A mysterious power
indeed, and probably the only one to get its start as
only a space-filler icon.
Magic Kirby!
Magic, as I said, was ORIGINALLY only space filler... or
something. Magic Kirby would appear between stages (or
something to that effect) in
Kirby's Block Ball,
and I have NO idea why HAL placed it as an ability in
Kirby & The Amazing
Mirror - which I haven't played, since it's not
out in the United States as of this writing. However, I
still have some knowledge about the ability. Kirby wore
a magician's top hat in his original Magic Kirby
appearance, something I'm pretty sure was retained in
KatAM. I know it's in the artwork and the icon, so I'd
venture a guess it appears when Kirby uses the power,
much like Cook and Microphone Kirby's headgear. Magic is
a one-time use ability, and with good reason...
... apparently, this power has a PLETHORA of
possibilites, all beneficial to Kirby and his... split
personalities. It's sole carrier is a nasty chomping box
miniboss known as Boxy. She's a nasty-looking freak of a
boss, but her power is VERY well used. A roulette starts
when the ability is activated, and each icon has its own
effects.
"?" Icon: Activates Mix (so apparently, Mix
IS in this game),
which gives a random ability to the Kirbys. I wonder myself if
it's truely random this time (in
Kirby's Adventure/Kirby:
Nightmare in Dreamland, Mix will wind down to the same
power depending on what powers were combined and sometimes
where it was used, which I think they may have retained in
Amazing Mirror), or if Magic's Mix is area-based. I think it's
totally random, since it supposedly could drop different
abilities for the four Kirbys.
Cherry: It kills all the enemies onscreen, as if Crash or
Microphone (Mike isn't in this game, though) had been used,
but leaves behind food where the enemy was
standing/floating/flying/whatever. The death effect may be an
intended indication that the foe was transformed. Slightly
different than Cook (which roll calls the screen's foes into
the cauldron), but the same effect.
Galaxia: This will cause Meta Knight to fly in and just plain
kill every enemy on screen. Useful if you get it in a crowded
area (the cherry helps more if you need to regain health), and
there have been reports of this happening even while Kirby has
the Sword ability, indicating that the AI Kirbys can and will
use it. I'm not sure what it does when a boss or miniboss is
on screen, but it likely deals some high damage. That, or it's
totally ineffective. By the way, Galaxia is the name of Meta
Knight's sword, in case you wondered what I was even talking
about from the start. No, Galax (otherwise known as Nebula
Belt) from Kirby Air Ride
has nothing to do with it.
1-UP: I REALLY shouldn't have to tell you what this does, but
then again, knowing how Magic works so far, it'd be
surprising. It gives you an extra life. A 1-up. One measly
1-UP... as opposed to turning all onscreen foes into 1-UPs...
then again, that might have been TOO much overkill. Still, a
1-UP is nice to have, but this is probably the hardest to get.
I'd guess Magic itself is Mix accessible, and probably isn't
easy to get by natural (read: not stopping the roulette early
yourself) Mixing, though taking the actual gamble likely isn't
any easier. I don't know what abilities Mix for Magic (no Mix
table for Amazing Mirror yet, and few people bother to
consider Mix as an actual ability anyways), but I'd guess Boxy
is a pretty rare find to go along with Magic's cool effects
and overkill tendencies. I wonder, if it's possible to Mix
Boxy with something, what Mixing Magic will yield, and with
what.
I've never used Magic (or even seen much of it, aside from
some screenshots, and info on this site and over on the
Japanese site as well), but I like it enough to rate it
probably the only score in excess. 11/10 for Magic Kirby,
since it's so useful and varied, if a bit unpredictable. But
it's all good. Now to watch Kirby make Dark Mind disappear.
