Kirby: Squeak Squad

Kirby: Squeak Squad, known in Europe as Kirby Mouse Attack and in Japan as 星のカービィ 参上! ドロッチェ団 (Hoshi no Kābī: Sanjō! Dorocche Dan, meaning Kirby of the Stars: Calling on the Dorotche Gang!, is a platforming video game developed by Flagship and published by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console.

Unlike the previous Nintendo DS title Kirby: Canvas Curse, Squeak Squad is a traditional platformer which mainly uses the face buttons, although the touch screen is used occasionally.

Story

 * The following paragraph is text from the game's introduction:

"Early afternoon in Dream Land, it's so peaceful even the clouds are drowsy. And now it's Kirby's favorite time of day--snack time. Today's yummy snack is a sweet, fluffy slice of Strawberry Shortcake! Time to dig in... Woah! The cake Kirby was about to eat suddenly vanished! That scrumptious, berry-topped slice of mouth-watering goodness... No doubt about it! This must be the work of that greedy King Dedede! Well there's no time to waste! Gotta get that cake back! And that's how Kirby's latest fantastic adventure begins..." At the end of the game's first world, Kirby finds out that the Squeaks- an infamous group of treasure-thieving mice are the ones behind the robbery. Kirby follows the thieves on a journey that takes him all over Dream Land. At the end of World 6, a battle ensues between Kirby and the leader of the Squeaks, Daroach. Kirby wins the battle, and is about to get the treasure chest supposedly containing his cake when Meta Knight swoops in and snatches the chest away. Kirby chases Meta Knight to the end of World 7, where a duel between the two rivals ensues. Meta Knight is defeated and gives up the treasure chest, which Kirby is about to open when the Squeaks fly in and grab it from him. Daroach opens it, but the chest does not contain Kirby's cake, but a cloud of dark-colored stuff that ensnares Daroach and flies off into outer space. Kirby follows, eventually encountering and fighting Daroach, now aptly named Dark Daroach, for the second time at the end of the game's eighth world. Once beaten, the dark stuff lets go of the Squeak leader and floats away in the form of a small, black-colored star. Kirby follows the star; it eventually transforms into its true form, a demon named Dark Nebula. Kirby confronts the fiend and after a short but intense battle,triumphs over the monster who disintigrates and explodes. Afterwards, Kirby; wondering where his cake really is, travels back to his home of Popstar as the credits roll...

In the final scene of the game however, Kirby reaches Dream Land as a bubble containing his treasured dessert follows close behind. The Squeaks have returned the cake, supposedly as an apology for all the trouble they had caused. Overjoyed at seeing his sumptuous sweet, Kirby gladly eats to his heart's content.

Copy Abilities
As in most of his games, Kirby is able to copy all of the abilities of certain enemies by inhaling and swallowing them. There are also interactive environments, with obstacles that are passable with Copy Abilities (examples include freezing water to get across with the Ice ability, burning clouds with his Fire or Fire Sword ability, freezing lava with his Ice or Ice Sword Ability, sending sparks along metal or water with Spark or Thunder Sword, or cutting down or burning tall tufts of grass with his Sword, Fire, Animal, Triple Star, or Cutter ability).

The game places emphasis the elements Fire, Ice, and Spark. All three of the Copy Abilities have an effect on the environment, and are especially effective against the Squeaks. The Final Weapon Triple Star's description shows three stars: red, blue, and green, representing fire, ice and spark respectively. Dark Nebula also has three forms which are based on these elements. Finding the Sword and Bomb Copy Scroll allows versions of those abilities with properties of the elements to be created.

Returning copy abilities include Beam, Bomb, Cupid, Cutter, Fighter, Fire, Hammer, Hi-Jump, Ice, Laser, Magic, Ninja, Parasol, Sleep, Spark, Sword, Throw, Tornado, UFO, and Wheel. New abilities are Animal, Bubble, Ghost, Metal, and Triple Star. Many of the copy abilities feature multiple attacks, a recurring trend also seen in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

Copy Palette
Kirby is also able to collect and store copy abilities and items in the Copy Palette, which is represented on the touch screen. The Bubble Copy Ability can be used to create such abilities from enemies. The Palette can store Food bubbles (these cannot be created) and Treasure chests collected along the way. Lesser foods can be mixed to create foods which heal more when used, while mixing two Maxim Tomatoes give a random Copy Ability bubble. Stars created from the Bubble Copy Ability can be combined to create larger and more damaging stars when exhaled. Treasure does not do anything inside the game besides take up slots of the Copy Palette, but Kirby will open them if they are carried to the end of the game. Being damaged while carrying treasure can sometimes cause them to come out of the Palette and onto the ground, where Kirby can inhale them again.

Mix
Main article: Mix

Using the Copy Palette, the player can combine abilities together, via Mix. There are certain fixed combinations involving the basic abilities Sword, Fire, Ice, Spark, and Bomb, (and Sleep once the Ghost Medal is complete). Mixing abilities is achieved by dragging one ability over another with the stylus. If the two are compatible with each other, they will combine and produce a new ability (example: Fire + Sword = Fire Sword). These combinations require the Sword and Bomb Copy Scrolls, besides the Ghost Medal combination.

If the chosen abilities do not fall into one of the fixed combinations, they follow a separate ruleset. While still random, the sets from which the resultant ability is randomized from can be chosen by the player.

Copy Scroll
A new concept to Kirby games introduced in this game are the Copy Scrolls, which power up any Copy Ability that Kirby has when chosen. Examples include Hammer growing nearly double its size if charged up, Tornado and Wheel taking the elemental properties of the terrain they pass over, Spark building up energy that can be released in a similar fashion to the Plasma copy ability's Plasma Wave, and Beam and Cutter's attacks have increased power.

Treasure
Each level, except level 1-1, contains one or more treasure chests (usually each level contains 2 small red chests and a large red and blue chest, although boss levels only contain one big blue chest), with the ultimate goal of the game to collect all the chests; the chests include keys needed to unlock secret levels and worlds, the ability to change Kirby's color, portions of a jigsaw puzzle picture, and more additional game content; these are awarded when the player successfully completes the level with that chest. The player will need to make sure they have enough space in Kirby's stomach to store the chests, removing unneeded items or combining similar items to make space. The larger chests are generally more difficult to obtain, and require Kirby to face a member of the Squeak Squad in a mini-challenge of sorts. If the opponent gets the chest, they will attempt to escape into their own small hideout, but if the player is fast enough, they can follow them into this hideout and attempt to beat them and retrieve the chest. If the player fails to obtain any chests, they are free to go back to any previously completed level to try to retrieve the chest again; chests already recovered can be collected again, but it will contain an item in a bubble.

The game supports multi-card multiplayer and single-card download play for 3 special mini-games based on the Squeak Squad.

Levels

 * Prism Plains
 * Nature Notch
 * Cushy Cloud
 * Jam Jungle
 * Vocal Volcano
 * Ice Island
 * Secret Sea
 * Gamble Galaxy

Mini-games

 * Smash Ride
 * Speedy Teatime
 * Treasure Shot
 * Boss Endurance - Unlocked by beating the game once

Goal-game
Kirby starts off in a regular rotating Cannon, with either Food, 1UP or nothing on eight platforms around it. The speed of rotation is randomized at the end of each level. Firing Kirby towards the platform nets whichever item Kirby flies through.

Glitches
Main article: Glitch

Reception
Even though this Kirby game had the same budget as Kirby and the Amazing Mirror had, Kirby: Squeak Squad received a score of 7.5 out of 10 from Nintendo Power, and three scores of 7, 7.5 and 7.5 out of 10 from EGM. Criticisms concerned the lack of originality in the title when compared to the previous Kirby game on the Nintendo DS, Kirby Canvas Curse and the removal of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror's map system. Television show X-Play gave the game a 3 out of 5, criticizing the game for weak minigames and unnecessary use of the touchscreen. The British Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game, on its European release, a score of 70%. Even though reviews were mixed, however, Kirby: Squeak Squad has managed to sell over 1.7 million copies, with one million copies sold in Japan alone. It has a score of 71 on Metacritic.

Trivia

 * If the date on the Nintendo DS system matches the date of birth entered into the DS system, a screen saying happy birthday with a cake will appear.
 * There is an unused ability called Block in the game's coding. This may be an early or scrapped version of Triple Star.