Ask Guru Gobbo #161

The -- although technically -- "old" bosses always come back in newer games, even since the old games. They might just be a new skin or a "mechanical" version, but essentially it's the same thing. Lololo & Lalala came back as Nruff & Nelly from the first to second Dream Lands, Kracko had a robotic version in Squeak Squad, Paint Roller turned -- arguably -- into The Wiz, and Whispy Woods has had umpteen different updates. People like the originals; these are normally considered either the high-point of a franchise or the nostalgia focus. Regardless of the case, people want to see more of them. If you can get an old, familiar face and give it a new coat of paint, I don't see it as that bad. It's better than getting the same, old thing and putting forward with no change whatsoever. This, especially, since most of the original bosses were not necessarily bad but just doing their buddy -- King Dedede -- a favor.

Additionally, from the "newer" bosses that I've seen, they really are not that memorable. It's less a time frame thing (I'd like to think) and more that they are simply uninspired. Fatty Whale: just a whale -- in a sailor suit! That's pretty bad, I'll admit. However, the super-saiyan ape from Return to Dream Land? Well, I didn't bother to remember it's name, sooo...

Of course, the big purveyor of old-boss re-hash is Adeleine and the hologram projecting boss in Planet Robobot (not a spoiler if in font this small or after this much time; second boss, kiddies, deal with it) who threw out a whole slew of old bosses to topple. Now, one of the reasons that this can be done -- which is tied to the previous face-lifting statement -- is that the old bosses were lame. Well, not "lame" lame, but much less spectacular than the current line-ups.

Since the game play was more reserved, with single hits and timed attacks, these battles are far more leisurely and less involved. It's common these days to have the entire face of the combat shift gears when the life meter is taken down so far, a change that wasn't even afforded to every final boss. I can remember the grueling wars made against, say, Heavy Mole. You'd get whooped by him the time or so through. Outside of Mass Attack, no boss in the past decade has managed to even give me a hassle. This, of course, is less about the Kirby series and more just video games in general.

How is it a clash? The traits of being bad at making friends and being unable to feel positive emotions are in no way in contradiction to one another. A "clash" would be Dark Matter being a friend-making adept or feeling only positive emotions.

The pseudo-shaky state this question is even based upon aside, I think the lack of citation really pounds the nail in the coffin. No source, no story. This is a witch-hunt based on nothing but speculation and rumors. I cannot really say I've ever heard of this line before, but I also do not know from where the prior line came. Still, I will gladly take second-hand rumors over YouTube comments any day.

But, hearsay is something that should be put down. Luckily, with the passing of the twentieth anniversary, so came the Kirby 20th Anniversary Book (or something like that, Hoshi no Kaabii 2 instruction booklet maybe?), I've finally found something that talks about the Dark Matter family in Japanese text. Apparently, the peace and happiness of Dream Land was sought to be ended. Dark Matter did not approve, apparently. Now, the actual text -- straight-up -- is as follows:

(daaku mataa) ha to tsu te mo [sahi] shi i [hito] na n da. da ka ra (pupupu lando) mi ta i, mi n na ga [tomodachi] tsu te i u [kuni] ga ra ya ma shi i n da ne. {[tomodachi] ni na tsu te} tsu te [i] e na i n da

Of course, Japanese does not seem to like breaks between words, outside of punctuation and kanji (grouped with brackets), so it is mostly syllables. From what I can gather, it roughly states: Dark Matter is also(?) [difference ratio] chilly [man] what. It does and more (Pupupu Land) want to see, everyone is [friends] one is you have [country] that's but cause of death etc. (Friends to do one by) by one there do not.

Don't really know how to accurately clean that up, but I'll give it a whirl: Dark Matter is an outsider and an cold individual. When it saw Dream Land, he wanted to bring an end to everyone's friendship in that land. There would be no friends for anyone. That last sentence is really tricky.

Anyhoo, that's literally all of the text. It has him being "chilly" and wanting to "cause death" to the friends in Dream Land, but there's not much other room for out-right explanation to Dark Matter's motives. Of course, Japanese can have a lot of nuances crammed into words that Google Translate can easily not report to me.

Basically: Dark Matter is cold-hearted and wants there to be no more friends is the take-home message, the only real, straight from an official Kirby booklet text that I know. Regardless, the "bad at making friends" is shot down (unless contradicted in, say, Dream Land 3 text somewhere) on the basis that Dark Matter wants to end friendship -- really, I see no other interpretation of that poorly translated heap -- while the "can't feel good" is neither confirmed nor denied. Being that Dark Matter is cold (synonyms: heartless, unfeeling, merciless, mean) could branch into such, but such a matter will be dealt with upon more information (or a better translation). Furthermore, it may a like poor translation that led to someone thinking that was the case in the beginning.

The changes -- while minute -- are undoubtedly due to the screen size. When you have a massive, living room sized, wide screen plasma screen, certain feature stand out and look a bit better. However, when you have to cram all that detail into a small, portable system, things get a little more tricky. These slight adjustments measure to a lot of change as you scale from a few feet to a scant number of inches. It could be visibility, it could be polygon count for the processor, it could be stylistic, it could be deemed by a bunch of suits in a smoky conference room what should be done. You know those smokin' suits, always making all decisions for video games, right? Point is, you gotta cut corners when going from home console to hand-held system. And if you think that's not the case, you probably own an over-clocked laptop that needs charged every day or has a battery bigger than the unit itself.

To recap, you inquiring as to whether the Invader Armors perform their function regardless of their contents? Well, one could only assume that the function is non-discriminatory. The main questions that I would impose are two-fold:

First, would anything even change? The, let's say, fire model of Robobot armor does not behave exactly like Kirby with the ability, nor do all enemies who possess that same power. As such, would there be any change to the model's function whether it was a flaming Kirby or a fireball spitting fish with Kirby seated in his mouth? I would imagine not.

Secondly... would they fit? I mean, the Animal Friend are typically twice the dimensions and eight-times the volume of a standard Dream Landian. Unless they want a tight fit or those driver's seats are surprisingly spacious, the bestial crew may have some difficulties proving this case. And, if they could squeeze in, would one set of armor be able to ride inside another set of armor?

Step one, learn how to code. Step two, learn how to code well. Step three, make certain that it is a Kirby fan game and not a different game simply a facade of the marshmallow. There are various softwares that allow one to make a game with minimal coding (possibly none at all), but this leads to derivative and lackluster outcomes -- point in case, see any Kirby "RPG Maker" where a spiky-haired puffball is wielding a sword all the time for some reason.

Fan games are a bit like (good) game making software. They provide the sprites, sounds, and general concept as the code engine piece together functions and mechanics. Essentially, they both act like training wheels on a bicycle: the rider is still transversing -- just with assistance. Much the same, this aid only serves its purpose if the rider eventually sheds what is essentially a crux, albeit slowly. New graphics are introduced along side the old while custom code snippets are inserted along the generated.

Eventually, one should be able to take flight all on one's own with unique graphics and self-written code from the ground up -- although, the concept could still very much still resemble another property if homage was aimed for. The important thing to remember, however, and yes this is still addressing your "make a fan game" question, is to make creation unable to have another character substituted into it. If the player could be controlling, say, Sonic the Hedgehog in place of Kirby and keep the same game play without any sort of clashing, then it is trite.

For those of you unfamiliar with just what "Kirby Adventure" refers to (not the original NES title remade into Nightmare in Dream Land, by the by), that story is best told straight from an interview with a man who worked on the game. As for playable versions of it, these types of things are very difficult to find, if they even exist. As someone who "works" on "game development" -- loose as it fits the bill, it still grants a certain insight -- I can attest to how disconnected the process is.

There are fun screen shots and various stills, but the lines joining point A to point B are simply not there. There are certain deleted scenes in DVD extras that really illustrate this point: they lack sound, have a different color tinting, and look much less professional. Likewise, the actual game may be lacking in flourishes and may not even be able to be played. The title screen or level transition process may not even exist, mostly done through direct input and later removed "warps".

Now, of course I've looked for some version of this. Of the four canceled Kirby titles, I'd be ecstatic with a glimpse at any of these post-Kid Kirby games. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get more than those leaked screen shots of play-tests. That sorta stuff usually breaches confidentiality agreements with the employing company which... Can. Get. You... Fired. A lot of the smaller companies are less caring about such leaks -- either the employer or employee, take your pick. That's right, no one cares if Cheetah Men 2 is unleashed onto the public. Although, they should.

Interestingly, one of those included "lost games" has seemed to emerge as the sub-game within Planet Robobot: Kirby 3D Rumble. It's appearance is remarkably similar to the revealed screen shots. This sorta goes to show that -- even after all these years -- a good idea may never truly go down for the count. Arguable, of course, Return to Dream Land is what became this title, even if it doesn't have enemy helpers like Fire Phan-phan and Golem.

I've answered this question before -- way long ago in the years of old. However, the times are a-changin', and they (the developers of the Kirby series) have begun to embrace the puffball's very massive and plentiful past. For example, the Animal Friends, basically the mascots of the so-called Dark Matter Trilogy of titles and the simple times, have made appearances in several sub-games in recent DS titles.

Mass Attack had Kirby Quest which featured the pets sitting at the continue screen and the original dark master as the final boss. Then, Triple Deluxe had Kirby Fighters where for the first time in a non-static role, the friends appear and take action. This trend of further recognizing this by-gone era is quite enticing.

However, with the exception of Canvas Curse, the titular hero has been donning hats in every title with Copy Abilities, another telltale of the "modern" Kirby. This is the popular way -- not just Kirby but -- games in general continue. I remember when I first played a Mario game for the Wii. It seemed to me like a cacophony of flashes and motion, very distracting. This is, sadly, how the modern audience functions. They are not laser focused and see through the noise. Rather, they have such a lack of attention that the extra flourish is needed to keep their traditionally-lazy eyes on the screen. Maybe I'm just jaded on modern youth.

The high button input controls for copy abilities has become the standard for Kirby, and it should be. Don't get me wrong, I love the Dream Lands. However, they were designed for simple consoles. I believe the newest Planet Robobot shows that Kirby will not only keep the fighting game-esque sequences but also put them in with a ride.

There isn't really a reason to limit abilities to single applications, changed only when mixed with another power or joined to a certain mount. The consoles have the extra capabilities to allow extra designs and schematics for Kirby, a robot suit, and probably more than that. Any you know what? Why not? Cram as much in these games as you can to get the most bang for your Kirby buck. Kirby bucks not legal tender in any economy.

Things probably won't "simplify" any time soon. Things keep escalating further and more still, with the Hyper Nova and Ultra Copy Abilities. If they were to bring back power mixing, it'd probably work like the robotic armor: it'd have its own look, its own command inputs, and all that jazz. It wouldn't be as full as the individual abilities, I wouldn't think, but it wouldn't be a one-trick pony, either. Or, as is more likely the case, it simply won't be.

When? The question in question questioned (that's a lot of "question") if the other Kirby players in Return to Dream Land were the split Kirbys (proper plural according to Mass Attack, so I should keep it up) from Amazing Mirror. Apparently, at the start, I defaulted my view to referencing Nightmare in Dream Land instead of Return to Dream Land, since that's the title I've had more time to rattle around in my head. When I think of Return, the other playable characters are the trio that pop into mind.

Really, I don't even know where that statement was going. It seems to be some odd, hanging chad that was meant to be edited out upon proofreading (clearly, I did not proofread).

The similar beings were likely either sucked into Patch World with Kirby or where, I dunno, yarn constructs? Didn't Yin-Yarn stitch up Dedede and other such foes to trouble Kirby? This was, after all, an entirely different realm. There have been repeating lifeforms seen across the various planets and stars (see Milky Way Wishes and The Crystal Shards), but -- in Epic Yarn's case -- this was a mystic sock that led to a universe with its own entire version of physics. Everything was cloth, after all, which probably opens up more questions than anything.

This matter is further complicated with the fact that this title was not intended to be a Kirby game. It was an interesting concept which was then told, "Hey, that's good, but who cares? Put a star in that game to make it really pop. Hm, star... pop... Mario! Too expensive to license? Eh, then Kirby." Thus, it went from Keito no Furaffu (Fluff's Yarn) to Keito no Kaabii (Kirby's Yarn). I always have this factoid floating around in the back of my head, and thus the title and all included questions of canon are disregarded.

It's like that children's toy, the colored shapes and the fitted slots. You can fit the square through the circle hole if you hit it with a hammer, but what you get out on the other side isn't really a square or a circle. Rather, it's neither. It began as one, was changed to conform to the other, but it truly cannot be fit into either category. It's the product of a rush change to capitalize on a hot property with a tried-and-true property. Also, I'm aware that it wasn't that much of a rush, with three months spent on Kirby's animations alone. However, when your stories get as deep as "reclaim cake". Logic and reason for what's happening? Probably not a big concern.

No, that's why I picked Marx. Again, the redemption thing is a trend in the Kirby series. Whether it's King Dedede, Maglor, or the Squeaks, they all seem to turn a new leaf. Out of them, only the Squeaks made signs of repentance in their debut title while the rest came in following titles. Marx, however, never got his shot, sadly brushed aside after the Super Stars. More importantly, Marx fits the playable mold for the Kirby series, namely the correct size. How could you say that Landia or Dark Nebula would be better? The former are gigantic and the later doesn't even have limbs. It'd be like using a Ghosted foe in Squeak Squad: every potential target is pointless and can't perform basic actions.

No characters have character in the Kirby series. Maglor literally fell from the sky, asked for help, got it, and stabbed Kirby in the back. Marx -- allegedly -- was Kirby's best friend (I guess a role shared with Gooey) but then got greedy and usurped a magic wish. The difference? Well, they had 3D models for a non-cut scene Maglor, so why not have him return in a later title for a mini-game? Much like how the Squeaks made a return in Mass Attack -- inappropriately sized to the now smaller Kirby -- since they had the sprites laying around.

The real reason between the gulf 'twixt you and I is quite simple: time frame. Everyone you mention appears in a more recent Kirby title while I focused more on the 90's. Marx is my Maglor, as I previously compared the two. Came from no where, seize power at the end, be the main boss. Which of the M's am I talking about? Now, I've slandered Marx quite fully in the past. In fact, a goer of this site noted that this very rant fully laid out that the angle Marx took would have been more effective if it followed the lines of Maglor, but I wrote it two years before Return even came out. This is why I'd like to see him get another shot.

Everyone you make mention of is from Return to Dream Land or Triple Deluxe. Why? They are your generation. I like Kaboola, and I spell it Kaboola, 'cuz that's how it was spelled to me. I call the King Dé-dé-dé rather than Dee-dee-dee. I spell it Mecheye instead of Mekkai. It's not always a matter of "original Japanese" but rather just what one was exposed to originally. People like what they like as it is what they are familiar with. Nostalgia is a powerful factor; I fully acknowledge this. I also advocate for the Animal Friends. Do they have anything going for them besides being sacked by Dark Matter goons? Nope.

Marx would be a great player character. You seem to be focused on story while my focus is gameplay. The jester could have a bouncy ball to jump on and kick around, a la the Gimmick game's gimmick. Rolling the sphere along to the right position to reach an otherwise hard to reach ledge. There's a lot of potential to build off from that alone, especially with managing the location of the ball in relation to where you need to hit and where you need to get. What do the folks you suggest do? Fly? Boooring.

Yes, Fern, you're right. I didn't put much thought into it. I was asked for five characters and instead gave over twice that number. Boy, it sure is crummy of me to be petering out (although still more justified than other offerings) after the race was already completed. How dare I.

Also, this came from Session #160, not #159.

In standard RPG fair, the weapons of ax, mace, hammer, and picks are considered to belong in one, large category of "heavy, hafted weapons". They're all just a heavy head on the end of a short stick (compared to, say, a pole-arm). Once you accept utilizing the fulcrum/leverage of the weight distribution, these weapons are all the same, arguable. It stands to reason that, yeah, the King would be able to wield an ax. He probably doesn't due to the fact that the ax is, well, far more violent than the bonking mallet. He may be mostly a jerk and glutton, but a savage? Nah.

Really, '95? I thought it would be more like '92 in the original Dream Land title -- of course, I'm excluding any auxiliary games. But, no, there is no rivalry. In fact, when you take titles such as Triple Deluxe or Return to Dream Land, King Dedede is specifically Kirby's friend. Oh, how two decades change things... that haven't been that way in two decades?

Really, it was just that one title where the King was bad, and he quickly learned not to mess with Kirby. Even the Squeaks and Maglor made similar realizations, offering a hand to the puffball rather than standing against him. However, King Dedede was the "default" villain, being the first and often -- as you said -- assumed threat. This caused him to be the antagonist in the animated series and further cemented him as the go-to bad guy.

Now, they're the bestest of friendsest. Although, being still kind of a jerk, the King is bound to play golf with the marshmallow for the fun of it or get too competitive in a friendly game.

Wasn't this very thing answered in Amazing Mirror? (I really don't remember.) Following in suit with "true goodness", the hero's heart that Kirby possesses is so good that there is no smidgen of it that can be corrupted. When a reflection is made and turned right-handed to left-handed, given a goatee, and -- I dunno -- get its hair slicked back, there has to be something, some dark corner or recess of their very soul, in order to fuel the doppelganger. Kirby, however, is pure as freshly fallen snow, so there wasn't any aspect to grow in the double. It could only be good as Kirby is only good. And, as for the King and the Knight, I don't think I have to go over their "darker" sides.

Well... there has been a repeat. The very first one, in fact, Animal Friend was repeated in Pet Partner some eight seasons later (well, I.F. seasons, which are more like calendar seasons than television ones). So, yes, that can happen. Don't know when it will happen again or which which ones -- especially for the already repeated Animal Friends.

Well, as covered in the rant, we were pretty much driven away. When this happened, a prediction was made that -- in a matter of weeks -- those who championed for our ousting would get bored and stumble off to other distractions. I think it happened in half that time. So, years later, having some down time and a new Kirby title on the horizon, there was a resounding, "I guess so" shouted by the brothers.

To the point, we came back to invigorate the Kirby fan community at its still strongest point: the Rainbow Resort. I... guess that's happening still? ... Slow, at least.

Oh! Also, we strongly desired to finish Project R.A.I.N.B.O.W.! No, not really.