Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a 2.5D Kirby game for the Nintendo 64. It is one of the few games to not feature Meta Knight or be directed by the Kirby creator, Masahiro Sakurai. It is the sequel to Kirby's Dream Land 3. This game was later re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console in America and Europe in early 2008.

Story
On the planet of Ripple Star, lives a group of kind and peaceful fairies. The planet itself is protected from danger by the power of the great Crystal, which watches over Ripple Star. This power, however, draws the attention of Zero Two and his minions, who wish to use crystal for their own evil agenda. Zero Two orders Dark Matter to attack and search for the crystal, blackening the sky and sending the fairies into panic. In response to the threat Dark Matter presents, the queen of Ripple Star orders a fairy named Ribbon to take to crystal to a safe place. Ribbon tries to fly away with the crystal in tow, but is stopped by the Dark Matter forms. The crystal shatters into 74 pieces, scattered throughout several planets, and Ribbon crashes onto Pop Star. Kirby finds one crystal and gives it to Ribbon, whereupon the two set out to find the others. Once Kirby and his friends collect every Crystal Shard and defeat Miracle Matter, Dark Matter flees Ripple Star, and manifests together to create Dark Star. Kirby and his friends infiltrate Dark Star, and King Dedede launches them up to the revived form of Zero, Zero Two. It turns out Zero Two can only feel negative emotions, and wants Dream Land to feel the same (this seemingly being the reason he attacked Ripple Star to begin with.) However, Kirby and Ribbon, armed with their Shard Gun, defeat Zero Two.

Gameplay
Like every other main-series Kirby game, The Crystal Shards is a platformer that features Kirby's signature abilities of flight, inhalation, and ability imitation, though a few adjustments have been made to their mechanics. Whereas in most other games Kirby is able to fly indefinitely, here he is limited to a grounded jump and seven midair jumps (possibly due to this same limitation being present in Super Smash Bros., which was released prior to Kirby 64.)

Copy Abilities
Kirby 64 features the special aspect of combining two copy abilities to create new ones by either sucking up two enemies up at the same time or releasing a power star then inhaling that star and an enemy. Each power has a different color power star and a double power star has the colors of both sub-powers in a 10-point star. Also, the game only features seven (base) abilities: Burning, Ice, Spark, Cutter, Bomb, Needle, and Stone. Some combo abilities include Volcano, Refrigerator, Light Saber, Snare, Ninja Bombs, and Double Stone. It is also the only game in the series where Kirby can inhale underwater.

Planets (Levels)

 * Pop Star
 * Rock Star
 * Aqua Star
 * Neo Star
 * Shiver Star
 * Ripple Star
 * Dark Star

Mini-games

 * 100-Yard Hop
 * Bumper Crop Bump
 * Checker Board Chase

All mini-games can be played in multiplayer, and up to four players are supported.

Important characters
During their journey, Kirby and Ribbon find three friends who join them:
 * Waddle Dee
 * Adeleine
 * King Dedede

Mid-Bosses
There are no actual mid-bosses/minibosses in Kirby 64, as they are not featured in the Enemy Info cards. Instead, they are simply larger versions of regular enemies, and have more hitpoints and larger attacks.

Music
The game has had its own soundtrack compilation released under the title Hoshii no Kaabii OST, available only in Japan. The most notable track missing from it is Kine's theme, which is Sound Test music no. 002, and not used in-game.

Glitches
Main article: Glitch

Reception
Many complained the game of being short and easy while others enjoyed the varied level design and colorful graphics. The game sold 1.07 million copies in Japan and 541,600 copies in the United States. Famitsu gave the game 32/40. Whereas Gamespot gave it a 6.9/10. IGN gave it a 7.9/10 and Nintendo Power gave it an 8.1/10.

Trivia

 * In the beta of the game, it was shown that King Dedede, Waddle Dee and Adeleine were originally going to be playable characters. There were also more aquatic stages, which explains the unused Kine's theme music. It is not known why the elements did not make it into the final game. King Dedede was still playable in certain stages, however.
 * This is the only game in which Kracko doesn't appear as a boss in some form.
 * This game is one of the few to not feature the Pep Brew as a food item.
 * This game is one of the few to not feature the Kirby Dance in any form. Instead, after every successful boss fight, he turns to the screen, waves, and says "Hiiiii".
 * In the Japanese version, there is an onigiri (rice ball) food item, but this was replaced by a sandwich in all other versions. During the goal game at the end of levels however, Waddle Dee can be seen munching on an onigiri.
 * The Level Select music was remixed and used for the Menu music in Kirby Canvas Curse. It also has some elements of the Milky Way Wishes intro music, and bears similarities to the File Select music of various Legend of Zelda games.
 * The level select music for Ripple Star called Ripple Star Select is used as the "wait-room" theme for The Arena, Helper to Hero, and The True Arena in Kirby Super Star Ultra, as well as the background music in Dream Land in Kirby's Epic Yarn.
 * In Kirby's Epic Yarn the boss battle music for Yin-Yarn is a remix of the boss music for this game.
 * For some reason Zero Two's motives for attacking Ripple Star and taking the Crystal are never explained.
 * The Good Ending bears some resemblence to the ending scene of Star Wars.
 * This is the only game to depict Kirby having any sort of romantic relationship, with Ribbon giving Kirby a kiss on the cheek in the good ending. Chuchu does have a crush on Kirby in the official manga, but the manga is not considered to be canon.
 * It is unknown if this is the permanent end of Dark Matter and Zero, because in both Dark Star and Hyper Zone in Kirby's Dream Land 3 had exploded in similar fashions.