Kirby

Kirby is the titular pink puff and main protagonist of Nintendo's Kirby series of video games..

Kirby has been featured in his own anime series, many manga publications in several countries, comics in numerous countries, and even an educational video co-starring Mario. The Kirby series is frequently merchandised by Nintendo, although most of its products are only released in Japan.

Kirby lives in his dome-shaped home in Dream Land, a country on his home planet Planet Popstar. His adventures take him throughout Dream Land and occasionally into local star systems for various reasons, and he has saved his homeland, and even the universe, many times.

Appearance
Kirby is a small pink spherical creature with two stubby arms, two red feet and two oval-shaped eyes with black pupils (with a faint shade of blue at the bottom starting with Kirby Super Star, which was brightened in later appearances). Kirby's cheek-blushes weren't introduced until his second game, Kirby's Adventure, where they appeared as two black whisker lines in artwork. In subsequent games until Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, they were depicted as three red diagonal lines in artwork, although they were usually always solid red ovals in-game (except Kirby's Dream Land 2, where they were missing from his sprite).

Kirby's body is soft and flexible, allowing him to flatten himself or expand like a balloon. Officially he is 20 centimeters (8 inches) tall, but the Super Smash Bros. games depict his height as about three feet when compared to the other characters, and when compared to Adeleine, a human from Kirby’s own series, he is about half the size of her. His weight is not known, although several parts of the anime and the Super Smash Bros. series suggest that he is light enough to be easily carried.

Kirby has no form of skeletal structure nor does he have teeth. The latter is confirmed in the anime episode A Dental Dilemma, where Hardy couldn't find Kirby's teeth to clean. His appearance has changed subtly over the years, his arms and body becoming more rounded and his facial features more defined with larger eyes. The new design has been used in all subsequent games.

With regards to Kirby's appearance on the box art of games and certain artwork, there is a phenomenon fans refer to along the lines of the "angry Kirby" look.

Personality
Kirby is largely innocent and has a cheerful demeanor and a positive attitude. He likes to help other people so much, sometimes he goes out of his way to do it; in the Dyna Blade sub-game of Kirby Super Star Ultra, he feeds Dyna Blade's chicks on his own (though expresses annoyance at Dyna Blade's chicks' constant noise-making before dragging them off to Whispy Woods to be fed by the constant dropped apples from the tree's branches) and teaches them how to fly. He has been shown to have a sense of justice, and won't spare someone who is a danger to those around him, as evidenced by his battles against final bosses. Throughout the many dangers he is put through, he is notably brave, maintaining a neutral expression almost constantly. This is especially evident in the Subspace Emissary. In the anime, he doesn't harbor dislike for anybody, in particular, not even King Dedede or Escargoon who mostly cause trouble for himself, and mostly greets everyone he meets.

While he is brave and has a sense of justice, Kirby is quick to suspect King Dedede as the culprit for mischief, such as at the beginning of Kirby: Squeak Squad. In fact, Kirby has demonstrated a consistent impulsive streak throughout the series and can be as quick to start fights as he is to pass them by, fighting Dedede, Meta Knight and Dyna Blade on impulse. He also willingly responded to Dedede's call for a rematch and attacked Shadow Kirby without thinking. This recklessness can often lead him into trouble or cause him to create trouble (such as when he accidentally released Nightmare).

In the games themselves, regardless of region, Kirby retains his innocent and cheery personality, promotional materials such as advertisements and box art tends to be tweaked if not changed outright when released internationally due to cultural differences between Japan and overseas countries, in particular America, due to strong, tough characters being popular in the West.[10] Regarding advertisements, the American versions of various TV advertisements generally depict Kirby in a tough manner, such as literally chewing a human into a spitwad for Kirby's Dream Land, doing various action movie roles for Kirby's Adventure, and having him and his friends being in a motorcycle gang and picking a fight with another motorcycle gang in Kirby's Dream Land 2.

Likewise, with magazine ads, the advertising for Kirby's Dream Course and, to a lesser extent Kirby's Avalanche, depicted Kirby as a good kid who became a hardened criminal, including mug shots indicative of a police lineup, and an ad treating Kirby as the "face of terror" in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Only two exceptions to this are known to exist: The first was with Kirby's Block Ball, which depicts Kirby demolishing people inside via the Japanese ad, while the American version was comparatively softer. The second was for the Japanese promotional material for Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, which depicted Kirby with a slightly serious, yet still mostly aloof, attitude. For the box art, with the exception of Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot (which depicts Kirby having a determined expression regardless of the box version), Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, and to a certain extent Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U (which depicts Kirby being in a relaxed and cheery disposition regardless of the version), and to a certain extent the English cover of Kirby Mass Attack (which depicts half of the mass of Kirbys on the cover as content, and the other half as angry), the various game covers starting with Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land has the Japanese version depicting Kirby in a cheery manner while the American version depicts Kirby in a more serious and angry manner. This was even noted in the May 2011 issue for Nintendo Power's coverage on Kirby, where it mentions that for box arts, he resorts to his "angry eyes".

Inhale
Kirby's signature technique is his inhale and has been performing it since Kirby's Dream Land. It is available in almost every standard Kirby platformer with the exception of Kirby's Epic Yarn and Kirby Mass Attack. Kirby: Squeak Squad’s manual attributes this ability to his "powerful lungs", although all Kirby is ever seen doing is opening his mouth really wide and sucking up lots of air in the manner resembling a vacuum cleaner more than breathing. Traditionally, Kirby's inhale is unlimited in duration, but in Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, he tires after inhaling for several seconds and has to take a short break. Kirby's Super Inhale is also introduced in the game, where, after inhaling for about a second, it becomes more powerful and can suck up larger objects. The Super Inhale returns in Kirby: Squeak Squad, and becomes even more powerful in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where he can suck up stone blocks and many enemies at once. In the same game, Kirby can inhale other Kirbys to steal their Copy Ability. In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Kirby gains an ability known as Hypernova by touching a Miracle Fruit, which allows him to inhale things as large as trees or move things made of stone or metal more than twice his size. Hypernova allows Kirby to inhale almost anything and send it back. In all games except Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby cannot inhale underwater.

Copy Ability
After inhaling anything, Kirby has the option to either swallow it or spit it back out as a Star Spit attack. Starting from Kirby's Adventure onwards, Kirby gets a Copy Ability should the player choose to swallow an enemy with a special power. In Kirby's Adventure, Copy Abilities essentially let Kirby mimic whatever the enemy he had just swallowed, but in later titles like Kirby Super Star, each Copy Ability has multiple moves which Kirby can perform instead of just one or two. In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby can combine Copy Abilities by inhaling two enemies at once or throwing Ability Stars at enemies.

In early games, having a Copy Ability does not change Kirby's appearance drastically, aside from his color changing to orange or cyan in Kirby's Adventure, or wielding a weapon for abilities like Sword or Hammer. Kirby Super Star introduced a continuous Health system instead of the traditional six bars of life, and is best known for introducing copy ability hats for Kirby, where most Copy Abilities give a different hat and makes Kirby look different, such as a burning headdress for Fire, a frozen crown for Ice, or a backwards baseball cap for Yo-Yo and Wheel. While the hats are absent after their introduction in the games Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, both of which are incidentally not designed by Masahiro Sakurai, they are featured consistently in later titles.

Kirby Super Star also introduces the Helper system where Kirby could sacrifice a Copy Ability to create a Helper, an allied version of the enemy he had previously swallowed. Helpers have the same function as Gooey in Kirby's Dream Land 3. The new Helper would be controlled by the game or a second player. This feature has only been included in one later Kirby game, specifically, Kirby Star Allies, where Kirby can summon three helpers at once, though it was included in Kirby Super Star’s remake, Kirby Super Star Ultra. Helpers were meant to be included in the unreleased game Kirby GCN, where Kirby could summon three at once, similar to Kirby Star Allies.

Since Copy Abilities are only present in Kirby's Adventure and most games after that, in Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby uses the inhale solely for the Star Spit attack. There are certain power-ups which he can collect, such as a Mint Leaf (Sweet potato in Japan) which lets him shoot out unlimited and more powerful air pellets for a limited time, and Superspicy Curry, which has the same effect, but lets him shoot fireballs instead of air pellets. Kirby can collect food or other special items like lollipops that grant him beneficial effects such as healing or temporary invincibility.

Other Techniques
Kirby has a soft, flexible body. This allows him to be flattened or stretched, always returning to his original shape. He can inflate himself, making himself more buoyant, and he can flap his arms to hover. In most games, he can do this indefinitely. He can exhale to deflate himself and use the exhaled air as an attack. This technique is known as the Air Gun. In certain games—Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, the Super Smash Bros. series, and Kirby Air Ride—Kirby's ability to hover is limited.

When underwater, most of Kirby's Copy Abilities do not work, and he is largely limited to using the water gun attack, where he shoots a bubble of water in one of four directions (or a constant spray in some games), unless he happens to have Sword, Hammer, Parasol, or a few other abilities which can be used underwater. The water gun works just like the air gun, but Kirby does not need to inhale beforehand. In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, having the Water ability strengthens Kirby's water gun attack by having it reach farther and do more damage to enemies. In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby can inhale underwater.

In all games after Kirby's Adventure, Kirby can do a move known as the slide kick or slide attack while crouching as a basic attack that does minor damage. In Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and Kirby: Squeak Squad, if Kirby does a slide kick facing down a steep incline, he will roll down and over any enemies in his way. The slide kick is useless against most bosses and mid-bosses. He also preforms slide kick when fighting Kung Fu Lee in the anime.

In most games, Kirby's jump off the ground can be used as a headbutt attack. Its effects differ between games: Primarily, the attack allows Kirby to destroy Star Blocks by hitting them from underneath. In certain games, however, Kirby is able to damage enemies with it as well. Foes with a lot of health in Kirby Super Star/Kirby Super Star Ultra often require a few headbutts to defeat. Enemies in Kirby's Dream Land 3 are defeated with one headbutt and enemies in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards are defeated with two. Kirby deals the most damage when he has just left the ground and is most vulnerable at the peak of his jump.

In Kirby Super Star (and its remake), Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Kirby has the guard move, which allows him to protect himself from enemy attacks, and take little to no damage. When playing with multiple players in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the team attack, which sends out a large ball of energy, is performed by two or more characters guarding and releasing their guard at the same time after a set amount of time while riding piggyback.

He can also perform the normal beam in Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultranear Helpers to revert them to an item state, which Kirby can inhale to reacquire the Copy Ability for himself. In the same games, he can get rid of his ability and toss it as an item, which Helpers can touch to claim that ability, which also saves the Helper from dying if they have run out of health.

Kirby Super Star and recent games have a feature where Kirby and other playable characters can share food with each other to restore health in a motion that resembles kissing. This is done by one character touching a recovery item, and touching another player within the next few seconds. It became a popular topic to parody in the Japanese manga series, and the 4Koma panels have a running gag about Kirby and Bonkers kissing each other when one is at critical health. The Kirby Super Star Ultra booklet refers to it as face-to-face food transfer. In Kirby Star Allies, this technique is referred to as sharing.

In Kirby's Dream Land 3, Kirby can summon Gooey, who has the same function as Helpers in later games. Summoning Gooey sacrifices one of Kirby's pegs of health and makes his maximum health four pegs instead of five. Kirby can inhale Gooey again whenever he likes to restore one peg of health.

In the anime, Kirby is an astonishingly fast runner. In Dark and Stormy Knight, he could run fast enough to skim across water and get over to the horizon within seconds. It is also explained in the episode Beware: Whispy Woods! that whatever Kirby consumes enters another dimension. Kirby can also run a lot faster than usual in Kirby Super Starand Kirby Super Star Ultra’s Gourmet Race, as can King Dedede.

In Kirby: Planet Robobot, it is stated that Kirby has infinite power, and such power allows the Invader Armor's limitations to be removed due to the armor's ability to mimic its user's abilities. This turns it into Robobot Armor. Whenever the Animal Friends are present for Kirby to use in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, Kirby is able to sync his Copy Ability to the Animal Friend in order to perform different moves for each Animal Friend depending on the ability.

Trivia

 * Kirby's original name was "Popopo." The name of the Popopo Islands in Kirby Mass Attack is a homage to this fact.
 * In the North American television commercial for Kirby's Dream Land, it was shown that Kirby had a tuft of hair and teeth. This was an obvious deviation from his original design.
 * In the Super Smash Bros. series, many of Jigglypuff's attacks and abilities are similar to Kirby's.
 * While not affiliated with anyone in particular, Kirby has been depicted as having a romantic relationship with Ribbon in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, where she gives Kirby a kiss in the good ending. Kirby, lovestruck, twirls about happily, loses his balance and falls down a set of stairs. The official manga depicts ChuChu having a crush on Kirby as well, but the content is not considered to be canon in the games.
 * Kirby appears in Star Pics in AR Games as a card packaged with the ? Block card and the other characters, who are also cards. If the AR Games application is used and, in Star Pics, if the Nintendo 3DS camera detects said card, then Kirby emerges from the card. The normal pose is on the card, but the poses can be switched to Kirby drawing himself, riding on a Warp Star, Kirby with his Parasol ability, and finally, Kirby running.
 * Kirby makes a small appearance in the game EarthBound as a cursor for the game's Boot Up Debug menu.
 * Kirby makes a cameo appearance as an unlockable hat in the Nintendo 3DS built-in game StreetPass Mii Plaza.
 * One of Kirby's alternate patterns for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS resembles Meta Knight without his mask on, excluding the vivid yellow eyes and the lack of blushes.
 * In Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kirby's green palette swap has green feet, but in succeeding games, it has orange feet. This is because the green palette was not initially based on any character or Copy Ability color. Green Kirby was introduced as a character in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land in 2002, the year after Super Smash Bros. Melee was released. The color palette changed to represent Green Kirby in starting in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * During the course of Kirby: Planet Robobot, Susie refers to Kirby as "pinky" twice; this marks the first time in the game series that he has been referred to by a nickname.
 * On the second episode of the Nintendo Power Podcast, show host Chris Slate, Nintendo Minute co-host Krysta Yang, and Nintendo of America Senior Director of Localization Nate Bihldorff were asked what Kirby feels like. Yang answered that she thought he feels like "a warm stress ball." Bihldorff said that he "want[s] to believe" that Kirby feels like velour fabric. Slate stated that he once ate a Kirby cake pop, so he believes Kirby "both feels and tastes like a cake pop."
 * Void Termina may be related to Kirby, as his roar is a slower version of Kirby's voice, and his core form frequently assumes Kirby's neutral expression.