Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land (Dreams Missing! Cause: Rude Penguin)

[LaZodiac]

I couldn't think of any Yogurt based jokes...

Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [5] Yogurt Mountain Place

Video Length: 19:48

Starting us off: surprise I'm showing the turtle boss from the NES game now instead of later! Except it has come to my attention, due to looking at the footage while editing it, that hmm maybe this isn't actually a turtle and it's some kind of insect to fit the theme with Bugzzy. This is why LPs are important and cool, even in the most simple of ways they expand your mind to new horizons. Also, bosses that give you Throw or Suplex in this game can auto grab you instead of dealing contact damage and that's a little rough, to be quite honest! Anyway, we beat him up and head off to the level proper.

So, the Yogurt Yard is where we really get our first jump in difficulty, I feel? It's the first time the stages start like...really TRYING to put the harm on poor Kirby. It's also when the puzzles and challenges that you need to solve and find the secret switches start actually becoming difficult. There aren't any new powers this time around, so there's nothing to talk about on that front, so let's talk a bit about one of the powers we DO have. Specifically, Parasol/Umbrella. As you may of noticed (and I point out at one point during this) Kirby does contact damage and doesn't take damage back if he's falling so fast his head is facing downward. If you have Umbrella, you will never reach this state because you're always drifting gently down with it. However...if you push down to close the umbrella, Kirby will immediately enter that state where he damages enemies on contact. So Umbrella's actually quite useful for dealing damage in that sense too, and I think that's just a really cool, unnoticed power of the ability. Also, we do find a new miniboss. The burning lion! This was my favorite miniboss as a kid because I mean it's a cat that's on fire and all cool and stuff what's not to love? It gives the Burning power, obviously.

Some of the more complicated or sneaky tricks in these stages include that big "maze" of doors, where the secret is that one of the doors actually leads to a one up. This isn't THAT big a deal, but it does test if you're paying attention and notice Kirby always comes out of the door that he entered, if it is a two way door. So that's a thing we might need to want to look out for in the future with other secret switches. The other really notable one in this world is the one with another of those cannons. You have to deftly avoid crushing the fire octopi with your face while eating the High Jump enemy to get that so you can clear the blocks in your path. Then you use fire to light the fuse and quickly get into the cannon so you can get fired onto the switch. It's rather tricky to get down. And finally, in terms of compelling and interesting puzzles, we have the first instance ever in all of Kirby of needing to get a power from another stage and hold it until the end to hit a specific obstacle. In particular, metal blocks that many things can break, but only Hammer can break here since they're under water. We must take Hammer with us from start to finish, avoiding the many many enemies they put in our path that will be more than willing than to bash the power star out of our hands. This is a classic (some would say overused...) type of challenge in Kirby, but I like it here.

Finally, we face off against the boss of the Yogurt Yard, Heavy Mole. This robotic digging machine follows a randomized path throughout the level, crunching his way through dirt that the hammer can also break, as an aside. He's not the hardest boss, his only real main attack being to shoot a missile at you, but hitting him is pretty risky...especially when you're like me and insist on using the Hammer because you have it and want to do it. Heavy Mole goes down fairly quickly, leaving us with the Yellow part of the Star Rod. It's here, thanks to a friend (Pinkhaired August) that I realized that hey, each world in this game has started with the letter of one of the colours of the rainbow, and the cutscene that plays in the NES version has a border colour that matches that colour, and also the star rod piece itself looks that colour. It's a pretty clever touch.

But yeah, that's Kirby. Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you guys next time for the Orange Ocean, which definitely has a chance of not fitting in one single video if things go really badly, I think. We'll see.

[AsteriskAmp]

Starting us off: surprise I'm showing the turtle boss from the NES game now instead of later! Except it has come to my attention, due to looking at the footage while editing it, that hmm maybe this isn't actually a turtle and it's some kind of insect to fit the theme with Bugzzy. This is why LPs are important and cool, even in the most simple of ways they expand your mind to new horizons. Also, bosses that give you Throw or Suplex in this game can auto grab you instead of dealing contact damage and that's a little rough, to be quite honest! Anyway, we beat him up and head off to the level proper.

It IS a turtle, it's called Rolling Turtle even.

Spoiler

Show

[DataNinja]

Thankfully no game yet. Just thinking how you could get a double axe to actually fit all of the requirements for the "You will never use another power ever again because you have this one" power

Oh, don't forget Plasma's 'go through walls' for the beam.

Call it a practical lesson on turing completeness, swarm algorithms and graphic programming. Or claim it's for a paper, a generalisation of Jacquard's work to a biological system; a breakthrough in bioinformatics.

...seems like this would take up more of my free time than getting an extra job to save money to buy the games, and then quitting that to play the games. I mean, part of me is very interested in how it'd go, but the practical part of me is yelling at that part.

*******

I suppose maybe so they didn't have two similar things giving out the same/similar powers? Could go either way, really.

Well, are the switches there on subsequent playthroughs of the level? If not that'd be why the healing item, I'd imagine.
...which you say immediately after. Go me. I should really learn to hold off on that pause button just a little longer.

Oh, man. This track brings back treasure hunting memories. Like trying to find the last dang item.

The running of the waddle dees... off a cliff.

'Interesting' way to climb with Burning...

Well at least 'Parasolchutes R We' handily put a food item at the bottom.

Spikes: 2, Pit: 1, Wheel: 0

...Spikes, er, Needles: ~20, Wheelies: 0

I feel like this is the Water Temple keys all over again. Womp womp.

You needed to play Whack-A-Mole, no? So, in that case, Hammer was the objectively right choice.

At least it's not Lava?

Spoiler: I should really just write more descriptive titles.

Show

Beam: 3
Spark: 4 (+1)
Fire: 4 (+1)
UFO: 3
Cutter: 6 (+1)
Crash: 1
Sword: 9
Burning: 9 (+4)
Freeze: 4 (+1)
Needle: 3 (+1)
Parasol: 5 (+2)
Tornado: 3 (+1)
Wheel: 8 (+2)
Laser: 5 (+1)
Stone: 5 (+2)
Mike: 2
Sleep: 1
Hi-Jump: 6 (+2)
SUPLEX: 2
Ice: 1
Hammer: 2 (+1)
Light: 3
Ball: 4 (+1)
THROW: 1

Current top 5 powers:
1. Burning (9)
1. Sword (9)
3. Wheel (8)
5. Cutter (6)
5. Hi-Jump (6)

[Trobby]

Additional trivia about Heavy Mole: He's one of the few bosses that can beat Kirby by a stage time-out. If you don't beat him fast enough, he'll eventually just drill his way off the top of the screen, and the auto-scroll will catch up and kill you.

[AsteriskAmp]

Oh, don't forget Plasma's 'go through walls' for the beam.

The amount of energy on the swing just activates literally everything on the map at it's max tier. That should cover all cases.

...seems like this would take up more of my free time than getting an extra job to save money to buy the games, and then quitting that to play the games. I mean, part of me is very interested in how it'd go, but the practical part of me is yelling at that part.

The practical part has to be beaten into submission, I recommend with a fractal hammer.

Additional trivia about Heavy Mole: He's one of the few bosses that can beat Kirby by a stage time-out. If you don't beat him fast enough, he'll eventually just drill his way off the top of the screen, and the auto-scroll will catch up and kill you.

That would make him the only non-final boss to have such a mechanic IRC.

[DataNinja]

The amount of energy on the swing just activates literally everything on the map at it's max tier. That should cover all cases.

Except there are the puzzles where you only want to activate certain bomb blocks. That might be problematic, when combined with 'going through wall single shot' puzzles. Unless we just want to give it 'you can smash through any block at all. Yes, even that one'.

The practical part has to be beaten into submission, I recommend with a fractal hammer.

Is that more or less broken than a Kirby Hammer?

[AsteriskAmp]

Except there are the puzzles where you only want to activate certain bomb blocks. That might be problematic, when combined with 'going through wall single shot' puzzles. Unless we just want to give it 'you can smash through any block at all. Yes, even that one'.

The attack also collects all of the items and power-ups in the screen because the energy concentration briefly produces a black hole. Still slightly less broken than hammer.

Is that more or less broken than a Kirby Hammer?

Absolutely fascinating and beautiful but also absolutely impractical and if you can solve something with it you could have solved it with a normal hammer and one thousandth the effort. So less broken.

[DataNinja]

The attack also collects all of the items and power-ups in the screen because the energy concentration briefly produces a black hole. Still slightly less broken than hammer.

Good to know we're making progress, though.

Alternatively, we just replace the Hammer Essence Deluxe with a Squeaky Hammer.

Absolutely fascinating and beautiful but also absolutely impractical and if you can solve something with it you could have solved it with a normal hammer and one thousandth the effort.

Ah. So, in other words, it's a graduating CompSci student's pet project.

[AsteriskAmp]

Good to know we're making progress, though.

Alternatively, we just replace the Hammer Essence Deluxe with a Squeaky Hammer.

So... the Clean power.

Ah. So, in other words, it's a graduating CompSci student's pet project.

The super applicative part which is mainly just graphing, sure. But to do fractals properly you need measure theory up to Minkowski Dimension, Arzela-Ascoli and all of it's topological prerequisites, Differential Equations and Dynamic Systems ideally up to Poincare–Bendixson. A CompSci major with a heavy focus on control theory or pure mathematics (with focus on functional analysis or Dynamic Systems) could probably dive into the rabbit hole with some introductory reading.

[DataNinja]

So... the Clean power.

I don't know how powerful that is. Are we talking solar, hydro, what?

The super applicative part which is mainly just graphing, sure. But to do fractals properly you need measure theory up to Minkowski Dimension, Arzela-Ascoli and all of it's topological prerequisites, Differential Equations and Dynamic Systems ideally up to Poincare–Bendixson. A CompSci major with a heavy focus on control theory or pure mathematics (with focus on functional analysis or Dynamic Systems) could probably dive into the rabbit hole with some introductory reading.

You'll probably find me more receptive to higher mathematics after my Matrix Algebra exam tomorrow. As of right now, it's just words, and I'm more liable to grab one of those Hammers we were talking about and either bash said words, or my head, in.

[Qwertystop]

I don't know how powerful that is. Are we talking solar, hydro, what?

Shows up in... Dream Land 3 and the cartoon. In DL3, you take out a broom and brush the ground once, producing a small dust cloud that does damage. About as slow as Hammer, but worse range, and I don't think different abilities had different amounts of damage in DL3 yet.

It made Broom Hatters not a complete waste of space, I suppose? And the way DL3 was structured, every ability had a matching block type that only that power could destroy, plus occasionally the other puzzles would require specific abilities, so it was inevitably useful sometimes.

(In the cartoon it was kind of insane, but all of the abilities were kind of OP in the cartoon, that was the point, Kirby getting whatever ability was usually the turning point of the entire episode, transformation sequence, et cetera. As soon as an ability turned up the problem was usually basically solved.)

[AsteriskAmp]

You'll probably find me more receptive to higher mathematics after my Matrix Algebra exam tomorrow. As of right now, it's just words, and I'm more liable to grab one of those Hammers we were talking about and either bash said words, or my head, in.

Think of a matrix A as a hammer and L_A it's associated Linear Transform as the act of swinging it. Become one with the basis. L_A can't bash a skull because a linear transform takes lines to lines and convex sets to convex set and the bashed skull is concave while the unbashed skull is convex ergo the bashing must come from outside the Linear Algebra.

Shows up in... Dream Land 3 and the cartoon. In DL3, you take out a broom and brush the ground once, producing a small dust cloud that does damage. About as slow as Hammer, but worse range, and I don't think different abilities had different amounts of damage in DL3 yet.

It made Broom Hatters not a complete waste of space, I suppose? And the way DL3 was structured, every ability had a matching block type that only that power could destroy, plus occasionally the other puzzles would require specific abilities, so it was inevitably useful sometimes.

(In the cartoon it was kind of insane, but all of the abilities were kind of OP in the cartoon, that was the point, Kirby getting whatever ability was usually the turning point of the entire episode, transformation sequence, et cetera. As soon as an ability turned up the problem was usually basically solved.)

It was also going to appear in one of the cancelled Gamecube games, going so far as to actually show up on the trailer for it.

The cartoon made EVERYTHING OP. Whispy Wood attempts to commit murder-suicide at one point, and that's not even close to the craziest thing in that series.

[DataNinja]

Think of a matrix A as a hammer and L_A it's associated Linear Transform as the act of swinging it. Become one with the basis. L_A can't bash a skull because a linear transform takes lines to lines and convex sets to convex set and the bashed skull is concave while the unbashed skull is convex ergo the bashing must come from outside the Linear Algebra.

*applies A to head via L_A*

The cartoon made EVERYTHING OP. Whispy Wood attempts to commit murder-suicide at one point, and that's not even close to the craziest thing in that series.

Well, then. Did they manage to make Sleep OP in some regard?

[AsteriskAmp]

*applies A to head via L_A*

*Preserving convexity through the process*

Well, then. Did they manage to make Sleep OP in some regard?

Dedede does. He tricks Kirby into swallowing one of the Sleep critters and condemns him to 100 years of sleep unless he smells a really particular flower, the finding of which is the plot of the episode.

[LaZodiac]

This discussion of the goof as heck Kirby anime is appropriate given that Nightmare in Dream Land's advertisements on TV made great use of it's assets. They were released at basically the same time and stuff, if I recall.

[AsteriskAmp]

This discussion of the goof as heck Kirby anime is appropriate given that Nightmare in Dream Land's advertisements on TV made great use of it's assets. They were released at basically the same time and stuff, if I recall.

Depends on the country. In Japan the animated series preceded the game by a year. In the US and Canada they were almost simultaneously released. In South America the game came before the animated series by a few months at the very least.

The production company was Warpstar.Inc, which was pretty much HAL and Nintendo; and Sakurai himself has been on record saying he personally oversaw the production process. Which is probably the reason it's not a cash in but an actually amazingly enjoyable experience. The boxed sets are probably still being sold in some capacity.

[DataNinja]

*Preserving convexity through the process*

I don't care about convexity so much as intellect.

Dedede does. He tricks Kirby into swallowing one of the Sleep critters and condemns him to 100 years of sleep unless he smells a really particular flower, the finding of which is the plot of the episode.

...well, then. Uh, that seems like a rather more potent power.

Good thing they aren't like that in the games. *sets system clock ahead 100 years* Yeah, I'm pretty sure it doesn't go that far ahead. Almost as if they figured it'd be obsolete by then... :P

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Dark, let me just say I appreciate someone has taken up the counting mantle in my "absence". Just remember I call dibs on counting things in Zelda games

[DataNinja]

Dark, let me just say I appreciate someone has taken up the counting mantle in my "absence". Just remember I call dibs on counting things in Zelda games

No sweat. I know that's your thing. With the possible exception of recording collectables.

(I just try and give myself the illusion of contributing.)

[TheWombatOfDoom]

No sweat. I know that's your thing. With the possible exception of recording collectables.

(I just try and give myself the illusion of contributing.)

No worries on collectables. I'm more interested in rupees and enemies anyway, and then I tabulate items and things at the end. You're work last time was great, as well as these other threads like fire emblem and even here! Counting is fun.

[DataNinja]

like fire emblem

Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha. Never doing that again.

(Mostly because pausing after every battle to record things properly made it so that each mission would take several hours to get through...)

[LaZodiac]

I'm still a little sick, but how's about a new Kirby.

Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [6] Pretty sure it's orange cause it's evening

Video Length: 17:31

It's time to begin the Orange Ocean, the second last world of the game. The difficulty has ramped up for both the challenges and the puzzles, so it's time to wrack our little Kirby brain as we explore the islands. Our first secret switch requires Hammer or Stone, and gives us neither, meaning the very first stage of this world requires a power from out of town. That kinda sucks, but we kept our hammer from last time for a reason! The second level ALSO requires Hammer or Stone, but does at least give you Stone...which I promptly lost. However, I found...a way around that, to be blunt. Then we have the rather elaborate puzzle on the good ship grapefruit, which requires Hammer or Burning to get down to the underside of the boat, smashing a block to reveal an entrance, and then getting Laser and intuiting that Laser can light fuses that are under water if it bounces towards them. This is always the hardest puzzle for me, I think, just given that's rather clever and the fact that I've always kinda solved it using the NES method. At least in my head I have, because I have no memory of actually solving it correctly.

After dealing with the boat, we are then thrown into two random out of nowhere ice levels, which I find weird but given these levels have never really had any sense of connection I guess it's fine? the first of them has a rather lengthy fuse chase which I think might be the hardest secret switch to get in the game, and the second requires you to find Burning, or still have Hammer, both out of level powers. Lame, but so it goes. The puzzles in this game always have this weird feel to them. The ones involving the steel blocks are out of place with the level, and often feel bad because it requires getting a power not from this level. The puzzles that require finding a secret door are either too obvious, or waaay to obtuse with regards to actually finding then, and are in fact like ten times worse on the NES since it often featured NO indication AT ALL those secret doors where there.

Given that this is Kirby's second game, and specifically a remake that's trying to capture the feel of the original while still updating it, I'm not surprised it ran into these problems. The NES version is a clear case of them just not knowing what it is they wanted to do, 100%, with Kirby. Which I think is GOOD, Kirby has this feeling of being a far vaster game then it really is because of it, and I've always held that Kirby is consistently and constantly the "best" designed Nintendo games just due to it's desire to be easy to play and beat, as a sort of "baby's first video game" but with full completion being quite difficult. Kirby's Adventure wanted to have a cool hub world and levels with secrets in it that unlocked more of the hub world, and that's pretty cool. Given it was a NES game, it was also PRETTY dang ambitious. I think it did it well, obtuseness of the hidden switches aside, but it's still clearly got the jank and weirdness of being an early, experimental game. Later Kirb's mesh the puzzles into the level design far better, while still making them not a pain to figure out, but that'll be for another day. We've completed the Orange Ocean, and now it's time to fight probably one of the best bosses in the game, and one of the most iconic moments in both Kirby, and in video games in general.

We enter the arena, and a sword falls from the ceiling. GET IT! It's time to face our rival, Metaknight! Now, secretly, if you wait like 3 minutes, you don't HAVE to use the sword...but why wouldn't you? It's an epic clash of sword vs sword. Metaknight is capable of doing basically everything with a sword you'd expect, and serves as a good example of how elaborate powers will get in the future cause Kirby eventually becomes able to do most of this stuff. Almost as if the mysterious masked man was training us. He can block, he can slice, he can sword plant, it's all pretty fantastic. But in the end, Kirby's able to beat him, slicing his mask in half to reveal...dun dun duuun, Metaknight is a kirby like Kirby! Embarrassed Metaknight teleports away using his magical cape, and we can move on to the Rainbow Resort...the final world of the game. Hope you guys are ready, I'll see you all next time.

[DataNinja]

Hope you get better soon, Zodi...

*******

Gee. I wonder what colour this Star Rod piece is going to be... (If it isn't orange, I'll eat my hat*.)

And thus was established the wild Phan-Phan preserve.

The hammer really does make a satisfying *thwack*.

Well... that's the first (non-boss) level you've done without once getting a copy-ability in-level.

With wording like that I expect you'll lose stone instantly.

...yup.

Hahahahahah... serendipitous.

*thwack* *thwack* *thwack* *thwack* ...

You seem to have problems holding onto powers today. Are you sure this isn't Butter Building?

Riding off into the sunset...

...which is apparently more level.

It's odd that some Switch rooms have food, and others don't.

Gee. I think the game is trying to tell you something about that sword. I can't tell what it is, though...

Oh, good. My hat remains uneaten.

Spoiler: A detailed collection of the number of unique Copy Abilities used by Zodi

Show

Beam: 4 (+1)
Spark: 4
Fire: 6 (+2)
UFO: 5 (+2)
Cutter: 6
Crash: 1
Sword: 9
Burning: 12 (+3)
Freeze: 5 (+1)
Needle: 3
Parasol: 6 (+1)
Tornado: 3
Wheel: 8
Laser: 7 (+2)
Stone: 6 (+1)
Mike: 2
Sleep: 1
Hi-Jump: 6
SUPLEX: 2
Ice: 1
Hammer: 4 (+2)
Light: 3
Ball: 4
THROW: 1

_{*Disclaimer: Said hat is imaginary, and a metaphorical construct. No hats will be harmed in the event of an error.}

[LaZodiac]

And so it ends...and yet, not.

Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [7] Rainbow Roundabout

Video Length: 25:34

We begin Rainbow Resort, the final level of the game. In terms of difficulty, this one actually steps back quite a bit. It's still challenging, but the levels are a little shorter and a little easier than Orange Ocean's. There's also only two stages WITH secret switches, the first and last one. The first one is pretty obvious in how to get it, though the original NES version of that area is a total mess of the same type of block over and over again. The second secret switch is behind what is now a classic, iconic Kirby "thing", going into the moon in the background. It's pretty cool, I think, and the level it's attached to (Kirby running through a bunch of Kirby's Dream Land stuff) is also pretty dang cool. Other cool things we do in this world include the single hardest fuse race in the entire series, and a boss rush featuring almost every miniboss in the game...complete with a short cut that let's you skip three of them. If you're familiar with newer Kirby's, you may notice that this layout of levels is actually quite familiar as well. That's because Kirby's always kinda doing this same kinda stuff for it's final levels. A sort of exam on everything the game has put you through as the finale, plus a level bringing back feelings of the very first original Kirby for nostalgia reasons. It's a formula they kind of perfected in the second game and have no reason to change, even now.

But, all good things must come to an end. Once we finish the final stage of the Rainbow Resort, it's time for the final boss fight. Before is King Dedede, the massive penguin jerk that stole all the dreams of Dream Land. Umbrella in hand, it's time to smack him around! King Dedede has all of the stuff he could do in the original Kirby's Dream Land, just a little more advanced. He can do a super jump, he can hammer you a bunch, he can suck you in to shoot you at the wall, and he can float around. He's not the most complicated of bosses, but his size plus the reduced screen size means it's pretty hard to dodge him! But finally, we beat the penguin lord, and retrieve the final piece of the Star Rod, returning it to it's red coloured glory. Kirby places it on the Fountain of Dreams, returning dreams to Dream Land.

And allowing the Nightmares to gush forth. As it turns out, King Dedede wasn't the villain. He broke up the Star Rod to prevent this horrible eldritch being made of pure bad dreams from infecting Dream Land's dreams with his nightmareish form. He was stuck inside the dried out fountain and oooops we just freed him. Dedede sucks up Kirby and the Star Rod and launches us into the air with a powerful blow! It's time for the final bit of Kirby formula this game introduces: Kirby routinely and casually kills horrible elder gods that do NOT fit the aesthetic in terms of just how dark and horrifying they look...while still actually fitting the general aesthetic Kirby has going for it. It is fantastic, and part of why I do love Kirby as much as I do. They're really fun games and great from a game design perspective, I just really love how from this point forward, every Kirby game ends with Kirby getting into a super charged fight with some Cthulhu esque hyper monster out of nowhere (though often heavily foreshadowed). It's fantastic, and a good sign of how Kirby will basically just try WHATEVER and see if it works.

So, let's discuss the Nightmare fight. Because ah...as you may recall from Dream Land, no Kirby game is complete without a shmup section, and this game is no different! The first phase is Kirby flying around with the Star Rod, vs Nightmare's orb form. Nightmare shoots anti-stars at us in basic SHMUP bullet patterns, though he starts changing up how they react as he hits lower HP. We're actually on a time limit on this one, since Kirby's not ACTUALLY flying, just falling with style. We did get launched from Dedede, after all. If we run out of time Kirby will smash face first into Popstar at high speeds, exploding. It's not pretty. Thankfully, we beat the Nightmare orb before this can happen, creating a warp star and flying off to the Moon for the final confrontation, wherein it is revealed Nightmare's true form is that of a very rude wizard. In this form he's only vulnerable in the twisty, spirit like body underneath his cloak. In this form he has more bullet curtain esque shooting patterns, but the game is no longer a SHMUP so you can just camp behind him to avoid literally everything he throws at you. This is not a hard boss and dying to it is shameful on my part. But yeah, we fight the evil space wizard, eventually destroying him utterly. The Moon tells us we unlocked Extra mode, a harder difficulty for Kirby's basic game, and then explodes from how awesome that was, as Kirby flies off. We saved the day!...after ruining the already saved day. Oops. But hey, that's Kirby.

And so ends Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land...but not the Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land LP (note the 's back there). You see, as you may of noticed, we unlocked Extra Mode back there. I won't be going through that except on my own time. But once that's beat, we'll have unlocked Meta Knightmare, a harder version of the game without any saving where we play as Meta Knight himself! Which I WILL be going through, so stay tuned for that. But for now, it's time to rest. Hope you all have a good day.

[DataNinja]

]More Kirby, yay!

*******

Fancy Laserwork at the very beginning. In Danger Kirby mode, too.

I do wonder why sometimes there are those pictures with the Ability name, and why sometimes there aren't...

You'd think Kirby could just fly up the outside of the tower.

The 'zoo' is also a neat way to give you power options.

I do think it's a nice touch that, despite being in the final world, they revert to the 'basic' enemy colours for the last level.

The reason you'd probably think that is because in Super Star there is a secret door hidden in that same area (except there are more blocks).

Nice backdrop for the final battle.

...uh oh.

Well, I was one of those two people.

Very glitchy.

Didn't you already beat up the moon? Seemed a lot smaller then.

What a gyp. I think this star rod is defective. Something something invincibility, after all.

"He certainly wasn't trying to harm the Fountain of Dreams." This sounds like a suspiciously specific denial, even after the fact.

I mean, he didn't need to go swimming in it...

So, the fountain shoots stars? Does that mean everyone attacks with dreams? And Kirby rides around on dreams? Since, there were the anti-Stars, which were from nightmare... It's beginning to make even less sense again.

Oh, good! More videos.

Spoiler: {Insert clever title here}

Show

Beam: 5 (+1)
Spark: 5 (+1)
Fire: 7 (+1)
UFO: 5
Cutter: 6
Crash: 2 (+1)
Sword: 9
Burning: 15 (+3)
Freeze: 6 (+1)
Needle: 3
Parasol: 7 (+1)
Tornado: 3
Wheel: 8
Laser: 8 (+1)
Stone: 6
Mike: 2
Sleep: 1
Hi-Jump: 6
SUPLEX: 3 (+1)
Ice: 1
Hammer: 5 (+1)
Light: 3
Ball: 5 (+1)
THROW: 2 (+1)
Star Rod: 1 (+1)

So, what's the final ranking of abilities?
1. Burning (15)
2. Sword (9)
3. Laser (8)
3. Wheel (8)
4. Parasol (7)
4. Fire (7)
5. Cutter (6)
5. Stone (6)
5. Freeze (6)
5. Hi-Jump (6)
6. Beam (5)
6. Spark (5)
6. UFO (5)
6. Hammer (5)
6. Ball (5)
7. Needle (3)
7. Tornado (3)
7. Back Drop (3)
7. Light (3)
8. Crash (2)
8. Mike (2)
8. Throw (2)
9. Sleep (1)
9. Ice (1)
9. Star Rod (1)

Huh. There were still 6 powers you used less than Light.

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey, it's time for A Taste Of.

A Taste Of: Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Video Length: 12:36

An early PS3 launch title beat em up game...with quite a deal of problems. I'm sure it gets better, but...it really doesn't make a good first impression. Still though, it has a me cameo in it!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Oh hey, it's time for A Taste Of.

A Taste Of: Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Video Length: 12:36

An early PS3 launch title beat em up game...with quite a deal of problems. I'm sure it gets better, but...it really doesn't make a good first impression. Still though, it has a me cameo in it!

Wow, that's hilariously bad, and a prime example of why translating a 2d sidescroller into a 3d environment is not always a good idea. The original Ninja Gaiden was infamously difficult, but possible. This is just... bad.

[DataNinja]

I can't really comment on the gameplay, due to, uh, not really playing beat 'em ups, but, the aesthetic is nice, barring the... questionable progress indication. Also, as you noted, the way they denoted impact and enemy death was done well. You should never have a player wondering 'did I hit that guy?', after all.

[LaZodiac]

I hope you've all prepared your best faux spanish accents. It's Meta Knightmare time.

Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [8] Vegan Sundae

Video Length: 14:30

First off, we show off the full Nightmare death sequence just for fun, then show off the little image we get for 100% clearing Extra Mode. Kirby says I'm amazing and I'm not one to argue with someone so cute. But yes, with Extra Mode beaten, we have unlocked Meta Knightmare, and with it the next half of this LP. Meta Knightmare is a mode exclusive to the GBA version, which has us playing as Meta Knight with an expanded sword moveset, that can solve any puzzle in the game. Like Extra Mode, you start with two lives and only have three health blips, and like the NES version's Extra Mode, there is NO saving. So we've got to beat this all at once, which...is decidedly tricky!

Meta Knight is faster than Kirby, for better or worse. His move speed and jumping is faster, but his flight is strangely less agile than Kirby's and far harder to control. Kirby's got way better aerial control than him, and he's a blimp, and that's embarrassing to our bat winged friend over here. Regardless, what he lacks in flight he makes up for in power! Meta Knight is a master swordsmen, with a number of sword attacks to tackle any situation. He even has an unstated dash attack, though it's just a slightly longer ranger, slower to recover from normal slash. It's a good move set, and a good example of what Kirby powers will eventually become. Seems like someone's been doing some training under the cool blue puff ball.

But yeah all that said, there really isn't much to say about Meta Knightmare mode? It doesn't change any of the actual enemies, they all act the same as in Extra Mode, which is to say they all act the same as the regular game. The energy drink sodas scattered around heal for one instead of two, and that's really the only major mechanical change from the base mode. Other than the three health blips, of course. So yeah, not much in the way of commentary on this one folks, mostly just enjoying the music and Meta Knight's sword play.

[DataNinja]

Yeesh, that's fairly punishing. You can do it, though!

Not much to comment on, either.

I do find it amusing that someone is an imposter, here, though. Which Meta Knight is which?