Nintendo held Kirby back for the final slot of today’s Nintendo Direct, closing the presentation with Kirby and the World Beyond, a new 3D adventure for Switch 2 due in spring 2027. Nintendo’s own description is that players can freely explore an expansive world and put Copy Abilities to creative use, and the release window coincides with the Kirby series’ 35th anniversary next year.
The trailer opens with standard Kirby activity, inhaling enemies and picking up abilities in a bright 3D world, with Cutter, Sword, Bomb, and Parasol among the returning Copy Abilities. The interesting part comes when a crack appears in the sky, revealing that the world Kirby lives in is enclosed by something, and a small floating companion joins him to investigate what’s on the other side. Nintendo hasn’t said who or what the companion is, but I’m totally getting The Truman Show vibes.
Later footage shows Kirby’s Sword ability powered up to the point where oversized swings cut through trees and other obstacles, plus a fight with King Dedede and a sequence where Kirby breaks through the sky itself to reach the world beyond it. Whether the game is fully open or a set of large connected areas isn’t clear from what was shown, and Nintendo’s “freely explore” wording stops short of calling it open-world outright. If I had to guess, though, I would say it’s probably a completely open-world adventure. No price or exact date was given.
This is the first new mainline 3D Kirby since Kirby and the Forgotten Land in 2022, arriving a year and change after Kirby Air Riders landed on Switch 2 last November. Nintendo says more anniversary details are coming, so expect this one to sit at the center of whatever the 35th celebration turns out to be.
