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Kirby Community Thread: What's Pink And Round?

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
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This thread should be used as a place where fans of Kirby can gather to discuss the series, share fan-made Kirby media, and do it all in a comfortable environment.
That means no offensive, or questionable fan-art. If you have to ask yourself 'should I be posting this..' about a borderline image, you should probably not.

As always, please abide by the NeoGAF Terms of Service and respect others in the thread that may have differing opinions, or interest.
A heated debate is welcomed, but don't resort to simply bashing others.

Thanks!



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  • Title: Kirby's Dream Land
  • Year: 1992
  • Platform: Game Boy (available on 3DS eShop)

Developed by Masahiro Sakurai of HAL Laboratory, Kirby's Dream Land is the inaugural title in the series and the first game in which Kirby appears. Kirby originally started as a dummy character named Popopo; a simple looking place holder until designers could come up with a more detailed character. However Sakurai ended up enjoying Popopo's design so much he kept and later renamed him.

At the time of its release, Kirby's Dream Land was noted for being an enjoyable, although simplistic platformer. Dream Land would begin many Kirby traditions, but the one gameplay aspect missing from the title is Kirby's ability to copy enemy's abilities. This would have to wait for his second adventure.

Trivia: There was a heated debate between Miyamoto and Sakurai on the color of Kirby, with Sakurai preferring Pink and Miyamoto wanting yellow. Although Kirby would end up pink in the Japanese media, Nintendo of America released Dream Land with a white Kirby on the boxart.


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  • Title: Kirby's Adventure
  • Year: 1993
  • Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System (available on Wii Virtual Console and 3DS eShop as a 3D Classic)

Kirby's first console adventure came very late in the life of the NES, and stands out as one of the games to really push the limits of the system. This adventure is the first where Kirby can swallow his enemies and copy their powers, and introduces a fan favorite of the series, Meta Knight. Compared to Dream Land's very few stages, Kirby's Adventure featured seven lobbies, with four to six stages each and a boss room, making it a very rich adventure. The game has held up over the years, receiving a Virtual Console release and a 3D Classic remake, as well as a Game Boy Advance remake titled Nightmare in Dream Land.

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  • Title: Kirby's Dream Land 2
  • Year: 1995
  • Platform: Game Boy (available on 3DS eShop in Japan and PAL regions)

The second Dream Land title introduced animal buddies to the Kirby franchise and an evil villain that makes frequent appearances in Kirby games, Dark Matter. Kirby carries over his copy ability from Adventure as well. Dream Land 2 featured its own border, few additional sound effects and color pallets when used with the Super Game Boy.

Trivia: Kirby's Dream Land 2 was slated to be remade for the Game Boy Color as Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX (along side Metroid II: Return of Samus DX), but was cancelled.

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  • Title: Kirby Super Star
  • Year: 1996
  • Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (released on the Wii Virtual Console, and the Nintendo DS as Super Star Ultra)

Regarded by many to be the best in the series, Kirby Super Star featured 8 games of varying length and challenge. Like most Kirby games, you can copy enemy abilities, but this time you can change them into helpers; Enemies that will fight along side you using whatever ability they spawned from. Games ranged from regular Kirby platforming (Spring Breeze, Dyna Blade), to treasure hunting (Great Cave Offensive), to a heavily story driven adventure (Revenge of Meta Knight), along with many quirky sub-games.

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  • Title: Kirby's Dream Land 3
  • Year: 1997
  • Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (released on the Wii Virtual Console)

Much like Kirby's Adventure, Dream Land 3 was released at the end of a console life cycle and is probably one of the least played main line Kirby titles. Foregoing the look of previous titles, Dream Land 3 uses a pastel style giving the game a hand drawn look. Most normal game mechanics are here, as well as the return of animal buddies from Dream Land 2, but with more selection.

Trivia: Kirby's Dream Land 3 was the last Super Nintendo title published by Nintendo in North America, coming out in November of 1997, well after the launch of the Nintendo 64.

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  • Title: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shars
  • Year: 2000
  • Platform: Nintendo 64 (released on the Wii Virtual Console)

Breaking away from the standard 2D style of play, Kirby 64 has '2.5' gameplay and put the series in 3D for the first time. Kirby's copy ability received an upgrade as well, allowing him to inhale two enemies at once to obtain a new power. For instance, inhaling Ice and Spark at the same time would result in the Refrigerator ability. The game did not favor well with reviewers, scoring the lowest of any Kirby title since Dream Land.

Along with the main game, Kirby 64 featured a number of.. in my opinion, underrated party mini-games which were fantastic on the Nintendo 64 with four players.

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  • Title: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
  • Year: 2004
  • Platform: Game Boy Advance (released 3DS as an Ambassador title)

Although the Game Boy Advance did see two Kirby games, this is the only original one. The Amazing Mirror featured more exploration based gameplay, similar to The Great Cave Offensive in Super Star (or a Metroid like map) and tasked the player with locating the broken pieces of the mirror. Along with some new first time abilities, the game also offered multiplayer for up to four people. Players often have to work together to overcome puzzles, similar to something like Four Swords.

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  • Title: Kirby: Canvas Curse
  • Year: 2005
  • Platform: Nintendo DS

You might call Canvas Curse a platformer, but it's unlike any other Kirby title and was one of the first games to really show off what the DS could do. Using only the stylus, the player draws a path for Kirby, cursed into ball only form, to follow using a limited amount of 'ink'. The player can also touch enemies to stun them and help Kirby along his way. Canvas Curse has developed quite a following and is regarded as one of the better games in the series and one of the best DS titles.

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  • Title: Kirby: Squeak Squad
  • Year: 2006
  • Platform: Nintendo DS

Returning to more common form from Canvas Curse, Squeak Squad uses standard button platforming controls and focuses on elements effecting the environment more than most Kirby games. Kirby is also able to store copied abilities in this title and access them via Touch Screen.

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  • Title: Kirby's Epic Yarn
  • Year: 2010
  • Platform: Nintendo Wii

Probably the most visually striking Kirby title, Epic Yarn was the first console Kirby title to be released since Kirby 64 nearly ten years earlier. The player controls Kirby, who has been turned to yarn, around a fabric world and unable to use his copying ability. Kirby has an apartment he can decorate with various treasures he uncovers on his adventures. Unlike most Kirby games, the player can not die in Epic Yarn, but rather is punished for being hit by enemies by losing star pieces.

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  • Title: Kirby Mass Attack
  • Year: 2011
  • Platform: Nintendo DS

Kirby returns to the DS in another touch screen controls only adventure. In Mass Attack, you can't use your copy ability, but instead you gain control of a group of Kirbys (up to 10) to wreck havoc on the environment, solve puzzles and pummel enemies. Along with a very full main game, Mass Attack features a number of surprisingly full and quality side games; A Kirby SHUMP, a RPG battle mode, a pinball game and more.

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  • Title: Kirby's Return to Dream Land
  • Year: 2011
  • Platform: Nintendo Wii

The Wii's more traditional Kirby game compared to Epic Yarn, Kirby returns with a powered up copy ability, this time able to swallow large foes and unlock Super Copy Ability, to destroy enemies, parts of the stage and unlock secrets.

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  • Title: Kirby's Pinball Land
  • Year: 1993
  • Platform: Game Boy (released on the 3DS eShop)

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  • Title: Kirby's Dream Course
  • Year: 1995
  • Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (released on the Wii Virtual Console)

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  • Title: Kirby's Avalanche
  • Year: 1995
  • Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (released on the Wii Virtual Console)

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  • Title: Kirby's Block Ball
  • Year: 1995
  • Platform: Game Boy (released on the 3DS eShop)

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  • Title: Kirby's Toy Box
  • Year: 1996
  • Platform: Satellaview

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  • Title: Kirby's Star Stacker
  • Year: 1997
  • Platform: Game Boy

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  • Title: Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble
  • Year: 2001
  • Platform: Game Boy Color

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  • Title: Kirby Slide
  • Year: 2003
  • Platform: e-Reader

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  • Title: Kirby Air Ride
  • Year: 2003
  • Platform: Nintendo GameCube


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Coming soon..

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Please let us know your favorite Kirby tracks and I'll try to add them to the OP eventually.

Mt. Dedede
Games: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Smash Bros Brawl

Green Greens
Games: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Epic Yarn

Butter Building
Games: Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Epic Yarn

Ice Cream Island
Games: Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Epic Yarn

Boss Battle
Games: Kirby's Adventure

Rainbow Resort
Games: Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Air Ride

Forest Area
Games: Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Fountain of Dreams
Games: Kirby's Adventure, Nightmare in Dream Land, Smash Bros. Melee

Gourmet Race
Games: Kirby Super Star, Smash Bro Brawl

Revenge of Meta Knight Theme
Game: Kirby Super Star

Revenge of Meta Knight - Halberd
Game: Kirby Super Star

Revenge of Meta Knight - Ending
Game: Kirby Super Star

Milky Way Wishes - Staff Roll
Game: Kirby Super Star

Marx Battle
Games: Kirby Super Star, Smash Bro. Brawl

Galacta Knight
Games: Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Underground Forest
Game: Kirby Super Star

The Great Cave Offensive
Game: Kirby Super Star

Halberd
Games: Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Epic Yarn

Ripple Field
Game: Kirby's Dream Land 3

Credit Roll
Game: Kirby's Dream Land 3

Hyper Zone (Dark Matter)
Game: Kirby's Dream Land 3

Iceberg (v. DL3)
Games: Kirby's Dream Land 3

0² theme
Game: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Factory Investigation
Game: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby Quest
Game: Kirby Mass Attack

Green Grounds
Game: Kirby Mass Attack

Frosty Wheel
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Cool Cave
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Mushroom Run
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Melody Town
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Outer Rings
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Blub-Blub Ocean
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Cozy Cabin
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Dream Land
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Staff Roll
Game: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Super Copy Ability
Game: Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Boss Battle
Game: Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Iceberg Ocean
Game: Kirby's Dream Course

Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright
Game: Kirby's Block Ball

Check Knights
Game: Kirby Air Ride

Nebula Belt
Game: Kirby Air Ride

Frozen Hillside
Games: Kirby Air Ride, Smash Bro. Brawl, Kirby Mass Attack

Magma Flows
Games: Kirby Air Ride, Kirby Mass Attack



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Coming soon..

To do list: Resizing images to standard sizes to help appearance. Add more information to titles, finish Spinoffs, take in Music recommendations and add Other Media.
 

Drago

Member
Woah! A Kirby community! <3

I'll be sure to frequent here... maybe this thread will push me to get and finish all the Kirby's I missed x_x
 

Kangi

Member
Ooh, nice and shiny OP.

No Kirby music section can go without "Gourmet Race", "
02's theme
", or "Rainbow Resort". So consider those my recommendations.
 
My musical selection? If you're going to fill it in with music from Kirby's Dream Land 3: try the staff roll credits theme. Such a great little tribute to Kirby's cute-sy-ness, and also just a wonderful tune in its own right. I think Dream Land 3's music is, on the whole, a bit overlooked.

Definitely going to sub this, and I'll check in every now and then, mainly just to rave on about how awesome Kirby's Adventure is.
 

TheOGB

Banned
HEY NOW, I like where this is headed! :D

Maaaaannnnnnn, so much of the series' music is fantastic I can't pick just a few to nominate :X
EDIT: DL3 just got a mention so I'll throw out Dark Matter
 

Gartooth

Member
Played every game in the main series beside Dreamland 2, if Nintendo doesn't put it on the 3DS eShop I will probably buy the anniversary collection. (plus I never finished Dreamland 3, so I would finally get a chance to do so)
 
I wonder if I'm the only one here who liked to goof around the City overworld in Kirby Air Ride, simply because floating to the top of hard-to-reach areas was so fun and screwy. Then again: I feel the same way about every Pilotwings game I've ever played too.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Finishing proof reading some of my terrible writing and then heading to bed. Hopefully I can continue to expand on this tomorrow, but right now my brain is shutting off.

And yes, definitely looking for recommendations on your favorite music, so I can add it to the OP.
 

Gartooth

Member
I wonder if I'm the only one here who liked to goof around the City overworld in Kirby Air Ride, simply because floating to the top of hard-to-reach areas was so fun and screwy. Then again: I feel the same way about every Pilotwings game I've ever played too.

Haha, that was my favorite part of Air Ride! I didn't really care for the races, I had more fun exploring the map and seeing different things happen such as Dyna Blade showing up.
 

Emitan

Member
I wonder if I'm the only one here who liked to goof around the City overworld in Kirby Air Ride, simply because floating to the top of hard-to-reach areas was so fun and screwy. Then again: I feel the same way about every Pilotwings game I've ever played too.

Nope! I loved it!
 

Kangi

Member
Kirby Air Ride fans represent! One of my favorite racers ever, and also the first Kirby game I played.

For some reason, I never got into the Kirby franchise until KSSU released years later. Now I own most of the games.
 

Kazerei

Banned
Great OP, although I think Kirby Mass Attack is missing from the list.

I wanna give a shout out the anime, Kirby: Right Back At Ya. It's very enjoyable, has nice animation, lots of fun parodies, etc.
 
As for more music from Kirby's Dream Land 3: my other favorite piece is the Iceberg level theme. Such a crazy fusion of jazz, traditional Kirby marches, and prog-rock that never gets boring to listen to. It feels just out-of-place, enough to be the most memorable part of the whole soundtrack. To be frank: the whole soundtrack's a bit inconsistent overall, but it's got some of the best SNES sounds you'll ever hear, and pieces like the staff roll theme and Iceberg are amazing to give a whirl every now-and-then.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Great OP, although I think Kirby Mass Attack is missing from the list.

I wanna give a shout out the anime, Kirby: Right Back At Ya. It's very enjoyable, has nice animation, lots of fun parodies, etc.

Oops. I definitely passed over Mass Attack, even though I loved the game. Amazing music.

I'll be adding Right Back at Ya and some other media to the OP tomorrow, but right now I'm heading to bed. ;)
 
Haha, that was my favorite part of Air Ride! I didn't really care for the races, I had more fun exploring the map and seeing different things happen such as Dyna Blade showing up.
Glad I'm not alone in thinking that. Screwing aboot with the Dragoon and Hydra was never as fun as floating up from the flat-shaded canopies of buildings and then up to them roofs. There were little neat easter eggs everywhere, like the blossoming flower atop the big castle. So much fun in my early, formative years.

Better OT tag: |OT| What's Pink, Round, and Sucks?&#8482;
 

Seik

Banned
That's some nice work OP, grats! It must have took some time to do. :p

I play Kirby games since I'm 5 and always loved it, at this point it will just never get old, give me more Kirby!
 

Drago

Member
Going by the OP and my memory, Kirby games I never played:

Kirby's Dream Land 2 (getting with the collection or 3DS VC... whichever comes first)
Kirby: Canvas Curse (always seemed interesting... how much $ is it today?)
Kirby: Squeak Squad (don't think I'm missing much here)
Kirby's Return to Dream Land (I'm gonna pick this up alongside the collection)
Kirby's Dream Course (have no experience with whatsoever)
Kirby's Star Stacker (will pick up whenever the VC release comes to NA)
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble (waiting for a VC release, as I doubt it is very controllable without a great light source)
Kirby Air Ride (I did play this a little before and I controlled horribly)
Kirby Mass Attack (loved the demo)

damn I'm awful
Which one of these should I play through first?

also, some of my favorite underrated Kirby tracks are Ice Cream Island (Kirby's Adventure) and Above the Clouds (Kirby 64 Butter Building remix)
 

D-Pad

Member
Awesome thread! Just finished Return to Dreamland a couple months ago (great game, must buy). Think I'll try to beat Amazing Mirror soon, though I may need some a-MAZE-ing skills to do so ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho.
Kirby Avalanche reference > >;

... BTW, the thread title makes me think of Clefary.
 
Before it gets mentioned: my favorite musical number from Kirby's Adventure is, after all these years, still Grape Garden. Butter Building and all of its variants are classics nonetheless, but there's such a nostalgic charm and sensibility to the way that this piece develops its gorgeous melody and chord progression. Hirokazu Ando's musical contributions don't always get recognized as much as they should, and early Kirby music has so much to deliver in that regard.
 
Awesome, I love Kirby!

And I see Gourmet Race and Rainbow Resort have been taken care of. You guya should check out dummeh's YouTube channel - there are a few Kirby orchestrals he's done that are glorious.
 

Hiltz

Member
Wouldn't Epic Yarn count as a spin-off ? I mean, while it is still a platforming title, Kirby doesn't retain any of his original powers.

Anyway, I've played the following Kirby games:

-Dream Land
-Adventure
-Dreamland 2
-Super Star
-Dream Course
-Kirby 64
-Canvas Curse
-Epic Yarn

I still want to get my hands on Return to Dreamland.
 
I can appreciate the rearrangements primarily, but a good deal of the original music that Tomita composed and arranged just didn't click as Kirby music to me. Certainly fit well with the general aesthetic of the game, that all said.
 

Seik

Banned
I just remembered that one game was missing in my Kirby collection, just bought this one on Ebay.

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Thanks OP! :p
 

Drago

Member
I just love the music as music, I guess. It's just a very calming soundtrack that was a perfect fit for the game, and I generally love piano tacks, which Epic Yarn is filled with.
 
Kirby's Adventure still has my favorite soundtrack, in terms of overall consistency and flexibility between in-context listening and out-of-context listening. Dream Land 3 and 64 follow closely, but they both have inconsistent moments.
 

RM8

Member
I wouldn't call Epic Yarn's OST bad by any means, but for such colorful, vibrant, awesome looking levels I expected something a bit more upbeat, as slow as the game is. My favorite Kirby OST is probably Adventure as well. Mass Attack (which is my personal GOTY 2011, by the way) actually had really nice music too.
 
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