Metal General

Metal General is a boss appearing in Kirby's Return to Dream Land. He serves as the boss of Egg Engines and must be defeated in order to get closer to defeating Landia for Magolor.

When the players first enter the arena, Metal General remains stationary. If they approach him, he will slowly rise up, give out a burst of steam, and the battle will begin.

Appearance
Metal General is short, robotic enity with a dark blue and light blue paint job and yellow eyes. His arms are short and stubby and his feet are similar to Kirby's. Metal General lacks a right hand though, so instead of it, he has a missile launcher. Metal General's overall appearance makes him resemble a shark.

Metal General's overall appearance generally remains unchanged in Extra Mode, except that he now has a pink and red paint job as opposed to his previous dark blue and light blue one.

Main Game
Metal General will usually attack with his katana, slicing everything in front of him, similar to Meta Knight's standard attack in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The robotic general can also create small Spark spikes, first going up, down, and side to side and then going into the corners of the arena. These cannot be inhaled. Metal General can spin his katana in front of him like a propeller and move quickly across the stadium. He can also create small missiles, usually three, that "home in" on Kirby. These can be inhaled for the Bomb ability. Occasionally, Metal General will shoot only one missile, then quickly follow up with his propeller attack. He can do this attack thrice in a row.



After losing half his health, Metal General will start to spark and short circuit. He will then create a huge rocket that he can use to ram into Kirby with; he may attempt once or twice. After failing or succeeding, the rocket, along with the general, will slowly fall to the arena, and burst into flames upon contact. The rocket itself can be destroyed before the robotic boss has any chance to attack. His normal katana attack remains unchanged, but his propeller attack is much faster. Metal General can now shoot five missiles or three missiles followed by katana attacks. His spark spike attacks are faster and he can perform three rather than the previous 2. Metal General can also spin in the air and dive bomb towards Kirby. This can cause serious damage if Kirby were to be hit by the attack, but if the general misses, he will be momentarily stunned. The robotic fiend can also throw down three mines, which can be destroyed with any weapon. The mines explode after a few seconds, but the explosion has a small radius. Metal General can summon three small saucer-like beings that shoot electric balls at Kirby. These can be eaten for the Beam ability.

When Metal General is defeated, he will shut down and explode.



Extra Mode
Metal General will start off with his propeller attack. Instead of crashing into the the opposite wall, he will turn around and use his propeller attack once again, crashing into the other wall. His katana attack is much fatser now. Metal General can now summon his rocket at will, and like the previous ones, can be destroyed and will leave lingering flames when it explodes. The general can lay down three mines that explode after a few seconds. This time, he can also lay down Spark mines, which release an upward jolt of electricity instead of exploding. After it shoots three shocks, it will explode. The general can also shoot five missiles and summon five saucers. His spark spikes are also much quicker. Metal General will also attempt to dive bomb into Kirby. His stun time is significantly shorter after the attack.



Once again, after losing half his health, the metal foe will start to short-circuit. He can create two "dummy" rockets, which are used to distract the player from Metal General in the background, whom is summoning his own rocket. The three rockets will attempt to ram into Kirby. They will explode into flames after landing, but the player should be wary that they don't cover the whole arena in flames. Metal General's propeller, divebomb, and katana attacks remain unchanged. He can shoot eight missiles and summon five saucers. He does one quick spark spike attack as well, as opposed to three. He can drop the usual three normal mines and spark mines. Metal General can summon six saucers and line them up to shoot sparks all at once.

However, after Metal General's health bar is depeleted and is seemingly defeated, he will escape to the top of the arena, where the true battle begins between Kirby and his crew against the monstrous HR-D3 and Metal General.

Trivia

 * Aside from the final boss, Metal General EX is the only boss with three phases.
 * Metal General is the only boss that shows how much damage has been dealt to him in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and the second in the series, the first being Computer Virus in Kirby Super Star and its remake.
 * Metal General may be related to Capsule J2, as they share many characteristics.
 * Metal General's design looks somewhat like the Pokémon Kyogre, who has yellow eyes as well as a blue coloring on the topside of its body and is white below the jaw. Metal General also has a fin which is also similar to Kyogre. Additionally, Metal General EX has a color scheme very similar to the Pokemon Groudon which is ironically The opposite of Kyogre and Kyogre's "rival" in the Pokemon series.