Needle

"Poke foes with sharp spines that sprout out of Kirby!"

- Kirby Battle Royale - Kirby's 25th Anniversary Copy Ability Poll

Needle is one of Kirby's Copy Abilities.

General Information
Needle debuted in Kirby's Adventure. It is a defensive ability, much like Spark or Freeze. With it, Kirby covers his body in many retractable spines. The ability impales any enemy that draws near, so in most cases, Kirby can only be harmed by projectiles. In Kirby: Canvas Curse, Needle Kirby's body is not only spiky enough to heavily damage enemies, but can also grip tightly to walls and other such surfaces. In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, there is an attack where Kirby turns the needles on his helmet into one large drill, hitting enemies directly above him. He can also roll along the ground while covered by the needles and firing small spikes from around his body at enemies.

The length of Kirby's spikes vary from game to game. The most noticeable difference is between Kirby's Adventure and its remake, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, where the short spikes in the original were changed to being over twice as long.

In its appearances without an ability cap, Kirby's spikes are either pink or a bright metallic gold, and they come straight out of Kirby himself.

In the Super Smash Bros. series
Needle Kirby appears as a trophy and sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The sticker uses his design from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Needle undergoes the greatest visual change in the anime. It gains an ability cap for the first time in the franchise, gaining a pink helmet with a red visor, a white chin-strap, yellow skin and orange feet, but Kirby no longer turns into one giant spike ball (spinning like one giant spike ball in the episode Flower Power). Instead, Needle is changed into a long-distance ability. A similar cap would later be used in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, and would make further appearances.

Kirby can launch the needles off the top of the helmet like tiny missiles, which he can then control. The needles 'grow back', but not always, leaving him defenseless at times. In the transformation sequence, a flash of red lightning forms his helmet and changes his skin color. Needles appear from the helmet, which shrink to their usual size seen in the games.

Related Quotes
"A Kirby ability made when Kirby inhales a spiked enemy. When attacking, the needles on Needle Kirby's body extend, giving him a porcupine-like look. This ability provides both offensive and defensive measures against nearby enemies. Plus, needles which extend on Kirby's underside when jumping eliminate any threats on landing."

- Trophy description

Trivia

 * In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, this ability still turned Kirby yellow, even in multiplayer. This was removed in later games to prevent confusion, eliminating Kirby's color-changing feature.
 * In Kirby: Return to Dream Land, the Rolling Needle attack resembles the signature move of Togezo, which was the first enemy to offer the ability.
 * Pre-release screenshots of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards reveal that the colors of Needle and Cutter's ability icons were swapped; Needle was originally green and Cutter was originally orange.
 * Though the ability icons in Kirby: Triple Deluxe are mostly circular versions of the icons in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Needle's icon in the former game was changed from orange to yellow.
 * The Needle Burst attack is based off of ChuChu's needle attack; however, the move has much greater range and damage than ChuChu's spikes did. This move is also very similar to Kirby's Spike Bomb attack from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, but without the ability to hover.
 * The Falling Spine attack from Kirby: Triple Deluxe appears to be based visually off of Coo's needle attack as it appeared in Kirby's Dream Land 2.