Review: Jet

Ability : Jet

Title : Kirby Super Star, Kirby Super Star Ultra, Kirby: Planet Robobot

Reviewer : Mrgameandpie


Hey, remember when I said Jet was my favorite power and I was going to do a review of it? I finally got around to that.

The jet engine, one of the greatest methods of travel available, capable of bringing people to speeds and heights like no other form of transportation. However, this device didn't reach its greatness all in one go, and neither did Kirby's Jet ability.

Jet's first appearance was in Kirby Super Star. It had a most excellent design, looking like a blue fighter jet that Kirby would wear on its head. While it did have exceptional fashion points, it unfortunately lacked in utility. Kirby launching himself forward as an attack is nothing new to the series, from Adventure's Fireball/Burning, to a variety of moves in Super Star itself, it is a regular method of combat in the series, and that's what Jet does. That is, essentially, all Jet does. Kirby can charge up his attack to launch himself further and do more damage, and with a full charge he can stop himself mid-flight, unleashing a short-range energy projectile known as the Jet Cracker, the ability's most powerful technique. It also had a unique flight capability, hovering about more freely using the hat's propulsion rather than Kirby's typical method of flight. That said, a number of issues abounded with this iteration of the ability. Bosses would often act as walls when using this power, stopping the player inside of them, where one would inevitably take damage as the move's invincibility time wore off. Its invincibility was also less effective than it could be, with high priority attacks still damaging Kirby mid-attack. As a whole, there was very little reason to use Jet over most other powers.

The Jet ability would mostly be forgotten about as time went on. It would not appear in the Dark Matter trilogy whatsoever, no side games featured it, not even Kirby Air Ride, a racing game where flight was a major element, would house the Jet ability, though the generally unrelated Jet Star did exist as a ride. It had two appearances in the anime, one of which was one of the few times Kirby's initial choice of ability failed to defeat a monster, requiring him to lose the Jet ability and find something else. Indeed, even the show knew how lackluster this power was.

Then, Kirby Super Star Ultra was released, a remake of the original Super Star for DS, and Jet really took off like it was meant to. The first improvement was not even from any changes to the ability itself, but to the physics of the game. Kirby had less inertia when jumping, making it significantly easier to change direction midair, and consequently made Jet's hover significantly more controllable. Next, a fully charged attack would make a player completely invulnerable to all harm, and they would fly through bosses freely, assuming they were not normally a wall like, say, Whispy Woods. These changes alone gave Jet an incredible boost of usefulness, now if the player was ever in danger of taking damage, they could just launch themselves through anything without fear, but the buffs did not end there. More objects could be grabbed onto with the ability's throwing move, the Shuttle Loop. With this buff, a player could defeat three bosses in a single attack: Lololo & Lalala, Kracko, and Dyna Blade. Finally, when hovering a flame would now protrude from underneath Kirby, and would act as a minor hit-box itself. This could allow players to barely hover over foes to damage them. On particularly useful instance of this is against Wham Bam Rock. When his hand floats near the ceiling to drop his fingers down on the player, launch oneself upwards through his hand, and then hover above it constantly to do repeated damage with the hover's fire.

Between better physics, better invincibility, more options, and a general increase in utility, Jet went from one of the bottom tier powers, to one of the best abilities to take on The Arena with. However, the story does not quite end there, as it also appeared in Planet Robobot as well. A fitting power for this game, given the mechanical thematic present. Everything from Super Star Ultra continued to apply, but a few new elements were added. There was now a backflip move, giving the player a safe option to attack with should they not have any charge stored. Ceilings in the game are often quite a bit higher than in most Kirby games, giving players a chance to use a feature that technically existed beforehand, but meant little until now. While launching oneself forwards, the player can hold up or down on the d-pad to slightly move in that direction. This, combined with the ease with which one can chain mid-air uncharged propulsions, means that with the higher ceilings players can now quickly burst through rooms with little danger to them whatsoever. Constantly doing these uncharged bursts will result in shorter and shorter distances traveled, but a sizable trek can still be made before needing to land again. The rooms are often so large that one can reach full charge before even touching the ground, helping further propagate this aerial blitz.

The Robobot armor also obtains a Jet form, though this is unlike any other form in the game, in that it acts as the space shooter mechanics akin to the Star Chariot or Love-Love-stick. There are several levels in the game focused around this gameplay style, with Kaboola even acting as a boss for it to fight.

Jet provides us with a true comeback story. It started out weak, ineffective, and generally broken. Disrespected and forgotten. However, once given even a little bit of love, it quickly took center stage as one of the best powers in Kirby's arsenal. High speed, high power, loads of invincibility frames, great for levels and bosses, and all with the simplicity of launching oneself head first into harm's way, nothing can stop this power now.


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Last Updated - April 19, 2017