Yo-Yo

"Attack foes with yo-yo tricks and spins!"

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

Yo-yo is a Copy Ability that Kirby can obtain in Kirby Super Star and its remake. It is going to return in the upcoming title Kirby Star Allies. Kirby must inhale and swallow Gim to obtain it.

General Information
When Kirby becomes a yo-yo trick-master he wears a backwards light blue cap (differentiating from the Wheel ability's red cap) and wields a typical red and white yo-yo as his weapon. In Kirby: Star Allies, Kirby's cap now has white on the back with a purple star, similarly to Wheel's cap from Kirby: Triple Deluxe. In Kirby: Star Allies, he gains a band-aid on his right cheek.

Move Set
Kirby combines break-dance moves with yo-yo tricks as means of attack with this ability. His basic attack involves throwing his yo-yo as a projectile in any direction. This isn't all he can do with it, as he can also grab his enemies with his yo-yo and drop them to deal huge damage, or use his yo-yo to do a showy spin jump. In a pinch, he can retreat or move forwards with a Break Spin.

In the Super Smash Bros. series
The Break Spin is used as Kirby's dash attack in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, replacing his Burning-inspired attack from Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Trivia

 * The yo-yo, the ability cap, and the background of the ability picture are all direct references to EarthBound. The background depicts EarthBound's menu screen, and the yo-yo and ability cap come from Ness, who wears a remarkably similar cap and often uses a yo-yo as a weapon. This can be seen as an example of HAL referencing one of its own other games, because HAL was a co-developer of EarthBound, along with Ape (later known as Creatures, Inc.).
 * When Kirby inhales Ness in the Super Smash Bros. games, he wears Ness' sideways hat backwards, as if it was the Yo-yo hat. Coincidentally, both Kirby and Ness are voiced by Makiko Ohmoto.
 * This is one of two abilities that reference EarthBound; the other being the ESP ability in Kirby: Planet Robobot.
 * Although the Yo-yo ability was almost certainly intended as a direct reference to EarthBound, the idea of a yo-yo being used as a weapon was originally popularized in Japan by the Sukeban Deka manga series and its film adaptations.
 * Yo-yo Kirby's hat is the same as those of Paint and Wheel Kirby's hats, but in a different color (Paint's is gray, Wheel's is red).
 * Yo-yo is one of the five abilities in Kirby Super Star (Ultra) that don't appear in the anime, the other four being Suplex, Beam, Copy, and Plasma
 * Though most of the artwork depicts the yo-yo having a star on it, it didn't have one in-game until Kirby Star Allies.
 * In the 25th Anniversary Poll that ran on the Official Kirby Website, UFO was unveiled on November 7, 2017 to have been the second place winner.

Other Ability Icons
Jo-Jo Yo-yo Yo-yo Yoyò ヨーヨー 悠悠球