Have you ever just stopped to consider the similarities of Yoshi and Kirby?
These are two of Nintendo’s biggest stars. Two of the eight original Smash Bros. fighters. Both headliners of their own separate, ongoing franchises that have been regularly getting new games since the ’90s. Both of them have eating enemies as their main gameplay gimmick in the core installments of their series, but then both also regularly entertain their audiences with spin-off titles that set their insatiable natures aside in favor of goofy, one-off design ideas. And both have been given gorgeous, yarn-themed platformers designed by the fine folks over at Good-Feel!
It’s that last point that really rose to the forefront of my mind as we began planning for this issue, especially after Nintendo confirmed that the month of March would see the release of Yoshi’s Crafted World (by Good-Feel), but that it would be preceded three weeks earlier in the same month by Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn (also by Good-Feel). It’s like the opening act for Crafted World is its own grandpa! (With Yoshi’s Woolly World being the generation in between the two in this scenario.)
Nintendo clearly thinks of both Kirby and Yoshi in the same way, using them for the same purposes in the same styles of games – and that made me imagine that the two of them, in a sense, are rivals with one another. Not direct rivals in an in-game way like Ryu and Ken or Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and not even in a marketing sense like Mario and Sonic. But both the Pink Puffball and the Green Gobbler are constantly elbowing each other for position behind the scenes in the offices of the Big N, I have no doubt.
So get ready for Rivals Unraveled! We’re springboarding off that Yoshi/Kirby duality that’s being placed front and center this March and using it as an opportunity to examine other ongoing rivalries in gaming too. You’ll see such battles between brands brought up here and there throughout the pages in this issue, and maybe you’ll find yourself siding with one over the other each time!
As always, print copies of this issue ship with a double-sided wall poster! Yoshi on one side and Kirby on the other. Which will win the battle for your wall space?
