While most of Nintendo’s announcements at E3 focused on upcoming games for the remainder of this year, the company did give a glimpse at some titles for farther down the line, including a first look at a new Kirby side-scroller.
The new game — currently just called Kirby for now — features Nintendo’s ravenous pink puffball as he goes about his usual repertoire of devouring enemies to assume their abilities and floating through the air. But Kirby for the Switch seems to be built around a new mechanic whereby Kirby can also befriend his enemies instead of eating them, after which they join the player as either computer-controlled or multiplayer allies. Each enemy type seems to have their own moves for when they’re befriended, and in addition to fighting alongside Kirby, allies will be able to join together for powerful team up attacks,
Given the push by Nintendo for local multiplayer on the Switch, it’s easy to imagine that Kirby will presumably feature local cooperative multiplayer using the Joy-Con controllers, although there’s no confirmation of that yet.
Kirby is expected to release for the Switch sometime in 2018.