Took a while to get back into
the swing of things, but I'm here to speak on the sparkster
himself... Spark Kirby!
Spark ranks up there with Burning, Needle, and Parasol as a
mainstay kind of power, given that it premiered in
Kirby's Adventure, and
has been present in all of the Dark Matter saga games. In
fact, Spark has been in more games than Parasol and Needle,
and probably Burning as well. You don't find too many
abilities that have that resumé, but Spark pulls it off. A
wondrous ability indeed.
WHY is Spark Kirby so wonderful? Well, in his first game, the
sparks looked like fireworks, and were even described as
such... mistranslation by NOA, or perhaps working with the
sprite capabilities of the NES... you decide. Anyway, Spark
was able to kill of any mini-boss in simply four hits. Just
hold "B", and Kirby surrounds himself with an electrical
shield... lightning IS hotter than the sun, belive it or not,
so it fits that this power is stronger than Fire. Spark Kirby,
unfortunately was unable to light fuses with this. Not a big
problem. Supposedly, Beam is also an electrical power, and it
can't light fuses either. However, Spark is also unable to
break the solid blocks that tend to screech when hit with a
strike too weak to break them. Not only that, but it cracks
Star Blocks directly under Kirby... so watch yourself. Sparky,
the foe holding this power, wasn't too threatening... he'd
usually jump around, occasionally pausing to send off his
spark shield. And he could be inhaled while doing so. The big
problem was if you mistakenly bumped into him, as with being
frozen or burned, a shocked Kirby would be knocked back a bit
farther than normally, and probably fall into a pit were one
nearby. Same problem with Trident Knight's forks... At least
the terrain wasn't so unstable as to kill you off easily.
Spark returned in Kirby's
Dreamland 2, Kirby's Dreamland 3, and
Kirby 64: the Crystal Shards.
Again, the shielding. Using it with Rick unlocked Beam. Not
sure about the other powers, as I've not been fortunate enough
to play Dreamland 3 or Dreamland 2. However, the K64 version
seemed lacking in size. HAl made up for it though... the
Double Spark power combo made a HUGE electrical shield around
Kirby, and anything that touched it was not only zapped, but
if it were struck just right, it'd become a small lightning
bolt that'd fry whatever it hit. The shield contracted while
Kirby walked... Yes, Kirby could WALK while shielding...
useful. the other combos were decent stuff. Mixing with Ice
made a fridge that had real health-replenishing (and foe
damaging) food, while Bomb brought out an exploding light bulb
that could actually light the area if need be. Burning made a
"match" Kirby, who'd build static until he caught fire (and
then ran uncontrollably to extinguish his head), while Stone
made for a sort of electric tetherball... with a boulder for a
ball. Cutter had him show his mad Jedi skillz with a
double-edged electric sabre, and Needle made the Lightning Rod
Kirby (which I've named "Thunder Kirby"), who was struck by
lightning to damage foes close to him, or above him. Very nice
stuff.
Spark was left out of Kirby
Super Star, and replaced with Plasma... which also
appeared in Kirby Air Ride.
However, the original sprite for the Plasma hat was that of
Fire and Ice, in green... the hat Spark Kirby has in
Nightmare in Dreamland
is sort of the same... a pallete swap of the Fire hat, with
electric pulses instead of flames. Catchy crown indeed. If you
look closely, you'll see that Plasma and Spark actually DON'T
have the same hat....
...
besides, animé Spark Kirby is GREEN, Plasma Kirby's a
lighter pink than normal Kirby, and isn't even IN the
animé. At the time of this writing, Spark Kirby hasn't
made his dub debut yet, but was in some commercials...
he's close to airing, though. Kirby will likely take it
to Squishy with Spark, as well as to a mixing robot of
some sort named Ryourigaa Z... And he's in the Hoshi no
Fumu ep everyone's probably heard of by now ("bouncy
Tiff", anyone?)... the shocking thing about Spark is
that it took FOREVER, even for the original to get to
it... better than Beam though... Beam's TOTALLY MIA,
despite being probably Kirby's first documented ability,
and very common in the games it appears in. (Beam is
actually more common than FIRE, which has been used
eight times...)
For gameplay mechanics, the fireworks now look like a generic
teal shield of electricity... and they aren't as powerful; it
takes five shocks to down a mini-boss... another one HAL toned
down for who-knows-what reason... best I can say is the bigger
foes have more HP than their 8-bit counterparts... let's hope
it's at least plausibly powerful in
Kirby: The Large Labyrinth
Mirror... 4th Quarter 2004 will reveal it all for us...
Spark Kirby is a favorite ability of mine, and I rate it a
9.5/10 It falls short of a perfect score for the
immobility associated with all shield abilities. The power
(and the catchy crown) really do bring the score up though.
Light 'em up, Kirby!