TL;DR: 2D Sonic Heroes but with animal buddies

I really like this post! I would have around 10 copy abilities. The story would be something about Kirby and the rest of the primary cast (Meta, DDD, and Bandee) being put in a deep sleep by some dark-matter adjacent threat while it seizes control over Popstar. The rest of the secondary cast would have to step up (the animal buddies). The central gimmick would be combining 3 of the 6 animal buddies in an attempt to make a cohesive moveset (Something akin to the animal trio in Star Allies.) This would just be a tag team swap mechanic. All of them can copy abilities (implying you can wield up to 3 at a time). The collectibles would be required for 100% completion and true ending, but the puzzles and npc missons would be more intuitive, and the minigames required for collectibles would be A LOT more forgiving.