| This article contains information that does not coincide with the main series canon. | (Similar) |
| “ | The most intense battle has begun. The clash of powers here is utterly immeasurable. This true final battle will decide the strongest fighter on this planet.” |
| — Pause Screen description • Kirby: Planet Robobot |
The True Arena is a heavily revamped version of The Arena and is the final sub-game in Kirby Super Star Ultra, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot. It is the last sub-game in every game it appears in, and is intended to be the most difficult.
The True Arena differs to The Arena in several ways, aside from the change in bosses. Though the player is still offered every Copy Ability before the battle royale begins, he/she is not provided as many health restoration items as in The Arena; the player only receives a scant supply of regular food and the occasional Maxim Tomato, the amount varying between games. In addition, although two Copy Essences are still found in the rest area, one is always a Sleep Copy Essence, effectively limiting the player's choice of ability to whatever the other pedestal offers.
In Games
Kirby Super Star Ultra
This version of The True Arena is earned by completing all other mini-games. This does not include sub-games or 100% Treasure completion in The Great Cave Offensive.
Unlike The Arena, the rest area in The True Arena has a stormy sky and many rotting, decayed trees in place of lush ones like in The Arena; the Colosseum is also redesigned to have spikes on the top of it. When Kirby approaches the final four bosses, the rest area changes dramatically. The entire area becomes significantly fogged over, the dark clouds strike thunder, the sign post changes and shows a hazy image of the next boss's face, and the music is changed into a suspenseful, orchestral mumble.
The first six bosses are fought in random order:
- Whispy's Revenge
- Lololo & Lalala's Revenge
- Kracko Jr.'s Revenge
- Kracko's Revenge
- Kabula
- True Mid-boss All-Stars (Mr. Tick Tock, Grand Wheelie, Phan Phan, Fire Lion)
The Last Four are fought in a fixed order:
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
This variant is almost identical to Kirby Super Star Ultra’s The True Arena. The player should notice that there still are Maxim Tomatoes in the rest area, but there are only three instead of five. In addition to two tomatoes in the open, there is a Maxim Tomato inside of a box. Up to four players can play this sub-game. After Kirby beats The True Arena by himself, the player unlocks Meta Knight, Bandana Waddle Dee, and King Dedede to play as- this means the player can play the sub-game without Kirby being present at all.
After the first ten bosses are defeated, the rest area takes on a gloomier look, and the music changes to a remix of Iceberg's map theme from Kirby's Dream Land 3 to accompany the change in mood. The door is replaced with a Dimensional rift, which Kirby cannot reach when carrying the Maxim Tomato box.
The first ten bosses are fought in random order:
- Whispy Woods EX
- Mr. Dooter EX
- Fatty Puffer EX
- Goriath EX
- Grand Doomer EX
- Metal General EX
- Landia EX
- Sphere Doomers EX (Spark, Regular & Fire, Ice)
- True Mid-Boss All-Stars #1 (Gigant Edge EX, King Doo EX & Bonkers EX)
- True Mid-Boss All-Stars #2 (Kibble Blade EX, Moundo EX, Water Galboros EX & Dubior EX)
The last five are fought in a fixed order:
Kirby: Triple Deluxe
This variant is nearly identical to Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s The True Arena, with a few changes: The room with every Copy Essence stretches horizontally rather than vertically, with two Tilt Gondolas for quick travel instead of two ladders. The rest area is now on two planes; the foreground contains two Copy Essences (one of which is Sleep), and the background contains tomatoes and the door. Kirby can travel between the two planes with a 3D Warp Star. Along with four tomatoes, one Maxim Tomato is contained inside an Assist Star. Once in a while, Treasure Chests that contain keychains appear at the foreground.
When the first seven bosses are defeated, the rest area takes on Another Dimension's look. The door is replaced with a Warp Hole and the peaceful music changes to Dangerous Dinner's map music from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
The first seven bosses are fought in random order:
- Flowery Woods DX
- Paintra DX
- Kracko DX
- Coily Rattler DX
- Pyribbit DX
- True Mid-Boss All-Stars #1 (Grand Wheelie DX, Bonkers DX, & Hornhead DX)
- True Mid-Boss All-Stars #2 (Mr. Frosty DX, Flame Galboros DX, Gigant Edge DX, & Blocky DX)
The Nightmare Four are fought in a fixed order:
Kirby: Planet Robobot
The True Arena in this game is very similar to The Arena of this game, albeit with some minor changes. Unlike previous games, all 12 rounds are in a set order of bosses fought, harkening back to Boss Endurance from older games. The Copy Ability select room spreads out vertically, with tubes connecting individual rooms. The ultimate room contains a new roulette Copy Essence and a Warp Hole leading to the first rest area.
The rest areas have the player climb the outside of a Laboratory, just like in The Arena. However, this time around, it has a series of abstract backgrounds. Copy Essences and healing items are offered to the player in this order:
- Before Round 1: Copy Ability room
- Before Round 2: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 3: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 4: a sticker and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 5: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 6: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 7: a sticker
- Before Round 8: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 9: a cherry Assist Star and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 10: a cherry Assist Star, two stickers, and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 11: a cherry Assist Star, two stickers, and a roulette Copy Essence
- Before Round 12: an Energy Drink Assist Star, three stickers, and a roulette Copy Essence
The music changes overtime as well. It starts out with Spinning Planet Complete, changes to Neon Laboratory after Round 5, then to L86 after Round 8, and finally changes to Fatal Error after Round 11.
The bosses are fought in this order:
- Clanky Woods 2.0
- Holo Defense API 2.0
- Susie 2.0
- Mid-Boss All Stars 1 (Kibble Blade 2.0, Blocky 2.0, King Doo 2.0, & Dubior 2.0)
- Stock Mecha Knight
- Dedede Clone 2.0 / Dedede Clones & D3 2.0
- C.O.G.S. (Gigabyte Grounds)/Core Kabula
- Mid-Boss All Stars 2 (Security Force 2.0, Miasmoros 2.0, Bonkers 2.0, & Telepathos 2.0)
- President Haltmann 2.0
- Dark Matter Clone/Sectonia Clone
- Galacta Knight Returns
- Star Dream Soul OS
Kirby Star Allies
The True Arena itself doesn't appear in this game, but the highest difficulty settings in The Ultimate Choice (Soul Melter and Soul Melter EX) follow a similar structure with harder versions of previous bosses and a boss that only appears in this mode.
Related Quotes
| “ | The last battle, without a doubt! Beat 10 tough foes, including the final four!” |
| — The True Arena • Kirby Super Star Ultra |
| “ | All the new bosses are here! Beat 'em to be the true master!” |
| — Game Mode Explanation • Kirby Super Star Ultra |
| “ | The True Arena is now available! Can you become a true Kirby master?” |
| — Announcement • Kirby's Return to Dream Land |
| “ | This is the ultimate test of skill! This is the gauntlet of courage! This is the final proving ground! Emerge victorious and you'll become...a Kirby Master!” |
| — Pause screen description • Kirby's Return to Dream Land |
| “ | Deluxe bosses wait in the wings as the curtain rises on the final battle! It's a knock-down, drag-out fight all the way to the nightmare four. The True Arena awaits!” |
| — Pause screen description • Kirby: Triple Deluxe |
Trivia
- Although music from The True Arena doesn't appear in the Sound Test before this mode is beaten, Marx Soul's cackles and death cry (sounds 343-347) can be found before the mode is unlocked.
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s The True Arena is the only version of the sub-game that does not exclude any bosses from The Arena (if one counts Extra Mode variations of bosses as the same characters and Magolor Soul as Magolor's third form).
- Kirby: Triple Deluxe’s The True Arena is the only one lacking a boss that is defeated in a shoot 'em up sequence.
- The logos for The True Arena swapped fonts between Kirby Super Star Ultra and Kirby's Return to Dream Land; the 'True' in Kirby Super Star Ultra is in a red, jagged, font, while 'The' and 'Arena' are in a more formal font. In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, it is the exact opposite, with 'The' and 'Arena' being in the red jagged font.
- In Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s The True Arena, once the Final Five is reached, the music becomes a remix of Iceberg's map music from Kirby's Dream Land 3.
- Like The Arena, Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot’s True Arenas are the only versions of the sub-game that do not support multi-player.
- Many of the themes from Kirby: Triple Deluxe’s The True Arena are rearrangements of themes from Kirby Super Star Ultra’s The True Arena.
- In the Japanese version of Kirby: Planet Robobot, The True Arena is called (真 かちぬきボスバトル) "True Boss Endurance".
- The wait-room theme of The True Arena in Kirby Super Star Ultra and Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a remix of Ripple Star's level select music from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
- In Kirby: Planet Robobot, this sub-game is stated to be a sort of "what if" scenario or alternate universe/timeline. This may also apply to the other The True Arena sub-games in the series.[1]
- The title music of The True Arena from Kirby: Planet Robobot is reused from the soundtrack "Revenge of The Enemy," the music that plays during the bosses' revenge in Royal Road and the first phases of the battle against Masked Dedede and Dark Meta Knight's Revenge from Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
- The music that plays during most of the battles is called "Combat Evaluation Program."[2]
- In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the music that plays in the room with all the Copy Abilities is reused as the music for the rest area of Meta Knightmare Returns in Kirby: Planet Robobot.
- The True Arena in Kirby: Planet Robobot is the first in which bosses are fought in a set order. Prior to this, the bosses were always fought in a random order, excluding the final few.
- The music for The True Arena in Kirby Super Star Ultra can be heard in Kirby Star Allies on the first extra stage of Jambastion, Sector A. It can also be heard when failing in The Ultimate Choice on the Soul Melter difficulty.
- In every incarnation of The True Arena, a character with Meta Knight's likeness is always the penultimate boss to be fought (usually Galacta Knight), with the exception of Kirby's Return to Dream Land where, while Galacta Knight was the penultimate character to be fought overall, he is ultimately the third to last boss in the run (behind Magolor EX and Magolor Soul).
- Magolor Soul is the only final boss of any True Arena that is not exclusively fought in the True Arena itself, for he appears as the final boss of Extra Mode as well.
- Instead, Galacta Knight serves as the boss that can only be fought in the True Arena of Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
See Also
Concept artwork
Gallery
