Review: Cutter/Ice

Kirby has a whole new arsenal of moves in Kirby 64, and he's ready to kick butt by being... a figure skater?

Figure Skater is obtained by mixing Ice and Cutter. With this, Kirby can skate around and do a twirling jump (or pirouette) to smack enemies with ice. When he turns around, a small spray of ice will come from his skates, which can also destroy baddies.

Figure Skater is one of Kirby 64's more fun, yet impractical abilities. It functions as a cute "travel ability", and it has a good force field type attack. However, Kirby can only do his twirl jump while on the ground, making it completely useless in the air. Also, despite being an ice combo, it does not freeze enemies for projectiles. It is also difficult to use against mini-bosses that stand still since you would have to use the turning attack.

Figure Skater's main purpose seems to be entertainment, seeing as how there are a lot of fun challenges to do with it. You can challenge yourself to get through certain areas that would require perfect jumps in order to get through alive. Though missing one of said jumps can be fun to watch since Kirby will gracefully twirl down a bottomless pit, resulting in one of the funniest ways to lose a life in any game.

Aside from cool jumps, Figure Skater can also provide some intense boss fights. You haven't experienced Kirby 64 until you've tried to beat Acro and Magman with Figure Skater. And as mentioned, several mini-bosses will prove to be hard to get through unharmed.

Why Kirby doesn't just throw the sharp metal skates at enemies is beyond me, but you can bet that the cuteness factor is part of it. We may also never know how he can skate on grass, but the obvious excuse is that it's a video game. Or more specifically, it's a Kirby video game.

Figure Skater is somewhat impractical, but provides a lot of extra homemade challenges. If you can't find any fun in Kirby 64 anymore, play through the whole game as Figure Skater.

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