Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Our hero and his companions.

One day, the beautiful world of Ripple Star was overshadowed by a great darkness--specifically, a cloud of Dark Matter. To prevent Ripple Star's crystal from falling into the wrong hands, the Princess launches it into outer space with one of her fairies, Ribbon. But Dark Matter attacks the crystal, causing it to shatter into several pieces.

...Meanwhile, Kirby is watching a meteor shower when Ribbon lands on him holding what's left of the Crystal. A second shard falls on Kirby shortly thereafter; when he offers it to Ribbon, the crystals recombine. Ribbon then explains to Kirby (via pantomime) that those shooting stars are the other crystal shards, which must be collected in order to save Ripple Star. Kirby is more than happy to help, so he sets off with Ribbon on a quest across several planets.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is the first game in the Kirby series to go 3D; while the action played on a 2D plane for the most part, enemies would occasionally fly at Kirby from the "background" to menace him. One of the most memorable gameplay mechanics from the game was the expanding of Kirby's "copy" powers; Kirby was able to mix powers from different enemies to make new ones (for example, the combination of Fire + Rock turns Kirby into a living, aimable volcano).

This game is the third and final part of The Dark Matter Trilogy, the previous entries being Kirby's Dreamland 2 and Kirby's Dreamland 3, and thus inherits their more slow paced, simplistic gameplay and more whimsical, dream-like art direction and music.

Tropes used in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards include:
  • One Hundred Percent Completion: The only way to fight Zero Two.
  • 2½D
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: The lava in Neo Star's 4th stage.
    • There's also a part of the Shiver Star factory stage with some electric walls pushed by robots.
  • After the End: Shiver Star looks suspiciously like a post-apocalyptic Earth...
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield - While fighting Miracle Matter.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore - The Holy Mother of all aversions.
  • Arrows on Fire - Fire + Needle.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever - Rock + Rock turns Kirby into an oversized rock Golem that's even bigger than most mini-bosses.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level - In the form of rapid currents on Aqua Star and conveyor belts on Shiver Star (though you could go against the "scrolling" if you were determined enough), as well as the Minecart Madness examples below.
  • Awesome Yet Practical - Fire + Bomb. Three sets of fireworks that extend Kirby's jumping ability AND gets bigger and bigger booms with each use? Everyone's inner pyromaniac rejoices!
  • Barrier Change Boss - Miracle Matter.
  • Battle Boomerang - Both regular Cutter and Cutter + Cutter.
  • BFS - Fire + Blade = Giant Flaming Sword you can throw.
  • Big Bulky Bomb - Rock + Bomb = roll of dynamite that kills everything on screen and hurts you if you don't use the helmet. It takes a while to detonate normally, but triggers instantly if it hits an enemy.
  • Bizarre World Shapes - Pop Star is a five-pointed star, Rock Star is shattered into several pieces, Aqua Star is a drop of water with bits of planet suspended in it, and Ripple Star is heart-shaped.
  • Blow You Away - When Kirby jumps after his initial jump, then you press the attack button, this happens. Also, some of his ice powers.
  • Book Ends - Ripple Star's first stage is designed similarly to Pop Star's first stage and has the same music.
  • Boss Rush - Available as a bonus mode.
  • But Thou Must! - Your pause screen has two choices, "Continue" or "Try again"; the latter lets you try on a different level. During the battle with the True Final Boss they become "Continue" and "Tough it out!". They both do the exact same thing.
  • Collision Damage - Coming into contact with an enemy causes you to take damage, but usually the enemy is defeated as well by the collision.
  • Continuity Nod - Kirby's various Rock + Cutter forms are those of his animal companions from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3.
    • Your fight with King Dedede early on screams the latter of those two games.
  • Color-Coded Elements - Each ability has its own color to represent it, and obstacles that can be broken by that ability are in that color. If they require two abilities, they'll be both colors.
  • Covers Always Lie: Just look at the cover for this game - it's one of the few covers to ever show Kirby smiling. And the True Final Boss? A giant bleeding eyeball that shoots its own blood at you.
  • Crap Saccharine World: What Ripple Star is mostly turned into when Dark Matter takes it over.
  • Crash Into Hello - How Kirby meets Ribbon.
  • Demonic Possession: Dark Matter can do this.
  • Directionally Solid Platforms: Here, Kirby can literally go through these.
  • Dishing Out Dirt - Rock + Fire turns Kirby into a boulder-spewing volcano.
  • Easter Egg - If you inhale an enemy and push R to hold them above your head--without digesting them--many of them have unique effects. Bronto Burts, for example, will carry you into the air, and Glunks will shoot a steady stream of pellets into the air that will take out airborne enemies.
  • Easy Levels, Hard Bosses - While typical of the Kirby series, Miracle Matter is infamously difficult--especially considering that Ripple Star is mostly a Breather Level.
  • Edible Ammunition - Ice + Spark power turns Kirby into a refrigerator that throws food at the enemy, destroying them. The food can then be eaten to regain health.
  • Edge Gravity - When balanced on an edge, Kirby will wheel his stubby little arms, teeter back and forth, and exclaim "Woah!".
  • Eldritch Abomination: Dark Matter.
  • Elemental Powers - Bomb, Ice, Cutter, Fire, Needle, Rock, Spark, and they can all be combined for varying levels of awesome.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower - Ribbon + Crystal
  • The End - or Is It? - Fail to get One Hundred Percent Completion and the ending cinematic suggests that the ruler of Ripple Star is still possessed by Dark Matter.
  • Enemy Mine - King Dedede hates Dark Matter more than he hates Kirby.
  • Eternal Engine - Stage 4 and boss stage of Shiver Star.
  • Epic Flail - Sort of. Rock + Spark gives Kirby a giant rock tetherball.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning - Ice + Blade turns Kirby into an ice-skater who attacks via rapid spinning leaps.
  • Fairy Companion - Ribbon
  • Final Exam Boss - Miracle Matter, who has a different form for every base ability in the game, and the only way to harm him is to damage him with the same ability he's using. Usually it's better to just suck up the leftovers of his attack and spit them back at him.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Flaming Sword - Fire + Cutter, see BFS.
  • Giant Mook - All of the regular minibosses (minus the "Special" minibosses of Waddle Dee, Adeline, and King Dedede) are large versions of regular enemies. Which leads to one of them being a...
    • Giant Enemy Crab - A miniboss in Stage 2 of Aqua Star, although if we're being completely honest it's more like Slightly Larger Than Average Enemy Crab.
  • Gotta Catch Them All - The titular Crystal Shards (for plot advancement and One Hundred Percent Completion) and enemy data cards (just for the heck of it).
  • Grievous Harm with a Body - Cutter ability consists of Kirby throwing his face at enemies.
  • Guide Dang It - In general, most of the hidden Crystals do have clues on how to find them, but some of them will still make you go running for GameFaqs.
    • One of the worst examples is a shard in level 3 of Aqua Star where the shard was far above Kirby's maximum flight height (even with powers). In order to get it, you need to realize that Rick's form from the Stone + Cutter power can climb walls. The number of times this ability is mentioned in the game, manual, or anything besides a guide or walkthrough: 0. It's an ability from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3, and if you've never played either, your only hint is the green-and-brown breakable terrain that stands in your way - and considering Stone + Cutter has six different forms that show up at random, good luck with trial and error.
  • The Heartless - Dark Matter and the various bits of fuzzy dark things spawned from it.
  • Heroic Mime - Everybody on the side of Good.
  • Human Snowball - The Ice + Ice power.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight - You're required to fight your friends so they're no longer possessed by Dark Matters.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice - Needle + Needle turns Kirby into a giant Swiss Army Knife full of diverse painful objects.
  • Incendiary Exponent - Weaponized in the Spark + Fire power.
  • It's a Wonderful Failure: If you lose the Boss Rush, you get a scene of Kirby looking sad as the Game Over jingle plays, his friends looking on with what can only be described as disdain on their faces, and the uplifting message, "It's Hopeless..."
  • Joke Weapon: Ice + Fire. Some combinations might be underpowered or unimpressive, but this one's nothing short of useless. Also, while Rock + Cutter is one of the best combos in the game, one possible outcome is Kine the fish, who literally can't do anything, even underwater.
  • Laser Blade - Spark + Cutter gives Kirby a Double-Bladed Lightsaber. Cutest Sith Ever.
  • Lethal Lava Land - Neo Star's 4th level.
  • MacGuffin - The crystal shards.
  • Meat-O-Vision - After traversing through Rock Star's desert, Kirby starts seeing his companions as food. Good thing Adeline can paint objects to life!
  • The Medic: Adeleine, who appears once per World to paint Kirby a healing item/powerup or help him solve a Crystal Shard puzzle.
  • Mega Manning - It's a Kirby game, what do you expect?
  • Mighty Glacier - Most of the Rock-based powers turn Kirby into this, especially Rock + Rock, which makes Kirby into a giant boulder version of himself.
  • Minecart Madness - First as a wooden box raft in Stage 3-2, then as an actual minecart in Stage 4-2, and then as a bobsled in Stage 5-1.
  • Mini Game - The game features three multi-player mini-games entirely unrelated to anything, accessible mostly from the "options" menu. They are a pretty good time, though.
  • Monster Compendium - In the form of enemy cards Kirby can earn in the jump game after levels. They just show the enemies' names and their animated models, and there are eighty-one cards in all.
  • Mood Whiplash - It's a Kirby game, what did you expect? You go from fighting cute little animals with your adorable companions (stopping to have picnics along the way) to fighting a giant bleeding eyeball who embodies all evil in the universe. Sleep tight!
    • Even before that, we had Ripple Star. At the beginning, it seems idyllic even though it's been taken over by Dark Matter, By the end, Kirby is fighting a demonic 20-sided die known as Miracle Matter in pure darkness. And each side of said die has an eyeball on it. Even the music is more menacing!
    • Shiver Star. A snowy and happy place, with a large toy mall, and then you get to the toy factory, full of insta-death crushing walls and conveyer belts. And then you realize that the planet looks suspiciously familiar...
  • Multi Mook Melee - The last true level of the game (6-3) is composed mostly of attacks from groups of smaller enemies, punctuated by short hallways.
  • Mythology Gag - Waddle Dee possessed by Dark Matter turns into Waddle Doo, Adeleine is basically a female version of Ado, and Rock + Cutter turns Kirby into a statue of one of his earlier animal companions!
  • Ninja - Blade + Bomb gives Kirby exploding shurikens.
    • That you can't see until they land.
  • No Arc in Archery - Averted.
  • One-Hit Kill - Getting crushed between two surfaces kills Kirby.
  • The Phoenix - Fire + Fire.
  • Pixellation - A pixelated mess is one of the things Adeleine sends after you when she's possessed.
  • Plot Coupon - The Crystal Shards
  • Puzzle Boss - Rock Star's boss, which takes more damage if you shoot each crystal with the same color bullet.
    • Also Miracle Matter. It can only be hurt by the same power element as it's using at a given time. For example, it uses the Spark ability to fire lasers all over the area. Only way to hurt it is to use an electric based power (solo or mix, whichever works) or simply suck up the excess power and shoot it back at MM.
  • Ribcage Ridge - Seen in a stage on Rock Star and "hides" a Crystal Shard in its mouth.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The fairy ruler in the bad ending.
  • Scenery Porn
  • Ship Tease - Ribbon kisses Kirby in the true ending, causing a Luminescent Blush. Nobody else in the Kirby games, or even the anime, has ever done this - or at least romantically.
  • Shout-Out - Spark + Cutter looks like Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber.
    • The true ending also looks quite a bit like the destruction of the Death Star and the awards ceremony at the end of A New Hope.
    • Some of the music is remixed from previous games, in typical Kirby fashion.
  • Sinister Geometry - Rock Star's boss (8-sided) and Miracle Matter (20-sided).
  • Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom - Seen occasionally on several stages (most obviously Shiver Star's toy factory).
  • Spell My Name with an "S" - The final boss, commonly written out as "02", has as his name in the game itself spelled out rather differently. Instead of 02, it's arranged with the "2" as a power of base "0" - so instead of it's name being pronounced "Zero Two", it's properly pronounced Zero Squared. Shorthand would suggest it written out as 0^2, as it would take too long to fish for a "to the power of 2" character.
    • This is also confirmed by another enemy found on Rock Star, which is largely a Thwomp-like cube with a single eye design. It's name is I^3, or "I Cubed".
  • The Spiny - Gordo; one of the few monsters that Kirby can't eat.
    • Also the Scarfies, which explode if Kirby attempts to inhale them, and spider-like Mariels, which damage Kirby if he digests them.
  • Sugar Apocalypse - The game opens with Dark Matter taking over Ripple Star.
  • Super Title 64 Advance
  • Taken for Granite: Most of the Rock powers turn Kirby into stone.
    • An even straighter example: Rock + Cutter turns Kirby into a random rock statue of one of his animal buddies from Kirby's Dream Land.
  • Taking You with Me - Rock + Bomb creates a MASSIVE hunk of dynamite that will hurt Kirby if he doesn't hide beneath the helmet.
    • Ice + Bomb turns Kirby into a walking snowman bomber (except the explosion doesn't hurt himself).
  • This Is a Drill - Rock + Needle--it's even self propelling!
  • True Final Boss - Unlocked via One Hundred Percent Completion.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level - The True Final Boss plays rather like Star Fox.
  • Unfortunate Names: One of the enemies is actually called a "Pedo" (actually pronounced "PEE-doe", a pun on "torpedo".)
  • Victory Cake - Each stage (excepting boss battles) ends with the characters having a nice picnic, and a little mini-game in which Kirby can earn some extra items, including a health-restoring slice of cake.
  • Vile Villain Saccharine Show - 02 provides the page image.
  • Violation of Common Sense - Getting one of the crystal shards requires you to almost fall to your death down a Bottomless Pit (though Kirby can float back up if he has enough breath).
  • Wall Crawl: Rock + Cutter has a one-in-six chance of turning you into a statue of Rick the Hamster, who can can "jump" up a wall indefinitely. This is vital for getting one Crystal Shard in Stage 3-3.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? - Ice + Fire. Kirby quickly freezes then melts himself, creating a shield effect too brief/short ranged to be useful. Serves you right for mixing fire and ice.
  • When Trees Attack: The first boss of the game, recurring boss character Whispy Woods.
  • Wreathed in Flames: Fire, both normal and double.
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