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!
Bomb Kirby
