Kirby: Popstar Origins

Kirby: Popstar Origins (known in Japan as 星のカービィ：ホームワールド [Kirby of the Stars: Homeworld] in Japan) is a 3D platformer Kirby game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the New Nintendo Switch. It is the first game in the series to host an open-world environment with missions and characters to interact with, rather than a regular goal-oriented mechanism. It is also the first game in the series to feature fully voice-acted characters, with dialogue being fully spoken by each character; voices are also given to characters who usually never speak, such as King Dedede himself. It was announced in a Nintendo Direct that aired on on August 28th, 2023, and released worldwide for the New Nintendo Switch on January 20th, 2024.
== Story ==
As the sun rises on another beautiful day in Dream Land, we see residents waking up and preparing to go about their lives. We see a small, round house with a chimney, and are greeted by our beloved pink puff, Kirby. He greets the sunrise with a smile, and we are shown a montage of a day in the life of Kirby. First, he visits Whispy Woods for his daily nap, and the kind tree leans down to give him some apples to munch on. Later, he visits Castle Dedede to challenge the king himself to an eating contest, which ends with one piece of strawberry shortcake, which they decide to share together. He then visits the deck of the Halberd, where Meta Knight challenges him to a friendly duel to practice their swordsmanship. And at the end of the day, he sits in his bed and watches Adeleine paint a picture of a tomato for him. When she's finished, Kirby effortlessly inhales the tomato, and smiles briefly before drifting off to sleep. Adeleine giggles and paints a sleeping hat for him to wear, and leaves the house.
Usually, this is the part where Kirby would be having wonderful dreams of food everywhere, but we see no such thing this time; we see nothing but a black screen. Kirby then opens his eyes, dazed and confused at his lack of dreams. He presumes that his insatiable hunger is the cause, so he goes to his fridge to prepare a midnight snack. He then notices a strange glow coming through his window, and goes outside to investigate. The glow changes colors between a bright yellow and a dark, murky purple. Kirby decides to find the source of this strange sight, and traverses the lands of Green Greens to find it. He then arrives at a structure he hasn't seen in quite some time - the Fountain of Dreams. However, the fountain seems to be malfunctioning, as the water is at a low level, and the Star Rod is flickering. Kirby looks up at the Star Rod to see a growing purple aura, and he steps back in worry. The ground around him begins to rumble, and suddenly a deep, dark voice is heard:
"This is my home...and I'm going to fix everything."
The Fountain of Dreams then shakes violently, and the land around Kirby begins to swirl and warp, resembling vaguely familiar structures. The fountain then explodes in a supernova and knocks Kirby unconscious.
Kirby wakes up some time later, back in Green Greens. The sun is shining, the grass is green, and it seems as if nothing has happened. Kirby looks around, however, and begins to notice some worrying differences in the land; for one, Castle Dedede is nowhere to be seen, and a small hill takes its place. Kirby also notices some mountains in the distance, which were not there beforehand. He then spots a broken-down Fountain of Dreams, with a missing star on the Star Rod. Kirby's expression becomes worried, and he then spots a yellow rabbit-like creature with wings, kneeling before the fountain with a depressed expression on its face. It laments about how the fountain was the only way to stop "it", and now all hope is lost for the world. Kirby walks up to the creature and taps it on the shoulder, surprising and embarrassing it. It apologizes profusely for allowing its emotions to get the best of it, speaking in a royal tone of voice. She explains that the fountain was the only way to stop what she refers to as an "evil mass", but the fountain's destruction has taken away any chances it had left of saving the world. 
Kirby feels a natural desire to combat this loss of hope, and communicates an intent to help by doing his excited pose. The creature becomes happier as a response, and thanks him. It then takes a closer look at Kirby, and recognizes him, becoming extremely excited. It explains that it had heard tales all around the galaxy about the "hero of the stars", but never imagined it would meet him in person. Once again thanking him for volunteering to help repair the fountain, the creature introduces itself as Queen Drimi (Drimi for short), one of the seven Star Guardians of the galaxy. The Star Guardians' purposes are to protect the galaxy from negative energy, and to ensure happiness and peace in all worlds. Each Guardian is responsible for a different aspect of keeping the peace, Drimi’s being to protect the dreams of the galaxy’s citizens. She has invented various tools and items that can help bring dreams to life, including the very structure standing before her and Kirby, the Fountain of Dreams. She explains how she and her friends (the other Guardians) have long been dealing with a giant mass of energy made of negative emotions, mainly hatred, sadness, jealousy and grief. They aren't sure what it is or where it came from, but one thing was sure; every time they encountered it, it always tried to head in the same direction, towards Planet Popstar. 
They had managed to seal it away for a while, but suddenly, they felt massive amounts of hatred emanating from its barrier. It then broke out and rushed towards Kirby's homeworld with incredible speed, unable to be stopped by the Star Guardians. Drimi explains that this is when she thought everything was over, but she realized she could still use the Fountain of Dreams to stop the negative energy. However, the mass overpowered her, and then took control of the fountain, sending out a blast that changed Popstar's entire terrain, bringing back creatures that once lived there, along with buildings and cities, and lands that once existed there. In an attempt to save whatever she could, she used up all her energy to protect Green Greens, keeping it the same as before. But now having nothing left to combat its plans, she remains alone and hopeless on Planet Popstar, which has succumbed to the mass. However, seeing Kirby and having him to help has rekindled her hope, and she feels some optimism that she and Kirby can restore the world to normal. Kirby becomes excited at having helped someone, and hugs Drimi, to which she blushes.
Drimi then feels an energy emanating inside her, and says that she senses some positive energy nearby. She and Kirby then traverse the plains to find it, and come across a small, yellow shard. Drimi recognizes the energy coming from it, and says that the energy is the same as that which comes from the Star Rod, the source of the fountain's power. She and Kirby then determine that in order to restore the Fountain of Dreams, they must collect all of the remaining shards. They then set off on what could be Kirby's biggest adventure yet; not only to restore the Fountain of Dreams and save Popstar, but to solve the mystery of these new creatures and lands that have appeared on Planet Popstar, and to find out what this mass of evil is capable of, and its origins as well.
== Gameplay ==
Being the second fully 3D entry in the series, Kirby: Popstar Origins allows the player to move freely around the environment. It controls similarly to Kirby and the Forgotten Land, although Kirby is no longer limited to a specific area as in the previous entry; he can explore every area of the world around him, and can enter and exit areas as he wishes. Areas that are clear boundaries are represented by bottomless pits, force fields, or pools of liquid such as poison, magma, or an empty area of water. Kirby: Popstar Origins introduces the pink puffball to a completely open-world environment, with his main goal being to traverse the many areas inside the worlds he explores in order to collect Dream Shards, items that help advance the story similar to Power Moons from Super Mario Odyssey. However, areas can have several goals, being in the form of side quests accessible by interacting with NPCs, and can sometimes extend to other areas in the game. The completion of one or more of these goals will usually reward Kirby with a Dream Shard, but can also provide him with items, currency, and abilities. The camera works similarly to Super Mario Odyssey; it is able to be moved and rotated freely, and usually centers itself on Kirby, sometimes moving different directions to provide depth and perspective.
Kirby’s moveset remains virtually the same, with only a few small tweaks made to adapt to the open-world style of the game. He can walk, run, jump, and hover up to a certain height and for a certain time before he gets tired. The height he can achieve and the time he can do so has been extended slightly from Kirby and the Forgotten Land to accommodate the open-world gameplay style. He can also blow out puffs of air while hovering. In addition, he can guard to take less damage from attacks, and dodge in the same fashion as Kirby and the Forgotten Land, where he can preform a perfect dodge by doing so just as he is about to be attacked. As is tradition, he can inhale enemies and objects and spit them out, and swallow them to obtain Copy Abilities. The movesets of every Copy Ability have been expanded to provide more techniques, while also having been adjusted to balance out the difficulty. If Kirby takes too much damage at once, he can lose his Copy Ability; he can also remove it manually. The lives system is absent once again, with Kirby only losing Star Coins each time he loses all his health. However, unlike Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby will lose 100 more Star Coins every time he loses all his health, instead of 100 at a time like before.
Completely new to the game are Kirby’s enhanced Dream Abilities, which allow Kirby to control and manipulate the environment around him to perform tasks. They function similarly to Super Abilities from Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, in that they are usually exclusive to the environment they are in, and they have an energy meter that limits the amount of time the abilities can be used for. However, rather than providing advanced techniques, they allow Kirby to utilize the environment around him, in ways such as creating giant sculptures, changing the weather, changing his shape, etc. In order to utilize Dream Abilities, Kirby must collect a certain number of Dream Shards by completing various missions and tasks. Once he does so, he will be able to approach an area where usage of a Dream Ability is required and access the ability by standing in a certain spot where Queen Drimi can help him activate the ability. Similar to Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, Dream Abilities are limited by an energy meter that decreases as he uses the ability. Once it runs out, Kirby will revert back to his normal form. If he has not completed a mission that requires a Dream Ability before the energy meter runs out, the mission will restart from the beginning. Once Kirby has unlocked a Dream Ability, he will be able to use it without needing to collect more Dream Shards, but only in places where there is the appropriate spot.
The very first area in the Kirby series, Green Greens, makes a return as the main hub of the game, similar to Waddle Dee Town from Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It functions as the world map of the game, with an entrance to each world that can be unlocked as Kirby progresses through the story. It also functions as the rest area that Kirby can go to at any time, and as he progresses through the story, it will grow with more places and NPCs. By default, it will start out as a simple plain area consisting of Kirby’s house, some trees, and a few items that spawn so he can heal himself. However, as Kirby completes more missions and meets new characters, the plains will grow into a much more populated area with various places to visit and people to interact with, and even briefly function as part of the main story. The Waddle Dees are back to help Kirby grow his town, with the return of areas from Kirby and the Forgotten Land such as item shops and Waddle Dee-liveries with Present Codes. In addition, Kirby can find Present Codes scattered throughout areas in the main story, and store up to five on a personal notepad to use when he gets back to Green Greens.
The game also features co-op multiplayer, in which Player 1 will always be Kirby, and Players 2-4 can choose from a wide variety of Dream Allies, which take the form of enemies with alternate color palettes that are limited to their own set of abilities, usually taken from their respective Copy Ability. The game supports local multiplayer as well as online co-op.
== Characters ==
This table is very incomplete - it's just to get the basic information.
Characters
Image	Name 	About
 	Kirby 	
 	King Dedede	
 	Meta Knight	
== Bosses ==
== Copy Abilities ==
== Items ==
== Worlds and Levels ==
Category:Games
Category:Fan Games
Category:Kirby (series)