Ripple Star

"The once-beautiful world of Ripple Star has been taken over by Dark Matter. It's up to Kirby and his friends to save the day and all of the fairies of Ripple Star."

- Description

Ripple Star is a planet from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. It is home to the fairies, including Ribbon. It is the only planet besides Pop Star to have seriously suffered from the infection of Dark Matter. Ripple Star is the 6th level in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. It comes after Shiver Star, and is followed by Dark Star.

In Ripple Star's first appearance, it is severely corrupted by the Dark Matter. However, after Dark Star is created, it is shown on the map screen cleared of the Dark Matter.

Ripple Star's boss Miracle Matter poses as the game's "final boss" if the player has not collected all 74 of the Crystal Shards upon facing him. Once the player collects all of the crystal shards and defeats Miracle Matter, the Dark Matter withdraws itself from Ripple Star and explodes in the distance. The victory is short-lived, however, as the Dark Star reveals itself and becomes the game's true final level.

Ripple Star's environment is much like Pop Star's, having many of the same enemies and similar level design.

Plot
The fate of Ripple Star depends on the number of Crystal Shards Kirby collected during his adventure.

If Kirby does not collect all 74 shards, then the power of the shard from Miracle Matter dispels the Dark Matter surrounding Ripple Star. Celebrations ensue, and the heroes from Pop Star leave Ripple Star in a special ship. As the ship disappears, Ribbon continues to wave farewell as she doesn't notice the moment that the Queen turned toward the screen and scowled eerily.

If Kirby collected all the shards, then the power of the shard evicts the Dark Matter so forcefully it explodes in space. Suddenly, however, the shard shoots a light beam at the Fairy Queen herself. There was a huge Dark Matter-like presence residing in her, and as the Queen faints, the powerful force flies into space and expands to a humongous size, forming the ominous Dark Star. When it seems all hope is lost, Kirby pulls out a mobile telephone device, which he uses to call a Warp Star (the only instance of it in the game). The entire group flies off to Dark Star, and the player is thrown straight into the level.

Level 1
This level's design very closely resembles the first level of Pop Star, the only outstanding differences being that the enemies are much more challenging, and the log cabin in which the mid-boss is encountered is now a small mechanical room.

Crystal Shards:
1. In the first area of the level, between 2 Ghost Knights.

2. In the house, obtained after beating the Sawyer Mid-Boss.

3. Near the very end of the level, obtained by using the Spike Bomb (Needle & Bomb) ability on the rock in the stream.

Regular Enemies:

 * Plugg


 * Scarfy


 * Ghost Knight


 * Kacti


 * Bobo


 * Cairn


 * Punc


 * Sparky


 * Poppy Bros. Jr.


 * Galbo


 * Shotzo


 * Propeller


 * Glunk


 * Flutter

Mid-boss:

 * Giant Sawyer

Level 2
An eerie level that involves infiltrating Ripple Star's castle. After entering a well, there is a maze of underground caverns containing underwater lakes.

Crystal Shards:
1. Right inside the well, use the Double-Bladed Laser Sword (Spark & Cutter) ability on the yellow rock in the water.

2. Found in the water in the second underground area on the far left.

3. In the final area where Adeline is, it is behind the green pillar, which can be broken with the Cutter ability.

Regular Enemies:

 * Slushy


 * Flopper


 * Keke


 * Fishbone


 * Pupa


 * Scarfy


 * Kany


 * Glunk


 * Drop


 * Ghost Knight


 * Kapar


 * Bo


 * Mahall

Mid-boss:
None.

Level 3
The inside of Ripple Star's castle. There are 11 rooms, 5 of which contain stairs themed after dawn, day, afternoon, dusk and night. 5 more rooms contain many enemies that come in waves, which must be defeated to continue. The last room is a flight of stairs that leads up to the menacing darkness cloud where Miracle Matter awaits. All of the enemies in the game are found here.

Crystal Shards:
1. Appears after beating all of the enemies in the Second room.

2. Use the Fire Arrow (Fire & Needle) ability on the center of the carpet in the Sixth room.

3. Found after beating all of the enemies in the Tenth room.

Mid-boss:
None

Level 4 (Boss)
Miracle Matter is Ripple Star's boss. After it is defeated, Kirby collects the sixth and final major Crystal Shard and he and friends are able to travel to Dark Star, granted all other Crystal Shards have been collected. If the player has not collected the others, the withdrawn Dark Matter will not explode, and Kirby and the gang will never notice that the Fairy Queen is under 0²'s control, leaving Ripple Star unsupervised from another invasion.

Trivia

 * The music heard in the rest area of Helper to Hero is a remix of the music heard in Ripple Star's map screen.
 * The music in Dream Land in Kirby's Epic Yarn is also a remix of the music heard in Ripple Star's map screen.
 * The music in the rest area in The Arena in Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a remix of the music heard in Ripple Star's map screen. The music in the rest area in The True Arena has another remix of the music.
 * While Ripple Star is corrupted, the "eyes" and "mouth" seem to be clear of Dark Matter.
 * This is the only planet in the game whose name has no reference to the planet itself.