Ask Guru Gobbo #09

Those hats are the manifestation of the copied abilities, as was shown in Super Star, the first appearance of ability hats. When a power is acquired, a hat appears. This energy can be channeled into two forms: it can be returned to its original state, the creature that produced the power (or a creature that possessed it), or it can be released as it summoned, as a hat (or other corporeal object like a scepter). This ability artifact can also be seen if the reincarnated being is dismissed.

So, yeah. It's not like the pudge ball just purchases them at a department store or anything. They are magically seeded in his very nature, or something like that. Frankly, I don't like the hats. I think they are eye sores and things were better off without them. I mean, what? Eating a Waddle Doo gives you the ability to mimic its beam attack. That makes sense. But it also produces a coxcomb and green scepter? What Doo wears or wields either of those!?

Hats are stupid. Heh. What timing, eh?

No, really, I think the directer of these games frowned upon hats. As is becoming a hot topic, Shinichi Shimomura directed Dream Land 2, 3, and Crystal Shards. Granted, only two of those came out after Super Star. However, at the time, it appeared that hats would stay a Super Star trademark, especially since they were tied into the helper/ability system, vaguely. Shinichi favored the simplicity of Kirby games, and the hats stood out against this and didn't mesh well with the smooth environments.

However, it is typical for a video game to change the character's appearance when acquiring new abilities. Normally, this is done by just changing the sprite's palette. This was even done in Adventure with the pudge ball turning peach or blue. However, when multiple players started to get tossed into the mix, skin colors were set per player number and needed to stay those different colors right off the bat. Hats bypassed this conflict and made it known who had what easily. Additionally, I think the television series using hats really gave push to the idea in later titles.

Personally, as was priorly stated, I loath the hats. I think they clash with the game's style, but now that style is shifting so that hats fit in with it. Most of the headgear looks ridiculous in my opinion, and it keeps me from using some copied abilities. They use to be that thing that appeared only in one game, but then they tarnished Adventure with hats in the remake and kept the train rolling from there. I'm an old fan, so my memories will always be of a bald Kirby, and it looks like that's the only place he'll wear a bare crown now.

The elusive Helper is quite a mystery to those who don't have a twin brother or some other source of perpetual two-playerdom. The Star Chariot Helper is created when the CPU is not the one in charge of the helper. The second player controller must be actively used to get it to come in at the start of the fight. It can also be summoned during the battle by simply hitting a button on the other controller. Doing so takes no ability sacrifice to generate. If the Helper was created or re-created during the NOVA Heart battle, they'll be a random helper as opposed to the one they went into the fight as afterwards.

There happens to be a whole Kirby Cameos page on the site that lists them all, but to name the other one I know, Stunt Race FX has the puff ball plastered on a billboard.

Sonic is nothing more than a furry fantasy that use to have some well meaning, unique games. He's entirely lost his way, in my opinion, and doesn't uphold to what brought him up. Other elder video game icons such as Mario and Kirby (gee, both Nintendo) have done well to keep elements from their original games while adapting, changing, and evolving to more advanced systems and game play. Sonic just seems to be grasping at straws with his latest games.

Now, of course I'm going to say that I "thimk" that the pink glutton is better than some blue hedgehog that runs fast. Kirby is charming, endearing, and has a whimsical nature that delights video game fans both young and old. Sonic, on the other hand, tries to hard to be the overplayed bad ass/anti-hero lead character and only maintains appeal to moronic yiffies or whatever you call those freaks. Pudge balls win over anthros any day of the week.

This question has a follow up in Session #19.

Most characters don't talk since they are video games. Iconic characters don't do well when a voice is paired to them. Games like Final Fantasy X and up used a lot of voice acting since it progressed the story. Nintendo, however, focuses more on game play with their games. Shock, what a concept! Voices are a lot like over-real graphics: it doesn't add to the game any. I'd rather play as a silent clunk of pixels than a poor sounding, hyper-realistic whatsit any time.

This question actually already came up, but it was only answered a few days. Get all the answers you need here.

The "Dark Matter blows at friendship" part has been called into question, very recently, actually. Basically, it's deep rooted J-stuff.

As for the relationship between D-Matter and the Zeroes, it is Zero that is the controlling force behind the darkness. Think of something along the lines of a giant robot with pilot at the controls. Darky is the robot, but Zero is the one pulling the strings.

What do you mean "mixed metaphors"? I'll mix you!