Ask Guru Gobbo #122

1) Kirby's blush is just from his youth and childishness. Children have rosy cheeks, like a cherub. And, really Leint, you gotta stop repeating yourself. You asked this same cheeky question before. Repeating an old question is one thing, but repeating your own? Creepy!

2) Well, yes, that would be the rightful answer. Well, minus the internet speech. Really, though, one form of Dark Matter/0 does display copy ability -- Miracle Matter. Granted, he's not the black, blobby type, but he's in the same, uh... "tribe"? Dang Google translations of Japanese pages. Additionally, Bukiset, who is regarded as the Dark Matter knight of the non-boss variety, wields all of the copy abilities, too.

In the end, the answer comes down to a rather simple principle. Gooey eats stuff, and eating is the root of copying abilities. Dark Matter doesn't need to eat things. He just possesses them to gain their abilities. Why immulate when you can control, right?

3) People read the archives? Kirby is a brave, young lad. He looks at danger in the eye without flinching. This is either amazing bravado or ignorant bliss. I guess you can take your pick? The animated series' puffball, however, has a recorded fear or dislike of caterpillars.

1) King Dedede is a greedy jerk. It's the "what's yours, I want" phenomenon. Even if its nothing great or that one wants, if someone else has it, wants it, or wants to keep it, it must be worth taking from them. That's how greed works. You want what others have.

2) Fatty Whale's colors change. In Great Cave Offensive, he is blue, same in The Arena classic. In Milky Way Wishes and other appearances, he is changed to a red color. This has no (apparent) impact on his behavior or difficulty but is a change the game makers felt like incorporating. A few other bosses undergo this palette change, including Chameleo Arm (he gets teal, white, black, and some others not on the rainbow), Computer Virus (they get all darkly colored), Heavy Lobster turns chrome silver, Wham Bam goes ruddy, and even Whispy has some red added to his tint. Granted, none of these are as noticeable as Fatty's change. Most of the other bosses who appear in more than just one sub-game have real upgrades done to them, like the Revenges, Jewel, or Soul. This gives the illusion of change without any of the effort.

3) Consistent, the animated series is not as you were directly told previously. They follow through actions with no foresight or hindsight. It could be that the biker show was syndicated on Channel DDD, but all the shows that I'm aware of were actually made by and with the emperor. This is what we call a plot hole, folks! People are suppose to pay that much attention.

4) The channel serves the crowns own ends. Whether he just wants more face time, to bad mouth his enemies, or hock some wares, he can use his broadcast. It's not limited to just purpose. He's too nefarious to stipon his evil genius.

1) Didn't you hear? They've moved the release date of sometime last year up to sometime this year. Only nine more months till they delay it again!

2) That's what one would call "changing it up". King Dedede is, nowadays, pretty easy. Unless you have him transform, fly into a rage, or be nigh-vulnerable to abilities, he's a push over. They wanted to have Squeak Squad psyche out the player by having them go straight to the normal source of trouble. Really, after barging his way to those castle doors all these times now, Kirby should know a short cut or two to get their lickidy-split. Taking out the old nemesis right away allows the game to set up the new focus of the Squeaks for Kirby to worry about.

3) The "one" you speak of is Flora, world one, in Milky Way Wishes. This is what you call a themed puzzle. The level is technically the same but cycles through times of the year to alter the environment slightly. It's creative and thought provoking. One should be able to figure out, "Oh, seasons. So the water here will be frozen in winter" and other such possibilities. The entire Zelda game Oracle of Seasons was dependent on figuring this logical progression of seasons for its puzzles.

Whispy has already had three "altered versions", not to mention an unleashed dark side. By the by, that'd be Twin Woods, King Golem, his Revenge, and evil walkin' Whisp from Dream Land 3. Anyhoo, this concept almost clashes against the entire point of the Interactive Fandom contests in that it seeks to make things more complicated than they are, and people already went overboard when asked to make a simple mini-boss. Saying, "add complication to this guy" would probably result in book report sized entries. Blarge.

No matter which boss is faced, unless they force use of single weapon, someone can beat them in under a minute if not fifteen seconds. Have you seen any of those speed runs through the boss batches? Those people are ruthless. It's all really a matter of the player's approach than the actual boss. Most people's approach is just "take best power ever" which really cuts out the fun in my opinion.

I think that's just the hangar or construction site of his battleship. The thing is a beast, keep in mind. The facility to make that thing would have practically been a small town with all its workers and equipment, let alone the scaffolding to even hold that monster up.

1) The sabretooth Grizzo is known as Garuberu. I'm not quite certain what that'd cleanly romanize into. Galbal? That's a twister.

2) Glom doesn't really have to be anything. It's like what questioning what the Waddles are or Kirby himself. They're things. Glom has parts from lots of cold blooded animals, probably most from salamanders and lizards. They have long bodies and stumpy legs like Glom. Salamander would be a good basis, too. Japan likes its amphibians.

3) Nothing is wrong with the way Fire operates. I'd rather have a steady stream than a single shot, anyway. That way, you can plant your feet and fry away rather than having to jam the button so much. But, much like you, I prefer Burning. The tackle just offers more use than a in-front attack, even if it can be aimed slightly.

4) That's actually reason for it not to be included in Amazing Mirror. Can you imagine what type of confusion would have been spawned? People would think it had extra significance to it than it really did since it was in the name. Now, Ninja was included in Squeak Squad due to Spinni. Since the mouse had shinobi skills, they wanted to have ninjitsu. Also, it's Japanese. Kinda some cultural respect there. Still, the ability was wholly changed from Super Star to Squeak Squad. It lost the slash and kunai in favor of shuruken.

Fighter follows about the same lines. It, too, has relation to the martial arts and was heavily modified from its previous appearance. They didn't even keep Knuckle Joe and instead opted for... a boxing rodent? Still, it stood out uniquely from all the other powers. Also, having a fireball attack is much mirth and merriment.

Now, Mirror, on the other hand, was garbage to begin with. The ability is suppose to be "reflect things back at enemies". That would make for a pretty cool ability. However, the primary use of it always wound up being "throw a barrage of cut glass in their face". They already had a sit-there-a-shoot-stuff-forward attack, Fire, and that was more versitile and established. Without the reflective shield (no blocking in this title) or the awesome split dash attack, Mirror would kinda fumble. In my views, it's a good thing Mirror wasn't included. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see it back, but I'd like to see it back right rather than "'cuz it's in the name".

5) I'm actually not familiar with the uses of the Animal Friend Stone/Cutter combos from Crystal Shards. I know each sculpture did something different, but I'm not privy to how useful they were in-game since I never played it. Really, tho', Kine is worthless. He's suppose to be. His lack of ability and use is what made so many puzzles difficult. I think its fitting that his rocky form is just as frustrating. It's keepin' up the trend.

It's pretty amazing what does have a name. I mean, the li'l blob of paint? that Heavy Lobster pops out is called Paint Slime. Why! I may make up a nickname for an enemy if I don't know what it's called, but their shots? Those are too minor to be given the honour! That's British honor, 50% more potent than the American spelled variety.

Anyhoo, the li'l faux-radially symmetrical fellow is ... not obviously named. Hm.

This question has a follow-up in Session #123.

Spiny, aka: Togezo, who, semi-coincidentally, already has a counterpart in Dream Land with the exact same English/Japanese naming, a spiked red shell, and obscured face. Togezo. It's pretty much already there, so there's not much of any effort needed for the transistion to even take place.

1) I always find it interesting when I get a question that was featured in Repeat Response just in the last session. Squeaky Bot wanted to know why King Dedede hates Kirby, too, so there's the same answer then again.

2) Mario doesn't know where Mt. Dedede is. He's also not sixteen inches tall to blend in partially with the rest of the Dream Landers in attendance. It's called a fun cameo. Don't be reading so much into it.

3) There's no way to control when Stone brings up any particular transformation. If not how that was meant, see part two of this reply. The transformation process should, technically, be able to turn into anything. If one shape can be assumed, then this hardening process should be able to sculpt into more than one form. But, questioning the shape shifting would be like questioning how he catches on fire or throws out part of his body as a blade. None of it makes sense. Matter can't gain mass and shed it instantaneously. That's basic physics. But, it's not real, so I could say it happens with unicorn and pixie dust. It matters not in the end.