Ask Guru Gobbo #18

Wow, that's... quite a lot. Let's see how I tackle 'em.

1) It does make sense to have two company leaders face off. It would be a bit odder if they came from the same express company, such as Link vs. Mario. Although, I think Kirby would have been better off someone more his style, like Pikachu. Small, cute, and exploding with power.

2) Bronto Bird was already discussed. This is most likely a translation error as Burt is obviously some sort of fly thing, yes. More would be said, but there's a lot to go!

3) Large eyes do help with night vision, but its more the reflective, light catching sheen of the eyes that assists in this aspect. Additionally, I've seen a Doo sleep in the daytime. Grizzo and Noddy have been seen snoozing away, but no such luck with Doos. Of course, only one time has night even been seen, outside of the Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright battles, and that falls into Spring Breeze's intro scene. The single, cycloptic eye has been a stable of beam shooting enemies, which in Dream Land numbered four: Waddle Doo, Whizzer, Peezer, and Kracko. All had one, big eye and all were beam blasters.

4) I don't see how Smash Bros. took on Kirby elements with Crazy Hand. Melee debutted in '01 while Amazing Mirror didn't come out until '04. That's quite some time difference. As for the challenges, a list of accomplishment to perform is not a new concept in games. It has appeared in several genres and series, and especially those that want to keep play exciting.

5) Waddle Doo was not the leader of Waddle Dees in Avalanche but was slotted as being his cousin. The game, which was an American adaptation of another, non-Kirby game, had completely made up dialogue scenes and is not regarded as canon with the series. Doo merely acted more like the wimpy Dee's big brother and fought to avenge his defeat. As for King Dedede, all of the enemies are his minions, by right, as he is ruler of Dream Land. The Waddle Dee army is more an adaptation from the animated series. It's a lot easier to just make all his underlings one thing, especially one so pathetic and worthless. Boring from this fact, and operating under the same reason of ease, Waddle Dee is the primary stock used by the King in Brawl.

6) Very little shows have the ability to survive the mutilation of dubbing for network TV. The general audience varies greatly between Japan and America. The are a lot more mature and can handle deeper subject matter. For America, they make lame jokes about toilet paper (man, I wish I was making that up). Kirby, I agree, was one to fall victim to 4Kids!, but I don't think the show was all too great to start with, personally. Think overcooking spinach. Yeah, bad to worse.

I find it a little disappointing that several of your points were already addressed in my initial statements. In fact, I'm going to be restating every prior point given plus more. Why? 'Cuz I'm just that nice of a guy.

1) Remember this line? Of course you, obviously, don't: "And don't be trying to pull out, 'But when using color sprays, the shoe/foot color is also his blush.' That has more to do with sprite simplicity and color theory and organization than it does discerning flesh from cloth." There's only so many colors on a sprite's palette and its Art 101 to have a color from one corner of your piece to appear on the opposite side. You don't just have colors pushed off all on one side. The cheeks are an easy way to blend in the whole of the color scheme.

2) You're right, in this case, he doesn't put on new shoes. But, um, you defeat yourself in this statement as what significance does it even have? If the spray is to change color, would it have any more ability to paint his feet a different color than painting shoes? Much like his cheeks take on a new hue, so do the kicks. Why wouldn't the paint be able to be used on apparel? If it was safe of skin, I'm sure no harm could be done. Besides, the color spraying can barely be regarded as realistic. It's more of a fun bonus on the side to liven up Kirby, particularly since they already introduced three other colors for there to be a four player mode. It's all just a sprite palette swap, so its easy work. And, hey, why not throw a few more in there and let the player pick? It's another fun item to collect. The sprays are held alongside a sound test. Yeah, care to explain that in-game? You don't. It's just there for fun.

3) Kirby's cheeks are more like human freckles, and that would be some large frecks. The feet would be more like a panda's pattern. Again, "... it is infrequent to see someone with just feet of a color. If the other color were spread to cover more of the bottom half, then it might be able to be labeled as body color. However, when strictly localized to an area so easily disjoined from the body, it is outer wear." Unless its a species with moving splotches of color like some domesticated dogs and cats, and even then in only rare cases, are you going to find something with just colored feet.

4) Take off his shoes, huh? Tell me, has Yoshi ever been seen without his shoes or Mario? When was the last time you saw Link barefoot? In fact, you almost never see any character sans clothing, mostly because it would be disgusting. Times in which it probably would be appropriate for him to kick them off, such as when he is sleeping away in his house, he has a blanket over his bottom half, so they can't bee seen to judge. Oh well.

5) What keeps them on? "This is difficult to tell given the low detail level used in the Kirby games. Poppy Bros. are fully clothed, and their feet are just as flat and void of detail, but Marx has on laced up clogs." Since Kirby was made in the 8-bit era and most characters from then never upgraded in detail to fit with higher graphics, his appearance has not changed. However, more recent characters (as if 16-bit can be called recent) have such things as laces. This isn't always the case, however, as even Mario (going back there, yeah) had round and detailless shes even in the 16-bit era, and probably a little past it. Such fine detail is not something you put in video game graphics, let alone cartoony pictures. But you don't need any kind of mechanism to hold a shoe in place. They bubble out enough that they could just be held on by having a smaller opening than what they cover. Think like a sock. The top part clenches around and does just fall off, but there's nothing holding it there outside of friction and the force it exerts. That's all that is needed.

6) See statement #5: Low detail. What separates the wear of Poppy Bros. or, really, anyone else? A line. A line between colors is all that separates anything. If the colors blended together, then yes. If the color went up and not his body and then stopped, I would agree. This is not the case. It goes up, it stops. I'm trying to figure out what you want there to be at this breaking point. The rounded top of the shoes where the outer material meets the inner cushioning? A slight glimpse of his foot beneath? No video game of this type has that level of detail in it. But none of that really matters. Haven't you ever heard of slip-ons or loafers? No straps, no laces. They just stay on from friction. Feet are oiled up. It doesn't take much for stuff to stay on them.

7) Do you know what else squishes and changes shape? The hats he wears. Oh, I'm sorry, those must be fleshy extensions of his body. That, or they just stretch. Actually, the hats have a lot higher of an elastic property than his shoes do, so that really cuts out any saying of "why would shoes stretch". Besides, I don't exactly expect them to be made out of canvas or whatever shoes are made of here. I'm pretty sure they are something funky and Dream Landian. Dedede's girdle seems to stretch enough, so you know its within their means.

Now, since I really want the point driven home, I'll add more fuel to this fire. Kirby has shoes, yes. One of the problems is, however, that his shoes just happen to be of a more closely related color to his body. Folks like Broom Hatter, Bronto Burt, and Waddles also wear shoes, but their feet are a much more different color than their bodies which makes the distinction more obvious. Bobo, Rocky, Sasuke, Yaban, the list can go on. The color is not just a more fully saturated version of that on the body. It's in an entirely different hue quadrant. Rick, on the other hand, has pink feet, not shoes. Hamsters, however, have bare feet that are pink. In Ado's fancy-pants pictures at the end of Dream Land 3, you get to see these clawed, pink feet of Rick in a more realistic style. There are actually a few examples of this, but all of these examples are furred or hairy. Kirby's skin looks pretty smooth to me.

Lastly, I know it doesn't bear much weight, but this scene from a Kirby manga gives a better look at his feet. That looks like a traditional slip-on loafer type to me.

1) I just got this question before you asked, so the answer is piping fresh out of the oven.

2) Bias is never a positive thing. It constricts and distorts proper judgement. I think this is applied to the ability reviews, right? I'll just say yes. When a reviewer only looks at an ability through rose colored lenses, they miss the point of a critique. Nothing is perfect, and everything is flawed. Much like the comparable movie critic, there should be at least a fault or two to be found with something, no matter how big or small it may be. This shows that the piece/work/ability was actually fully analyzed and is not just be spouted off on a tirade.

3) My opinions on Sonic and his current state have been made public. I haven't touched a Sonic game, honestly, since the Hedgehog 2, and I don't feel I'm missing much.

4) I can't hold anything against new Kirby fans for being born in a later time frame than myself, that'd just be stupid, but I do shake my head to their likening of the animated series. This is just what was around. I grew up with Kirby in 8-bits. Pets and bald heads were more common than copy ability hats and poyo. The water used to nurture the newer generation of fans came from different sources and yielded different stock. Now, the same thing applies even beyond Kirby and to any fandom. I punch Wind Waker in the face, don't understand why Mario collects empowering hats, feel that G1 stomped all other Transformers, and wonder why fighting games aren't two dimensional anymore. That's just how it goes. I'm (comparatively) old. Get off my darn yard, you crazy kids!

That episode, I can only assume, is the classic TV staple: the clip show. These never make any sense, ever. They try to explain it in some cases, acting like someone was filming it all along, but they can't. Even if someone had a camera all that time, the shots and angles gotten would require a whole crew. No, this problem isn't just in Kirby, it's everywhere. I would rather question why the writers of the show cheaped out and didn't offer a real episode instead.

As for translating, and I assume you mean Ivyna J. Spyder, that's a "Who knows?" I get this question quite a bit, especially recently. Short answer: no.

See what I mean? This one is eerily similar. I'm thinking of posting it on the main page. Ivyna J. Spyder can be asked about this directly, you know. Just IM her and bug her until she breaks down and subs them or breaks down mentally. I'm sure she'd love folks doin' that to her!

The Ghost ability, to date, has only appeared under one Kirby title, that being Squeak Squad. It is one of the newest abilities along with Bubble and Animal.

How many Squeaky Bogg faces are there? Seven, I believe. Smilin', Angry, Stare, Pointing, Shocked, Flat, and the newest flavor, Jaw Drop. But that really doesn't have any significance on anything as I usually get more than one use out of some of them. For example, Shocked doubles as pleased or rolled eyes.

This question has a follow up, kinda, in Session #20

1) If Kirby was in the Earthbound/Mother universe, he'd probably assist in taking care of Gyiyg. I mean, really, if a bunch of kids can do it with baseball bats and frying pans, I think a foot tall marshmallow could help.

2) There are similarities between the creampuff and the Poképuff. They are both pink, round, and have highly elastic bodies that easily inflate and roll. That is about where their likenesses end, however. Jiggly has a lullabye sweet voice while Kirby can't carry a toon to save his life. Also, Kirby is intelligent and sentient while Jigglypuff, like almost all Pokémon, has a lower, more animal brain level. I would place it near a dolphin or pig. Lastly, while they look alike, that is only in comparison to the young form. Kirby stays the same shape as he ages (allegedly) while a Wigglytuff is stretched out and no longer ball shaped.

That's a paraphrasing of my words, saying that I stated he was originally white. In the numerous times I've mentioned his whiteness, I've been sure to mention that this was just on the American box or while his color scheme was being debated. Now, while your observations are indeed true, this is an afterthought. They reason he appears pink is because they made it so that he would. Dream Land was no designed for a Game Boy Color, but they made it so that these systems would show some type of color since black and white would be boring. In fact, all old, colorless games play as this pink-and-blue scheme, not just Kirby. The old Game Boy games weren't really "black and white", but that's just the easier way of saying "monochromatic". There were actually four colors, which were just four levels of tinting the screen. One of these middle values shows up as pink and the other comes out as blue.

Kirby rides the Warp Star, in the majority of the titles, by just clinging on to the side of it. He grabs on to one of the inner corners and hangs around on the back. He's not in a pouch but just has it placed in front of him. As more helpers are piled on to it (Super Star and Dream Land 3 especially), the just-hanging on nature should be more obvious.

As for "poyo" being an actual word in another language, this is no surprise. They had no intention of Kirby spouting out "chicken, chicken, chicken", most certainly. However, randomly compiled syllables are often some obscure word in at least one of the several languages out there. I know this personally from my experiences in naming characters. When compiling a list of names and locations, I would sometimes Google them and be amazed at how many foreign websites contained that word. In a more hilarious story (or actually hilarious), one time when playing Dungeons & Dragons (nerd power!), a name was made for a villain. Suddenly, the Pakistani guy in our group started laughing. Turns out, in his language, it meant a rather vulgar version of "bird droppings", let's say. Thinking quick, the Dungeon Master make a quick change to it only to have the meaning stay the same but the source to change. He just wound up sticking with the original name in the end. So, yeah, it's a word in Spanish, sure, but as far as those who worked on dubbing the animated series are concerned, it's meaningless.

This question is corrected in Session #39.

Heh. Silly fan girl. He, I, nor the bizzare almagam I dub Bimboglor would ever flee from a fanette.

And that was today's contribution made to the "Why did he integrate into the Ask the Gurus section again?" bewilderment. I did nine, that's the quota. Lemme have my cake an' eat it, too. Or fan art. Maybe fanart with cake. Yes, you read that right. I will consume fan art with cake.