Tornado has been around since Kirby's Adventure, but
only recently returned to the game scene. With Tornado
in your arsenal, Kirby becomes almost invincible, only
harmed by spikes and SOME forms of attack. Simply
pressing "B" makes Kirby go crazy
spinning, tearing through enemies in a mad whirl,
as the most destructive storm known to man is known to
do. Holding the button down allows Kirby to rise into
the air, making for a good flight ability, and the
direction he goes can be controlled. Tornado come in
Kirby's Dreamland 2 and 3 by mixing Parasol with Coo,
and SORT OF in K64 by mixing Cutter with Ice and doing a
jump while skating... a pathetic attempt at a Tornado
revival, that was.
Using
Tornado, Kirby can move faster, and as I said before, he's
ALMOST invincible. In Adventure, he can be grabbed out of it
by Bugzzy, Shelatoss, and Fire Lion... but that doesn't happen
in Nightmare in Dreamland. Other than being grabbed, he' only
vulnerable to spikes and thorns... but not Gordos... weird,
but who's complaining? ^_^ Of course, such power comes at a
price; Tornado is a bit of a rare find in the games, mostly
accessed by Mix, and otherwise hard to find... Thankfully
(though it CAN make things seem too easy), the power shows up
in a Museum somewhere... You'll find Tornado to be VERY useful
against Kracko (though GETTING to him with it is another story
entirely), and King Dedede... and if not for MK's challenge,
you'd probably own him with it. (Mind you, if you come with
Tornado or any other power in Nightmare in Dreamland, unlike
Adventure, you'll leave with Sword...) Tornado's great for
blazing through problem levels, tearing up bosses, or just
looking at another of Kirby's interactive hats... a crown with
a spinning tornado on top.
(Picture courtesy of
Kine the Genius!)
Air Ride doesn't make Tornado as uber-powerful as it once
was... It mostly serves just to augment your Quick Spin attack
by trapping rivals in a whirlwind when hit with it, and
allowing you to do Quick Spin in the air (but Wing
doesn't...?). Not very useful? Wrong. The wirlwind can be
disorienting to opponents, and it's great for getting enemies
off the course. Admittedly, it doesn't last long, but you
shouldn't need it for too much time. whirlwinded rivals don't
recover as fast as those hit with a normal Quick Spin. Again
though, Tornado's not that common, only available in Celestial
Valley, Sky Sands, Beanstalk Park, and Checker Knights every
other lap or so (replaced by Needle in the other laps
usually). Get it when you see it, ride your opponent's tail,
and spin away!
The animé... WOW. Kirby is a fierce force with Tornado... he's
content to just make one big tornado that obliterates anyone
nearby, or to zoom around in his personal tornado, bumping and
thrashing the enemies. He can also exhale tornadoes, which
makes me long for a Kirby game with KSS-style gameplay that
includes Tornado among the abilities (and also makes me sad
that Tornado (and to a lesser extent, Needle) were absent from
Kirby Super Star).
All in all, Tornado is a great ability, and deserves to be
overrated, though it's often obscured by Sword, Bomb, Fire,
etc... Probably the only problem with it is that it's not as
initially strong as them (It took ten hits in Nightmare to
bring down Bugzzy... same as the supposedly weak Beam), but
the invulnerability and multi-hitting more than make up for
that.
SiR6 rates Tornado Kirby a perfect 10. There's a storm a-brewin'...
