Review: Sword

Swords. The staple of knights. The icon of heroes. The edge of justice. Sword made its debut in Adventure, and, oh, what a spendor it was. Commanding the cutting blade was both empowering and challenging. There's something rewarding about having to get in the face of your foes to dish out damage. Close quarters combat is trilling and quite dangerous in a game where hurling stars was the norm. Not only that, but you had to use this ability to dual the then mysterious Meta Knight, which was already a feat in itself. But, the this edge grew dull over time, and not even after that much, as the series went on.

Sword is the first copy ability seen in Adventure. Yeah, that's right. Dead first. Or... live first? Is that the opposite of dead last? Beam is the first copy you have the chance to get your hands on, but the intro sequence for Vegetable Valley has Kirby facing off against a Blade Knight. It's fairly abundent in the game and even appears in the first level's Museum. All of this is with good cause -- it's awesome.

Like all of the weapon-based copy abilities, Sword is a close range attack. Also like the rest, it is held proudly aloft as if to say, "Asses shall be kicked today." Swinging the blade makes a nice arc before Kirby. It covers a fair distance forward with some good height. On top of that, as the blade is pulled back to its held position, it has some very small slashing at the rear. This is a great added bonus for when fending off foes in the front and another tries to crawl up behind Kirby to score a surprise attack. It's tough to time, but sometimes turning around can't be afforded when locked in a skirmish.

What really makes Sword shine, outside of a regular polishing, is its jump attack. Granted, the same thing is done with Hammer, but this power can actually be found regularly. When an attack is executed midair, Kirby spins and turns all three-hundred sixty degrees deadly. It's hard for any foe to get past this rotary slicer of death. Since all common baddies take a single tap to defeat, whole flocks can be busted up with ease. Once more, this same manuever is performed when underwater, again, just like Hammer.

And then, Super Star happened. The first two notes made are visual. Kirby dons a green cap which stands out from the other weapons. Parasol and Hammer (at the time) lacked any headgear. Why? The weapon was held out at all times. No hat was needed to signify that the ability was held. For some reason, they thought that Sword should be kept out of sight, which is visual note number two. Lame.

The next change noticed comes when first swinging the blade to try out the power. When full vitality, and it seems when aren't you in Super Star, an energy blast in the weapon's shape is launched forward, reminescent of The Legend of Zelda. Green cap, sword beams. It's all a nice nod to Link. The two did sorta cross paths in Links Awakening, and the references are enjoyable. This was a nice touch to the ability. You never had to rely on it, but it was dandy to pull while tearing through a level.

And that's where what I like about it ends.

So that's what happens when you take the first slice. Kirby lashes out and a phantom blade gets thrown. When you go for the second swing, things get a little hairy. In the past, you just swung again. Up, front, down, back, reset, and repeat. I mean, why wouldn't you expect that? Throwing Cutters is the same all the time. The bashing blows of Fighter stay the same. Plant your feet and hack away, right? Wrong! Insteady, Kirby performs a different kind of slash. Well, that shouldn't be so bad. ... Right?

WRONG. If it was just a different cut, things would be fine, but it's a full out different motion. Kirby leaps up and forward, dragging the blade up with him. With this, you can't just stay your ground and attack. It's especially annoying against non-normal bad guys. If it doesn't die in the first hit, you'll hop right into it, something most bosses tend not to do. Oh, but don't worry about covering ground too fast. They made sure that Sword wouldn't become some sort of traveling ability. Phew.

Wrong again! The third attack style is... a sword beam? Yeah, a beam. It wasn't enough that Sword already had a full life shot added to its repitoire. Oh, no. It wasn't enough that the slashes made were greatly exaggerated to add to its reach. Nope, not enough. Now, with what takes up the majority of the Sword attack cycle, you dole out a fury of stabs that shoot halfway across the screen. About the only plus to this blunder is that Kirby can flip about between the rising cut and the thrusts to defend both sides.

I don't know why Super Star felt they had to "help" all the melee weapon. They changed Parasol to shoot off dew and Hammer to knock out stars. Those apparently weren't good enough just being close distance. Oh, my no. Everything needed to have far reach. Why, that's how it was in Adventure, right? Oh, no. It wasn't. Things were good back then. Gee, could things be any worse?

Yes! Not only did they already cripple and mutilate this power, but you have no choice but to do this. Hitting the button in succession starts this dreaded chain of attacks. If you wanted to just do a standing slash, you can press the button once, wait, and then press it again. The thing is, there is a long time before you can press the button a second time to not execute the rising slash. It's absolutely infeasible to even try to use this as a tactic, which, I really don't know why anyone would.

Finally, they robbed Sword of its greatest offense: the midair spin. Granted, the cyclic cutter is still there, but you must dash first. Hammer got to keep its spin and only had dashing make it turbo style. Why did Sword get the raw deal? So, rather than a nice, all angles attack, we get... a downward aimed slash? No more hitting high targets. No more hitting back targets. No more taking about bunches of foes. They had better be beneath you for any damage to be dealt out now. This would make more sense if Sword didn't already come with a hold down while in air combination to do a downward thrust in air. Yeah, that's what everyone wants, multiple ways to attack low when airborn. That sure beats being able to hit all sides.

The only saving grace from this most hated switch up is that after the blow is dealt, either of the low aimed aerial attacks, Kirby bounces backward. Against regular foes, it would probably be handier to plow straight through them as was down with the old Sword's cyclone slash. However, against bosses both mini and full sized, it comes in use. Since a terrestial attack strategy is out of the question, I find juggling Kirby in the air to be the best tactic against them. I'd rather have the puff hopping above them out of harm's way rather than on level and into.

And that's my beef. I could go on tearing apart what was wronged against the Sword, but you get the point by now. I could also go on with its modifications in further titles, but this is where the change is most drastic. These two immediately linked points in time epitomize what I hated most about the change in copy abilities from 8-bit to 16-bit, a frozen frame in history that I can call up endlessly to say, "That ain't right." And, with that, I say "Boo!" to you, Sword. You're sweet beginning was followed with a bitter return, and I haven't really felt like sampling the rest of your multilayered flavors since.

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