Nintendo and its many franchises have had plenty of reason to party over the past few years with several of its legendary properties hitting major milestones. Last year saw not only Pokemon celebrating its 25th anniversary with multiple new games and tributes to the franchise's storied history, but Super Mario's 30th anniversary also came the year before in 2020 and The Legend of Zelda's 35th arrived alongside Pokemon's festivities. Now, Kirby is next-in-line for Nintendo's honors with the pink puffball reaching the 30th year since he debuted in 1992's Kirby's Dream Land and Nintendo has lots in store for the coming year.
Kirby has already kicked off its 30th anniversary with a bang with the long-running franchise's newest game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, releasing recently as the first true 3D platformer in the series. Nintendo also recently announced the Kirby 30th Anniversary Music Fest, a "big-band style" online concert set to take place later this year in August. With Nintendo previously confirming more anniversary projects set to come throughout the year, the most recent addition has seen Japan's Kirby Cafe getting in on the festivities with a lineup of adorable new menu items coming to the themed restaurant.
A tweet from the official Kirby Cafe account shows off the Kirby-inspired items coming to the character cafe with one in particular paying homage to the character's most recent outing. "Transform! Car Mouth Cake" sees Kirby's popular Karby transformation from Kirby and the Forgotten Land being immortalized as a dessert and the "Kirby Burger" features a pink bun emblazoned with Kirby's face, with patrons able to choose whether they want Kirby's modern or classic face on the bun. The cafe even features a small birthday cake for the character and souvenir plates that customers can take home.
Nintendo's Japanese character cafes are renowned for their unique tributes to its iconic franchises. Last month saw Pokemon's Tokyo and Osaka-based cafes adding latte designs to their menu featuring each of the Pokemon from the game's Hoenn region and Universal Studios Japan's Super Nintendo World features a Mario cafe filled with souvenirs and decorations based on the developer's flagship franchise. Themed character cafes are particularly popular in Japan with many other franchises like Final Fantasy and Gundam also featuring similarly designed restaurants.
The release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land earlier this week has been greatly anticipated by fans of the pink puffball ever since its reveal in September of last year. The game serves as the first fully 3D Kirby game, and developer HAL Laboratory recently expressed its desire to make more "wild" Kirby games that innovate on the 30-year-old franchise. Kirby's 30th anniversary is already off to an exciting start with new games and plenty of festivities which should continue throughout 2022.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is available now for Nintendo Switch.
Source: NintendoSoup