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Inhale

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Official artwork of Kirby inhaling from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

Inhaling is Kirby's most unique ability, debuting in his very first game, Kirby's Dream Land, and usable in most subsequent games of the Kirby series. Kirby performs this ability by opening his mouth wide and sucking in air, which creates a vortex, dragging nearby enemies or other objects toward him and into his mouth. From there, Kirby can either swallow them, effectively removing them from existence, or shoot them back out as a Star Bullet which shatters on impact. Many enemies and projectiles, when swallowed, grant Kirby a Copy Ability based on the nature of the thing Kirby just ate. Effects vary based on the game, but usually the same types of enemies provide the same abilities.

Details

In most games in the series, Kirby's Inhale can work through walls, allowing him to nab enemies and even items in some cases through them. Often times, doing this is necessary to solve certain puzzles. Kirby can also inhale multiple enemies and/or objects at once. If he spits them out, it creates a more powerful star projectile, which can pass through multiple targets. In some games, it grows proportionally to the number of objects inhaled. In other games, Kirby can inhale his friends, and use them as projectiles, though this does not destroy them like it does the enemies.

Inhale works on most enemies in the Kirby series, but some enemies are immune to this technique (for known or unknown reasons). The most common examples of enemies that can't be inhaled are Bosses, Gordos, Shotzos, Scarfies, and Mumbies.

In some games, Kirby can hold his inhale longer to power it up. This technique is called Super Inhale, and it is often necessary to swallow and/or simply make budge larger objects. Usually Kirby will tire after using this variant for too long, and have to rest. In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, an even more souped-up version of Inhale exists, known as Hypernova, and can be acquired by eating Miracle Fruit. Using this, Kirby can inhale massive objects, and also move while inhaling. In addition, he can even swallow some bosses whole, which is impossible to do with the normal Inhale.

Notable Appearances

Kirby's Dream Land

In Kirby's debut game, he had no Copy Abilities. Inhaling was his primary method of dispatching enemies, either in swallowing them, or spitting them back out. Against bosses, the usual strategy was to inhale any projectiles thrown his way and spit them back.

Kirby's Adventure/Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

The ability to gain Copy Abilities by swallowing certain enemies debuted in this game.

Super Smash Bros. Series

Kirby uses Inhale as his neutral special move in all of the Super Smash Bros. titles. This allows him to copy his opponents' neutral special attacks. Naturally, Kirby does not destroy his opponent when he does this, though it does deal damage.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

In this game alone, Kirby was able to use his Inhale underwater. This is also the first game where he could put two Copy Abilities together, allowing for combinations like Cutter-Cutter, Bomb-Cutter, and Burn-Needle.

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

This was the first game in the series where Kirby could Super Inhale. Often, he would need to team up with the other three Kirbys to move large objects.

Kirby: Squeak Squad

In this game, Kirby could store up to five objects that he had swallowed in his stomach dimension for later use. Strangely, this feature did not return in later games. Kirby was also able to combine certain abilities he had stored away, like combining Sword with Spark to create an electric sword, or two otherwise incompatible abilities to get a random new ability.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land

In this title, Kirby is able to inhale his friends, and spit them out as part of his projectiles. This does not hurt them, making it sometimes a useful strategy to use Kirby's friends as ammunition.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

This is where the Hypernova ability made its debut. At one point during the game, Kirby uses it to inhale an entire Boss, defeating it in one fell swoop.

Kirby's Blowout Blast

File:Blowout Blast Art 01.png
Official art of Kirby inhaling three Waddle Dees at once, from Blowout Blast.

Kirby gets particularly big when he inhales a bunch of enemies in this spin-off title. When he releases them, the star that results is referred to as a Blaster Bullet, and can wipe out enemies in a huge area.

Other entities that can Inhale

Kirby is not the only one who can Inhale. The following is a list of other entities that use an Inhale to attack, though most of them cannot Copy abilities or even swallow:

Trivia

  • Kirby is not able to inhale in all his adventures. Notable examples include Kirby's Epic Yarn, in which he is not able to inhale due to having been transformed into a yarn outline, and Kirby Mass Attack where he is split into ten smaller Kirbys who are not able to inhale individually.
  • In Kirby's Adventure, the Throw ability, despite being a Copy Ability, still utilizes an inhale to grab hold of an enemy before tossing them.