Kirby (series)

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A variation of the current logo of the series.

The Kirby (星のカービィ, Hoshi no Kābi) series is a fantasy video game series developed by HAL Laboratory, Inc. and Nintendo, and produced by Nintendo. The gameplay of a majority of the games in the series consists mainly of action, platformer and puzzle-solving elements. The series is known for its bright and artistic settings, simplistic gameplay, cute characters, upbeat cheerful music, and an interesting in-game tactic that can change the gameplay in a number of ways. As of February 2007, the Kirby series includes a total of eighteen games, with a 19th game currently in development.

1 Overview
2 History
3 Anime
4 See also

[edit] Overview

All of the games in the Kirby series feature a pink spherical being named Kirby as the main playable character and hero. Kirby frequently saves the world he resides in from various powerful antagonists, the most reoccurring one being King Dedede, the self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land (a region of Popstar). King Dedede has been in every Kirby game except for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. Another major character of the series is the engimatic Meta Knight, a chivalrous warrior that often assists Kirby, but depending on his intentions, will fight against Kirby to get things as he desires.

The games' fantasy world of Popstar includes many regions of different climates and terrains, which are home to many different creatures. Each game features uniquely-named areas, but all games features typical locations such as fiery caverns, open meadows, water-filled or submerged areas, icy mountains, and similar nature-based places. Most games in the series also contain a castle, which more often than not belongs to King Dedede.

The main Kirby games feature a mixture of basic side-scrolling platform gameplay, unique puzzles, and a number of hidden items that either unlock more parts to the game or are simple incentives to collect, and are usually required to collect to achieve a 100% completion rate in the game. These elements have remained constant throughout most the series, with each game having its own unique twist to affect gameplay. There are also several unique 'side' games in the series, which involve a variety of different gaming genres such as pinball, puzzle, racing, even a game based on motion-sensor technology. A number of these side games take advantage to Kirby's unique ball-like appearance.

Nearly every platform Kirby game involves traversing through a number of areas, each containing around one to six stages, and defeating the boss enemy of each area along the way. Kirby's signature method of dispatches enemies found the stages is by using his incredible ability of inhaling with extreme power, literally sucking the enemies into his mouth. If Kirby inhales the correct enemy, he can acquire a special ability from them, which Kirby can then use to attack further enemies. Each of these abilities are unique, such as breathing fire, wielding a sword, or even donning a fighter's headband and attacking enemies with direct hand-to-hand combat.

In the platform games, several of the bosses have a special item on their person, which must be taken from them by defeating them. These special items usually relate to the final boss of the game, most often used to create a special weapon that is required to defeat the final boss. In some games, the special weapon can used in the game regularly after defeating the final boss with it.

[edit] History

The first game, Kirby's Dream Land was released in Japan and the U.S. in April 1992. A simple game, consisting of only five levels, it introduced not only the main protagonist Kirby and the main antagonist King Dedede, but also Kirby's ability to inhale enemies and objects. The game features a second adventure, known as the "Extra Game", which features stronger enemies and half the normal amount of vitality.

The second game, Kirby's Adventure, was first released in the U.S. in May 1993. Kirby's Adventure introduced the concept of 'copying' the abilities of enemies, and as one of the last game created for the Nintendo Entertainment System, featured astonishing graphics and sound that pushed the hardware's capabilities to the limit. It was re-released in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance, retitled as Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, featuring greatly updated graphics and sound.

After Kirby's Adventure, the Kirby series received a number of 'side' games. Kirby's Pinball Land, released in November 1993, is a pinball game featuring Kirby as the pinball.Kirby's Dream Course, released in the U.S. in February 1995, is a unique golf-based game that features an isometric graphic design. Kirby's Avalanche, released in February 1995 only in the U.S. and Europe, is a puzzle game known to be a cloned version of the Japanese game Puyo Puyo.

Kirby's Dream Land 2, released in Japan and the U.S. in March 1995, continued using the ability-copying idea first featured in Kirby's Adventure, but lowered the number of abilities down to seven. To make up for this, the game introduces three animal friends: Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, and Kine the Ocean Sunfish. Pairing up with any of these three friends alters how Kirby's abilities work, effectively raising the number of unique abilities from seven to twenty-eight. Also introduced was Gooey, a dark-colored blob-like creature, who could be found in a bag. The game was slated to be remade for the Game Boy Color as Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX, but, like Metroid II: Return of Samus DX, it was cancelled.

Kirby's Block Ball, released November 1995 in the U.S., practically reinvented the simple game Breakout, featuring multiple levels, a number of Kirby's copy abilities, and various enemies in unique boss battles.

Kirby Super Star, known as Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe in Japan and Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe, was released in the U.S. in September 1996. Kirby Super Star is essentially eight individual games in one, and features a cast of memorable characters and abilities only seen once in the series of games. The game features the concept of creating a 'Helper', or friendly enemy, to help the player dispatch enemies. These helpers can be controlled by a second-player, which is one of the game's key points to the game's popularity among fans of the series.

Released in 1997, Kirby's Star Stacker is a puzzle game that involves touching two or more similar blocks together that have Kirby's animal friends on them. The game received a sequel on the Super Famicom in 1998 in Japan as Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu (dubbed Kirby's Super Star Stacker by fans).

Kirby's Dream Land 3, released in November 1997 in the U.S., is considered a direct sequel to Kirby's Dream Land 2, as it features the return of Rick, Coo and Kine, as well as the introduction of Nago the Cat, Pitch the Bird, and Chuchu the Octopus. Similar to Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3 featured only a few copy abilities that are modified when Kirby pairs up with one of his now six animal friends, making the number of unique abilities in the game a total of 72. Also reintroduced was Gooey, who could now be played as a second character.

The first 3D game of the Kirby series, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was released on the Nintendo 64 in the U.S. in June 2000. The game featured a unique compound ability system that allows two of the seven abilities in the game to be merged together, making a new compound ability. The game is believed to be a sequel to Kirby's Dream Land 3, as the game features the same final boss as Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, the ominous cloud of Dark Matter.

The next game in the Kirby series took a more innovative route, as Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble became one of Nintendo's first motion-sensor-based games in August 2000. Players are instructed to tilt their Game Boy Color to move Kirby on the screen. Quickly flicking the Game Boy Color upwards would make Kirby jump into the air. Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble is currently the only Kirby game to have a special cartridge color (transparent pink).

The only Kirby game for the Nintendo GameCube, Kirby Air Ride was released in the U.S. in October 2003. The game is noted for it's simple gameplay controls, designed in a way so that virtually anyone could play the game without much trouble.