Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star (Kirb Your Enthusiasm)

[LaZodiac]

Kirby's Super Star! What really needs to be said? It's an absolute classic of Kirby, with enhanced powers and eight games (three of which are minigames, but I digress). Often considered one of the best Kirby's, this little gem for the Super Nintendo is now up to bat. Technically we should have done this before Kirby's Dreamland 3, but I promised Blue we would do that one before this one. Speaking of which; special guest star and ex-boyfriend Blue is here! Say hello to Blue, he's a good dude. He's been training since last time we met, and has recently beat Celeste, which I only bring up because he typically only plays 4X games. I will try not to be too harsh to him as we do our best to make our way through Kirby. He's never played it before, I have, lets do this!

As usual, Monday and Friday upload schedule for this. No real need to say it but no spoilers just in case, and try to keep discussion to the game at hand. With that said, let us kirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [1] Spring

Video Length: 17:48

The first little game we find ourselves in is Spring Breeze, a copy-ability having remake of the first Kirby- though sans Kabula and the SHMUP section, sadly. And also sans the boss refight, which is less sad to see go. Not much to say, beyond the fact that jeez I'm a little mean to poor Blue here sometimes ooops. Got that residual Halo energies leaking in. But all in all, we had a good time, and hope you do too!

[Qwertystop]

Kirby's Super Star! What really needs to be said?

Haven't watched the video yet, but this line immediately rang a bell as almost quoting a Kirby game you haven't got to yet.

What else needs saying?
TRIPLE STAR
That's what you are. Amazing!

[Rater202]

"Why would you steal all the food?"
"If you're hungry."

Gotta be honest, the "state the most obvious answer" has got to be my favorite kind of joke.

I can't remember completly becuase my age was in the single digits, but I think Spring Breeze was the first Kirby game I ever played. I'm watching you play and it all seems very familiar.

[Lord Raziere]

Kirby Watch Day One:
Here we see the Kirbus Balloonica in its current habitat. It is a predatory animal, eating anything it sees. Commonly known as "Kirby" it is the only known specimen of its species. It exhibits a wide range of powers and abilities based on absorption and replication of those it hunts. It is incredibly light yet is capable of eating seemingly unlimited amounts of food. No one knows where the mass goes.

On this field research project, we see Kirby exhibit a strange power to produce one of its prey out of nowhere as an ally, possibly mind controlled or as an extension of itself to help it combat other animals and survive in its environment. This power has not been observed in other studies upon this species, whether this ability is season-dependent or some other factor is currently unknown. Oddly enough this "ally animal" is fumbling about despite its seeming usefulness, perhaps the Kirby is still learning to properly control its second body?

We see the specimen known as "Dedede" of the Azure Penguinus Gigantica species, stealing all the food in Kirby's environment. This is a clear encroachment on Kirby's territory. Uncommonly intelligent for an animal of its size, Kirby acts to get the food back from this scavenger. He tracks Dedede down and defeats him at his nest, that is constructed to look much like a castle, as the Penguinus Gigantica species is known to make such things in imitation of authoritative power to assert its position as the king of the jungle. However Kirby, probably being an alien species, doesn't obey this habitats hierarchy and soundly defeats Dedede once again. Dedede of course doesn't understand this as its natural instincts will prompt him to rebuild and make a new nest once again.

Croikey! We see Kirby inflate up and carry the nest back on its feet! This is a rare sight, it is. Kirby is of course intending to carry all the food back to its home, but is unaware that its falling back to the rest of the inhabitants of its environment. Kirby despite its incredible power, is not a very attentive animal. Whether this means that it is so highly advanced in its biology that it can afford to not be alert to anything because nothing is dangerous to it, or whether its current environment offers no danger for Kirby's species survival instincts to activate and experience a fight or flight response, is unknown.

We will be continuing to study Kirby to learn more of this mysterious species.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

And here we have a cute little puffball who defeats existential horrors. Yanno, as ya do.

It's a nice change of pace from the dystopian theme of the previous tale, just a light-hearted side-scrolling game with plenty of cute.

[Qwertystop]

Hellololo and Lalala!

Goodbyelolo and lalala!

Weird boss fight, that.

[DataNinja]

...hoo boy, I've been out of it the last few days. Let's get to some Kirby.


Kirby Super Star Ultra was... pretty much my first and last Kirby game. (I don't count Canvas Curse as one.) Was fun, I liked playing through it with my brother.

While there is no infinite flight for helpers, they can hitch a ride on Kirby by hovering below him and holding up! (Ah, which I see you did at one point!)

Huh. Didn't realize the Poppy Bro Jr.s didn't give bomb in the original. ...or, actually, I think I did but forgot.

Placing a bomb on someone is... awkward. They have to go into a "vulnerable" state after already being hit. I was only really ever able to reliably pull it off on the stars that enemies make.

If you tap the "warp" button repeatedly, you will go into "self-destruct" mode, where you can run into another enemy and copy them again, being at full health. Handy for when Kirby wants to keep the same power.

The only reason Crash OHKO's on Lololo and Lalala is because they're both on the screen, so double damage.

Fun little easter egg is that there are some Mario characters in the stands for the Dedede fight.

[LaZodiac]

I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying Kirby! It's good to be back in Dreamland.

Of course, we have another space based Zodi Plays going on too...

Zodi Plays: Halo 3 [10] Empty Grave

Video Length: 49:00

In this, the potentially penultimate Halo 3 (it depends on how I edit the final level), we finally out paid to Grave Mind and get our AI companion back. This isn't a bad level by any stretch, but it definitely feels like the one stumble in the middle of a rather good streak of unbelievably excellent levels. As such, a "it's pretty good" feels lesser as a result. As far as Flood focused levels go, it is one of the better ones, though in retrospect I think the length was too much, and the needle shooting Pure Flood are quite annoying.

Also, as said, here is a PROPER explanation of what I try and fail to get across; the controlled zombies, their personal nervous system and ambulatory mechanics are already pre-made, so the Flood can just slot into it like a bio-suit. The Pure Flood have to use actual resources to create every single thing on and in them, so it'd be impossible to just slot a new mushroom into there.

[DataNinja]

Oh boy. This level. I... really didn't enjoy it. It's visually interesting, I guess, but it's just... same-y. And it's Flood, and all their superpowered forms, and just... lack of ammo. I'll see if you find the same things I did.

Yeah, it makes sense that other organic life is just puppetable repeatedly, while Pure Flood forms don't have the same systems. They're an... amorphous mass that happens to be able to take several shapes. Once you get to the point where you've killed them enough for them to die… well, uh, yeah. There's nothing left to reanimate.

The three Pure forms are Tank Form, Ranged Form, and Stalker form. There were 3 more that were cut from the game - Infector, which regenerated and infected corpses around with spores; Transport, which would carry Combat Forms; and Stealth, which had tentacle arms that could pick up and use weapons.

It's 100% better than previous flood levels but... just felt like it dragged on for too long, with so many annoying enemies. The Ranged forms plus so many Tank forms. It's heck if you didn't find all the Flamethrowers.

[Aeson]

So, regarding your comment about the range of flamethrowers, yes, they're relatively short-ranged, but most man-portable flamethrowers of the Second World War would normally have an effective range in the neighborhood of 20-30 meters and a maximum range in the neighborhood of 40 meters, which for the apparent scale of most video game levels would usually be enough to hit anything you can see. It's also probably fairly comparable to reasonable effective ranges for typical pistols or similar sidearms due to accuracy limitations and, in settings where effective body armor is common, the sidearm's relative lack of hitting power - especially at longer ranges - though that's a bit more variable as an accuracy-based limit on effective range is likely to be affected by the skill of the marksman and there are some pistols or similar sidearms with for example folding stocks or other features which could improve long-range accuracy, while power-based range limits are obviously dependent upon the specific sidearm under consideration.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, regarding your comment about the range of flamethrowers, yes, they're relatively short-ranged, but most man-portable flamethrowers of the Second World War would normally have an effective range in the neighborhood of 20-30 meters and a maximum range in the neighborhood of 40 meters, which for the apparent scale of most video game levels would usually be enough to hit anything you can see. It's also probably fairly comparable to reasonable effective ranges for typical pistols or similar sidearms due to accuracy limitations and, in settings where effective body armor is common, the sidearm's relative lack of hitting power - especially at longer ranges - though that's a bit more variable as an accuracy-based limit on effective range is likely to be affected by the skill of the marksman and there are some pistols or similar sidearms with for example folding stocks or other features which could improve long-range accuracy, while power-based range limits are obviously dependent upon the specific sidearm under consideration.

Of course, the primary drawback of a flamethrower is the huge tank of fuel you have on your back. One stray bullet, and if you're very luck, only you will die an agonizing burning death. Otherwise, so does everyone else around you. It's also bulky and cumbersome as heck, which means you're moving around a lot slower. And there's not much point in hitting the deck to take cover, as that just exposes the huge tank of flammable liquid under pressure on your back. So kind of a slow-moving sitting duck, and a high priority target.

There's a reason why they weren't used more in WW II, despite its use in clearing bunkers. However, that's difficult to use as a game balance, as it would make flamethrowers completely non-viable. Mobility is king in any shooter, after all, so stripping that is pretty much an instant game-over. So instead, devs hand-waived the actual downsides of a flamethrower and instead did the same thing to it as they did to the shotgun "At knife range, it is death incarnate, outside of immediate melee range, it is completely useless". Which is also inaccurate in the Shotgun's case, but that's a different topic.

[LaZodiac]

Hope you're hungry for some netplay reduced minigames, cause it is time for a Kirb!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [2] Food, Blade, and Fist

Video Length: 15:10

In this episode, Blue and I take on Gourmet Race, Megaton Punch, and Samurai Kirby, the three minigames of the Super Star multi-pack. The weakest of the games in this package, they're still pretty alright, even with netplay induced frame issues leading to... less than stellar results. I swear, I'm not usually this bad at Gourmet Race! It doesn't help that, in order to sell the speed of it, Gourmet Race has genuinely very weird physics to it, with Kirby's speed being increased by a ton, which sometimes leads to some weird moments.

That all being said, still good. Gourmet Race has some of the best music in Kirby, and the style of Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby are really cool. They may be small, but they're still good additions, and worth showing off. That being said, hope you all enjoyed! We'll see all next time.

[Rater202]

I now have the Gourmet Race song stuck in my head.

In addition to the Mario, Luigi, and Birdo cameos there's also a single Toad in the row below them.

It also seems as though they only actually made half a crowd and then reflected it to make the rest of the crowd, since there's a second set of perfectly symmetrically placed Mario characters on the opposite side and, while I wasn't paying super close attention to the background, the rest of it seemed likewise symmetrical.

[DataNinja]

Winning the single player mode in Gourmet Race is required for single player continuation. At least according to both my memory, and double-checking on a wiki.

[Qwertystop]

I now have the Gourmet Race song stuck in my head.

In addition to the Mario, Luigi, and Birdo cameos there's also a single Toad in the row below them.

It also seems as though they only actually made half a crowd and then reflected it to make the rest of the crowd, since there's a second set of perfectly symmetrically placed Mario characters on the opposite side and, while I wasn't paying super close attention to the background, the rest of it seemed likewise symmetrical.

The middle bit isn't mirrored – probably there's a big section on either side that's mirrored with a non-mirrored chunk in the middle to make it less obvious.

[LaZodiac]

Bird noises abound, it's Kirby time!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [3] Bird, Singular

Video Length: 15:34

In this episode, we begin Dynablade! The first really substantial, new mode for Super Star. This one has a level based world map, complete with two(2) secret exit like unlockables! We cover the first half of Dynablade in this one, taking down the first two levels and Iron Ma'am, the sole miniboss of this campaign. We also of course unlock the path to the first of two copy ability houses, allowing you to do, as the Dynablade description says, master the abilities. It's really cool honestly, and calls back to the much, much smaller Power Museums of the other Kirby games.

[Rater202]

You know, the intro to Dynablade brings up a good point: Kirby's not really a hero.

Kirby's just kind of there. He gets involved becuase he's hungry or the bad guy makes him mad. Maybe because the bad guy hurt one of his friends.

[LaZodiac]

You know, the intro to Dynablade brings up a good point: Kirby's not really a hero.

Kirby's just kind of there. He gets involved becuase he's hungry or the bad guy makes him mad. Maybe because the bad guy hurt one of his friends.

There are times when Kirby does do some pretty heroic stuff, for heroic reasons.

But then there's also Squeak Squad, where he went on a rip across Dreamland, complete with per-requisite elder god slaying, because a red mage stole his cake.

It's honestly one of the most charming parts of Kirby, if we're being honest.

[Rater202]

It sort of ties into the idea that Kirby is some sort of semi-benevolent eldritch monstrosity that just happens to be adorable and cuddly.

Lovecraftian beings tend to do things for reasons that seem strange to mortals... Or that seems incredibly petty when you look at the scale of it.

"went on a destructive rampage and kicked another eldritch deity's ass becuase someone stole my snack" is pretty on-brand.

[DataNinja]

Ah, ninja. Very cool.

As are the bonus rooms. I love them.

The Ninja Vanish actually does have a benefit. It makes you disappear for a few seconds, and you come back with no recovery knockdown time.

[LaZodiac]

Halo time~

Zodi Plays: Halo 3 [11] Grave Storm

Video Length: 25:11

In this one, we have an honestly really cool and really fun charge through an unending swarm of Flood bioforms. It's pretty great! Not uh, much to SAY about it, but it is pretty great. I'll have more to say next Wednesday.

[DataNinja]

Whoof. I don't remember having quite this much trouble with checkpointing, but... yeah, it's definitely a harrowing bit. I know during my playthrough, there was a lot more slow and steady covering with the flamethrower, and that helped. Gravemind's pulling out all stops.

I appreciate the toning down of the time"skip" song, too.

[LaZodiac]

It is time to face Dynablade herself!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [4] Birds, Plural

Video Length: 21:53

We take out the last two stages of Dynablade, unlock the second power room, and face off against Dynablade herself. I also make it clear I'm going to uh, do a redemption run and also show off the Super Star Ultra additions at the end of Super Star proper, so prepare for those as well!

Dynablade is honestly a rather fun mode. It is, effectively, the style of gameplay modern Kirby players are familiar with (level based, occassional secrets, power rooms) but a little more standard. Not as open as typical Kirby is, no collectables, and really only two bosses to contend with, Iron Ma'am and Dynablade herself. Still, a nice little proof of concept of how a Kirby game could work in the future! I like it, a fair bit. I hope you all did as well.

[Rater202]

Since we were told to feel free to make corrections: "Plasma" is a state of matter. Plasma can be described as "Gas superheated to the point of ionization" but Plasma as a state of matter has its own properties and most gases are partially ionized by default.

Depending on what you're burning, fire can be plasma. Lightning(specifically, not electricity in general) is also plasma and is probably the plasma that people are most familiar with.

However, practically speaking the difference between "plasma," particularly plasma caused by combustion, and "really hot fire" is academic. As Demonstrated here in this test video for the World's first "real" Lightsaber in practical matters it's not meaningfully different from fire.

In Kirby media, the Plasma Power seems to alternate between lightning and combustion plasma depending on the game and sometimes appears as a mixture of both. IIRC, it's been a laser at least once.

Interesting to note, since Kirby and his Plasma using Helper are light green, if we pretend for a moment that Dream Land gives a crap about real-life physics and chemistry that would imply that Kirby and his allies are using Borax as an ingredient in whatever substance they're using as fuel for their plasma generating reactions.

Or Dream Land's atmosphere is rich in green-burning chemicals.

[DataNinja]

Well, this video decided to process for, like, an hour and a half after you posted it, but finally able to watch.

Hmm... this battle was definitely more visually impressive in Super Star Ultra.

I am looking forwards to see what you showcase from Ultra!

[LaZodiac]

It's time to finish the fight.

Zodi Plays: Halo 3 [12] [FINALE] Fight, Finished

Video Length: 49:27

The back half of the last level of Halo 3, as well as our final thoughts on the matter.

Halo 3 is, genuinely, quite excellent. If you're not into shooters it might be hard to get into it, but if you are, or if you're willing to try, it will reward you with one of the best experiences you'll ever have with a game like this. Thank you all for enjoying this, even if it is strange juxtaposed with the other games I am doing at the time.

On that note, the next Halo will have its own thread! Which, up until five seconds ago, I was juuust about to post... then Em reminded me that I didn't actually post this one yet oops. They're a real trooper... a real orbital drop shock trooper

(god I'm a nerd.)

[DataNinja]

...oh, good. Em had the exact same thing happen as I did. So I sat out this entire fight. Woo. This one is 100% not meant for 2 players.

Fun Fact: During that fight, the Spartan Laser has infinite ammo.

The Forerunner, Reclaimer everything has been going on since Halo 1.

So, fun fact about this last mission. If you have an auto-sentry turret active (I had one that I used to help protect the door, while waiting for Spark to open it)… since it's Forerunner, it will start attacking you after you kill Spark and start running out.

I feel like that "planet" whatever in the center of the Ark might be High Charity, since Gravemind piloted it here? I dunno.

While it would have been a good way for him to go, unfortunately, they didn't kill off John Masterchief.


Objectively, Halo 3 is probably the better Halo game, but... I enjoy Reach more. Just in my own opinion. I'll... talk about that more when we eventually get to that.

Negatives for the gameplay: Still sucky boss battles.

I know for me, Re: Arbiter, that the disappointing thing was... you never really even got anything beyond the one moment he was important. There never was anything even when fighting side by side with Elites, or upon seeing the Ark, or vehemence against the Gravemind, or anything. Like, I'd've been happy with just having him be more than a noncharacter whose presence really only reminds you that that whole civil war everything is still dangling technically unanswered.

Yeeeeeeah…. things are kinda all wrapped up neatly in a bow with regards to the story, and future installments would be better off unconnected. But... well... *sigh*.

[Lord Raziere]

Kirby Watch Day 2:
Kirby somehow slower than Dedede in these races. Or perhaps they are just consistently distracted by food and it weighs them down, except Kirby seems to be a literal bottomless pit inside and always is incredibly light.

in general Kirby seems to have enough intelligence to recognize games and have fun. is it perhaps sapient?

Kirby Watch Day 3:
Thus Kirby goes forth to defeat dynablade, to prove that its the dominant life form on this world.

Kirby at times is seen firing itself out of a canon and finding it fun. masochism, or perhaps another evidence that what alien planet it comes from its far more dangerous than Pop Star?

Kirby Watch Day 4:
The subject seems to like turning into a stone and sliding down slopes for some reason. Perhaps Kirby finds it amusing?

Kirby shows kindness to this other life form after defeating it. At the expense of its most common prey, Whispy Woods, a sentient tree. Whispy wood is of course an interesting specimen to study by themselves, and scholars wonder if Whispy is bored or jealous of others being able to move. Thus do we see the cruelty of nature at work.

Halo 3 Episode 10
I'm not sure MC is even built for romance, honestly. The way he is raised, he basically expresses little to no emotion, he is trained to treat his armor as a second skin and the way he views everything as incredibly mission-oriented and fighting-focused, it wouldn't surprise me if after all he's been through his ability to have romantic attachments to be nonexistent or near non-existent. it certainly wouldn't be a situation he'd be trained for. in terms of mental state, like he is as close to a robot your going to get without actually being one and still be on the side of good. he is kind of like a war veteran, but without any normal society basis for him to return to when all the wars he has been fighting finally come to an end.

while Cortana.....uuuh....well.....later games explore what the problem is there on her end just fine.

Yes, your good friend Rock It Lawn Chair.

yeah uuuh....these sequences with Cortana and the Gravemind are hard to understand. I kind of get the words, but what they mean is lost amid the noise and gravemind's deep voice and such.

"yay wiggly tubes"-but would you say the same for rigid tubes? I personally wouldn't for either.

"No I do not submit to anyone."-you like to be the one on top, got it

well if its a psychic connection that would imply a few interesting things about the Haloverse. 1: that an AI can form a psychic connection and thus have a psychic presence and 2: if it can go across galaxies, then distance might not be what we normally think it is.

well its a physical object, but it looked pretty computer-esque, so maybe Cortana downloaded the Index's information onto herself at some point? yeah see, M agrees.

yeah I can see how an escape sequence combined with an unfamiliar irregular environment can be annoying. the best escape sequences make the direction as clear as possible so you can run as fast as possible to get the feel right.

Episode 11:
ah, the classic videogame time loop of death: your trapped in this situation until you stop dying.

Episode 12:
Its kinda weird how the final boss of Halo 3 is a small ball that doesn't look combat capable at all but is in fact more advanced tech than you could ever dream of

Now THIS is an escape sequence! Epic music playing while the entire halo self destructs, enemies coming to get you everywhere while you drive the warthog for dear life! feels like an actual movie escape scene. didn't know that is all actually physics though.

technically you consider the entire mission the final boss: its a seemingly impossible mission where you can die so many ways that it lets you know that getting through all of means your a badass.

and of course MC just chills behind cover while the explosion happens around him. just relaxing. nerves of steel.

Yeah Arbiter is kinda cool, as he is keeping up with Master Chief....while wearing arguably old outdated armor and being un-augmented. sure you can say that probably means his own alien species biology makes up the difference a little, but the fact remains you have to best of the best to even fight close to MC's level.

considering that Guilty Spark is the only one of those who didn't get taken over, unlike Mendicant Bias or Penitent Tangent, its actually good that it did no matter how much of a fanatical jerk he was.

I like the idea of MC being a mentor character. he has commanded people before, so being a teacher would kind of be the next step. I would add as an additional thing that if MC was rediscovered in this hypothetical and the wars over, he'd probably be assessed for trauma and come up with a lot of it- enough for the brass to move him out of active duty. it'd be an additional reason why he can't be the protagonist forever, give him more characterization when talking to the new protagonist, and keep the series grounded in the realities it deals with.

But that doesn't happen so.......*shrug* what ya gonna do?

[LaZodiac]

Really glad you liked the videos Rater, and I'm greatly amused by the natural science bend you're going for with the Kirby stuff

(also Em is nonbinary.)

[Lord Raziere]

Really glad you liked the videos Rater, and I'm greatly amused by the natural science bend you're going for with the Kirby stuff

(also Em is nonbinary.)

.......Have I hanged out with Rater that much that you get me confused?? Oh no. I have to do the must un-Rater202 thing I can possibly think of: start worshipping a fictional death god.