Why I love Kirby · 4:50pm Jun 20th, 2021
I wish to share with you the reasons why I love Kirby so much, and why this is my favorite video game franchise far above the others, even the likes of Mario and Zelda.
Kirby's Dream Land on Gameboy was among the first games that I ever played in my life. Not the first one - I don't even remember which game is my first one - but certainly one that marked my childhood. Only God knows how many time I did and redid the adventure of this game, to the point that I could play the whole game without getting hit once. Then, I played Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land on Gameboy Advance, and it marked me just as much, if not more. I did the fight against Dedede probably hundreds of times just because I LOVED the area and the music.
Despite this, I lost touch with the saga. From Dream Land 2 to Mass Attack, I missed all the games excepted Air Ride and Epic Yarn. My only links to the Kirby saga were through the anime when it passed on TV and Super smash Bros where Kirby was, and is still to this day, my main.
And then, I got Kirby's Return to Dream Land, then Triple Deluxe, then Planet Robobot, and I was like a child again with these games. I loved the feeling of power that the Super Abilities, the Hypernova, and the Robobot Armor were giving. I loved taking my time traversing the levels to listen to the amazing musics. And the final bosses... Let's just say that Magolor, Sectonia, and especially Star Dream figure among my favorite bosses of all times.
Some time between Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, I began to heavily explore the lore of the saga. I watched playthrough of all the games, went in the wikis and forums, and replayed the games I had to find every single bits of info I may have missed. I was really fascinated by all this, this universe that we discover piece by piece from game to game, especially in the last ones. The Ancients, the Clockwork Stars, the reasons why Sectonia and Haltmann became like this, the Dark Matters...
Then came Star Allies, and while gameplay-wise it wasn't the best (I missed the bosses in ring arenas like in Planet Robobot), lore-wose, I was served. So much mysteries and revelations or speculations thanks to Hyness, Void Termina, and Morpho Knight! Also, my jaw broke when I saw Void Termina's true form (it already broke once when I saw the true identity of the Access Ark in Planet Robobot). And darn, that rock Green Greens! This game probably has my favorite OST.
I thought that that was it, but then came the free DLCs. Beside the joy of playing all these awesome characters and discovering this new, difficult mode, I wasn't expecting much from them. And yet, the third DLC turned me into an emotional wreck!
I finished Heroes in Another Dimension and went through the Soul Melter EX, finally reaching through sweat and tears the True Destroyer of Worlds, Void Termina and its new demonic color swap. Ah! I wished a difficult fight because the two other Void Terminas were wimps, well I certainly got it! But still, I reached the final phase.
The Astral Birth, Void.
Well, beside the Touhou difficulty of the fight (especially that first attack), it wasn't that different from the fourth phase of the other Void Terminas. I was actually a little disappointed that we hadn't gotten a special, unique boss like it was the case for Sectonia with Sectonia Soul or Star Dream with Star Dream SoulOS.
Then came the moment where the theme turned from the intense rock Green Greens to a more calm, emotional piano Green Greens with choirs and all, and Void began to use new attacks like Dark Mind's mirrors spin and mirror plus laser combo, or Drawcia Soul's giant fireball, and all these lasers! Like, holy mother of Sakurai!
I fell in love with the music, but sadly, it was cut short because Void was killing me so I had to end the fight. I defeated Void, then immediately went to the jukebox to find and listen to the full version of this theme. I listened to it...
Until it turned into a lower case 8-bit Green Greens...
As soon as I started to hear the familiar beat, I couldn't believe it. They put 8-bit Green Greens as a part of the true final boss' theme, in the middle of that already very emotional music. The feels, the nostalgia...
I don't cry a lot, but right there, right then...
This put Star Allies as my favorite game of all time, and this theme as my favorite music (not just in games, favorite music among all the musics I listened). And it made me want to replay Kirby's Dream Land.
No other game, movie, series, or book made me feel like that.
The guys at HAL Laboratory truly are mages.
And now, I only regret one thing, that I can't experience this a second time.
Kirby for life.
Meanwhile, the first and third phases were arguably easier.
5538257
It depends. That rain of lightning spears was hell for me. X_X And these shockwaves in the air got me more than once.
5538263
That's why I said "arguably"; with the first four eyes kept open all at once, you have more leeway to time the attack interrupts that come from destroying them.
5538263
I agree. While the other Void Terminas' lightning spears and shockwaves were easy to dodge, the Soul Melter EX Void Termina sent so many spears and shockwaves at such a fast pace that I got hit quite a few times by them. Even the Star Spin (the L/R deflecting move) didn't help much.
Also, what did you think of the final Extra Planet? Wasn't it nostalgic?
5538284
True.
5538293
It was, but there was something in that 8-bit Green Greens in Void's theme that just... hit, if you understand what I mean. I loved the many references and homage we could see in the recent games, some made me shed a tear, but none hit as hard as Void's theme, and I can't explain why.
Kriby is life kriby is love