Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby, my old friend! Long time no see! I remember when I reviewed every game in Kirby's Dream Collection on the Wii. I didn’t know if I’d ever return to the franchise – but I heard about today’s game a lot, so it was on my wishlist when I got a Switch.

Something happened here, you just know it.
P.S. I got the screenshots from RetroArchive's playthrough.
Go check it out if you want to see the full game.

I have a soft spot for the pink puffball’s adventures, because they’re so much more than they appear. They’re generally easy if your only goal is to get to the “final boss” (big air quotes), but if you want to fight the real final boss, you’ll face challenges that are much tougher. And that also applies to story: Kirby games are the cutest damn things ever but past the cozy, cutesy tone of Dream Land, there are nightmares on the sidelines. And it’s weird, but I’ve grown so accustomed to it that I now play these games knowing the other shoe will drop. It’s so well-known that the trick for this franchise now is to think up a good twist.

And of course, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is no exception. Developed by HAL Laboratory and released on March 25th, 2022, this new game features the core cast of the series in yet another major adventure, Kirby front and center as always. This is, notably, the Star Warrior's first adventure fully in 3D. What’s going on this time, and what IS the Forgotten Land?

For the record, since the game is recent, have a spoiler alert; I reveal the whole story.

We’re not in Kansas Popstar anymore

It was a normal day on Popstar when a vortex opened, creating a windstorm. Enemies and Waddle Dees getting sucked in left and right. Kirby fails to escape and winds up in the vortex as well. Weird things happen in the space between worlds, and the puffball awakens on a beach. Always jolly and eager for everything, Kirby sets out to explore. He meets the local wildlife, and winds up in the middle of... a city???

Carby.
That is all.

While inhaling doglike creatures known as Awoofys in an empty store, Kirby accidentally sucks up a car and, since it’s too large for him, it just... gets stuck in his mouth, with his body molding over its form. This is the new mechanic, “Mouthful Mode”, where Kirby can “inhale” a huge item and gain temporary new skills. The car goes fast and rams into enemies, the traffic cone can smash the ground, the pipe can roll down hills and break through walls, the lightbulb can light up dark areas... When in that mode, Kirby can no longer use his current copy ability, and the next level portion is designed for your Mouthful form.

Top 12 Creepy Nintendo Locations

Alright, so, quite some time ago, I discussed the 12 moments in Nintendo series that scared me the most, I’ll be honest, most of those moments actually touched on primal fears, ones that I have, but ones that anybody can relate to; and that was the strength of many of these scenes. It's agreat thing about many Nintendo titles that. either in the story in the ambiance they try to convey, they attempt to scare, or feature scenarios that call to one’s fears.

Although, most examples I gave back then were actually about the story in the games discussed. Some of those points were about ambiance, but not many. And yet, ambiance is one of the most important elements in the production of any work of fiction. The looks of a place and the music that can be heard in it. The events that happen in it are amplified by these elements. That’s why it’s so important to not only feature a good story, but to also have the accompanying ambiance. You can’t just slap a scary place somewhere and expect it to do the job! It’s an exercise in subtlety where a game’s developers have to build up the suspense, the dread, sometimes with implications that the player may not pick on. And that’s before anything plot-relevant happens!

As an homage to the art of ambiance, today I am listing 12 of the creepiest Nintendo locations – and why they deserve this spot on the list.

12. Ripple Star (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)

RememberÉ: You're pretty much inside the swarm of
Dark Matters.

Starting with a Kirby location! While researching for this list, I noticed Kirby had a lot of scary final bosses, but very few locations that were outright scary. Ripple Star is another story. Imagine the easy first level of the game, except instead of taking place in a grassland with a nice sand walkway, it’s… well, basically Hell. The floor is red, made of these weird unnatural hexagons. The sky is completely black. In fact, is that even a sky, we can’t really tell; if anything, all this blackness is actually Dark Matter blocking the entire sky. The music in Ripple Star 6-2 is horrible, closer to noise than an actual melody, and you will rush through just to make the maddening composition end. The place is so barren, too; say what you want about World 8 in Super Mario Bros 3, but it was full of enemies and interesting traps. The lack of danger between Kirby and the final boss is probably the scariest; it’s like the boss wants Kirby to easily get to him…

Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition

Alright, so for those who weren’t keeping count:

-In January 2015, I discussed my 12 favorite Kirby abilities.

-In early May 2015, I reviewed Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, because I owned the title on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

-Then, thanks to Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Collection, I reviewed Kirby’s Dream Land in November 2015.

-After which, I started 2016 with a quick post about the Kirby anime, which didn’t really measure up to my expectations. Also, I was hoping to post recaps of the episodes of the Kirby anime, one per day, on days that had no reviews, but I was unable to follow through with that promise due to real life issues jumping in.

-Still, I reviewed Kirby’s Adventure afterwards, still in January.

-Then, in March, it was Kirby’s Dream Land 2.

-Then in May, I took a look at the nine games in Kirby Super Star.

-Two weeks ago, I reviewed the final classic Kirby title in Kirby’s Dream Collection, Kirby’s Dream Land 3.

-And finally, I reviewed the three episodes of the Kirby anime that were made available in this collector’s item, then gave 12 additional recommendations.

Today, we end this. It’s the last post about Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition! I will be done talking about Kirby games for a long while after this! I feel a bit sad, kissing the franchise goodbye on this blog… but as they say in French, “ce n’est qu’un au revoir”. Who knows, I might buy more Kirby games later, and then, I will come back to the puffball to discuss his mighty exploits again. Therefore, allow me to honor him for what is, at the moment, the last time.

Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition is, as I described it, a collector’s item for Kirby fans everywhere, released in 2012 to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the franchise. It is a bundle of six classic games for the fans who may not have owned one or another of those, and it’s a great introduction for players like me, who know the series but have only played one or two titles and wanted to see more. It’s sold in a box that contains the game, yes, but also a 45-track CD containing the highlights of the soundtracks of Kirby games from his humble 8-bit beginnings to today, as well as a collectible book that details the History of Kirby and offers interesting info on the development of the Kirby games and the creation process that went behind its unforgettable characters.

I won’t talk about the booklet much, in part because I tend to read it a lot, but mostly because I have a bad tendency to forget where I last put it the next time I actually need it. I’m kind of a scatterbrain like that. I’ll just say that it shows sketch drawings of characters like Kirby, Dedede, Waddle Dee and Meta Knight, showing their evolution on paper before they became sprites, and later, 3D models. The game also goes back on all the games released before the 20^th anniversary collection, including the spin-offs like Kirby’s Pinball Land (probably just as bad as a certain game called Mario Pinball Land) to Kirby Air Ride. Great stuff!

On to the music CD found in the Wii game’s box. It contains 67 minutes of music, spread over 45 tracks. Yes, you’ve read that right. Of those, 14 tracks are under 1 minute in length, starting at 0:32 (with the main theme for Kirby’s Dream Land, no less!), 22 are between 1 and 2 minutes in length, and the last 9 range from 2:11 to 4:42. The last few tracks include:

-“Returning to Dream Land”, a medley of tracks from what was then the latest game, “Kirby’s Return to Dream Land”;

-“Electro Kirby”, a great techno song that contains parts of famous Kirby tracks;

-“Gourmet Race To Green Greens: Chamber Music”, an orchestral version that combines these two songs, and it sounds really epic;

-And “Dream a New Dream for Tomorrow”, a very peaceful track, perfect to close the album with a last nod to the “dream” theme of the series.

I suggest that you seek out this CD, or at least check out the YouTube playlist I’ve found that lets you listen to all the songs.

Next up is the Wii game itself: It opens on an 8bit Kirby walking into frame with his allies. A CGI star shows up, which Kirby inhales, turning them all into their CGI forms (though King Dedede isn’t too happy with his now protruding tummy). Waddle Dees pass by and form a big 20 in Star Blocks. Kirby inhales the blocks and spits them out, then gets clobbered into it by Dedede, forming the title screen. We get to a screen with three options: “New Challenge Stages”, “Classic Titles” and “Kirby’s History”, We’ll go in the last option for now, since I covered everything in the middle option and the first option can wait some more.

In “Kirby’s History”, we can see everyone’s favorite copy puffball running through a hall, stopping next to points with years on them. On every year, there’s either a Kirby game’s box art when a Kirby game was released that year (or more than one, in some cases), or golden 8-bit statues of retro Kirby characters for years that saw no new release in the Kirby franchise. When you pick a game, Kirby inhales it, bringing you to a screen where you can rotate a 3D model of that game’s box (.....yaaaaay?), or watch a moment of its gameplay. As a bonus, if said game is in Kirby’s Dream Collection, you can press a button to play it! The years without Kirby games offer fun tidbits of trivia about that year, which is pretty cool. On the 2002 spot, you can access the three episodes of Kirby: Right Back At Ya I reviewed a week ago. The last option, which itself is Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition, contains a video clip of the musicians playing “Gourmet Race To Green Greens: Chamber Music”.

Magolor, ready to race!

On to the “New Challenge Stages”! Meet Magolor, a villain who pretended to be an ally but then turned out to be a villain but then became a good guy after he was defeated. Make up your mind, pal. To apologize for the mess he made in Kirby’s Return To Dream Land, he has built an amusement park where Kirby can test out various copy abilities. The first world, Happiness Hall, features Kirby with the Sword, Parasol and Spark abilities, and he must learn to master each ability in its respective level to reach the exit in record time while collecting as many points as possible. On each level, you can earn a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal depending on how well you perform. Completing those three levels unlocks a race against Magolor, who will be using his little magic to summon common enemies in Kirby’s way. A “world” here adds up your score and you may receive a Bronze, Silver or Gold Trophy by scoring well enough on all four levels of that world.

Killing golden Waddle Dees for fun!

World 2, Apricot Atrium, follows the same rules, but teaches you to use three other abilities to their full extent: Whip, Fighter and Wing. World 3, Last Land (hey, the initials of these three worlds form HAL!), is a little different: You have only two Kirby forms, and those are peculiar: One is Kirby with his moves from the Super Smash Bros. series, and the other is plain Kirby, unable to gain abilities but still powerful even if he’s reduced to being only able to inhale enemies and spit them back to defend himself. Which means he’s not exactly powerless, either. Beating these two levels unlocks the race against Magolor, once more, and it works just like before, it’s almost a bore. Want an encore?

Magolor, stop cheating!

After you beat that third race, you’re not really done yet, as you unlock a second Smash level, titled EX, followed by another Magolor race, also EX. And while this isn’t the hardest challenge in the whole game, it sure measures up with some of the harder stuff to complete on this collection. Magolor’s a fast bugger, and the only reason you’re able to catch up to him is that he stops sometimes to throw spells to make your race harder. And even then, it’s almost impossible to beat him on this one. It’s crazy.

This mode is based on the Challenge Mode that started in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, which I haven’t played yet. And while you can reasonably beat these 13 levels in a short enough timespan, the last ones are pretty tight on timing – oh yeah, did I mention that the Challenge Stages are timed, thus you need to hurry? Chances are, in the final levels, if the waves of enemies don’t kill you, the timer will. It’s even worse in the Smash stages, which work like the towers of midbosses in the Kirby games.

And of course, if you think about it, you haven’t beaten Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition until you’ve attained 100% in each of the six games, and gained all Gold medals and trophies from the Challenge Stages. Good luck with all of that.

Honestly, what else can I add to this? It’s an excellent collector’s edition to celebrate what were then the 20 years of the Kirby series, and if I had a Wii U, I would already be looking forward to the 25^th Anniversary game! The music CD has plenty of tracks, and even though most are very short, they’re a pretty great look back through music at those 20 years. The booklet is also pretty great, most Kirby fans are bound to learn a few new things by reading through it.

As for the game itself, I really like the “Kirby’s History” section, if only because of all the gameplay videos and the three episodes of Kirby: Right Back At Ya that are available on it. I also love being able to play through these six games. They’re not a walk in the park; reaching the end of every game is simpler than actually beating them. The Kirby games really master the idea of gradual difficulty that you’d expect from most platforming games, and the copy abilities don’t technically affect the game all that much – that is, if you don’t play for completion. Were you to play for completion, you would encounter puzzles that get harder and harder as you progress, and you would probably see your frustration increase to unbearable levels due to some of those. Whether it’s a certain mini-game located near the end of a tough level – looking at you, Kawasaki – or the ever-popular “get to the end of a difficult level with a near-useless ability”, we can tell the folks at HAL Laboratory know what they’re doing. Their goal is for you to enjoy the regular game, and swear like a sailor when the time comes to achieve 100% completion. Nowhere is this made more obvious than in the Boss Battle modes, most of which give you a single life to beat all the bosses of a game, with no abilities nor healing items on the way. Hell, the Boss Arena from Kirby Super Star is hard as Hell, and it allows you to use abilities and get a Maxim Tomato if you need; it still took me upwards of 20 tries before I could beat it!

The difficulty of the Kirby games pretty accurately represents the universe of the series: Cutesy, nice, bright and easy on the surface, but dig just a little deeper and you’ll find a world of Hellish monsters with an insane difficulty. Same goes for the New Challenge Stages playable here: Most of them are actually pretty simple if you know what to do, but to get that prized Gold Trophy you need superhuman reflexes. Once again, pretty much like the regular Kirby games.

Is this a good collector’s item? To be honest, I don’t know. I personally think that for 40$ (its original release price), these six titles + the New Challenge Stages + the music CD + the booklet is a more than welcome gift. It's a very reasonable price, considering most regular Wii titles are actually more expensive than that. Maybe a figurine would have raised the price too much… but hey, that doesn’t really matter. I got my Kirby plushie anyway. And then there’s the Kirby Amiibo to fill that gap. So yeah, I’m perfectly satisfied with what we got here. I do wonder what they’re going to do for the 25^th anniversary, which happens to be next year…

Okay, now that I’m done talking about Kirby, as you may guess, the review schedule will get turned around some more. I will no longer preface my review arc with a Kirby game. This means we’re coming back to the regular order, with slight differences however:

-A VGFlicks about a film related to video games, or an Episode In Gaming about a TV show related to a game franchise;

-A Nintendo DS game;

-Two Wii games;

-A WiiWare or Virtual Console title;

-As a new addition to the order, some reviews of Steam games, sometimes done like Demo Reviews, sometimes full reviews, all depending on the size of a game and what I can say about it. I have yet to figure out how to arrange that;

-And once again, a Top 12 to close the arc.

Due to the Olympics and the closure of my extended look at the Kirby series, we’ve already covered two Wii games, done the Episode In Gaming part, and we’ve also done the Kirby title, which leaves us with a Nintendo DS game, a WiiWare or Virtual Console game, some Steam Stuff, and then a Top 12. Alright, goodbye!

Kirby: Right Back At Ya - 12 Recommendations

Last week, I reviewed three episodes of the anime Kirby: Right Back At Ya, three episodes that were put on Kirby’s Dream Collection, But this does not mean we should keep it to only these three episodes! The anime has 100 episodes, there’s got to be some good ones in there. And indeed, there are! And, in fact, more than 12 good episodes. I went back through the series, and found over 12 episodes that I heartily recommend. The three episodes of the previous post, plus the ones here, this should be a 7-hour binge. Honestly, if you like the Kirby series, you should check these out.

1. Episode 4 – Dark and Stormy Knight

You’ll find that some episodes on this list advance the overarching plot of the series. And the series wastes no time to get into the meat of the plot. Episode 3, “Kirby’s Duel Role”, had Meta Knight dueling Kirby to push the pink baby to his limits, as Meta Knight is teaching Kirby to reach his potential. In this one, we learn more about Meta Knight’s backstory, which he explains to Tiff. Meanwhile, it’s Hell outside with NightMare Enterprise sending none other than Kracko after Kirby, attempting to zap him and generally causing destruction all over Cappy Town. Much like in the games, Kracko is a formidable opponent with extremely dangerous moves, and it takes Kirby everything he’s got to be able to hurt it. That’s the kind of episode needed in a TV show: The pilot tries to drag you in and present the concept. The first few episodes need to show off the universe surrounding the characters, explain more of it. In the case of series with a continuity, the first few episodes must already throw hints at the greater storyline, and on that front, the Kirby anime does pretty well. Oh, not all episodes on this list are relevant to the story arc; but it makes sense that this list would have some of them. Also, freaking Kracko, man.

2. Episode 6 – Un-Reality TV

Tssk. Puppetry shows are so passé. Too bad
there isn't a Jim Henson in that universe to help.

Even though Dedede is the King of the place and already rules with an iron fist, he’s not exactly taken seriously. His crusade against Kirby only made it worse, as the King has suffered defeat after defeat. What’s a King to do to get control of his citizens? Well, control the media, of course! After all, the little people ae more inclined to accept what they hear on TV! Or else, why would it be on TV? Thus the penguin delivers televisions to every home in Cappy Town, with a single channel (that we know of): DDD, a propaganda reputable channel that will repeat as often as possible that Kirby is a threat and King Dedede is a benevolent ruler. Somehow, Dedede and Escargoon turn out to be a part of every show, whether it’s a quiz, the news, a cooking show, a kaiju film, a Star Trek spoof… or even a medical drama. Gee, there’s an awful lot of characters speaking in a Southern accent in these shows. Things get serious, however, when Dedede uses this media to hypnotize the people of Cappy Town to turn on Kirby… A pretty funny commentary on television, with a whole bunch of parodies – how could one say no to that?

A hospital drama... in the Kirby universe. Odd.

3. Episode 21 – The Empty Nest Mess

This show salvaged Dyna Chicks, who had so far
only been seen like annoying chirping creatures.
They're so cuuuute here!

As shown Friday in “Waddle While You Work”, whenever Dyna Blade gets involved, you know something BAD is about to happen. She’s an actual wild animal here, and not a monster created by eNeMeE, thus she has an agenda of her own, which is mostly two words: "Protect chicks". There was that episode where Kirby found a Dyna Egg and everyone was afraid he’d gobble it up; he ended up hatching it and raising the baby. Then there’s “The Empty Nest Mess”. To avoid having to pay eNeMeE to get monsters, Dedede has Escargoon create an instant monster formula: A potion that transforms any creature into a monster. Don’t yell BS too quickly, instead wait to see what they plan to do with it: Injecting a Dyna Chick. Now, thats pretty evil. Thankfully, thanks to their incompetence, the first Dyna Chick they catch escapes and goes on a joyride around Cappy Town, which gives some absolutely adorable moments. Most of the episode afterwards is Kirby and Dedede racing to get the chick first, with Dyna Blade hot on Kirby’s trail, as the heroes try to prevent the horrible from happening.

4. Episode 24 – Hour of the Wolfwrath

Wait, a Fire/Electric wolf? Are we sure this is not
a Gen 7 Pokémon leaked years ahe3ad of time?

One of the most beloved episodes of the series, dealing with Meta Knight’s backstory – and in particular, how he came to have Sword and Blade by his side. As usual, King Dedede orders a new monster from eNeMeE, the aptly-named Wolfwrath, which then runs off and wreaks havoc in his castle. Upon finding out that it’s let loose, Sword and Blade go tell Meta Knight. The beats goes out looking for Kirby but Meta Knight steps in to fight it. When Sword and Blade show up, MK orders them to protect Kirby no matter what while he fends off the fiery wolf beast. After Meta Knight gets paralyzed and everyone else has to defeat Wolfwrath by their own means, Sword and Blade explain their backstory: Saved from that same wolf monster by Meta Knight in the days of Star Warriors, and Meta Knight took them under his wing to teach them the way of the warrior, as before they were nothing but lowly crooks. And as they recount this story, Wolfwrath is still in the halls, setting the castle on fire… Anyway, great episode, but no amount of text from me will do it any justice. Really, go watch it.

5. Episode 40 – Sheepwrecked

Never underestimate the strength of numbers.

Some of the weirder ideas could derail and result in awful episodes, or become classics. In this one, a reference to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a little sheep attacks Kirby, and nobody believes Tiff when she reports on it! And of course, when she tries to find the evil one, she can’t tell it apart from the others! But this is no illusion, there really IS an evil sheep in the flock, and this woolly demon by the name of Amon is teaching the sheep to behave like wolves and leading them to attack the village! Silly, ain’t it? And yet, Amon will turn out to be one of Kirby’s more formidable opponents. That silly story is told with enough serious to make the viewer believe it, too; and to think Amon became that way after escaping his fate as cutlets in the King’s plate! Weirder plots don’t hurt a series, if they’re executed well, as shown in this episode.

6. Episode 44 – A Novel Approach

An illiterate leading a school. Dedede, your
stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

Like many other shows, Kirby of the Stars chose to harpoon one of the most famous fads in fiction: Harry Potter. Because, why not? “It’s been done”, you say? Ah, just listen to what this episode is about. The book craze is in town, and everyone is grabbing a copy of “Pappy Pottey and the Fool’s Stone” at the bookstore. Meanwhile, Dedede wants in on the fad, but there’s only one problem, and it’s big: He’s illiterate. Thus, instead of seeking someone to teach him to read, Dedede steals all the copies of the book and summons through NightMare Enterprises’s monster downloader the author of the book, who suggests to turn Castle Dedede into a magic school so that all the Cappies could live the world of the story. But of course, no one should trust eNeMeE, and especially not Dedede himself, so you can fully expect that this turns out to be another plan of Nightmare to defeat Kirby. Either way, you all know what will happen: Just wait, in a couple years Tiff will get into reading Fangnight, and then sometime later, Forty Tones of Pink.

7. Episode 47 – Cartoon Buffoon and Episode 89 – Tooned Out

Just you wait, Dedede. This little venture into
animation will take a turn for the sucky.

The “Cartoon Mogul Dedede” episodes. After seeing Tiff make a flipbook animation, Dedede decides he wants in on that animation business, and thus starts his own studio to produce “Dedede of the Stars”. Only problem is, the only workforce he can find is made of the Cappy Townsfolk, and none of them have any knowledge on how to produce a show – and very few have any artistic talent, too. But of course, since the King rarely thinks before grabbing a money-making idea, he immediately sells his show to NightMare Enterprises, with no guarantee that he’ll have anything of quality to present. This leads to hilarious moments during production and when the episode airs, with horrible animation and the voice actors having to do the voices on the spot. And of course, all this time, the only one who knows anything about cartoon-making is Tiff… This episode is pretty great, if only because of all the nods to real-life cartoon productions, showing every step of the process… and how it can go so very wrong in the hands of amateurs. The end result is a mess, which is completely unprofessional but admittedly hilarious.

Ahhhh! Too realistic! Too detailed! Too "Normal Anime"!
Creepy! Not like the rest is any better...

These guys would seem like quirky comic reliefs
who would deserve more scenes... that is, if they were
not stalking a little girl, with hearts in their eyes.

This follows in “Tooned Out”, where Dedede, undeterred by his previous failure, orders from eNeMeE a trio of otaku artists to make a cartoon for him. They seem qualified enough, and yes they are great artists, but there’s a problem: They quickly take an interest in Tiff, and they soon redirect the show to feature her. And thus, they start stalking her around, recording her lines and taking pictures, with an unhealthy obsession. Probably a crack at otakus, who aren’t exactly well-regarded in Japan. Sequestered by Dedede, the Otakings are left to work on their anime while Dedede summons, from Nightmare Enterprises, an obvious Walt Disney parody that tries to teach the King how to make cartoons through CGI and motion capture, but of course it turns out to be another ploy by eNeMeE. Not to mention what the Otakings end up showing at the end… Look up “Fumu-tan of the Stars”, you’ll see what I mean. Another episode I really like, despite being higher on the creepy factor than any other on the show. It’s another commentary on animation, especially about advanced animation methods and fandoms. It also has many references to other films, anime and series, and that’s always fun.

That. Is NOT. Tiff. Hell no. All the NOPE in the world.
I told you those Otakings were just perverted stalkers.
They do have a talent at drawing flowers and detailed
characters, but... No, just no.

From how much I wrote about these two, you can tell those are my favorite episodes in the series. The massive amounts of fourth wall-breaking and lampshade hanging helped quite a bit give these episodes a unique feel.

8. Episode 61 – Fitness Fiend (the Japanese one)

This one comes with a “But…”. The English episode is alright, but the Japanese one knocks it out of the park. The plot is simple; Dedede orders fattening chips from NightMare Enterprises to make Kirby fat and, at the same time, prevent him from inhaling stuff to gain abilities. However, in a bout of gluttony, Dedede also ends up snacking on the chips. As a result, both become big blobs of fat. Well, Dedede is lucky, his clothes still fit him even in that state. With neither being able to work out, Customer Service sends out Macho-San (Max Flexer in the English dub), a miniature guy with blackglasses, an afro and a leotard, who’ll put the two through training Hell. What do you mean, is it a ruse? Of course it is a ruse! Watch the episode in English, but then seek out the Japanese version of the part with Macho-San. It’s probably one of the greatest moments in the entire anime, especially with that impressive shot featuring over 70 characters.

Actually no, here it is.

Why is it so great? That scene uses a techno version of Dedede’s theme, and I swear, I listened to that video so often just for the song, I would PAY to get that song. It’s that damn catchy. It sucks that 4kids replaced it by a generic beat in their version for American audiences. I guess the episode is pretty great too on comedy, and that’s always positive.

EAROBI TENGOKU, GO GO HEAVEN! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH, ONE TWO ONE TWO!

9. Episode 64 – The Kirby Quiz

"So, was it Fire Kirby, Ice Kirby, or Stone Kirb-
Hey! Who left that stupid logo at the bottom?"

To start off the New Year, Channel DDD presents to Cappy Town a whole new show: The Kirby Quiz Challenge. Five teams of two join the quiz: One of these teams has Dedede and Escargoon, while another team is Tiff helped of Kirby. Gee, as if this didn’t already sound unbalanced. Oh, you haven’t heard the best: Customer Service is the main host for the questions! Interesting spin on the usual clip show, that’s for sure. At every question, Customer Service plays the relevant scenes from the anime. The quiz even starts with a question about the first episode! Most questions involve Kirby’s forms and the monsters he battled. Meanwhile, Dedede and Escargoon attempt to cheat their way to victory… A pretty brilliant concept for the episode, a real treat to watch.

10. Episode 80 – Power Ploy

Buff Kirby.... *shudder* That's just wrong.

Dedede has had enough of eNeMeE’s monsters never getting rid of Kirby, so he tries to file a complaint, but Customer Service tricks him into buying more stuff from them – namely, a new energy drink that soon becomes the talk of the town among Cappies for its crazy energy and muscle-boosting capabilities. When Kirby drinks some of it, he inhales a statue, becomes Stone Kirby, and goes on a manic destruction spree! The downside is that once the drink’s effect ends, its user is all worn out, and that was the plan all along: Customer Service sends a monster at Kirby, who’s now too weak to fight back! Once again, an episode with plenty of funny moments, but also quite a bit of action, just the way it’s supposed to be. And a pretty smart plot, really, that shows that NightMare Enterprises calls the shots on the side of evil, Dedede be damned. Oh, and an epic ending, too!

11. Episode 92 – Hunger Struck

What was that I said about the strength in numbers?
Oh, right...

Another episode about the Waddle Dees – let’s hope it doesn’t break my D key to talk about this one. Escargoon sees the multi-course meal the Dees receive and reports to Dedede, who upon seeing the cost of these meals, decides to drastically cut on his army’s portions. He creates a contest to see who, among the townspeople, could create the cheapest meal for his army, and Chef Kawasaki wins. Unfortunately, the chef’s paper-thin sandwiches are not a hit with the Dees, causing them to revolt against the entire town. “It’s not because we’re a mouthless nondescript mass that we can’t get hungry, you know!” You’ll believe they can be a threat! You’ll believe they can give death glares! And of course, things get worse when Customer Service sends out a cooking monster-

I told you the Waddle Dees were good at making
death glares.

No, a cookING monster, to feed the Waddle Dees on the condition that they bring Kirby… Another great episode, and one that finally paints the Waddle Dees as a credible threat! Strength is in the numbers, they say. Plus, it’s always good to have an episode that discusses the inner workings of the universe that's been presented to us since Episode 1. By the way, the episode finally answers how Waddle Dees eat: They absorb the food through the skin of their face and then chew it! Must… resist… temptation… to… question… the cartoon… biology… THAT MAKES NO SENSE! But I'll let it pass, because it's funny.

12. Episodes 96 to 100 – The Movie

Iron Kirby - a fan design. Looks good!

I can’t end this list without the big series finale. In the Japanese version, these five episodes formed a 90-minute movie, but upon localization (and to fit with the release date of Kirby’s Air Ride), 4kids released the first two episodes in the middle of the series. Those two episodes, Air-Ride In Style, were pretty important to the end of the series, but 4kids’ change in the order of episodes passed it off as a dream within the series. And yet, this two-parter turns out to be a long battle against some of NightMare Enterprises’ strongest creatures: The Air Riders.

Wow, that's a big ship.

Following this, it seems eNeMeE has finally had enough of this battle and sends out destroyer starships that level Cappy Town. Meta Knight reveals that through the duration of the series, he and his acolytes were building the Halberd, which they can use to travel across space towards NightMare Enterprises, to settle this once and for all. And thus, the final battle comes as Kirby, helped by an unlikely group of heroes formed by many of the Cappy Townspeople, head out to take down Nightmare. Oh, Dedede and Escargoon are in there, too, but they're mostly just nuisances here. As a movie, this is a really good ending, mostly living up to the expectations. It has comedy, it has action; it has everything that made the show so fun to watch. By this point, King Dedede and Escargoon in 3D blend pretty well with the surroundings, an art that was refined over the 95 previous episodes.

A chess theme, yet the pieces are not even on squares.
That is not how you play chess.

The Air Ride episodes have four Kirby abilities that were created by fans, and one of them, Water Kirby, even became part of the game series! One problem with it is that the battle against Nightmare is rather anticlimactic, but then again it’s justified by Kirby wielding the Star Rod and Nightmare being easy to defeat but also easy to revive since he’s a personification of bad dreams and, thus, can come back whenever someone has a nightmare…

P.S. Even the last episode alone is worth watching for that one scene with the revelation about Customer Service. It’s hilarious.

Anyway, enough rambling. This is my final post about the Kirby anime. I hope this gave you enough interest in the series to check it out at some point. It’s not perfect, there are some glaring mistakes in the English dub, but it’s still a pretty enjoyable kid’s show with enough wit in many episodes to appeal to everyone.

Next Friday: A final post about Kirby’s Dream Collection!

Kirby: Right Back At Ya - Three Episodes

I will go back on what Kirby’s Dream Collection has to offer in next Friday’s article. Until then, I need to talk a final time about Kirby: Right Back At Ya. There are three episodes of the TV show available in the collector’s item, so I figured it would be fair to review them here. I remember making an article about the anime in general back in January, but I believe I didn’t exactly do the show justice there, writing what’s more like an introduction than an actual review. I was also planning to write quick posts about every episode, but I soon found out that my real life obligations would have made it impossible for me to do that. Think of this as me paying this kind of debt to the Kirby anime, by offering finally honest critiques of three episodes of the show, maybe giving you the desire to look for these episodes and watch them. And Monday, I will try to direct you to twelve other episodes that I really enjoy in this anime, episodes that I go back to more often than others… that is, whenever I’m in the mood to watch Kirby kick ass outside of a video game. Alright then, enough blabber, let’s get this started!

Episode 1 – Kirby Comes to Cappy Town

EXT. FIELD – NIGHT. Panorama shot of a hoard of sheep sleeping. A giant octopus monster comes out of nowhere and starts eating them all, leaving carcasses behind.

So, another fan of lamb cutlets! Nice to meet you!

Well… This sets the mood! Welcome to Dream Land, home of all your kaiju-esque nightmares!

Ah, Kirby. Adorable regardless of dimension.
2D world, 3D world, game world, anime world...

After its meal, the creature flies back to King Dedede’s castle. Meanwhile, in space, a little star-shaped spaceship flies across the vast emptiness. Its inhabitant, our pink copying sphere, suddenly wakes up. The ship alerts him that there’s trouble on a nearby planet. Kirby sets the controls for the heart of the sun – Oh wait, my bad, I had Pink Floyd in my head. I mean, the spaceship heads towards Planet Popstar.

In Cappy Town, the Cappies confront King Dedede about the giant octopus, but all he has to show them is a tiny cute little pet octopus that cannot in any way be the giant monster that attacked last night. One villager, the young Tiff, daughter of King Dedede’s Cabinet Minister, still has doubts, especially after seeing the tiny octopus doing a scary face. (After all, who else but villains do scary faces like that?) Worried, the townspeople head towards the mystical Kabu, a giant stone spirit in the forest, and the spirit informs them that a hero named Kirby is coming. Tiff immediately imagines a Link-like figure. Oh, girl, you’re in for some disappointment!

Tiff; if you're dreaming of bishonen, I have bad news for you;
You got gypped, you were sent into the wrong franchise.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Part 2)

We’re continuing this review of the last Kirby game in Kirby’s Dream Collection – and before you ask, yes, we’re almost done traveling across Dream Land, but we’re far from done freeing it from the evil that is Dark Matter.

I can already feel flashbacks to the strongest Quebec winters
I have ever seen.

Pictured: The torture of a sound mini-game.

Next up is the Iceberg, because when the sky isn’t able to kill you, the ice might be. Freeing flowers from ice, killing Metroids with your ice ability… it all sounds simple but the truth is much different. This also has the most unbearable mini-game in the whole adventure. You meet Chef Kawasaki. Five Gordo will come down, each making a sound. Kawasaki will then hit his own Gordo with his frying pan, and you select the Gordo among the five that made that sound. Easy, you say? Hell no. Especially because you have to do it three times, and on the third time, the sounds all come pretty quickly, so good luck remembering the order. And of course, the sounds are not all that loud, so good luck hearing them… And of course, like all other mini-games put together by characters in levels, this one takes place close to the end of an extremely annoying level in which it’s incredibly easy to die, repeatedly. I wasted over 20 lives on that level alone. Kawasaki, once I’m done with your mini-game, you know where you can shove that fucking Gordo. ….Well, provided you actually have that kind of orifice on you, which is probably not the case in Dream Land… Either way, Kawasaki, I like you a lot more in the Kirby anime than in the games.

I mean, I knew Kirby games could be pretty difficult on the platforming side. It’s always been a part of these games. And, to be fair, “hard” doesn’t always equate to “bad”. It can equate to “annoying”, “tedious”, “frustrating” even, but it only gets “bad” when it’s unfairly tipped against the player, with really cheap tricks making the game infinitely harder than it could be – and even then, a lot of gamers actually like that added challenge. I get that the mini-games were meant to add a nice color, but in my opinion, they were done rather poorly. Their placement near the end of the levels, especially at the end of a hard level, can make them really annoying. Not to mention that the time window is very short to memorize what the game wants you to. Even worse than that, I suspect the mini-game character’s requests afterwards are also randomized, so sometimes it’s almost completely down to luck. And as I said time and time again, I am about as lucky as a guy who opens umbrellas inside, breaks a mirror once a week, and crosses the same black cat under a ladder every day on his way to work. I finally managed to solve Kawasaki’s mini-game… and I swear I’m never going back to that level again.

You'll believe a broom can sweep
your ass.

In Level 5, you must face almost all of the enemies in the game in various rooms, and to get the Heart Star you must do it with one particular Animal Friend, Nago the Cat, all the way through. In the last proper level, you have to collect an angel’s feathers, each in a different room, by using the ability earned in the previous room. Tough, because most fights here are against mid-bosses, but you just have to remember to get rid of your previous ability before picking up the next one, and repeat this eight times. Finally, we have all 30 Heart Stars, and so we can fight King Dedede.

The penguin is tough, but this time around you are allowed to keep your Animal Friend for the fight, and the Rick+Cutter combo works like a charm. At first, King Dedede uses his normal attacks, but when he’s defeated once he rises from the ground, his belly becomes an eye or a mouth and it starts attacking like Dark Matter. Shooting blobs of darkness, turning into a mouth and trying to chomp Kirby... That’s some pure body horror right there, can you even imagine the goofy, comical penguin suddenly looking like that? 

Image from Brawl In The Family.
You should see the Meta Knight one.

Once Dark Matter King Dedede is defeated, he falls to the floor and the Heart Stars of World 5 join to expel Dark Matter from the Iceberg region. Now, the center of the planet, the epicenter of Dark Matter, is available, known as World 6. All thirty Heart Stars merge to form the Love-Love Stick, a scepter that shoots hearts. Pretty much the number 1 reason why Heart isn’t a power that sucks. Oh, and there’s also all that friendship stuff and whatnot… But nobody cares about that.

HEEEEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRTTT!

This place is one long battle against Dark Matter, in three phases: First is regular Dark Matter, using attacks very similar to its patterns in Kirby’s Dream Land 2. When Kirby destroys that one, it explodes, but soon its white center reforms to become a giant eye with a red pupil, known as 0 (Or Zero, if you prefer). That one is pretty tough, as it shoots miniature Dark Matters and sometimes even patches of red that we can pretty much state to be blood. Because that’s always how it is with the Kirby series; cute and adorable on the surface, with a world of demons hidden behind. Forget Whispy, Kracko, Dedede; those are nothing. Dream Land is a gate to the Nightmare Universe.

When Zero is defeated, it seems to go away, but its red pupil doesn’t yet want to leave. It can still kill you, so be careful; thankfully, it also has only eight Hit Points and is fairly easy to avoid, so if you’ve got some strength left, you should be fine. After 0’s center is destroyed, Kirby, still floating above the planet, gets to see Dark Matter’s grip vanish completely, leaving him with a beautiful panorama.

Of course, if you defeated King Dedede without collecting all Hearts Stars, you don’t get to see any of that. Instead, you see Iceberg freed from the evil, but that big dark mass in the center of Planet Popstar is still there, ready to strike again anytime soon. Due to time constraints, I tried to collect all of the Heart Stars as I was progressing through the game (now that I have a job, I have a bit less time to write these reviews). Even then, many Heart Stars were pretty tricky. You already know I raged at many of them. The upside is that once a Heart Star has been collected, you can complete the mission in a level again, but you’ll instead be given an extra life as reward. Which, hey, an extra life. Those become rare in late-game, and you’ll lose many trying to accomplish the later Heart Star missions, so you can’t refuse them! It’s a good incentive to beat the missions in World 1 again repeatedly!

Even if you did defeat it...
It comes back in the sequel, for the Nintendo 64.

Oh, but don’t you go and believe that this is over! You know that the Kirby series loves to include additional material! Once you’ve beaten the Story Mode, you can go back to the File Select to access the bonus stuff. This includes three options:

Ado: "I'm contractually obliged."
Dedede: "Can we NOT do this?"
Whispy: "If I'm getting beat up again,
SO ARE YOU!"

-Boss Butch: You knew this was coming, almost every game in the series has this option. You have only one Life, no healing items in sight, no Copy Abilities, no Animal Friends, and you can’t summon Gooey either! And you must defeat all eight bosses starting by Whispy, then Acro, Pon and Con, Ado (and all the bosses she summons, god damn it!), Dedede, Dark Matter, 0, and 0’s eyeball. To say that this is a challenge is an understatement.

-Super NES MG5: A special mode that combines all five mission mini-games. The advantage is that you don’t have to go across a level to do them, the disadvantage is that you have to ace each and every single one of them, yes, even the sound-based one. They’re a tad slower than the originals, so with excellent memory you might be able to do it.

-Jumping: During Story Mode, when Kirby finishes a level, he gets to a Goal Game where he has to jump to one square in front of him. You press A and, depending on how much Kirby prepared himself to jump, he’ll land on a square closer or further from his starting position. The squares include healing items, little stars, a 1-Up, and a few grinning faces that give nothing. The mini-game Jumping is basically this, except you have to do it multiple times to reach the end without ever getting a grinning face. Almost entirely down to dumb luck.

One of the stepping stones of modern gaming. Hi Jumpman!

That’s all there is to this game, I can safely say I’ve discussed every part of it. And yes, it is another fantastic Kirby game from the folks at HAL Laboratory. Quite a few things are required to make a game unique.

First is a unique style. On this front, many Kirby games try to look unique, whether it’s Kirby’s Epic Yarn or the more recent Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 looks like it was hand-drawn and hand-colored. Of course, nowadays thanks to the burst of indie games online, more games can look like this, but it was pretty special back on the Super NES.

Who though hamsters were an effective way to scale
mountains?

Second is a unique gameplay. The Kirby series has always been unique, and I don’t think there has ever been another video game character using copy abilities to the extent that Kirby does. Once again, most Kirby games try to put a spin on those abilities; Dream Land 2 introduced the Animal Friends, a concept we see here again, improved with three more Friends (and Gooey). It introduces the quests, which you have to complete in order to get the Heart Stars; this is different from the Rainbow Drops in Dream Land 2, as those were scattered around the many worlds and you didn’t meet NPCs that you had to help. The mini-games were also pretty novel back then, considering they are parts of levels, and you have to win at them to get to the final boss. Last but not least, many levels here have gimmicks. Those range from the mission-imposed ones (don’t step on flowers) to air or field traps (as an example, in the first level of Iceberg, you have to thaw flowers out of the ice, and not crush any of them, which is tricky since there are heavy clouds passing by always blocking the view, which makes it hard to see where the flowers are). Yeah, New Super Mario Bros. Wii may have done a similar thing, but the concept definitely existed before. I must mention as well the game’s attempts at surprising you with unexpected changes to the regular opponents, like Whispy Wood suddenly charging at Kirby or Dedede suddenly growing an eye on his belly.

Third is memorable characters. Kirby, Dedede, they’re memorable alright, which brings me to the villain: Dark Matter. Notorious as one of the most evil monsters in all of the Kirby Universe, being the villain in no less than three Kirby games, and while it was already established as some sort of Eldritch creature in the previous game, here it becomes downright terrifying, despite still being nothing more than a floating sphere. It shoots blood, for Christ’s sake! In a game for kids! You’re gonna remember it, that’s for damn sure!

Pretty great that they upgraded some Kirby bosses...
and then got very devilish with some others...
Thanks again, Ado, for your Kracko...

I do have a few points of criticism for the game. In some cases, you’re not going to know what to do in a mission, as the NPC at the end of the level cannot speak to you. Thus, you have to figure it out yourself. That’s already tricky, but then take into consideration the harder missions where you have to use a particular ability, often with a particular Animal Friend (or in one case, switch between two Animal Friends multiple times)… Then as I mentioned earlier, I quite dislike the memory mini-games that are given as missions. Not only do you need to think fast, you also need to be able to remember what’s presented to you, and failure to do so means you must restart the entire level (because Kirby can only respawn on a screen where he dies, and he can’t die in a mini-game room, so if he dies in the next room, he’ll respawn there).

But do I have anything else to say? Nah, not really. Awesome game, you should try it. And now, with these words, I have officially finished reviewing the sixth Kirby game in Kirby’s Dream Collection, which means I can finally move on to something else!

…Oh no, wait, I have to talk about the three episodes of Kirby: Right Back At Ya that are also in that collector Wii game… Well then, how about we do that next week?