Ask Guru Gobbo #33

1) Agreed. The mixing of 2D and 3D never really works well. Some shows, like Futurama, used the combination, but they only rendered simple objects that were flat, like space ships or other vehicles. Something as complex and detailed as Dyna Blade just made for a rigid, awkward bird.

2) Mmm! These words in my mouth taste wonderful! Back on track, I said Smash Bros. didn't take on Kirby stuff with Crazy Hand. And, second, standing on someone's head is more actual physics and less a Kirby trend. In fact, I'd say it has more to do with Super Mario Bros. than Kirby. One, fairly vague aspect that barely comes up much and never has a significant impact on the game really doesn't cut it as a borrowed trend. No, they didn't want bodies to be able to occupy the same space. When you are walking forward into each other, you would just push them out of the way or hit them like a wall. If you are coming from above, you are obviously going to stop. Where? On top of them.

3) It, yeah, actually kinda does carry a tune of its own. If someone made an opera out of that, I'd watch it. A rock opera!

I think Squeak Squad was held up to some greater ideal that it didn't meet. It was preceded by Amazing Mirror which had a fully explorable, large map reminiscent of The Great Cave Offensive. Both of these offered a near endless cycle of play as the map could just be journeyed through with no real start or stop. Squeak Squad, back to like how a regular platformer operates, had that definite beginning and end to it. Largely, fans wanted there to be more game there, from the reactions I've seen. Again, I don't have it, so I can't really apply any personal input.

1) I don't believe his bloody nature was what limited his appearances. Rather, it was just that he fell into the niche of Shinichi Shimomura directed games. When he left the company, a sort of "Do not touch" sign appeared on most of the characters from those games. This is why derivatives of Dark Matter, and not Dark Matter himself, appeared in later titles. At least, that's how I see it. It makes sense.

2) A few years ago, I would have said yes. Lots of series have had bundled backs of classics, including Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. However, since the Wii Virtual Console thing game out, there really isn't any reason for that stuff. Any title can just be gotten at any time, should they want to allow it.

1) No, she's just "one of those things." Know how next to nothing character-wise is based on anything from the games (meaning non-Cappy townsfolk, all those people from other worlds, and most of the Demon Beasts)? Well, she's another of those non-specific things. And where do you even get off saying she's a Chip? I mean, the limbless, pointy headed, black eyed, fox-tailed blob from Amazing Mirror? As much as I like the idea of her being decapitated, that's quite possibly the furthest stretch I've ever heard.

2) Knuckle Joe is that cool, devil-may-care type of character. His crude tongue shows off just how he wants to be presented, brash and arrogant. He's not a jolly, jovial softy like everyone else.

I tend to do what I like to call "speed art". It takes, probably, less than a five minutes to draw and ink the thing, significantly less. Then, after it dries, the longest step by far, and is erased, I just scan, process, and plop it out, another all-in-all process that probably takes less than five minutes each one. It's not too time consuming to make any of them, more of just difficult to get the right idea and feeling.

In all honest, "necromancy" is the practice of using the deceased for information. In modern fantasy fiction, however, they have perverted the art into being no different than the blackest of magics, grouping it with such things as rising the dead to created skeleton armies and such. I guess no one told them that the "-mancy" suffix comes from the Greek word manteia, "prophesy". While it is now commonly used (wrongly) to represent junk drawer magic, (ie: fire wizards being "pyromancers"), it really is meant for "divination", which is occult information gathering or fortune telling. There's plenty of types of divination, ranging from palm reading, reading the way tea leaves settle on the bottom of your cup, bird flight patterns, and, yes, asking the dead. ... Wait, what type of questions was I suppose to be answering here again?

The current monthly poll, "Which Meta Knight do you like best?" does have some colorful names for everyone's favorite swordsman. "Two-tone masked" represents the original Meta Knight who wore a mask that was purple on one side and white on the other. This color separation was gradually faded over time and now only is hinted at when one half is in the shadows. "Bat Winged Bad Boy" is the Meta Knight that followed in Super Star. Here, he was raging evil and suddenly, well, had bat wings. A sharp contrast from previously. "Sir Em Kay from the Animé" I don't think needs explained much. This is how he was in the animated series, a mature, mentor like character to Kirby. "Dark, Mirrored Metty" is simply his evil clone from Amazing Mirror, which I really don't know how anyone could like best. Lastly, "Señior Noodle Arms" is just my vehement stab at the character.

1) The best box art belongs to, I dunno, Canvas Curse. As far as art goes, it has some crazy background work going on it. I dig that sort of stuff.

2) While the initial game set up a lot, more opportunities were opened to Kirby with Adventure's ability copying. For example, a lot of his non-platform titles would have been much too dull to carry themselves without powers. He never inhales in any of these ball rolling games, but he still takes on abilities. Dream Land set it up, yes, but Adventure came in and snagged the spare. Or... something to that effect?

3) As much as I hate giving it credit, Super Star probably had the most innovative system. Previously, it was just established that Kirby took powers, literally copying whatever his opponent did. Super Star broadened this scope and allowed for "families" of abilities that would allow multiple aspects of traits used. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have Burning and Fire separate, but it's also cool to have a dashing attack where Kirby blazes forward in the fireball while still allowing him to toast foes crispy with his breath. This allowed a lot more variety with the game and what could be done, which is probably why its one of the most fun and beloved titles.

4) The best choice of powers, I feel, was offered in Adventure. Being the first, everything was made to be distinct and different. Super Star kind of had the feel of "How many ways can you skin a cat?" with its abilities. Everything just sort of shot, attacked forward, blarg! The first appearance of abilities had to show more of their possible scope and range. Hi-Jump, Tornado, and other moving abilities give depth to what can be done.

"Ouch" and the other status box filling icon states aren't really "abilities", no. They are more of just representative of a non-normal state of being. When everything is undefined, you are normal. Hop in a cannon, and suddenly you're cannoned up. This condition supercedes the normal one. Abilities, now, fall between "normal" and these conditions, sorta like a half layer in the middle. It masks over Normal but isn't as important as noting when a hit is taken. Plus, you normally lose your power at that point, anyways. And, yes, I'm aware there is an Ability Review for Ouch! It's mainly done in good fun.

At first I thought, "What? Too good to go to IGN and look for it yourself?" But, then I actually tried to do it and couldn't. Turns out, the video only exists for the Game Cube version of the game, which probably could lead to some trouble in getting to it. Anyways, see the video here.

1) I would assume he purchased it. That, or it was given to him as an incentive to make purchases. He does have a very large debt to NME.

2) I wonder why more people don't hate the Cappies. Ack! Terrible! Really, I don't think he hates them. He's just a greedy jerk that likes to take advantage of well meaning people. That's Exploitive Jerk 101.

In all honesty, he just wasn't invented yet. In cannon, it's probably explained as he wasn't revealed yet. First, he appears as the grim swordsman before revealing his true form. This is defeated but returns. Notice that he just starts off in Dream Land 3 as this version. He ends the game as Zero. Well, a bloody eye, but before that he's Zero. This leads to his next appearance, Zero Two, or however that's suppose to be said. 0²? The point is that each time he is changed or further reveals what he truly is, like masks beneath masks. Once the onion is peeled enough away, there's nothing left but his true form, which I believe was finally killed off.

1) Coincidence. I never watched much of any episodes and barely paid attention to the ones I did. The lack of Kirby and abundance of Tiff got me ticked. This "purple demon", thanks for the episode by the way, sounds a lot like the N-Z argument I believe someone once made. A foe from The Crystal Shards, I had never even heard of it before creating Squeaky Bogg. The two don't really look too much alike aside from the points on the head. Now, in the case of this demon beast, I may have well made and solidified his form before that show was made or at least came out to the States, so it's quite coincidental. Anyhoo, I scanned through the episode that supposedly had the said creature, and I didn't rally see anything like Squeaky.

2) His cameo is much like Mario's was in Super Star. There's just a background image, a movie poster, that has Kirby on it that reads "Kirby Story". There is also one for Wario and a Legend of Stafy to boot.

3) I've never heard this Drawcia/Dark Matter possession bit, actually. Her story is that she was a painting that, somehow, sprung to life and wanted to make the world full of paint. She didn't seem to be carrying any sort of Dark Matter motives. However, she did have a crazy blob form in the end, but every boss seems to have one of those. And don't say, "Marx didn't." I said seems like every boss, it's a general phrase.

As for Dark Nebula, his real name (non-American) is Dark Zero, as in Zero (0), the big white mass associated with Dark Matter. Now, like most bosses, there's not much going into explaining what it is. However, since it has the name as the Dark Matter entity, it is assumed to be related. Now, the American version (apparently) credits Nebula as the "ruler of the underworld", but the Japanese states him as the "lord of darkness". It would make perfect sense to me that Dark Matter, after being beaten the last time, was imprisoned and kept safely locked away in Dedede's castle where he could do no more harm. It's never expressly stated that this is the case, but how many grand, dark forces can exist in the Kirby universe?

4) The treasure that King Dedede lost, as, really, just stated, contained Dark Zero/Nebula. He didn't really want it back for keeping's sake. He wanted to advert a disaster. Since the sinister force was defeated in the end, there was no reason to return it.

5) It's a video game. There's bounty everywhere you look. Who sticks food floating in the air? Who puts coins inside of bricks? Why are golden rings just floating there? These are just those things are done for the sake of the game. Don't over analyze these more trivial aspects. You kill the fun. Fun killer!

6)

1) I dunno. A bleeding eyeball pretty much takes the cake for creepy, dark creatures in my book. It's a cook book, so it has cake.

2) Luckily, I just answered this in the question above. Huzzah! That's just a crummy American add it. He's suppose to be the "lord of darkness". Difference? Probably not much, but this makes him out as more evil and less like Pluto, who just got a raw deal, much like the planet named after him. Anyhoo, he's just the supreme evil, although we must just how "supreme" someone who can't get out of a box is.

3) How would I go? Well, for the most part, I would wonder how they would make a sprite version of him. Most sprite work I see is just composites of re-colored, pre-existing sprites from various other games. Squeaky doesn't quite have the ability to allow that. Although, at one time, I did try to make a Dream Land sprite of the little bugger. It did not look too good at all.

4) The least recognized boss, assuming you mean general and not final bosses, would be a title granted to the Orbserver in Tilt 'n' Tumble, if that even is its real name. It's pretty much a checker sphere with an eye. It gives me the willies and never returned.

Your reference, now, is to Wham Bam Rock. This guy doesn't get the tip of the hat since he is, well, in Super Star. That game is so loved, particularly the parts he appears in, it's hard not to know who he is.

1) First off, he's highly elastic. Second, doesn't his belly have some type of pocket dimension in it? Isn't that what we see in Squeak Squad which was sorta like what happened that one time in the animated series? He defies physics, or maybe eats them. He's that much of a glutton -- he can eat things that aren't tangible!

2) If Burt had an ability that could be copied, it would be like a cruddier Cupid. Kirby would just get the little wings and dash forward in a non-burning Burning tackle. It'd be pretty weak, really. Not power-wise weak, just in general.

The guidelines are posted on the specified guide page, and you fit the qualifications. Heck, if half that stuff made it through, anything about can. No, I was just lazy and hadn't updated the page in two weeks.