Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a Kirby game that was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. It was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. It is one of the few games not to feature Meta Knight. It also features the special aspect of combining two Copy Abilities to create new ones by either sucking up two enemies up at the same time or releasing a power star then inhaling that star and an enemy. Each power has a different color power star and a double power star has the colors of both sub-powers in a 10-point star.

Story
Ripple Star is a heart-shaped planet populated by serene and peaceful fairies. It is home to a great Crystal, which possesses great holy power. The Crystal is the sacred watcher of Ripple Star, and helps to ensure that it remains a perfect place for fairies to live. Unfortunately for the fairies, the Crystal's power has attracted the attention of Dark Matter, who came to steal it. To that end, as well as the domination of the universe, Dark Matter has come to Ripple Star to steal its Crystal and use its power for its own evil purposes.

As the fairies notice a dark cloud enveloping their home, they begin to panic. In the midst of the chaos, as the darkness begins to envelop the castle, the Queen sends one fairy, Ribbon, to ride off with the crystal to somewhere safe. Dark Matter, of course, isn't pleased with this development, and it sends three pieces of itself after Ribbon. They catch up with her after a short chase. Ribbon tries to evade them, but the Dark Matter violently Body slambody-slams her, knocking her unconscious and shattering the Crystal into pieces. The pieces of the Crystal are scattered by the impact, and the pieces land on various planets all over the solar system. Ribbon herself, stunned by the blow, helplessly falls towards the planet Pop Star.

Meanwhile, Kirby is watching the stars on Pop Star. Suddenly, a gem plummets from the sky and hits Kirby on the head. Kirby gets up and looks around. Seeing the gem, Kirby walks over to pick it up, when he's hit on the head by another jewel and a fairy.

When Kirby comes to, he finds the fairy lying on the ground. As he walks over to see if she's okay, she begins to stir, and then wakes up. It turns out that the fairy is Ribbon. After she and Kirby exchange hellos, Ribbon asks about the Crystal. Kirby, of course, doesn't know what she's talking about. Ribbon points out that it is the jewel that she had been carrying. Looking at the Crystal, she notices that it is only a fraction of its normal size, and realizes it has been split into pieces. Realizing that she's failed to protect her planet's sacred jewel, Ribbon sighs in self-pity. Kirby notices that Ribbon is about to burst into tears, and tries to console her. Suddenly, Kirby notices the stone that had fallen on him. He points it out to Ribbon, and she realizes that it is another piece of the Crystal. Kirby and Ribbon throw their shards at each other, and the two shards join into one slightly larger Crystal, prompting them to search for more.

The Crystal is still incomplete with 72 more pieces remain to be found, scattered across 6 planets. Kirby and Ribbon traverse these worlds in a search for the Crystals. Their journey to liberate Ripple Star and restore the Crystal to its full power takes them through Pop Star where they meet Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede, who have all found shards of their own and have become possessed by Dark Matter. Each character agrees to help when Kirby frees them all from Dark Matter's control. They traverse the planets using everyone's skills to collect the crystals.

However, even when the game is completed, a different ending cinematic is received if all 74 crystal shards are not collected. The so called "unhappy ending" shows Kirby and his friends returning to Dreamland, but then the Ripple Star Queen looks at Ribbon with evil and darkened eyes, signaling that she is also possessed by Dark Matter, and the game is not quite finished.

After they collect all 74, the ending cinema is changed. The completed crystal fires a ray of holy energy at the Queen, sensing the Dark Matter possessing her, and so releasing her of it. The Dark Matter released from her forms a new planet at the center of the ring of planets called Dark Star. Kirby and co. enter Dark Star, where there is a short level with few enemies. At the end of the level, King Dedede fires Kirby upward off the screen. There, 0² reveals itself as the game's final boss. Using the restored crystal, Kirby destroys it in a shooter-like battle and restores peace to the solar system.

At the game's end, the fairies reward the heroes from Dream Land with crystal medallions. Ribbon shyly gives Kirby a kiss, causing him to nervously swoon, he falls off the ceremonial platform.

Planets
There are 7 planets for the player to complete. Each also has a unique boos fight (listed below.) Each world has 4 main levels and one boss level, excluding Pop Star and Ripple Star (which have four) and Dark Star (which has only one). The planets are:


 * Pop Star
 * Rock Star
 * Aqua Star
 * Neo Star
 * Shiver Star
 * Ripple Star
 * Dark Star (available only after collecting every crystal shard.)

Bosses
Each world has its own boss to defeat. There are 7 total, each with a very special technique to be defeated. They are:


 * Whispy Woods
 * Pix
 * Acro
 * Magman
 * HR-H
 * Miracle Matter
 * 0² (Secret final boss)

Gameplay
The game plays much in the same fashion of other Kirby games, although this time, Kirby's floating ability is not unlimited.

Copy Abilities
There are seven different Copy Abilities in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and any two can be merged to create a new Copy Ability. They are Burn, Ice, Spark, Cutter, Bomb, Needle, and Stone. Though Kirby only needs one element in his body to gain an extra attack, two of the abilities can also be combined. Copy Abilities can also be merged with abilities of the same type for more powerful versions of the basic abilities. In total there are 35 abilities, combined and stand-alone, as the order does not matter (i.e. Burn+Stone is the same result as Stone+Burn). Combined abilities are usually stronger or have added effects.

Minigames
Three minigames can be played separate from the main quest in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Each game can be played by 1-4 players on one of four difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, Intense.) Characters from the game (i.e. Kirby, Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede) are playable in multiplayer. The three are 100-Yard Hop, Bumper Crop Bump, and Checker Board Chase.

Trivia

 * On Nintendo of America's website, the description for the Wii Virtual Console release erroneously states that there are 100 Crystal Shards to collect whereas the actual game has only 74 Crystal Shards.