Kirbyhas gone through a lot of Copy Abilities over the years, and some have stuck around more than others. The ones found inKirby Super Starare typically a solid ensemble that represent both some of the mostcommon abilities like Sword, Fire, and Bombas well as some rarely seen ones like Copy and Jet. What powers Kirby is bringing to the table vary with each title, but they’re guaranteed to be fun and useful in a variety of situations - though the Wrestler Copy Abillity is one to keep an eye on.
The variety found within Copy Abilities has kept growing over the years, with new takes on them like their candy forms inKirby’s Dream BuffetorPlanet Robobot’s Robobot Modes adding on to their legacy. Sometimes, however, a Copy Ability is introduced in oneKirbygame and never returns. Having two or three appearances across the series is fairly common but only a few powers have been one-and-done. Animal fromKirby: Squeak Squadis one example, and Balloon from the uniqueKirby: Canvas Curseis another. However, sometimes it’s not uniqueness that denies an ability’s return, but rather too much crossover with other powers. It’s still fairly new, but that may end up being the case with the Wrestler Copy Ability.
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How Wrestler Came to Be In Kirby Fighters 2
Before one can even discuss Wrestler, several Copy Abilities that merged together into it need to be covered. The first ones are Throw and Backdrop, both of them wearing different colored bandanas. They were both introduced inKirby’s Adventure, and serve somewhat similar roles.Throw allows Kirby to shoot an enemyin various directions, while Backdrop performs a spectacular finishing move on them instead. By the timeKirby Super Starrolled around, Backdrop had evolved into the slightly more complex Suplex, which gave Kirby a few more options on how to grab and throw enemies. Fighter, another Copy Ability using a bandana as its costume, was also introduced inKirby Super Star.
These three abilities came and went in various games, although Fighter was by far the most common of them. Eventually theKirby Fightersside series started, with Fighter being an obvious core character. Eventually,Kirby Fighters 2was announcedas a standalone title on the Nintendo Switch, and it introduced several new playable characters and abilities into the fray. Fighter was still there, but alongside it was a hybrid of Fighter and Suplex known as Wrestler. It’s difficult to describe it as anything else, as it inherited Suplex’s different throwing techniques as well as Fighter’s propensity for hand-to-hand combat. It may be a little slower and heavier, but its inspirations are clear.
How Wrestler Could Be Adapted Into a New Kirby Game
Thanks to what it is, there are actually a lot of good reasons why the Wrestler ability should appear in anotherKirbygame. Now thatKirbyis delving into the realm of 3D, the previous Suplex and Throw abilities won’t work as well as they used to. They were always intended to be more cinematic and flashy than other abilities, and Throw was even conceptualized as an upgrade to Kirby’s basic inhaling and spitting stars. The small and niche move sets that these abilities came with wouldn’t work in the modernKirbyenvironment, no matter how cool they are.
Enter the Wrestler ability. Wrestler invalidates every hand-to-hand Copy Ability apart from Fighter, and it serves as a good counterpart to it. Wrestler’s basic moveset does function like Fighter’s, but it focuses entirely on heavy melee strikes flavored like professional wrestling maneuvers instead oftheStreet Fightermoves that Fighter uses. This is enough to flesh out a full Kirby moveset, with the throw tree accessible via a dash grab as always. Plus, more directions in 3D means potentially new throws. It would be great to see what HAL Laboratory can come up with for a modern take on Wrestler. With any luck, its appearance in a recent Switch game means it has a chance to make itsKirbyplatformer debut soon.
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