Kirby Mass Attack

Kirby Mass Attack North American box artEuropean box artJapanese box artSouth Korean box art Box art of Kirby Mass Attack in various regions. Details Developer(s) HAL Laboratory Publisher(s) Nintendo Release date(s) Nintendo DS August 4, 2011 September 19, 2011 October 27, 2011 October 28, 2011 December 1, 2011 Virtual Console (Wii U) December 3, 2015 December 4, 2015 February 29, 2016 July 28, 2016 Platform(s) Nintendo DS Supported languages Japanese, American English, British English, European French, Canadian French, Italian, German, Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Korean Rating(s) ESRB: PEGI: CERO:

Game chronology ← Kirby's Epic Yarn Kirby's Return to Dream Land →

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"KMA" redirects here. For information about the Nintendo DS game known as Kirby: Mouse Attack in some languages, see Kirby: Squeak Squad.

Kirby Mass Attack is a spin-off Kirby game released for the Nintendo DS in 2011. The central premise revolves around using the Nintendo DS stylus to direct and guide up to ten otherwise small and helpless mini-Kirbys, who were split from the original by the game's villain Necrodeus in order to make the pink puffball easier to defeat. Instead of controlling the Kirbys directly, the player has to use the stylus to flick them around, tell them where to run, and drag them over obstacles when needed. A lot of micromanagement is needed to keep the Kirbys from perishing as they make their way through the stages, and if any are lost, the Kirbys will need to collect fruit in order to create new ones, with the player losing if all the Kirbys are defeated. The objective is to lead them through the stages until encountering and defeating Necrodeus at the very end, so that Kirby may become his whole self again.

In addition to the main story and its expansive stages, collections of enemies, and variety of devices, hazards, and other gimmicks, Kirby Mass Attack also features a very large collection of unlockable Sub-Games, which offer novel ways to play and tons of references to other Kirby games and even other games outside of the Kirby series. Kirby Mass Attack also features a very detailed hint system, which comes in the form of Daroach and his airship. Daroach's main motive for helping the Kirbys is so they can collect the various medals hidden throughout the game for him.

Kirby Mass Attack's name was first revealed in the 267th issue of Nintendo Power (May 2011). The game was one of the Nintendo DS titles shown at E3 2011. Kirby Mass Attack was first released in Japan on August 4, 2011, and was released in North America a month later, then in Europe and Australia roughly a month after that and finally in South Korea at the end of the year. It would be the last Kirby game to release for the Nintendo DS, and the last one to feature primarily sprite-based graphics. Kirby Mass Attack would go on to sell roughly 1.06 million copies, making it the lowest in the list of Kirby games that have sold at least a million units.

Plot

“

Necrodeus split Kirby into 10 copies of himself, each having only a fraction of Kirby's greatness!

”

— Opening narration in Kirby Mass Attack

The premise of Kirby Mass Attack involves Kirby flying down to explore a novel area in the south of Popstar called the Popopo Islands, only to be attacked by a dark wizard named Necrodeus: the leader of a marauding band of skeletal creatures called the Skull Gang. While Kirby is taking a nap, Necrodeus appears out of nowhere and zaps Kirby with his magical staff, splitting the pink puffball into ten weaker copies of himself. Necrodeus then proceeds to pick off the Kirbys one-by-one in hopes of snuffing out the planet's greatest hero so he can blot the light of Popstar out forever. However, one of these smaller Kirbys manages to escape, and from there, rendezvouses with his heroic heart which popped out of him when he was split. The heart - which serves as the player's cursor in gameplay - leads this Kirby into the wilderness so that he can regain his numbers and eventually restore himself to normal.

Kirby using Rainbow Medals to shine a beam of light through Necro Nebula.

As Kirby ventures through each of the Popopo Islands and regains his numbers, he is repeatedly attacked by lesser members of the Skull Gang who try to carry Kirbys away and destroy them. As they progress, the Kirbys receive advice from Daroach - the leader of the Squeaks - who travels with his band in an airship they built. Daroach tells the Kirbys that they need to collect medals in each island they visit, and pay particular mind for special Rainbow Medals, which - if gathered - can be used to pierce the gloom surrounding the Skull Gang's homeworld of Necro Nebula. After visiting each island and defeating the Skull Gang's influence there, the Kirbys manage to collect all of these medals, and then are able to infiltrate the craggy lifeless homeworld of Necrodeus and his minions.

When the Kirbys arrive at Necrodeus' palace, they find his staff - the one he used to split them apart - and try to claim it so the spell can be undone, but Necrodeus shows up and swallows the staff, forcing the Kirbys to defeat him if they want it. After a long and grueling struggle - part of which takes place in a zero-gravity environment - Necrodeus is soundly beaten and relinquishes the staff as he is banished to oblivion. Using the staff's magic, the Kirbys are finally able to recombine into one being. This done, Kirby takes to his Warp Star and returns home to Popstar, but not before pondering for a moment about how the darkness surrounding his home makes it shine all the brighter.

Gameplay

The player can flick the Kirbys to make them jump.

Kirby Mass Attack is - like the main Kirby series games - a side-scrolling 2D platformer that tasks Kirby to reach the end of stages filled with various enemies, obstacles, and occasionally boss fights. However, much like Kirby's Epic Yarn before it, the core gameplay is very different from that of the main series. Due to having been split into ten weaker copies, the Kirbys are no longer able to hover, inhale, or use Copy Abilities. Instead, their main means of attack is by latching onto enemies and pummeling them, or by being tossed at enemies and hazards to impact them, in a very similar manner to how Pikmin fight. In another similarity to the Pikmin games, the player does not control the Kirbys directly, but instead plays the role of a leader in the form of Kirby's heroic heart, which is a star-shaped object that acts as a cursor. This heart is controlled by means of the Nintendo DS stylus, and tapping places on the screen tells the Kirbys where to go. Other key actions include tapping and holding down to drag the Kirbys along a magical line to get them around hazards, or tapping and quickly flicking a Kirby to throw him in the direction indicated.

In another departure from the main Kirby series, Kirby Mass Attack does not have a traditional health meter for the Kirbys, but instead gives each one two hit points, and shows their state of health by their body color: Healthy Kirbys are pink, wounded Kirbys are blue, and KO'd Kirbys are gray. Wounded Kirbys can be restored to full health by tossing them through a Recovery Ring, which can be found at various points in stages. KO'd Kirbys will slowly flutter away on angel's wings and can be saved and returned to blue status if they are captured by a living Kirby before they are gone. However, some hazards such as Skullys and Grueglooms may destroy Kirbys they manage to catch without any chance of rescue, while other hazards such as crushers will KO Kirbys regardless of their health status. In the case that any Kirbys are lost, the player can replenish their numbers by having the remaining one(s) collect Fruit. Collecting 100 points worth of fruit will automatically add a new Kirby to the team, or give a score bonus if there are already ten. If all 10 Kirbys are lost during a stage, a Game Over occurs, and the stage has to be replayed from the beginning (there is no extra life system in Kirby Mass Attack).

The main story mode of Kirby Mass Attack takes the Kirbys through over 40 extensive stages, each of which has a wide array of unique enemies, devices, hazards, and other gimmicks (many of which are unique to this game). As the Kirbys progress through each stage, their main objective is to collect the medals hidden throughout. One medal in each stage is designated as a Rainbow Medal, and collecting all of these is required to access the final level of Necro Nebula and complete the game. Collecting medals is also how the player unlocks extra game features, including the Sub-Games, boss rush mode, and other menu options like the Theater.

Rankings

At the end of each stage, the player is graded based on how well the Kirbys were handled, which is separate from the medals. The rankings are as follows:

• Gold Star - No damage was taken
• Silver Star - No Kirbys were KO'd (put into angel state)
• Bronze Star - No Kirbys were lost
• No star - Kirbys were lost or a shortcut was used

While these rankings have no direct effect on gameplay, getting a Gold Star on every stage is required for 100% completion. This means that to earn this distinction, the player has to clear each individual stage and boss fight without any Kirbys being harmed once, which is among the most difficult tasks any Kirby game directly imposes on the player.

Levels

There are five levels in the main story mode of Kirby Mass Attack. The first four take place in an area in the southern regions of Popstar called the Popopo Islands. The fifth level - Necro Nebula - does not appear until every Rainbow Medal is collected in the prior four levels. For more information about each level in the game, click the corresponding island in the navmap below.

The Popopo Islands Click on an island

Enemies

A compilation of various enemies from Mass Attack with their Japanese names (some were never localized).

Kirby Mass Attack features a stunningly large cast of enemies, more than any other single Kirby game. Additionally, many of these enemies are new to the series, and of these, most have not reappeared in any game since. The following lists each enemy in alphabetical order:

Sub-Game exclusive enemies

The following enemies and bosses appear only in the Sub-Games:

Bosses

There are five bosses in Kirby Mass Attack, each serving as the final obstacle of each level. The first four are fought for a second time in Necro Nebula.

Bosses in Kirby Mass Attack
Boss	Home level	Description	Notes
Whispy Woods	Green Grounds	A totem pole-like sentient tree whose segments can be destroyed by slamming into them repeatedly.	Unlike in other iterations, Whispy Woods fights by dropping spiky nuts instead of apples.
Lady Ivy	Sandy Canyon	A spiky Snoozroot-like creature that attacks by knocking the platform the Kirbys are standing on around like a see-saw.
King Dedede	Dedede Resort	King Dedede fights the Kirbys by tossing bombs encased in bubbles from a hot air balloon.	This is the only fight that can be entered with less than 10 Kirbys.
Skullord	Volcano Valley	A giant skull-wearing pig enemy that attacks from afar using meteors shot from its snout.
Necrodeus	Necro Nebula	An undead wizard who hates bright light and who was responsible for splitting Kirby into 10. He attacks using his hands to swipe and using a laser inside his mouth.	Defeating Necrodeus completes the game.

Extras

Screenshot of Kirby Brawlball; one of the unlockable Sub-Games in Kirby Mass Attack.

Using medals, several Sub-Games and menus can be unlocked. They are presented in the order they are unlocked in:

• Field Frenzy (and the Extras menu in the process)
• Music Player
• Kirby Brawlball
• Kirby Curtain Call
• Dash Course
• Strato Patrol EOS
• Kirby Quest
• Game Album
• Checklist (Does not unlock the checklist so much as reveal its hidden contents. This is done page by page with different medal thresholds.)
• Survival Rush

Staff

The following is a list of staff who have worked on Kirby Mass Attack:

Staff of Kirby Mass Attack
Position	Developer(s)
Director	Mari Shirakawa
Assistant Director	Tadashi Kawai
Concept Planning	Takashi Hamamura ENGINES
Planning Leader	Lee Suchol
Planning	Toyohisa Tanabe Kousuke Koyanagi Yoshimasa Arita Takashi Hamada
Programming Leader	Hiroyuki Hayashi
Programming	Kazuhiro Mizusawa Keita Yamada Hideto Fukushima Kojiro Ooki Kazunori Takahashi Fumihiro Sugiura Hiroyuki Fujiwara
Design Leader	Yoshihisa Maeda
Design	Abeno Matsuzaki Shiho Tsutsuji Takayuki Nakayama UKIYOTEI Yohei Sano Minoru Yoshikoshi Tsuyoshi Wakayama Tetsuya Mochiduki Kouchi Ogawa
Music	Shogo Sakai
Sound Effects	Masaaki Iwasaki
Voice	Makiko Ohmoto (as Kirby)
Testing	Kazuhiko Fukuda Masaru Kobayashi Kenichi Masuda Hiromatsu Kotaro Mario Club DIGITAL Hearts HAL Debug Team
NOA Localization Management	Nate Bihldorff Reiko Ninomiya Tim O'Leary Leslie Swan
NOA Localization	Hélène Bisson-Pelland Steven Grimm Kristin Kirby Anne-Marie Laperrière César Pérez Scot Ritchey Galia Rodríguez Hornedo Derek Seklecki Kevin Sullivan Erika Webright
NOA Product Testing Management	Masayasu Nakata Kyle Hudson Eric Bush Sean Egan
NOA Product Testing	Scott Callahan Keith Banta Teresa Lilygreen Josh Newman Kindra Timmerwilke Nicko Gonzalez De Santiago Sara Hoad Stéphane Arlot
NOE Localisation Management	Andy Fey Jan Peitzmeier Andrea Salvi
NOE Localisation Coordination	Mihai Barbulescu
NOE Localisation	John Mullen Daniel Idoine-Shirai Pierre-Guillaume Mabboux Gurvan Le Guen Daniel Pestka Sascha Weinard Andrea Leitenberger Marco Morbin Elizabeth Sánchez León Pedro José Moreno Villar
NOE QA Coordination	Wolfgang Weber Christopher Caël
NOE Quality Assurance	Natalie Lunt Brendan Quinn Damien Li Julien Llopart Antoine Boissier Allane Lalmi Oliver Müller Markus Engemann Monica Joseph Francesco Fonte Alessandro Boem Julien Marchant Julio Manzaneda Ester Villalobos Jessica Sánchez
Korean Localization Management	Yu Fukaya Hyokjin Jung Kimiko Nakamichi
Korean Localization	Joohee Kim Jihyun Choi
Korean Product Support	Ilho Kim Jonghoon Park
Korean Product Testing	Junbong Lee Sungmin Park Kyoungim Na NOK Debug Team
Localization Coordination	Kenichi Masuda
Special Thanks	Yoshimi Takahashi Masanori Kusumoto Shin Hasegawa Yoshihito Ikebata Yuji Ichijo
NOE Special Thanks	Kazunari Suzuki Rika Yamamoto
Management Adviser	Tomoaki Fukui
Coordination	Atsuto Yagi
Producer	Masanobu Yamamoto Yoichi Yamamoto Yasushi Adachi
Senior Producer	Kensuke Tanabe Masayoshi Tanimura
Executive Producer	Satoru Iwata
HAL Laboratory, Inc. and Nintendo are the authors of this software for the purpose of copyright. All rights reserved. © 2011 HAL Laboratory, Inc. / Nintendo.

Nintendo eShop description

Gather a mob of Kirby characters, and then lead them on a crazy adventure where nothing can stand in your way! You can send Kirbys swarming over your enemies, fling them into the air to hit flying floes^[sic], and even take on challenges of strength! Be sure to collect medals hidden throughout various stages to unlock minigames.

Trivia

• Often when performing actions, or when entering doors while still eligible for a Gold Star, the mini-Kirbys shout "Poyo", which was a vocalization Kirby often repeated in place of actual speech in the anime, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. This is among the few Kirby games where that is the case, as most other games where Kirby "talks" has him shouting variations of "Hi!"
  • In addition, the Sub-Games of Kirby Mass Attack feature a number of characters otherwise exclusive to the anime who make cameo appearances. These include Chef Shiitake, Max Flexer, Escargoon, Captain Waddle Doo, and the N.M.E. Sales Guy.
• This is the only game in the series where Kirby can drown underwater (but can still breathe in space).
• This game has a very large amount of unused content left in the game's files. More details can be found here.
  • The game's internal codename is wadogo, although filenames also use WADO frequently. The Japanese name for Waddle Dee is ワドルディ or wadorudi, with "wado" being a shortening of this name.
  • Additionally, a number of sound effects of Kirby's voice have internal names of SE_WANYA_DO, SE_WANYA_RE, SE_WANYA_MI, and so on up to SE_WANYA_HI_DO, suggesting that they may have been "wanya" vocalizations earlier in development (similar to the "wanya" vocalizations used in Kirby Brawlball for the Waddle Dee elements on the board).

Gallery

Main article: Kirby Mass Attack/gallery

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	あつめて！カービィ Atsumete! Kābyi	Gather! Kirby
Chinese	Kirby Mass Attack	-
Dutch	Kirby Mass Attack	-
French	Kirby Mass Attack	-
German	Kirby Mass Attack	-
Italian	Kirby Mass Attack	-
Korean	모여라! 커비 Moyeora! Keobi	Gather! Kirby
Portuguese	Kirby Mass Attack	-
Spanish	Kirby Mass Attack	-

External links

• Official Japanese website
• Official North American website
• Official Australian website (Wayback Machine)
• Kirby Mass Attack on Kirby Informer
• English manual (EU print)
• Japanese manual