Kirby Block Ball

Kirby Block Ball
If you wanted to play one of the best Breakout clone ever, then this game is for you.
Genre(s): Breakout clone Platform(s): Game Boy Release: JP: December 14, 1995 NA: May 13, 1996 EU: August 29, 1996 Developer(s): TOSE Nintendo R&D1 Publisher(s): Nintendo Predecessor: Kirby's Dream Land 2 Successor: Kirby's Star Stacker

Kirby’s Block Ball, known in Japan as Kirby no Block Ball, is a 1995 video game developed by TOSE and Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy portable console. It is a spin-off of the Kirby video game series. It is a Breakout clone.

Plot

In this adventure, Kirby takes center stage in a frenzied, block-clearing free for all! Through the positioning of the paddle, you send a ball into the playing field and clear a variety of blocks, with the goal of establishing a high score! After facing familiar enemies, Kirby must face his arch-nemesis, King DeDeDe! It will not be an easy task.... Use the four abilities and the Kirby Power Bounce wisely!

Why It Rocks

1. The concept of making a Breakout clone with Kirby is an awesome idea, and it shows that the execution is great to the point of being one of, if not the best, Breakout clones ever made.
   • It's also added much more features than the original Breakout games, as here it's had not only the regular Breakout gameplay but also some bonus stages and some power-ups to make this idea fresh.
2. The gameplay is extremely fun and addicting, with it being one of the most fun spin-offs of the series, and it's also got rich gameplay to keep it even more fun than expected. In fact, the game is so fun that you will want to play it for 3 to 4 hours straight, or even beat the game over and over.
3. The graphics are again really good and detailed, especially for a Game Boy game made in 1995, the same year as Kirby's Dream Land 2.
   • The sprite work is again fantastic, with some of the best and also cutest sprites out of the series in any 2D game. The Kirby and most of the boss sprites in particular are great.
4. The soundtrack is really good, with most songs that are extremely catchy to listen to; in fact, there will be some levels where you will want to make it longer just to listen to the music of it or pressing nothing to listen to the title screen and map select screen music.
   • The first level has some of the best music from any Kirby games on Game Boy, as it is very catchy and unforgettable for a Game Boy game released in 1995; unfortunately, it's not that much remixed in modern Kirby games, except for Kirby Dream Buffet.
5. The game is decently long for a Game Boy game and especially for a Breakout clone, as it takes 2 hours to beat the game. Despite that, it can be considered a bad quality for some.
6. Despite this not being the first time there are a bad and good ending feature in a Kirby game, it is still innovative for a Breakout clone, as these kinds of games rarely do this.
   • The bad ending is when you haven't beat the border lines in all the stages, meaning that it's giving a good number of replay values for a Breakout clone.
   • The good ending is when you beat the border lines in all the stages and unlock a new stage for doing this.
7. The face that King Dedede does in the bad ending can be funny to some people, albeit a bit creepy for some people too.
8. There are 4 bonus stages.
   • The first is when you have to push up the clouds to get a life; if you go down them, they don't go up, and if you fall, you can't continue the bonus stages anymore.
   • The second is where you have to push up the block with a Kirby or King Dedede image; sometimes you can get 1, 2, or 3 extra lives; this is a pretty fun one.
   • The third is where you have to catch up with the stars and avoid the bombs; this is one of the most fun bonus stages of the game.
   • The fourth one is hockey, and it's also pretty fun but the weakest bonus stage.
9. Tight and responsive controls.
10. It's beginner-friendly, unlike some other Breakout clones, as you get a lot of extra lives, and the level design is rarely, if ever bad.
11. Great title screens for both regions, especially the Japanese one.
12. For a Breakout clone, the level design is really good, as there's barely any bad levels and it's really fun to start to finish.
13. The boss fights are really fun and awesome for a Breakout clone, and there is awesome music for them.

Bad Qualities

1. The game is a bit too long, lasting 2 hours, which is far too much for a Breakout clone.
2. The border lines can be frustrating to complete.
3. Some of the boss fights can be hard.

Reception

Kirby Block Ball receives very positive reviews, the critics even considered this game to be better than the original Breakout.

Trivia

• Two enemies, Waddle Doo and Pengy, were programmed into Kirby's Block Ball, but went unused. Their respective defeat animations have Waddle Doo's eye burst out of its socket and Pengy freeze into an ice block.
  • Pengy's graphics are loaded in Area 2 of Stage 7.
  • The game's instruction manual depicts artwork of the two enemies alongside Propeller, Chuckie, Coner, and Slippy. This suggests that Waddle Doo and Pengy were cut late in development.
• Kirby's Block Ball is the first Kirby game to include a fire-centered ability (Burning) without an ice-centered counterpart (such as Freeze).
• Kirby's Block Ball has the fewest Copy Abilities of any game that has them, with only four.
• Kirby's Block Ball is the only known Kirby game to have been made in collaboration with Tose, a Japanese game developer with a hand in over 1000 games, who would later create the original series The Legendary Starfy. As with most of their projects, they are not named in the game's credits. Nevertheless, the list shares several staff members with Tose's Game & Watch Gallery series, among other Tose games.
• Kirby's Block Ball was one of the last games to have Game Boy hardware designer Gunpei Yokoi in the role of producer, before his departure from Nintendo in 1996 and his death in 1997.

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