The past year and a half was a busy one for Kirby fans. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby’s Dream Buffet and Kirby’s Return To Dreamland Deluxe have all released during that time period. One of those games, Kirby’s Return To Dreamland Deluxe, was particularly interesting. Not only did the game have additional content, but the graphics were somewhat unique. You may have noticed that, in the game, the characters have outlines around them.
Well, thanks to a Nintendo Dream interview with general director Shinya Kumazaki, director Yutaka Watanabe, and coordinator Kenta Nakanishi, we now know why. In the interview, which was translated by Nintendo Everything, the devs talked about the matter, revealing that it was something they gave a lot of thought about. Even after they decided to do it, they were careful about it and, according to Kumazaki, “we certainly went over and over the idea of adding an outline to ensure the finished look was natural and still beautiful”.
There were actually multiple reasons for the outlines. Kumazaki said that they “wanted to distinguish it from the Kirby 3DS games at that time. Kirby Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot”, and that “we thought we needed to do a little something about visibility. So we considered the theme of ‘even with four people playing, you won’t lose sight of your character'”.
I actually like the outline choice art style wise it makes things pop and it’s very cute.
I didn’t play the OG Return to Dream Land; was character visibility really a problem?
No.