Power armor may be the most meaningful addition to the Kirby canon since yarn and sequins.

Kirby: Planet Robobot ticks nearly every box that a Kirby game should. It's adorable. It's fun. It's inviting. Kirby eats things. At the same time, Planet Robobot also introduces some significant new mechanics into the mix. Add to that the series' standard glossy topcoat of cuteness and you have a perfectly delightful game — albeit one with a few irritating shortcomings.

Since the series' inception, Kirby's blobby pink life has revolved around eating the other characters that inhabit his world, absorbing their abilities while progressing through relatively linear levels, and fighting the occasional boss. While Kirby's literal hunger for power may be as pure and unaltered as ever, each iteration has to have its twists, and Kirby: Planet Robobot's comes in the hulking metal robot suit that the marshmallowy hero can now pilot.

The mechanical side of Planet Robobot is as precious as its fluffier components

Unlike the vehicular power-ups peppered through previous games, Kirby's Robobot armor is more than just an occasional toy. It's a fixture in every level, and players can expect to spend as much time inside it as they do outside. There's always the option to forgo the armor altogether, of course, and going without can have its advantages. Kirby's armor can unscrew parts of the environment and move large objects, for example, but it can't pass through small spaces, or fly as long or as high as Kirby himself. Players intent on getting as many collectibles as possible will definitely have to make clever use of the suit, but even if you're racing to the end, the mechanic of swapping in and out of the armor never feels cumbersome.

Furthermore, instead of swallowing enemies, an armor-clad Kirby will scan them, allowing the beefy suit to redesign itself and incorporate that enemy's abilities into its appearance and attacks. It would have been easy to make the Robobot armor little more than a souped-up Kirby who could only lift heavy objects or unscrew selected bits of the environment — both of which do come into play in the game's puzzles — but otherwise had the same powers. Instead, each ability behaves differently than Kirby would after inhaling the same enemy. It breathes (sucks?) new life into powers while still feeling familiar and comfortable to play.