New Kirby Game Appears On Nintendo Site In Possible Accidental Leak

In what might have been an accidental leak, last night a new Kirby title appeared on Nintendo's website. The game was briefly viewable before the page was taken down entirely, but there's nothing to suggest the listing wasn't entirely legitimate.

The last entry into the Kirby franchise was 2019's Super Kirby Clash, a free-to-play action-RPG. The game got mixed to positive reviews across the board, and hit over four million downloads in just three months, which would have made it the second-best-selling game in the series. However, the last full-price Kirby title was 2018's Kirby Star Allies which generated slightly more positive reviews and has sold more than 2.56 million copies as of March 2019.

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While the Switch may have a future of hefty exclusives, 2020 has been a relatively lean year for Nintendo releases. Additionally, almost three years have passed since Kirby Star Allies, so a new title would be a welcome announcement by fans. According to Kotaku, that announcement may have come accidentally. Late last night on September 22, a new title named Kirby Fighters 2 appeared on Nintendo's website before being taken down.

The game's unannounced appearance and subsequent removal makes it appear as though this was an accidental leak on Nintendo's end. There are also rumors of a Nintendo Direct in October, which would have made for a better time to announce a new game. Yet, the webpage was made available again later, and Kirby Fighters 2 is still there, so it is hard to say if this is actually how Nintendo wants to announce the game, or if it was an accident that Nintendo decided to just roll with.

The first Kirby Fighters was originally a minigame in 2014's Kirby: Triple Deluxe on now discontinued Nintendo 3DS that later got a standalone release as Kirby Fighters Deluxe. Kirby Fighters' gameplay resembles the Super Smash Bros. series, but instead of different Nintendo icons, the combatants are different versions of Kirby with their own abilities. Gamestop still has copies of the game available for $19.99 USD, so the price listed on Nintendo's website is probably the actual price instead of a placeholder, meaning the release date of Kirby Fighters 2 may be close.

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Source: Kotaku, Wario64