enemy.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: While most important items, like Sun Stones and Keychains, are floating out in the open, some are stuffed into chests, making them subject to gravity. As such, they can become harder to attain in some puzzles.
• Insect Queen: Queen Sectonia, a giant wasp who wears classical royal attire, and apparently leads the insect enemies called the Sectras.
• Intangibility: Kirby becomes immune to most forms of damage when blocking with Leaf, turning into one of Stone's forms, or crouching with Archer.
• Invincible Minor Minion: Tough Waddle Dee, a metallic greyish Waddle Dee, found in the Copy Ability Test Room. Its purpose is to act as a training dummy, with it being able to shrug off everything you can do to it. Yes, even a fully charged Crash or Mike Kirby can only make it fly all over the confined room it is in.
• Jungle Japes: Wild World is mostly set in a jungle area; later stages delve into the Temple of Doom category, though.
• King Mook: Aside from the returning Grand Wheelie, there's also Hornhead, the mid-boss version of the Beetley mooks. There's also the Hypernova-exclusive "Ace" and "King" versions of the ghost Phanta mooks.
• Large and in Charge: Queen Sectonia is much larger than her subjects. She also, predictably, is the strongest of them.
• Laser Blade: The 3D Laser Bar is an item Kirby can pick up at certain levels, which Kirby can use to destroy background elements from the foreground.
• Laser-Guided Karma: At the beginning of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Dark Meta Knight threw Meta Knight into the Mirror World's "Inner Mirror" and then broke it to trap him there. Dedede returns the favor to Dark Meta Knight at the end of the extra mode.
• Last Lousy Point:
  • The True Arena. Unlike the regular Arena, which is relatively easy once you get the hang of it, The True Arena is a brutal Boss Rush with amped-up bosses, even less healing items than The Arena, and at least one boss you haven't fought before until that point. You could just ignore it… if it wasn't necessary for 100% Completion.
  • Also to get 100% Completion, you need to collect all of the keychains. There is one rare keychain per level, and there is almost no indication whether or not you are missing a level's rare keychain (unlike regular keychains, rare keychains are fixed, so unless you use a guide, you're not gonna know which rare keychain you have or haven't obtained in which level). And even if you can get all rare keychains, the common ones can be this too, due to how you get them randomly and you can get duplicates of them.
• Laughing Mad: The number of defeats Queen Sectonia endured from Kirby really takes a toll on her sanity. After she finally loses it as Soul of Sectonia, her haughty Noblewoman's Laugh turns into insane, high-pitched giggles not unlike ones you would expect to hear from Marx.
• Law of 100: Like in Return to Dream Land, collecting 100 Point Stars yields the player an extra life.
• Lethal Lava Land: Endless Explosions is a magma-filled area with plenty of lava pits and raining meteorites. The later stages take place in its underground caves, which contain some deposits of water.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: In the first stage of Royal Road, Kirby (or King Dedede) hops onto the warp star, uses it to evade some cannon fire, then gives a determined nod before bursting through the castle gate.
• Level Ate: Lollipop Land has numerous levels with landscapes that look to be made out of cookies and candy, and to further fit the theme, also has some pesky tanks that launch explosive sweets at Kirby from the background.
• Level in the Clouds: A few levels of Fine Fields and Old Odyssey take place in the clouds.
• Light Is Not Good: Unlike prior Kirby final bosses, whose appearances and forms are themed after evil and chaos, Queen Sectonia is themed after bees and flowers, which signify birth and rejuvenation, especially in her final forms, and she is impressively more elegant than prior final bosses. Unfortunately, for someone with such a motif, Sectonia is definitely not one of the good guys.
• Limit Break: Hypernova. Clearly a stand-in for the Super Abilities of the previous game, it is accessed by eating a Miracle Fruit found only in certain levels, and it gives Kirby a superpowered inhale attack.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Shadow Dedede shatters to pieces after being defeated by King Dedede. Then, the Dimension Mirror itself breaks after he smashes it with Dark Meta Knight trapped inside, while Dark Meta Knight himself shatters in the True Arena only.
• Living Statue: Coily Rattler starts out as a normal idol statue before Taranza animates it.
• Long Song, Short Scene:
  • The music for the final phase of the final boss is just as long as the songs for the other phases, but the battle only lasts at most a minute or two and is mostly drowned out by Sectonia's roars and Hypernova Kirby inhaling. Subverted ultimately because it's heard for Soul of Sectonia as well.
  • You'd most likely only be able to hear the full version of the mid-boss theme either within the in-game Jukebox or while the game's paused when facing the mid-bosses due to said fights tending to be very quick.
• Lost in Translation:
  • The Japanese title for this game is Hoshi no Kirby Triple Deluxe, which is undoubtedly a reference to Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe. The latter became Kirby Super Star or Kirby's Fun Pak when released in English, but the former was literally translated, removing the reference.
  • The name of the final level, "Eternal Dreamland", is supposed to be symbolic of what you're trying to give Queen Sectonia, not the name of Kirby's homeland. This is more obvious if you're playing the original Japanese version of the game due to the fact that the Japanese name of Dream Land is instead Pupupu Land.
  • In the Spanish translation, Pyribbit's name is Pirobúho, which could be translated back as Pyro Owl; this surely was caused by a confusion, as the species of this boss isn't pretty evident at first glance, but it gets odd when this alleged owl just keeps hopping around and attacking with its tongue like the toad it really is. This same name is still used in his later appearances.
• Macross Missile Massacre: In the Story Mode-only fight against Flower Sectonia with Hypernova, Sectonia's flower drones attack with swarms of missiles. Kirby has to inhale them and keep them on his mouth, because Sectonia herself will then fire an absolutely gigantic missile at Kirby that he has to deflect with the previous smaller missiles.
• Magma Man: Pyribbit is fine with swimming in lava and is able to manipulate fire and lava in his attacks.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • You only find out Taranza was trying to follow orders from his boss Queen Sectonia when you get to Royal Road.
  • Word of God states that it's the Dimension Mirror found in Dededetour that drove Queen Sectonia to madness, essentially making Dark Meta Knight, the one who can be found within^note besides Shadow Dedede, who's implied within the game to be trying to protect him like Queen Sectonia DX, the true villain of the game.invoked
• Marathon Level: Level 6 of the extra mode. This level is not just content with throwing Royal Road at you, it also throws all of the EX stages at you too. Then you have to fight the Boss Rush, followed by the already long final level, then three final bosses. Even with warps, this level can easily take three times the average time to beat other levels.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Used for some levels where a giant mirror is placed in the background. The mirror shows the level's true structure, such as revealing platforms that aren't visible in the foreground or not reflecting structures that are visible in the foreground, showing that Kirby can move through them. There are also invisible enemies that are visible in the mirror.
• Mistaken Identity: Taranza apparently thought that King Dedede was the hero of Dream Land on the sole basis that he was its ruler, and regards Kirby as little more than a stubborn pest. Needless to say, he is very confused when Kirby chases him all the way up the Dreamstalk and beats a brainwashed Dedede.
• Musical Nod:
  • All of the EX Stages use music from Return to Dream Land, mostly Magolor's theme. Except for the final one, which uses the version of "Gourmet Race" from Kirby Air Ride.
  • Aside from the songs and remixes already taken from Return to Dream Land and the Kirby Fighters stages, the game features its own original remixes of Green Greens (Dream Land), Rick's and Coo's themes (Dream Land 2), Yogurt Yard (Adventure), Peanut Plains (Super Star), The Arena (Super Star), Ripple Star Map (64), Ripple Star Boss Rush (64), Dark Meta Knight (Amazing Mirror), Masked Dedede (Super Star Ultra), and Cookie Country (Return to Dream Land).
    • There's even a remix of a song that was never used in its original game. The Fine Fields cave music is a remix of an unused track from Kirby's Dream Land 2.
  • The mid-boss theme contains a nod to the original mid-boss theme from Kirby's Adventure. However, you can only know this if you've heard the full version of the theme due to the theme usually being cut short within the contexts it plays within.
• Mythology Gag: The Hypernova banner in the last EX stage contains a series of sprites of Kirby from every main game in the series starting with Kirby's Dream Land and ending with Hypernova Kirby. The end of the banner shows a scene from Kirby's Dream Land. The Hypernova banner in another stage contains a scene of the first level from Dream Land.
• Nerf:
  • A number of attacks from certain abilities carried over from Return to Dream Land have been cut, and Spark seems to have suffered the most. Its lightning bolt attacks have been removed, severely hampering its upward/downward range. Plus, thanks to the new dodging mechanic, Spark can no longer be charged while guarding.
  • In Return to Dream Land, a player playing as King Dedede could spam his Hammer Throw for massive damage since Dedede kept his hammer after the throw, while its original intention was meant to be a kind of last resort attack for Kirby to ditch his Hammer ability. The same move returns for the King in his Time Attack mode, but the power is lower in comparison, and you'll sometimes be better off risking getting into close range for better damage output. At least the spin and the throw retain their invincibility frames, though.
  • From the main game to Kirby Fighters, Archer and Beetle (added in Kirby Fighters Deluxe) have harsh input lag and a longer delay on charging attacks. This is contrasting the main story mode, where fans generally agree these two abilities in particular are among the best due to their absurd power and versatility. Other abilities also get tweaked as well.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By Taranza kidnapping Dedede right in front of Kirby's eyes, it leads Kirby to chasing him all around Floralia to his place. The fixing is twofold: The first is obvious, Kirby the true hero that the People of the Sky expected would be helping the People of the Sky along the way and go to stop the whole mess, but the second is that bringing the "false hero" King Dedede turns out to be helping as well — with him firing Kirby with a cannon to get to Sectonia's second form and then freeing Kirby from her when she grabbed him, something that the final narration notes as the Dreamstalk working In Mysterious Ways.
• Ninja Log: In Ninja form, guarding right before taking damage will turn Kirby into one. Releasing the button launches an explosive counterattack.
• Ninja Prop: You probably didn't expect Masked Dedede to grab an ax from those giant suits of armor that you most likely just passed off as scenery, did you?
• Noblewoman's Laugh: This might as well be the entirety of Sectonia's language. Well, until she goes One-Winged Angel and the laugh becomes a high-pitched, manic giggling.
• Nonchalant Dodge: New to this game is the "dodge" mechanic that Kirby can do while guarding, just like in the Smash Bros. series. Dedede can do so as well, but he moves less far when he dodges.
• Non-Indicative Name: Both "Hypernova" and "Big Bang" (the Japanese name) imply a massive explosion. The actual ability is a super-powered inhale, i.e an implosion.^note Although, stars that go hypernova will likely leave a black hole behind, so it fits in a roundabout way. The flavor text tries to tie it back in by saying that an explosion of energy occurs within Kirby's body when he obtains the ability.
• Nostalgia Level: Everywhere in Kirby Fighters. Examples include Castle Lololo from Kirby Super Star, Factory Tour from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and Another Dimension from Kirbys Return To Dreamland. Deluxe adds more stages that are drawn directly from their sources, such as Dyna Blade's Nest, based on its Super Star Ultra incarnation, Butter Building, based on its Kirby's Adventure incarnation, and The Fountain of Dreams, based on its Super Smash Bros. incarnation (or its Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land incarnation if you reach Round 9 on Very Hard).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Taranza reacts like this when he finally notices that Kirby has been on his tail for a while (in the first level's boss stage, of course, a few seconds before he sics Flowery Woods on him).
  • Kirby does this himself during a later Taranza appearance before the Pyribbit battle, when he blames Kirby for throwing a rock at the boss after Taranza does it himself.
  • Taranza reacts like this again when Dedede is defeated; he then gets Dedede back on his legs and powers him up. When Dedede is defeated a second time, Taranza is outright frightened and desperately summons his queen to help him.
• Old Save Bonus: Kirby Fighters Deluxe gives you access to the Bell and Beetle abilities, as well as an extra stage, if you also own Triple Deluxe. Similarly, Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe unlocks cosmetic masks.^note Strangely, you need to have StreetPass enabled for Triple Deluxe in order for it to recognize this.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Royal Road, the final level, takes place in a giant castle that takes up a whole island. Its royal setting foreshadows the identity of the final boss.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Played during some notes of the music played in the cutscene before fighting Queen Sectonia when she makes her appearance, and the battle theme played in her first phase (which also contains heavy metal in it).
• One-Winged Angel: Queen Sectonia combines with the Dreamstalk for the second phase after you beat her first form.
• Our Fairies Are Different: The People of the Sky are fairy-like beings with colorful flower-themed hairstyles. They also possess some magical powers.
• Orcus on His Throne:
  • Sectonia sits back at Royal Road until Taranza and Masked Dedede are defeated, and makes no appearance until the former summons her, at which point she becomes one of the most determined villains in the franchise.
  • Dark Meta Knight doesn't do a thing after corrupting Sectonia in the backstory and escapes the main game with no one even considering he was involved. It takes Dedede attempting to conquer Floralia and defeating everyone left for Dark Meta Knight to finally reveal himself and fight Dedede.
• Painting the Medium:
  • Kirby can get smashed into the screen by numerous obstacles and enemy attacks. Some enemies get subjected to the same abuse courtesy of the Hypernova ability.
  • In the final stage, Kirby gets to use Hypernova to suck up the first boss, sucking up the HP bar along with it. The HP bar gets sucked up yet again when Hypernova Kirby inhales a giant laser the final boss shoots at him.
  • Paintra literally does this to the screen itself in order to obscure part of it as an attempt to make it harder to beat her.
• "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: Inverted. The game ends with a view of the top of the Dreamstalk as it descends down below from Floralia to Dream Land, where Kirby and King Dedede's homes are shown as the final scene.
• Platform Fighter: The Kirby Fighters minigame, which is very Super Smash Bros.-esque in style. You can choose from ten (plus two in Deluxe) of Kirby's abilities to fight against either another player or a CPU.
• Plot Coupon: The Sun Stones are required to advance forward and for 100% completion. To be specific, the Power of the Sun in the stones open up the clouds that block the boss stage, and beating the bosses grants Kirby the bigger Sun Stone that opens up the clouds blocking the way to the next continent. While Taranza's magic lets him fly freely (even while maintaining his magic bonds on Dedede), Kirby has to clamber along the Dreamstalk to keep up instead of slowly floating and losing the trail. Just like the previous game, the main villain takes advantage of Kirby collecting the coupons — after her first defeat, Sectonia fuses with the sky-high Dreamstalk to take advantage of its power.
• Poltergeist: In the Big Boo's Haunt part of Wild World, there are two cases of this: one where a ghost randomly possesses armors in the background and animate them to attack Kirby, while the other is a stronger ghost than the one before that possesses multiple pieces of furniture, including a painting, a cuckoo clock and a piano, to attack Kirby. Both times, Kirby has to defeat them with Hypernova.
• Possession Presumes Guilt: Occurs in the cutscene where Taranza hits the sleeping Pyribbit with a rock. The rock bounces into Kirby's hands as Pyribbit wakes up and assumes Kirby did it before the battle begins.
• Power Copying:
  • Kirby's trademark ability to gain Copy Abilities from foes he eats has, unsurprisingly, returned. The majority of abilities are from Kirby's Return to Dream Land (with the removal of Hi-Jump, Water, and Tornado and the inclusion of Wheel), and four new abilities are included (Archer, Beetle, Bell, and Circus).
  • In-game, Soul of Sectonia is implied to be so lost in her mind after absorbing so many hosts that in her second form, she copies almost all of her attacks from past Soul-form bosses instead of inventing her own.
• The Power of Hate: How Queen Sectonia was turned into the narcissistic, corrupt despot she is now. When Taranza got Sectonia the Dimension Mirror, he didn't know that Dark Meta Knight was trapped inside. As a result, his fury of being defeated by Kirby leaked out of the mirror and slowly corrupted Queen Sectonia, turning her from a benevolent queen to a tyrannical despot.
• Power-Up Food: The Miracle Fruit, which powers up Kirby's inhale into Hypernova. During the True Final Boss, Sectonia's flower drones eat four Miracle Fruits to power her back up again, becoming Soul of Sectonia.
• Press X to Not Die: Mashing the Control Pad is critical during the cutscene where Kirby does a Beam-O-War with Sectonia.
• Prison Level: The fifth stage of Royal Road takes place in a heavily fortified, gem-encrusted prison where the People of the Sky are held captive. Throughout the level, Kirby is blocked by doors that can only be unlocked with the freed prisoners' magic.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Taranza sees serving Queen Sectonia as more as a duty, and the only reason why he has a grudge against Kirby is because the latter is interfering with said duty.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Surprisingly, Meta Knight is nowhere to be found, aside from one of Circus Kirby's balloons, some keychains, and the Final Boss of Dededetour being Dark Meta Knight, who isn't actually the real Meta Knight. However, one of the Palette Swaps for Kirby in Kirby Fighters also is based off of him without his mask, and he briefly appears within the video unlocked by completing the game 100%.
  • This game lacks three abilities from Return to Dream Land: Hi-Jump, Tornado, and Water. While the former two are understandably missing (the smaller level size would limit their effectiveness greatly), Water doesn't seem to have any reason other than space limitations.
  • Kibble Blade, King Doo, and Dubior from Return to Dream Land don't reappear here (and then return in Planet Robobot), while Water Galboros and Moundo are replaced by Flame Galboros and Blocky respectively.
• Red Herring: The beginning of the extra mode implies that Meta Knight will appear as a boss. Actually, Dark Meta Knight is the final boss. What makes this red herring particularly ridiculous is Dark Meta Knight's design on his beginning picture. The more purple shading is innocent enough, but if you look very closely, Dark Meta Knight doesn't have the giant slash on his mask.
• Revenge: This is the motivation of Dark Meta Knight after his defeat in Amazing Mirror, as revealed in his boss bio.
• Rhymes on a Dime: When Queen Sectonia enters the Dreamstalk, she says "Its bloom will be your doom!"
• Rhythm Game: Dedede's Drum Dash is this, with Dedede bouncing on drums to the tune of the Kirby themes while getting coins and avoiding obstacles.
• Rolling Attack: One of Coily Rattler's attacks is to roll like a wheel towards Kirby.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: A plot point. Instructed to capture the hero of Dream Land, Taranza naturally assumed that King Dedede would be this hero instead of the childlike, harmless-looking pink puffball. Naturally, this turns out to not be the case.
• Sad Battle Music: The battle with the final boss, prior to the 11th-Hour Superpower, has a slower version of the much more fast-paced main boss theme as its music. Reading the info on the boss in the pause screen in both the main game and in The True Arena rematch can cause said music to appear much more melancholy than it first seems, since it's implied that Kirby is fighting an insane shadow of a once-trusted ruler this time around.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Kirby's inhaling forwards on the boxart.
• Segmented Serpent: Coily Rattler is a serpent whose body is made of multiple bits, which he can separate in a few of his attacks.
• Sensory Tentacles: In a variant, after Queen Sectonia merges with the Dreamstalk, she creates flowers at the end of long vines with eyes of them that she can use to see in multiple directions, as well as becoming Combat Tentacles.
• Shotoclone: Just like in Return to Dream Land, the Fighter ability turns Kirby into one. The player can use rising uppercuts, hurricane kicks, and energy blasts while using this ability.
• Shout-Out:
  • As with Kirby Super Star, one of the things Stone Kirby can transform into is the brick block from Super Mario Bros.
  • Near the end of a level, Kirby (with the Hypernova ability) and three Waddle Dees reenact "The Three Little Pigs", with Kirby inhaling the house of straw that one Waddle Dee was in, and after that, inhaling the house of wooden logs with two Waddle Dee in them. The third house, however, is more like a totem pole with a cannon than a brick house, which Kirby has to destroy by inhaling their bullets and then spitting them at its weak spot.
  • In the previous games, the Sword ability was able to fire beams while Kirby had full HP in a nod to the 2D Zelda games. Now it's able to fire them at any time by having Kirby point his sword skyward for a moment by holding up, then swinging.
  • Towards the end of the third stage of Wild World, Kirby has to fight a furniture-possessing ghost. The last thing it will take over is a piano, reminiscent of Super Mario 64's Mad Piano. It even has the same teeth, too!
  • The Wheel ability's new "Rocket Start" move allows the player to charge up a speed boost by holding down and B, much like the Spin Dash from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The trailers and gameplay videos focused mostly on Kirby and King Dedede, and Taranza doesn't appear at all, even though he's one of the game's main characters.
• Skippable Boss: It's possible to skip some encounters in Dededetour. Some are optional to skip (such as some of the mid-bosses in Level 5, and Kracko and Pyribbit in Level 6), and some are mandatory (all the Hypernova Puzzle Bosses).
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: A few of the stages in Old Odyssey are icy stages. They feature igloos, skiing Waddle Dees, and giant rolling snowballs.
• Socialization Bonus: StreetPassing with others who play Triple Deluxe will allow Bandana Waddle Dee to toss out better healing items when you meet him.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The game's True Arena battle theme is a remix of the one from Kirby Super Star Ultra and is used in all the normal boss fights (and mid-boss fights) in the game. This includes Flowery Woods DX, whose arena's as colorful as its main mode counterpart. To put it into more context, said song is a Heavy Metal remix of Super Star's Arena theme.
• Spider People: Taranza is an admittedly adorable take on one, with floating six arms and a cute, if somewhat creepy, smile.
• Spin Attack: Flowery Woods DX can jump up and spin around like a helicopter with his roots outstretched, hitting multiple times in the process if it hits you. Paintra can also spin around to shoot multiple blobs of paint.
• Sprint Shoes: In Kirby Fighters the combatants can acquire these, which dramatically boosts their speed for a time.
• Squashed Flat: Getting smashed by certain enemy attacks and obstacles will make Kirby drift to the ground like a piece of paper before springing back into shape.
• Stealth Sequel: It's eventually revealed that the issues of this game were partially caused by the Dimension Mirror, making the game an indirect follow-up to Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.
• Storming the Castle: As per usual for Kirby games, though usually it's King Dedede's, this time it's Royal Road, the royal capital of Floralia.
• The Straight and Arrow Path: This game introduces the Archer ability where Kirby can snipe with an arrow at multiple angles. The arrow can be charged for more damage, and he can also hide in a camouflage to avoid enemies.
• Suddenly Speaking: Taranza gets some (rather long) dialogue after remaining silent for the whole game before the Masked Dedede fight.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Taranza summons Queen Sectonia after Kirby proves too powerful to stop.
• Super Mode: The Hypernova ability turns Kirby into a rainbow colored black hole of doom.
• Super-Scream: Aside from the usual Mike Kirby, there's also the Mike pick-up item in Kirby Fighters that any Kirby can use to shout and do heavy damage to other Kirbys nearby.
• Super Title 64 Advance: Triple Deluxe. In other words, 3D.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: See Bandana Waddle Dee tossing you an item and some Copy Pedestals around? Get ready for a boss fight a few steps later. And in the extra mode, the fact he only throws you Energy Drinks and Maxim Tomatoes should clue you in that the boss fights... won't be pleasant.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • As Whispy Woods is Put on a Bus in this game, a flower-themed counterpart takes his place as the first boss, known as Flowery Woods.
  • Given how both Meta Knight and Galacta Knight are also absent in this game, Dark Meta Knight fills in for Galacta Knight as the Final Boss of the game's Extra Mode.
  • Water Galboros gets a fire counterpart known as Flame Galboros, who fights nearly the same but instead he is Playing with Fire. The same goes for Fatty Puffer, who is replaced by Pyribbit.
• Tail Slap: Coily Rattler has an attack where he slithers towards Kirby while bringing his tail forward; if he's close, he'll proceed to smack Kirby a lot of times with his tail.
• Teleport Spam: Queen Sectonia uses this in her standard form and True Final Boss form. She actually has less HP than most other bosses to compensate for it making her so difficult to hit in the latter case.
• Temple of Doom: Parts of Wild World take place in golden temples filled with traps, treasure chests, and giant snake idols. One of them is revived by Taranza to become the level's boss, Coily Rattler.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The logo has the titular character's name in a swirling rainbow to represent the Hypernova ability.
• Theme Music Power-Up:
  • Masked Dedede and Dark Meta Knight both gain their original themes upon Turning Red.
  • Hypernova has one played throughout your run with it. It's also remixed during the stages and Royal Road, and the final phase of Sectonia's boss fight.
• Time Bomb: A new pick-up item in this game is an alarm clock with dynamites strapped onto it, which Kirby can use to crush big stone blocks. This also appears in Kirby Fighters, where you can use its explosion to attack enemies.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • After the first phase of Dedede's battle, he loses his hammer. You'd think this would simplify matters but, as it turns out, he is just as proficient in wielding a massive battle axe. His inhale is also far more powerful than in any of the previous games, being strong enough that the only way to escape it is to run as fast as possible or avoid it entirely, and has also lost his traditional quality of staggering whenever he gets hit. Shadow Dedede has all that, plus some attacks taken from Dark Matter-possessed Dedede too.
  • Kracko has a larger array of attacks now once it Turns Red, making it more akin to its anime counterpart in a way.
• Tough Beetles: This game serves as the debut to Beetleys, bipedal rhino beetle enemies that can use a variety of dangerous Horn Attacks, and Hornhead, a rhino beetle mid-boss. Both give Kirby the Beetle ability, which allows him to use a variety of dangerous Horn Attacks as well.
• Towering Flower: The colossal Dreamstalk is topped with an equally giant flower. In the climax, the Big Bad Queen Sectonia merges with said flower as her One-Winged Angel.
• Translation Nod: The final Boss-Only Level is called Eternal Dreamland^note all of the level names are in English in the original Japanese, possibly referencing the English name of Kirby's home nation, which is called Pupupu Land in Japanese.
• True Final Boss: Soul of Sectonia in The True Arena. To really drive the point home, instead of biting the dust after her Dreamstalk form is defeated like in the normal arena, she instead detaches herself from the flower and fights you again in a new battle as little more than her head and wings.
• Turns Red: Every boss does this once their health is depleted by half. Meanwhile, Queen Sectonia turns red twice, each time placing the battle in a different part of the arena, and her second form does so thrice, each time moving Kirby to another platform with more pits.
• Uncommon Time: The final level's music ("Beautiful Prison") is mainly in 5/4 and 6/4 time, with a few measures of 3/4 in the very beginning.
• Underground Monkey:
  • This game marks yet another Underground Monkey of Whispy Woods himself: Flowery Woods, a flower enchanted by Taranza.
  • This game introduces the Flame Galboros, the fire equivalent to the Water Galboros, a mid-boss from Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Justified in that the Water Galboros was essentially the King Mook version of the Water Galbo, which, itself, is the water equivalent to the fire-based Galbo enemies. So it was just about enough for the fire version of said mid-boss to appear, even if it wasn't in the same game (and ironically, the Galbo enemy doesn't even appear in this game).
  • In Royal Road, certain enemies (like Waddle Dee and Bronto Burt) are replaced by insect-like variations (like Sectra Dee and Sectra Burt), similar to the replacement variations in Halcandra in Return to Dream Land.
• Utility Weapon: Like before, Kirby's abilities will help solving puzzles in the game, usually to collect Sun Stones. His Hypernova also solves a good number of varying puzzles, from rolling giant snowballs around, to powering up a motor boat, to defeating special bosses.
• Vain Sorceress: Queen Sectonia has a degree of sorcery and she's also pretty vain, claiming that her beauty rivals the divine. It's implied by the words of the developers in that the Dimension Mirror, and the gazing thereof, is the source of her vanity, and it's implied that she uses magic to make her more beautiful; if the description given to her clone in Planet Robobot is to be believed, she has traces of DNA of creatures spanning a thousand years, and the clone regresses into a form resembling Taranza before it falls apart.
• Visual Pun: The Beetle ability adorns Kirby with a stylized samurai helmet based on the Rhinoceros Beetle (kabutomushi). If you don't get the joke, the Japanese word for a samurai's helmet is kabuto.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Flowery Woods. Yes, the Whispy Woods clone. Its first stage can pose a problem merely due to lack of access to good abilities, but in its second stage, it morphs into a highly dramatic Background Boss with multiple attacks, some of which are surprisingly hard to dodge, and which will definitely take you by surprise if you're expecting the traditional total Whispy obliteration.
  • In the normal playthrough of the game, the DX versions of the mid-bosses are fought at the end of the extra levels. Blocky DX, the one appearing in the first level, can be harder than Flowery Woods itself if you're not expecting such a hard enemy. It gives you a taste of what the extra mode and The True Arena is going to be like.
• Walking Spoiler: Queen Sectonia, since Taranza is just her lackey, and Dark Meta Knight, whose appearance is barely foreshadowed until the extra mode.
• Weaponized Headgear: Aside from some of the hats that Kirby gains from his Copy Ability that is the basis of his ability (like Beetle, Bell or Spark), there's also the 3D Helmet Cannon item that lets Kirby fire shots to the background or foreground.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: In Dededetour!, King Dedede has gained a few new hammer tricks that allow him to solve puzzles that Kirby would need abilities for (save the ones needing the Hypernova). Aside from being able to pound stakes as usual, his Hammer Twirl (Down+B) and previously established Hammer Flip (Up+B) can light things on fire, his Hammer Swing (Dash+B) has gained Blow You Away properties and cools off flaming blocks, and by holding B, Dedede performs a Charged Attack that lets him fire an aimable hammer beam (that works like Archer Kirby's arrow) that can cut ropes.
• When Trees Attack: Whispy Woods is notably absent from this title, but in his place is a floral counterpart known as Flowery Woods, who was once a small flower before being enhanced by Taranza's magic. Flowery fights very similarly to Whispy, but uses pollen and flowers instead of apples, and can even create a bunch of vines that extend through the ground.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: After being defeated the first time as Soul of Sectonia, she loses it and rips her head and wings out of the Dreamstalk to continue the fight.
• Wicked Wasps: The Big Bad is revealed partway through to be Queen Sectonia, an enormous wasp Insect Queen. She was not always the gigantic insect she is now, but transformed herself into a giant wasp after tampering with magic in an effort to make herself appear more beautiful.
• Wipe the Floor with You: In a variant, Coily Rattler has a move where he aims at Kirby from the top before charging at him; if he hits Kirby, he'll grab Kirby with his jaws and proceed to drag Kirby across the background before spitting Kirby towards the screen.
• World Tree: In the Japanese version, the beanstalk that Kirby uses to traverse Floralia is literally called the World Tree. It doesn't have most of the associated tropes other than, apparently, being sentient enough to help Kirby on his quest. In the English version, it's named the Dreamstalk.
• Wrestler in All of Us: The Beetle ability has many different wrestling moves, including a backdrop. Essentially, it's an improved version of the Suplex ability. Fittingly, Hornhead (the mid-boss that gives it to you) is an Expy of Bugzzy, who gave you the Suplex ability.
• You Have Failed Me: After Taranza is cornered by Kirby, he calls his queen for help. Her response is to blow him away for messing up. He both survives and realizes he's on the wrong side if that's how she rewards his unfailing loyalty and obedience, which proves instrumental in her ultimate downfall.
• Zero-Effort Boss: In the final stage, you go up against Flowery Woods for the third time. But this time, you have Hypernova, which is so overpowered that you can beat them instantly.

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