Anyways, this topic is
about yet another fanservice power in the Kirby series, though
not a common one... Bomb
Kirby!
Kirby has had bombs for his own pleasures since KDL, but to
what true avail? The Bomb item would injure him if he got too
close to the blast, and all he could do was inhale/walk over
it, and then exhale explosions straight ahead, cutting through
enemies... HAL later redesigned that ability, we now call it
THROW...
... so what happened to Bomb? Well, the Poppy Bros. that
hold it give out Crash in Adventure... Bomb was buried
until Kirby Super Star,
when HAL decided to give Kirby some new and interesting
abilities. Bomb Kirby, wearing the blue hat of his foe,
Poppy Bros. Sr., is able to produce standard-issue
cartoon bombs out of literally NOWHERE, and hold them to
throw later... unless he holds it TOO long, in which
case, the bomb selfdestructs, damaging Kirby. Kirby can
throw low and far to close and high, depending on the
press of "Y". The longer it's held, the closer the
throw. If the angled throws aren't suitable, Kirby can
toss them like bowling balls by dashing and throwing,
good for distance shots. He's also got the ability to
plant bombs, both on the ground (A la Denjaa, or whoever
that crazy pineapple enemy with the bombs in KSS is - I
say it's Denjaa, because it and the monster from the
1-year anniversary episode of the animé look a little
similar), and on his enemies if you tap "Y" close to
them. He can plant them on the ground if you hold Down
when you tap "Y". Bomb Kirby can also do air raids by
holding Down+ tappingY in the air... he'll drop a bomb
per tap this way. The bombs aren't as strong as some
other powers, as each attack does 16 damage per hit
(Parasol's stronger, what in the world...?). However,
the explosion does 26 HP of damage, as opposed to
hitting with the bomb itself. It's just tough angling a
bomb to explode on the ground RIGHT NEXT to a foe,
especially a mobile one. Planting bombs on fallen
mini-bosses is fun; just look at them when the bomb's
planted... and Kirby cutely ducks when he plants one on
his enemies. The hat's a nice touch... Poppy Bros.
Kirby! Kirby can rapidly toss the bombs if need be, very
useful against bosses.
Kirby 64
sees no hats at all, but Bomb is here... after a four-year
hiatus. Bomb is replacing either Broom (I'm NOT getting into
the triple name issue; I know the power's real name, but it's
BROOM for all purposes of having ONE name to worry about, as
far as I'm concerned) or Parasol, with the other one just
omitted. Bomb's throwing mechanics are reversed; now Kirby
throws at a wider angle and farther away if you hold "B" down,
making almost a Bomb planting attack if you merely tap the
button. Of course, this means no more holding a bomb for later
use, or to amusingly have Kirby blow himself up... since you
have six energy bars instead of a regular energy meter (a la
KSS), this makes perfect sense. The energy lost from a bomb
blowing up in Kirby's hands isn't as great as losing one full
energy bar, as far as I know. Bomb Kirby also has some of the
better Power Combos in the game, as listed:
Double Bomb: Homing Missiles (Surface-to-air?)
Bomb+Needle: Exploding Gordo (Might be what inspired
that one animé monster, which I believe WAS a Gordo),
can explode early by pressing "B"
Bomb+Burning: Fireworks (VERY nice power, just by looks
alone)
Bomb+Ice: Exploding snowman (can't prematurely detonate,
but blows up on contact if not over time)
Bomb+Cutter: Explosive shurikens, which can stick to
walls and enemies before blowing up. Other than the
blast, you'll only see the star on enemy contact,
because it travels so fast. Is this a rendition of Ninja
Kirby?
Bomb+Stone: DYNAMITE! Duck and cover. Kirby wears a
hardhat in this pose. If you don't duck and cover when
the pack of Trinitotuluene (That's what TNT (NOT the
network!) stands for) explodes, you're damaged.
Bomb+Spark: Lightbulb Kirby... hold "B" to keep the
light on to see what Adeleine's painting... Hi,
Adeleine!!! Keep it on too long, and the blub
explodes... the glass fragments and bulb body damage
enemies, but Kirby will be fine.
Kirby used the missiles in the K64 commercial to blast the
competition for what pet you should choose. Yeah, if I had a
choice, I'd pick the cute pink puff too.
Animé-wise, Bomb Kirby's not much different than his KSS
counterpart... but at the time and location of this
writing, he's only been in two episodes so far. Air
Ride, however... WHOA. Kirby can suddenly nuke enitre
city blocks or the equivalent thereof with ONE Bomb.
Bomb's a one-use power, but maybe that's because its
blast radius makes it akin to CRASH. Kirby wears the
Poppy hat, and is officially Bomb kirby... but those
enemies on the track look like Kabooma, or whatever the
Crash-bearing enemies (that can be INHALED, and aren't
fallen Poppy Bros) in Kirby's Advenutre/Nightmare in
Dreamland and Kirby Super Star are called. Kirby again
can throw farther with longer presses of the button, but
this time, you have a meter for the distance (similar to
the Plasma charge meter), and a small indicator where
the bomb will touch down... the blast hurts Kirby
himself, so be careful using this ability... your best
bet in City Trial is to toss it far away where you're
NOT going (preferably where the other Kirby players
are), and in Air Ride, to toss it close to you to have
it blast rivals behind you... tossing it far ahead to
blast the leader means you risk getting caught in the
blast yourself... you'll have the same afflictions as
being hit with Fire. Top Ride's Bomb item is about
five-use, and doesn't have a Crash-esque blast radius...
Bomb in Air Ride should have been like this; if they
wanted Crash, they should have put Crash in the game...
his hat can't be THAT hard to animate.
Overall, Bomb is a fairly useful ability, marred by a flop in
it's mechanics, and noticeably low power compared to Parasol,
Stone, Hammer, etc... I still want to know how it'd hold up
against Needle, Hi-Jump, Tornado, and Broom in KSS...
hopefully, HAL will make at least ONE Kirby game with actual
HP meters again, a way to see how much damage you're doing,
and those four abilities in, as well as the rest of the KSS
alumni, Throw, and BALL. In the meantime, SiR6 rates Bomb an
8.5/10 Have a blast!
