Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, known in Japan as , is one of few Kirby titles not directed by Masahiro Sakurai, released on the Nintendo 64 in the year 2000 and on Virtual Console on February 25, 2008 in North America and March 7, 2008 in Europe. It is Kirby's first 3D adventure. The game is notable for Kirby's ability to merge two separate copy abilities together as opposed to just using one.

Plot

Ripple Star is a heart-shaped planet populated by serene and peaceful fairies. It is home to a great Crystal, which possesses great holy power. The Crystal is the sacred watcher of Ripple Star, and helps to ensure that it remains a perfect place for fairies to live. Unfortunately for the fairies, the Crystal's power has attracted the attention of Dark Matter. The black blob, and its controller, 0² (Zero Two), came to steal the Crystal. To that end, as well as the domination of the universe, Dark Matter has come to Ripple Star to steal its Crystal and use its power for its own evil purposes.

As the fairies notice a dark cloud enveloping their home, they begin to panic. In the midst of the chaos, as the darkness begins to envelop the castle, the Queen sends one fairy, Ribbon, to ride off with the crystal to somewhere safe. Dark Matter, of course, isn't pleased with this development, and it sends three pieces of itself after Ribbon. They catch up with her after a short chase. Ribbon tries to evade them, but the Dark Matter violently body-slams her, knocking her unconscious and shattering the Crystal into pieces. The pieces of the Crystal are scattered by the impact, and the pieces land on various planets all over the solar system. Ribbon herself, stunned by the blow, helplessly falls towards the planet Pop Star.

Meanwhile, Kirby is watching the stars on Pop Star. Suddenly, a gem plummets from the sky and hits Kirby on the head. Kirby gets up and looks around. Seeing the gem, Kirby walks over to pick it up, when he's hit on the head by another jewel and a fairy.

When Kirby comes to, he finds the fairy lying on the ground. As he walks over to see if she's okay, she begins to stir, and then wakes up. It turns out that the fairy is Ribbon. After she and Kirby exchange hellos, Ribbon asks about the Crystal. Kirby, of course, doesn't know what she's talking about. Ribbon points out that it is the jewel that she had been carrying. Looking at the Crystal, she notices that it is only a fraction of its normal size, and realizes it has been split into pieces. Realizing that she's failed to protect her planet's sacred jewel, Ribbon sighs in self-pity. Kirby notices that Ribbon is about to burst into tears, and tries to console her. Suddenly, Kirby notices the stone that had fallen on him. He points it out to Ribbon, and she realizes that it is another piece of the Crystal. Kirby and Ribbon throw their shards at each other, and the two shards join into one slightly larger Crystal, prompting them to search for more.

The Crystal is still incomplete with 72 more pieces remain to be found, scattered across 6 planets. Kirby and Ribbon traverse these worlds in a search for the Crystals. Their journey to liberate Ripple Star and restore the Crystal to its full power takes them through Pop Star where they meet Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede, who have all found shards of their own and have become possessed by Dark Matter. Each character agrees to help when Kirby frees them all from Dark Matter's control. They traverse the planets using everyone's skills to collect the crystals.

However, even when the game is completed, a different ending cinematic is received if all 74 crystal shards are not collected. The so called "unhappy ending" shows Kirby and his friends returning to Dreamland, but then the Ripple Star Queen looks at Ribbon with evil and darkened eyes, signaling that she is also possessed by Dark Matter, and the game is not quite finished.

After they collect all 74, the ending cinema is changed. The completed crystal fires a ray of holy energy at the Queen, sensing the Dark Matter possessing her, and so releasing her of it. The Dark Matter released from her forms a new planet at the center of the ring of planets called Dark Star. Kirby and co. enter Dark Star, where there is a short level with few enemies. At the end of the level, King Dedede fires Kirby upward off the screen. There, 0² reveals itself as the game's final boss. Using the restored crystal, Kirby destroys it in a shooter-like battle and restores peace to the solar system.

At the game's end, the fairies reward the heroes from Dream Land with crystal medallions. Ribbon shyly gives Kirby a kiss, causing him to nervously swoon, he falls off the ceremonial platform.

Gameplay

Copy abilities

There are seven different copy abilities in Kirby 64, and any two can be merged to create a new copy ability. They are Burn, Stone, Ice, Needle, Bomb, Spark, and Cutter. Though Kirby only needs one element in his body to gain an extra attack, two of the abilities can also be combined. Copy Abilities can also be merged with abilities of the same type for more powerful versions of the basic abilities. In total there are 35 abilities, combined and stand-alone, as the order does not matter (i.e. Burn+Stone is the same result as Stone+Burn). Combined abilities are usually stronger or have added effects.

Minigames

Three minigames can be played separate from the main quest in Kirby 64. Each game can be played by 1-4 players on one of four difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, Intense.) Characters from the game (i.e. Kirby, Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede) are playable in multiplayer.

Development

Screenshots of the game's beta, under the name of Kirby's Cloud, was originally posted on Nintendo.com June 1 1999, portrayed Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede as playable characters all throughout the game, the game also featured many more aquatic levels. The multiple characters and water based levels were removed before the game's release.

Reception

The game sold 1.07 million copies in Japan

The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave Kirby 64 an overall score of 32/40. Nintendo Power gave it an overall rating of 8.1/10. GameSpot gave it a score of 6.9/10, and IGN gave it a score of 7.9/10.

References

External links