Ask Guru Gobbo #24

Ack, you're right. This falls under my included statements of "cut the extended cast". Meta Knight started with a fully serviced, fully manned battleship. However, it can't be all about Meta Knight, so all the extras have to be cut from the script. This leaves the masked swordsman by his lonesome. Since there is no one else there, he has to take the wheel. It wasn't originally this way, however. I suppose one could say that Meta Knight learned how to handle the ship on his own or something to that effect, but it all boils down to that they aren't going to include a character for another character when there is already such an extensive cast of others to perform a function that he just as easily could be made to do. But, yeah, a big drop of the ball on my part.

As for the compliments paid to Sapphire Kirby, that's all they were intended as. It was not meant in anyway to diminish what you had stated. In repeat questions that offer a little more to comment on, I tend to scrape the barrel for anything to pad them out to make them seem more worth it, as if they needed to be any longer, I know. But that was all. They just happened to do a very nice job at colorfully describing the scene, even with that nice touch of including Adeleine's brush to literally paint the picture.

Sonic Underground was one of the two I was thinking of. I just assumed it was American, really, with the Alvin and the Chipmunk-esque voice work. Chalk another one up for me shootin' my mouth into the air without worry of the impending bullet rain. Due to the other two series both debuting in 1993, which is odd enough to begin with, I must have jumbled them in the same package. I really only remember The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and have little memory of the more serious series. Probably because it's Sonic, and I was ten.

As for your question, I think you bring up a good point about why Kirby has stayed in the sprite domain. Full 3D complicates game play. When Mario jumped dimensions, his enemies got a lot larger, comparatively, for him to jump on more easily. Also, he only had to worry about targeting them in two dimensions. Kirby, however, already had the X-Y coordinates to calculate, and adding additional depth would require some work. I'm certain that the star bullets would have a lot more girth to them to help them take out their mark. I don't think a sight scope track should be laid out on the ground. That'd seem a little odd. I know some games compensate the trials of 3D aiming by automating some aspects of it, curving your shot to the most likely target.

I would think that a 3D Kirby should play like a regular, good ol' title. One change I could understand would be limiting flight time such as in, unless I'm mistaken, The Crystal Shards, so that levels could not just be skipped. "Oh, it looks like the end of the stage is over there. Well, better fly there!" That'd really kill a lot of the game unless they had some sort of key item in each stage. The Kirby title for Wii is suppose to be full 3D, right? I guess we'll all find out when/if it comes out by the end of the year.

1) There is no real "way" to make a comic. It can be drawn on paper, compiled digitally, or pieced together with sprites. Making a comic is just making art with words, and you can't be told how to do art. Um, ignore all art classes ever. As for how to post it, this very site has a number of ways to display your Kirby fan comics to an able body of fans, either at the forums or, a better suggestion, the Fan Comics page.

2) Kirby didn't die in Episode 93. It was a fraud to trick King Dedede in order to make him learn a lesson, or something, since he was being mean and pulling pranks on people. At least, that's what I'm getting from it.

3) Well, Lololo & Lalala are just like any other boss to beat in Avalanche: hit them hard and fast. If you can work quick to drop some blobs down on their side, it will dampen their giant combo chains. Even just a few can offset this possibility. That tactic, I've found, holds true with almost anyone outside of the first, slower paced challengers.

I was about to delete this, thinking it was some sort of joke. It just sounded like total bull. However, I decided to check the story out. The culprit? Mode7. This is group that produces ROMs for Game Boy Advanced games and possibly more. Basically, your friend has a bootlegged copy of the game. That intro is their little wink to identify their work. The game is entirely there and unaltered except for that little, um, comedy routine at the start.

English? No problem. They can all be found at the 4Kids! website. Just go to "episodes" and watch away. Now, I don't know if you can download those, but you can at least see them.

At the moment, I do not. There is a surprising lack of Kirby fan games when compared to something like, oh, Mario. I think this has to do with the overall mechanics applied in the series. Moving down on top of an enemy to kill it is a lot easier done than inhaling something. That stuff can get crazily complex. For the most part, Kirby fan games seem more like Kirby fan characters' games. Why, even Kirby Warrior's famed RPG fits this bill.

I'd hate to use him as the prime example, however. There's plenty of guilty parties in this scenario. LDM and Frost have proposed similar RPGs that focus on a character with next to nothing to do with Kirby despite having his appearance. There's not really much "Kirby-y" about it. It has pink puff, several actually, in the lead role, but he doesn't do traditional Kirby things. Rather than inhaling, he attacks and casts spells like, well, a typical, generic RPG. Some of the enemies are from the series but that's about it. Now, I'm not commenting on the game itself, but as a fan game, it could do better.

Falling into this niche tends to be the Kirby MMOs. I know of two, I think, and both, I think, carry the title of "Kirby's Dream World". It's an obvious choice, really. The one is a top-down game with play similar to Legend of Zelda. The second is more like Link's Adventure with 2D styles and lag. You attack enemies with punches and such, but at least the settings are on Pop Star and use familiar locales. The two seem okay, although I never got far in either. They have the same downfall as the previously mentioned RPGs: they are games with Kirby in them, not so much using Kirby and Kirby elements.

To date, the best Kirby fan game I know of was left scattered across the web in an incomplete fashion. Produced by Menache.ch (no link since the page just says "Coming Soon" and probably has for some time now), it features all that should be there in a Kirby platformer: 2D graphics (which are fluently portrayed in Flash) inhaling, spitting, flying, copying abilities (a large number and different kinds, too, including Sword!), and so forth. The problem is that there are only two scenes to the game as it was never finished. So, all of this work was put in making this really great potential to, essentially, have Kirby on-line with any number of outcomes for levels and such, and the guys just let it rot. Apparently, they liked to make games of games as they seemed to do Sonic the Hedgehog, too.

Now, I don't know how much I deserve to criticize fan games that use fan characters since I really haven't been doing my part. My sole contribution is a racing? game where you guide characters through a map as swiftly as possibly while collecting food and dodging enemies. The problem is that, since the only graphics I had laying around were ones that I had created for other purposes, the only character with any real animation added was Squeaky Bogg. I think I touched on this before. Things can only sit around for so long before it is realized just how bad they really are. From a coding (if I dare refer to using GameMaker as real programming) point of view, the game is a nightmare and is better off being restarted from the ground up.

That lost cause aside, I actually have two other attempts laying around in the junk drawer. One is how I think a Kirby RPG should be, a tactics type game. This way, the whole "using your enemies for attacks" aspect and range of attacks could still be taken into account. Of course, this barely got past the stage of me using stand-in graphics. You can attack, however, and that's more than most folks get done. The other is a physics engine I started banging out after seeing another makes-you-want-to-cry attempt at a Kirby fan game in the forums. The standard response to seeing one is one of disbelief, for the most part. Many are "started", if you call making a title screen starting a game, but none ever seem to get finished. I've been around for a good while, and the ebb of time has washed these by and by. Anyhoo, back on track, I wanted to see how easily I could duplicate a Kirby action engine. I got up to the point of adding attacking/inhaling and diverted focus to my original concept games instead, largely since, well, I had graphics already made for those.

Now, as for what is to come on the fan game frontier, I think Kirby: Cosmic Chaos deserves a shout-out here, as do the creators, Minon et al. This gem has been sitting pretty for years, years, and not idly. That's been how long its been getting worked on. With tons of abilities, an original storyline, 3D graphics, 2.5D play, expanded RPG-like elements, and I could go on forever but why, this is definitely something I have my hopes up for. We all do, and why shouldn't we? It looks awesome! So, that's really all I have got to say. Unless, I dunno, I'm missing something. You got anything to add?

What?

D'oh! Yes, I did not know that about Canvas Curse, but this time it isn't just since I don't own the game. Normally, I'm all savvy with this knowledge, but the CC page at RR has "Under Construction" posted on almost every page there. The official art only shows a ball-shaped King Dedede and maybe Waddle Dee, and I knew from another source that Meta Knight was unlockable, too. Doo, however, with his permanent Beam ability, I just assumed would have not been an option since, well, he has a permanent Beam ability. That seems kind of limiting. Well, I feel better knowing he's getting some love.

The ominous eye quite the trend. First started by Kracko, it was popularized by Dark Matter within the series, and then all the to-come evil entities seemed to carry it. There's something unnatural about the large, looming eye that has been seen throughout both folklore and fabricated fantasy. From the Cyclops, Fachan, and their one-eyed brethren to the scourge of Middle Earth, Sauron, the eye creates a haunting atmosphere of ever watching and ever present evil.

This can be summed up in how they wanted to present the animated series. Mentioned before, the creators wanted Kirby to be the next Pikachu. It was a cute pet that viewers would want their own of. Well, I think they dipped a little bit too much into the Pokémon pool and dug up some bad habits. One of these, which I don't solely pin on Pokémon but it certainly didn't help the matter, is announcing everything. Really, this happens in all sorts of animé. You can't just shoot a laser or punch someone. No, it has to be "Blinding Blaster" or "Rocket Fist!".

But, anyways, much like Pikachu was too dumb to know when to electrocute an enemy, the puffball trainer Tiff had to tell Kirby what to do. This belittled the hero to the status of a trained dog acting off commands which then changed since, upon sucking something up and getting an ability, he was fully capable of acting on his own. How any of this was thought to help the series, I don't know. There are enough Pokémon clones out there as it is.

Adverting a little, I'm wondering if it's just them being new faces that incurs the requests. I bet if I made a new, super ugly one, no one would want it, but I'd use it all the time!

Back on point, I do like my Doo, apparently. Why, a quick search shows that he's mentioned in over half the sessions held to date. That's a lot, considering most questions aren't about him. But, to correct your statement, I did say that I'd rather see Waddle Doo as a player choice over Meta Knight and bundled quite a few characters with him at that. Much like the swordsman, I don't think the cyclops could hold a game on his own.

What?

Anyhoo, this preference for the big eyed one stems back, way back to the original Kirby game, Dream Land. Back then, there were no powers. And interesting thought was, "Wouldn't it be cool if you could play as, say, Waddle Doo and use his beam attack?" I saw it as the perfect analogue to inhaling. It covered about the same range but, rather than allowing potential damage, would inflict it itself. The balance would come from the range, since damage only had one level of strength back then: a hit. I mean, other characters like Sir Kibble would be an option, sure, but Doo's eye rays could be varied to all sorts of effects as seen in Super Star, and that gives him neat-o potential.

All that aside, I would really like to see about any character get some side-by-side time with the hedonistic hero. Any character, that is, who isn't Meta Knight. My love for the masked pudge has been in a downward spiral after Super Star, pretty much when the fan girls rolled in. It's nothing against them, but this is when little details began to change about him, sparked largely from the animated series. Most notable of these: noodle arms!

Off topic real quick, PSM, but you got yourself a hate mail. Really, immediately after your question, oddly enough, someone had posted a terribly worded, nearly unreadable string of letters (as that how any word that could be substituted with one was presented) that seemed to be attacking you... or your name, I'm not too clear on the matter. His given handle was "thepotatosouphater", so I at least know that much. While riding this note, I'm not sure if the next guy is an imposter of you or real. He submitted his name with spaces, which you do not. See? Name modification is a security feature in stealth.

It could be real, it could be fake, I dunno. Point is, I do like soup and crackers. Dems tasty. Oyster crackers and chowder are a winning combo unlike Burn and Ice in The Crystal Shards. But, really, you wouldn't want to eat with me. I have terrible manners! More importantly, you wouldn't want to see me. I have terrible everything. However, for those of you who would like to get your Guru on the fly, I'm on AIM (Bimblesnaff) and Y!M (BeanyJoe) quite a bit.