Ask Guru Gobbo #45

1) Glad you appreciated it. I think I pulled off the kiddie gloves when critiquing it. Your well spoken manner and lack of all capital letters and such gave the impression that you wouldn't be the kind to have his mother type an angry letter to the site. Although, if I did make that happen to someone, that'd be pretty cool, too.

2) My truthful theory on Meta Knight is that people have become so blinded over time that they overlook the most basic of principles that founded him. King Dedede is a terrible ruler who causes grief to the Dream Landers. Back at Dream Land's time and the year after when Adventure came out, there was no such held belief that Kirby was some type of unique individual on Pop Star. It was just assumed he was a Dream Lander. Meta Knight's secret shame is that he's one of those jovial puffballs but allied himself with the King and went into his service. This is why he wears the mask -- to hide the truth. No sorted past, no link to Kirby. He's just a traitor to his kind, in a way, selling out and working for the man.

3) I actually see the taking food more like a tax. Thing is, lords of the land often take more than they are suppose to in order to line their pockets. They did it all the time in Ye Olde Days, and the peasants were too stupid to know better.

4) The crayon/pastel drawing graphic style probably wasn't kept since of the weird chip it utilized in order to render the graphics. This artistic, wonderful style, which I think should have been repeated in Canvas Curse, gave it a very child-like atmosphere, which I always thought Kirby needed. I know it gave some people head aches, like my brother. Anyhoo, charming is always pushed aside by cool, so I think the Super Star type got the edge and pushed out the whimsical. I mean, I'm guessing that's why. It would make sense from a production end.

5) Marketing. Cross promotion. Short attention spans. These three pillars hold up things. If you have a character with several powers, you better make them all look different. This way, folks will know when what power is had just at a glance. The little icon in the corner isn't enough, or the fact that the ability is used all the time. No, they need an overall sprite change or different color arrangement. Also, this allows for more toys to be made. Folks may not like them all, but they'll like and buy enough! Finally, hats are what they did in the animated series, mostly for the above reasons. If you have one form of medium go one way, you better have the other form go the same. You see this all the time in comic books when they have a movie coming out. Spider Man was made single, the X-Men started wearing black, or maybe the series just got relaunched or had a lot of flashbacks to help usher in new readers.

6) Man, you're cool. You think everything the right way. The cheap 3D animation is used for that reason -- cheapness. Due to the astronomical decline of computer rendering costs, it's easier and most cost effective to make anything computer generated nowadays. Once you have the model built, you can use it again and again. Savings are unbelievable.

He flew away to his personal fortress of solitude to remain outside of people's knowledge in order to maintain his mystery and appeal until he was needed again to not really accomplish much but be greatly praised for it. What a life!

1) The Captain was Meta Knight's and the Halberd's pilot, an avian gent in formal attire. He was discussed quite thoroughly priorly.

2) I don't think the game was really that hard, but a lot of the other ones were probably that easy. With the including of over-the-top powers and blocking, Super Star had some crazy, chaotic game play but didn't really seem to challenge that much. The Dream Land series, however, offered a slower pace and more patterned play. I think these games had more challenging puzzles than Super Star and, with the lack of godly abilities, made you work more.

3) Abilities sometimes don't return to make them more meaningful. If it is set as being a power from that game, it defines both the title and the ability. Also, Super Star offered a very highly variable combat system. Most of the powers that appeared in it relied heavily on this variation. Without it, they'd be boring and bland.

4) I can't say. I've made my predictions on Super Star Ultra, that it will be cut slightly and made easier.

5) I least like the Gobbo from the Croc series. Cop out!

1) I said it was low tech outside of the appearance of the Halberd and all that. It was a generally newer creation, by my timeline, anyways. It wouldn't be the first trend Super Star broke. It kind of creates a big gaping hole in the whole planetary scheme of things. I'd reckon that there is the technology for such massive metal monstrosities but the Dream Landers are content with their lives of sleep and feast and do not bother with such things.

2) Apparently, his elasticity is endless; however, outside of said situation where he blimped endlessly, Kirby does not grow larger no matter how many foes he consumes at a time. Sure, that's a sprite limitation, but I take what I can gets!

3) I think the stub/hold complex was covered way back in the day.

4) Put 'em out of business.

Kirby is transdimensional marshmallow that was turned by Nightmare into the vengeance taking, sticky sweet. That, or he's just a cheerful Dream Lander who boldly takes on the task of saving the day. I like my version, personally.

Avalanche, actually, didn't have any flaws. It was just an American production. However, like I said, look at the katakana used to spell King Dedede's name. It's Dedede, plain and simple. They knew what they were doing in the game. They did everything right and wonderfully, and probably more so since they had to make it into a Kirby game. They really didn't mess around with that title, I would say. I mean, okay, the character of Kirby was a little off, but he was a perfect match for the Kirby seen in the American commercials.

But you're right, it is half right. Deh-deh-deh is the proper pronunciation, but Dee-dee-dee is what it was changed to. They aren't going to have the five year old series (on this coast) have it one way and then release a game that says it another. That'd just be confusing. No, Avalanche was old enough and insignificant enough to be forgot. Brawl, on the other hand, came out with the popularity of the animated series still fresh on the minds of fans. Much like the fate of zebra, the change was solidified. You say the name to a Japanese fan, however, and they'll look at you something odd.

I, now, was raised on the voices of Avalanche. I associate each of those calls as being what the character sounds like. King Dedede must be proclaimed in a foolish manner while swaying your head side to side with each syllable. It's dopily wonderful. When I first heard it actually spoken, I realized, "Oh! That makes much more sense than 'dee'. After all, it's an E." Other folks got the raw deal and were reared on the animated series. You hold close the ideals you were raised on. I was rightful corrected earlier. It is truthfully "deh" not "dee", but "dee" is acceptable since that's what America changed it to.

Now, something I don't get is why folks instantly jumped on this whole, "What's wrong with America?" and mentions of government. I was talking about foreign pronunciations! Did I mention the country or leadership? No. Was I speaking of syllables and speech? Yes! Was I insulting my great country? No. Was I insulting folks who say it José with a J sound? Quite!

No, it really doesn't make sense. It's more likely that he's just one of the "additional voices" type of person and gets his name filed once under that heading. Because, really, he's not that major of a player to have to be singled out.

Yes, they did say it like this in Brawl, you know, because they had to match how it was said in the animated series. It wouldn't be the first time a minor change was made to a characters name. Mr. Flosty is another "great" example. Hey, it was Frosty for years. Truthfully, it's not "Deedeedee", but that's how they chose to go with it. Why'd they change it? Stupidity, that's why! Yaaay!

Why, do you need more examples? How about the simple karate. I know I and probably every other American butcher the word by saying it kuh-rah-tee. Yeah, you'll never hear a Japanese person say it that way unless they are "Americanizing" it on purpose because, yes, this is the correct "American" way to say the word. Wrong to the truth but true over here. 'Cuz we're butchers. Sake, karaoke, pretty much any word with an E in it, really. However, words like animé which have throngs of nerdy otaku snapping people's heads off at the slightest misspeak get into the main stream with the right sounds attached. It didn't have years of wrong to be solidified into our minds as, well, wrong. It's a wonder that more fans didn't right against the change in saying the Kings name.

I never remember saying that ever in the history of all things. In fact, right there in your question is the only occurrence of the word barbecue in all my sessions. In fact, even rice is only mentioned as a joke while referencing "Pete's sake" used cleverly to refer to the rice wine.

No, the Boss Endurance came from the Boss Butch of Dream Land 3 which came from The Arena in Super Star which came from Boss Mode in Adventure which you could say came from the end-of-the-game boss gauntlet in the original Dream Land which was just a common trend in video games. It's true. Something old games loved to do was make you face every boss again in a giant blitz. You already knew how to beat them and were now more powerful, but throwing them at you in a giant wave put your skill to the test. Guardian Legend was a game that did that, that comes to mind, and I believe a few Mega Man titles had you re-fight the Robot Masters at some point. So, really, neither Kirby nor Super Smash Bros. stole that bit from one another. It's been a common theme for decades. Really. At least two.