Kirby (character): Difference between revisions
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==Gameplay style== |
==Gameplay style== |
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[[Image:Kirbyart 1.jpg|thumb|Kirby's ball-like form in ''[[Kirby: Canvas Curse]]'']] |
[[Image:Kirbyart 1.jpg|thumb|Kirby's ball-like form in ''[[Kirby: Canvas Curse]]'']] |
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Kirby's signature ability is to inhale enemies with his |
Kirby's signature ability is to inhale enemies with his mouth (which can expand to an incredible size) and swallow them, copying their powers. The Kirby games feature an enormous variety of powers to gain. Swallowing one enemy may grant him the power to shoot needles from his body; another may allow him to become a spinning wheel or a fireball. Kirby can also spit out objects that he's sucked up at high velocity to knock out enemies. Alternatively, the sucking power can be used to suck up air, allowing Kirby to fly. Kirby did not have the power to steal his opponents' abilities in the original 1992 game. |
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In later games (starting with ''[[Kirby's Dream Land 2]]'' on the Game Boy), Kirby was assisted in his quest by three animal friends, Coo the [[owl]], Rick the [[hamster]], and Kine the [[ocean sunfish]]. Later, three more animal friends were introduced in ''[[Kirby's Dream Land 3]]''. These were Pitch, a small green [[bird]], Chu-Chu, a pink [[octopus]]-like blob with a red ribbon on its head, and Nago, a [[cat]]. |
In later games (starting with ''[[Kirby's Dream Land 2]]'' on the Game Boy), Kirby was assisted in his quest by three animal friends, Coo the [[owl]], Rick the [[hamster]], and Kine the [[ocean sunfish]]. Later, three more animal friends were introduced in ''[[Kirby's Dream Land 3]]''. These were Pitch, a small green [[bird]], Chu-Chu, a pink [[octopus]]-like blob with a red ribbon on its head, and Nago, a [[cat]]. |
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Revision as of 01:42, 21 December 2005
Kirby (Japanese: カービィ Kābi) is a character in a series of video games published by Nintendo for their video game consoles and handheld video game systems over the years. He has been the star of a number of namesake games developed by HAL Laboratory. Kirby has also become a popular anime character in recent years. He is voiced by female seiyu Maiko Okamoto in the Super Smash Bros. series and in the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
Overview
Kirby is a small, pink, spherical character with large feet and stubby arms. He is a fantasy character that was originally named Popopo, and his model was created as a blob placeholder sprite during the development of what would be the first Kirby game. After working with it for a while, creator Masahiro Sakurai started to prefer the placeholder's design over the one they originally had in mind.
Kirby's color was a subject for debate in the beginning: Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make Kirby yellow, whereas Sakurai insisted upon pink. Ultimately, Sakurai stuck with pink. It should be noted that, regardless of the choice, these colors would be depicted as a yellowish green on the Game Boy, the platform on which Kirby was to make his first appearance. Because of this ambiguity, Nintendo of America was left with a bit of confusion when the game was ported to the West. As a result, the American box art and cartridge label of Kirby's Dream Land features Kirby as white. The Japanese box art, however, correctly depicts Kirby as pink. In later games Kirby gained the ability to switch colors. In Super Smash Bros. Melee and "Kirby Air Ride", the yellow, white, pink, blue, red and green colors appear as palette swaps for the character. In Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, the player collects spraypaints to change Kirby's color.
Kirby is an oddly heroic resident of Dream Land (Pupupu Land in the Japanese version), located on the Planet Popstar. The cute, peaceful residents of Dream Land often find themselves being terrorized by some form of evil creature, which Kirby must venture out to defeat.
Gameplay style
Kirby's signature ability is to inhale enemies with his mouth (which can expand to an incredible size) and swallow them, copying their powers. The Kirby games feature an enormous variety of powers to gain. Swallowing one enemy may grant him the power to shoot needles from his body; another may allow him to become a spinning wheel or a fireball. Kirby can also spit out objects that he's sucked up at high velocity to knock out enemies. Alternatively, the sucking power can be used to suck up air, allowing Kirby to fly. Kirby did not have the power to steal his opponents' abilities in the original 1992 game.
In later games (starting with Kirby's Dream Land 2 on the Game Boy), Kirby was assisted in his quest by three animal friends, Coo the owl, Rick the hamster, and Kine the ocean sunfish. Later, three more animal friends were introduced in Kirby's Dream Land 3. These were Pitch, a small green bird, Chu-Chu, a pink octopus-like blob with a red ribbon on its head, and Nago, a cat.
In some later games, Kirby also gains the ability to summon computer-controlled allies to help him in battle, such as the friendly monsters from Kirby Super Star, Gooey from Kirby's Dream Land 3, or the Mirror Kirbies in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. The E3 trailer for an upcoming Gamecube title also features multiple monster helpers, a la Super Star.
Also, Kirby's ball-like form has earned him a place as the ball in a number of sports or arcade type games, such as pinball and golf. (The golf game was actually a remake of a Japan-only golf game using the style of Kirby's games.) His ball-like form is taken advantage of in his latest game, Kirby: Canvas Curse for the Nintendo DS, in which a player uses a magic paintbrush to roll him around.
Kirby's Powers
Kirby has many abilities, ranging from copied ones to his basic moveset.
Basic abilities
Kirby's main ability is to inhale enemies, items and food, wielding different effects. In Kirby's Dream Land, this ability was only used for disposing of enemies or using them as projectiles to defeat other enemies. A new extension of this ability was added in Kirby's Adventure, giving Kirby the ability to steal an enemy's powers by swallowing them. For example, an enemy named Waddle Doo gives Kirby the Beam ability.
The inhaling ability also allows Kirby to fly, which is one of his most common abilities in the series. Kirby achieves this by inhaling air in order to inflate himself like a balloon, allowing him to float through the air indefinitely. In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Super Smash Bros and Super Smash Bros Melee, Kirby's flying ability was limited. Instead of infinite flight, he was now only able to fly for a short period of time before dropping back to the ground, although his flight time is much longer in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. After his first fight with King Dedede, Dedede mastered the ability to inflate himself like a balloon to compete with Kirby.
Another skill, featured only in Kirby Super Star, was Kirby's ability to project a force field around himself to ward off attacks. The appearance of this shield changes when Kirby has certain abilities (for instance, the Ice power lets him shield himself in an ice block, and the Mirror power lets him create a multicolored barrier).
An ability featured in Kirby Super Star which also brought multiplayer to the Kirby series, was the ability to create a helper from Kirby's current power. This helper resembles whatever enemy it was that Kirby's power was stolen from. In Kirby's Dream Land 3 Kirby could also get help from another helper character called Gooey, which like Kirby could steal enemies powers by swallowing them. Both Gooey and the helper characters would be computer controlled by default, but if another controller was used, the helper characters could be controlled by another player.
Other common abilities include sliding and dashing.
Copied powers
Over the many games Kirby has starred in, he has had varying powers, but he did not have any of these copied powers in his first game, Kirby's Dream Land. The ability to take powers from his enemies was not used until the sequel titled Kirby's Adventure. Kirby gains these powers by inhaling certain enemies and swallowing them. Throughout the other games, there have been varying types of powers, new powers and even combination powers.
One of the most common of these powers is the Beam ability, which allows Kirby to, like Waddle Doo, release a beam. In Kirby Super Star, this power was expanded upon, giving Kirby extra abilities, such as a downward beam, a spinning vortex of balls, a beam throw and a large blast of energy. Kirby Super Star was the first to introduce multiple attacks for each ability, outside of the Parasol's multiple techniques and the chargable beam of the UFO ability in past games. Kirby Super Star also allowed him to create a helper from his powerup, which resembles the enemy he got the power from. The multiple technique concept was not reused in future games, although Kirby and the Amazing Mirror have some abilities with several types of attacks, including some new ones.
Kirby's Dream Land 2 introduced many new variations of past moves, which Kirby uses through riding on Rick, Kine or Coo. Depending on the power Kirby is using at the time, the power will work differently depending on who the player is riding with. For example, using the Cutter ability with Kine will cause Kine to shoot a large beam shaped like a cutter from his mouth. This was continued in Kirby's Dream Land 3, and while the formula was not changed, the addition of three new characters, Nago, Pitch and Chu Chu increased the number of moves. Combo powers were brought back in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, but in a different way; instead of joining with an animal friend to get new moves, Kirby has access to seven powers, and he can combine these powers to get even more powers, some of them proving to be very useful. Kirby 64 was the first Kirby platformer, since the powers were introduced, to not include the Beam power.
Powerup Items
As with many other platform games, there are also items that Kirby can acquire to aid him on his quest. These include the soda bottle, Maxim Tomato and carrot, which replenish Kirby's health, the lollipop, which makes him invincible, and 1-ups, which grant him more "lives".
Pep drinks can restore most of Kirby health. In some games they are also considered capsules, or power drinks.
In a few games, there is food, that restores very little of Kirby's health. They are usually easily found.
In Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, batteries can give his cellphone another use, for it can only be used three times.
An interesting note is that in Kirby's Dream Land, the first game, Kirby did not have the ability to copy powers. However, there was an item called a "mic" that allowed Kirby to scream into the device once and destroy all the enemies on screen. It only showed up twice during the game, but appeared in later titles as enemies that could grant the player the same power.
Magical Items
Star Rod
The star rod is wand-like item and the ultimate weapon in several Kirby games. It is always used in final boss battles and allows Kirby to cast star-shaped projectiles at his foes. Nightmare once attempted to use it to gain access to Dream Land, but King Dedede thwarted his plans, removed the Star Rod, and broke it into seven pieces to ensure no one could release him. The item is most often used against Cloaked Nightmare and Dark Matter, the most common villains of the Kirby series. The star rod also appears in the Super Smash Bros. games as a randomly appearing weapon that can be used by any character.
Rainbow Sword
Following the lead of many other magical items in the Kirby universe, the Rainbow Sword is another "ultimate weapon" Kirby must use against the final boss of the game. It only appeared in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and was used to fight Dark Matter. It was composed of the seven Rainbow Drops, which had to be gathered from each of the seven levels of the game. This weapon was one of the few that was not assembled as the player beat bosses. As Kirby's Dream land 2 was released on the black-and-white Game Boy, the sword had to assert the "Rainbow" nomenclature by drawing a huge rainbow over Dream Land at the end of the game.
LoveLove Stick
Like the Star Rod, the LoveLove stick also functioned as a power to defeat the final boss of Kirby's Dream Land 3. Its only appearance was in Kirby's Dream Land 3, and was composed of thirty Heart Stars that Kirby had to collect from every stage in every level by completing certain tasks for a friend at the end of each of those stages. Kirby could fire Heart Stars at the boss when the LoveLove Stick was completed and used it to fight Dark Matter and 0.
Crystal Gun
Like the Star Rod, the Crystal Gun functioned as a power to defeat the final boss in Kirby 64. It only made an appearence in Kirby 64 and was assembled by the parts of the crystals of Ripple Star that the player had to collect. This resembled the task of collecting the parts of the Star Rod in other Kirby games.
Galaxia
Meta Knight owned the sword in both the anime and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. In the game, where it is known as the Master Sword, it is given to Kirby when he fights the final boss, Dark Mind. It is located in front of the golden mirror after Dark Mind is defeated. The sword is used like a regular sword, but can unleash a shockwave or rampage through enemies. It can also mimic the hammer and burning powers.
Cellphone
In Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kirby uses a cellphone so that he can call his friends to ask for assistance. Although not itself a weapon, the cell phone can be useful when fighting difficult bosses. If the player is not using the multiplayer option, all of Kirby's friends are computer controlled. The cellphone can only be used three times unless a battery is found.
Kirby in the Super Smash Bros. series
In 1999, Nintendo and HAL Laboratories released a 4-player fighting/party game called Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 video game system. The game featured eight of Nintendo's mascots (another four characters could be unlocked by various means) duking it out in stages based on each of the eight main characters' game(s). The title was a hit and a sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was released shortly after the launch of Nintendo's next system, the GameCube.
In Super Smash Bros., Kirby retains his Float ability (in the form of a six-use multi-jump), can Swallow other players (allowing him to perform one of their special moves), and has a number of strong combos. Kirby also has his Stone and Final Cutter abilities from the previous Kirby games. The floating ability in particular made him a favorite choice for many beginning players, but he was well-loved by players of all skill levels.
Kirby's character was considered by many to be too powerful in the original Smash Bros., so HAL Laboratories decided to weaken the character to make him more balanced for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Kirby now has a new special attack that allows him to swing a hammer in addition to his Stone, Final Cutter, and Swallow specials. All of his attacks have significantly weaker throw, and Kirby is considered a low-tier character.
In Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kirby can actually get his Super Smash Bros. Melee attacks by defeating and swallowing a scaled-down version of Master Hand, the final boss from both Smash Bros. games.
Anime and manga
Kirby stars in his own anime titled Hoshi no Kaabii ("Kirby of the Stars"). It is currently licensed in North America by 4Kids under the title Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and it aired on 4Kids TV, formerly the Fox Box (since 2002, heading to its final episodes), via Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting (since 2001 which has done 100 episodes). It is produced by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory, Inc.
Kirby also starred in his own manga series, which was never released outside Japan.