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Part IV: A Puzzled Pink Puffball
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Kirby's Pinball Land
(GB, 1993)
Not satisfied with sticking with general platforming and the defeat of trees who bear malice and blow air, Kirby decided to take his first foray into a different style of game: pinball. This was likely a natural leap, considering that Kirby does have the physique for the part. In this mildly exciting title, your goal is to survive through three different pinball tables (which take up several screens, though there is no screen scrolling) before facing off with King Dedede. Defeating him will allow you to...repeat the whole process all over again!?! What a rip-off! Who wants to complain and get their money back? ...Mmm, I suppose it's too late. Anyway, the controls are fair enough in here (I think we've pretty much mastered the art of pinball physics in video games), but the graphics won't blow anyone away. The concept of Kirby pinball would be re-invented a few years later on the Satellaview title, "BS Kirby no Omotya Bako Pinball".
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Kirby's Avalanche
(SNES, 1995)
Kirby's Avalanche is a puzzle game in which weird coloured blobs fall from the top of the screen and you have to connect at least four of the same colour in order to make those blobs disappear. Creating combos and chains of more than four blobs will create invisible blobs that will fall in your opponent's pile, taking up space and denying access to other blobs at times. You do that until either you or your opponent is overwhelmed with blobs and unhappily reaches the top with blobs. If the premise sound familiar, then take heed in knowing you are not crazy. This is nothing more than a clone of the popular puzzle series, Puyo Puyo, with Kirby characters pasted in. You may have also seen this very same concept in the Genesis title, "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine". The only difference is that the characters want to play "Avalanche" in this one. Kirby's Avalanche can be fun if you have about five minutes to spare before a business meeting or bathroom excursion.
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Kirby's Block Ball
(GB, 1996)
You might as well consider this as a take on the concept put forth in the Breakout or Arkanoid series. Utilizing his smooth, spherical stature, Kirby will need to bounce through all sorts of pesky bricks and any enemies that pop up before advancing to the next level. There are also many bosses to whack with your ball as well. Yes, I said it. Kirby will also be able to use a few of his special abilities here, such as Needle and Fire, to help him achieve whatever goal he has set for himself here (I'm guessing it is to save Dream Land). The developer screws with you a bit sometimes by putting the bouncing paddles on the top, bottom, or left and right sides of the screen to mix things up, and they sometimes even put spikes on there to pop your Kirby. How cruel! If you enjoyed Breakout, you'll enjoy this. If you didn't, steer clear. This is probably not the last game that will take advantage of Kirby's round shape. You never know what the future may bring...
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Kirby's Star Stacker
(GB, 1997)
In a seemingly inevitable inevitability, Kirby had to also have a unique puzzle game to go with the franchise, just as Mario has "Dr. Mario" and Pokemon has "Pokemon Puzzle Challenge". Not satisfied with living off the second-hand creativity found in Kirby's Avalanche, this game is an original puzzler creation. Blocks fall from the top of the playing field in pairs, bearing one of four emblems: Rick, Coo, Kine, or a star. In order to complete levels, you have to get rid of a certain number of star blocks before your pile gets too high; you must get star blocks in between two other blocks with the same face to make them disappear. You can also create combos by just making series of blocks disappear, causing more stars to rain down. It's all good, clean fun and is actually rather addictive. You'd better have speedy thumbs for the harder rounds, though, because things can get rough.
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Kirby no KiraKira Kids
(SFC, 1998)
Kirby no KiraKira Kids (sometimes translated as Kirby's Sparkling Kids, which makes no sense in relation to the content of the game itself). In essence, this is a remake of Kirby's Star Stacker, but for the SNES. The graphics are more colourful, and the soundtrack is more vibrant due to the improved hardware. However, it's pretty much the same game, although with two-player support that's easier to deal with than hooking up a Game Link cable. It's great if you want to give your friends a Rick Roll. Rick the Hamster, that is.
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