Video Game / Kirby Star Allies

Let's be friends!

Kirby Star Allies is a Platform Game in the Kirby series, and the first game in the series for the Nintendo Switch. It was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo.

In deep space, Lord Hyness, the white-hooded leader of a mysterious cult, performs a strange ritual which causes shadowy hearts to rain down on the galaxy. The hearts corrupt the inhabitants of Planet Popstar, including King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Whispy Woods, causing them to act strangely and aggressively. Hyness sends his troops, the Three Mage Sisters, to recover the hearts by any means necessary so they may complete the dark ritual. Meanwhile, Kirby is asleep in a field of grass when he's hit by a pink heart, giving him the power to use Friend Hearts. He then notices that something's up at Dedede's castle- all the food in Dreamland is being stolen and sent there, once again- and hurries on his way to investigate. Little does he know about the threat from deep space, and that he might need some help along the way...

The core gameplay follows the standards set by Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Return to Dream Land: inhale enemies, copy their abilities, and use their versatile abilities to fight through the levels and solve puzzles. The big gimmick of the game is a heavily expanded helper system, similar to that of Super Star. Instead of creating helpers — now known as friends — from abilities, Kirby can now convert certain enemies into friends by throwing a Friend Heart at them. Up to three friends can be active alongside Kirby, and they can either be controlled by the CPU or with other players for Co-Op Multiplayer. Following that, there are the Friend Abilities: extra moves that every Copy Ability and friend have in order to support their friends, commonly by mixing 2 abilities to create powerful combinations, like in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby: Squeak Squad. There are also Friend Platforms, which activate special abilities for the whole group that help them traverse the levels. In addition to the normal friends, the player can unlock additional Dream Friends, playable characters ranging from series mainstays such as King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee, to long-forgotten characters like Gooey, Adeleine, and Ribbon, and even former villains like Marx, Dark Meta Knight, and Magolor.

Like many "traditional" Kirby games, this game has multiple game modes.

• Story Mode: Watch the story unfurl as Kirby and his newfound friends journey through the worlds, looking for mysteries while battling the evil Hyness and his Jambastion Religion to stop their apocalyptic plans. Along the way, there are collectible Picture Pieces, along with the Rare ones, that can be used to unlock celebration pictures (akin to Squeak Squad, but more extensive). Also look for the switches that open secret levels.
• Chop Champs: a Mini-Game where four Kirbys chop a very tall tree each to build a log house; chopping more means more log for building the house. Be careful of the caterpillars and Gordos that may slow you down. The one who chops the most log before the time limit wins.
• Star Slam Heroes: a Mini-Game akin to Megaton Punch (Kirby Super Star) where 4 Kirbys have to slug away an incoming meteor with a baseball bat. Connect the power meter and accuracy circle correctly, and watch as the Kirbys punt the meteor thousands of light years away. The one who punts the meteor the furthest wins.
• Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! is an Extra Game akin to the Meta Knightmare games and Dededetour, a Time Trial run where you play as one of the friends (or Dream Friends) instead of Kirby to complete the levels. You can find Power-Up Hearts that will improve you and your friends' health, speed, and power to help you finish the levels in record time.
• The Ultimate Choice: The game's answer to The Arena and True Arena of previous games. It features a Difficulty Levels slider that lets you adjust how many bosses you're going to fight, and how many Picture Pieces you'll get in return. There are also higher difficulties that have to be unlocked first by finishing Guest Star.
• Heroes in Another Dimension: An Extra Game mode introduced in the game's third update. In this mode, Kirby travels through another dimension, solving puzzles and collecting Friend Hearts, which make each of Kirby's Dream Allies playable. The mode also has Kirby and his friends battle "Parallel Bosses". These are the stronger and more difficult versions of the main game's bosses. Completing this mode unlocks a new Dream Friend and an extra difficulty for Ultimate Choice.

The first trailer for the game was shown at E3 2017 and can be viewed here. The second trailer was shown during the September 13th, 2017 edition of Nintendo Direct and can be viewed here. The game was released on March 16, 2018.

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Tropes used in this game:

• 100% Completion:
  • To get to 100%, as usual, you have to complete the main game and all of the game modes, plus collecting all the rare Picture Pieces (you don't need to fully complete the pictures). You don't have to beat Guest Star and Ultimate Choice with every character, however. Unlike the last few main Kirby titles, there is no extra movie for doing so, though you do get a special message for clearing Guest Star and Ultimate Choice, respectively. Oddly, Heroes in Another Dimension and Soul Melter EX do not add to the completion percentage, though beating them gives other rewards.
  • As of the final update, there is one final addition to "true" 100% completion. After obtaining the default 100% completion, the player must also complete Guest Star with all the Dream Friends, complete all the Puzzle Images, get all hearts in Heroes in Another Dimension, and beat Soul Melter EX. Doing so will add a platinum crown on the file at the file select screen, and grant you the retro Kirby design to play as, with a larger body and the original smaller face.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: As per the norm with Kirby games, you get to use a unique power to fight the Final Boss. After Hyness summons Void Termina, a Friend Platform drops out of the sky and falls onto the stage. Jumping onto it transforms Kirby and pals into the Star Allies Sparkler, a souped-up Friend Star that can fight Void Termina.
• 2-D Space: The fourth "world", Far-flung Starlight Heroes, is set in space where Kirby and friends ride the Warp Star to move between planets. Despite the 3D visuals and atmosphere, Kirby only moves in two dimensions; the planets are also conveniently aligned in a 2D way.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Shigeru Chiba voices someone who wears a unique headdress, a long robe with sleeves past their hands, is able to shoot purple balls out of said hands, treats their subordinates badly and is completely fanatic to a higher being/person. Is this describing Hyness, or F.A.N.G?
  • ... And speaking of Chiba, considering that this is a Kirby game, it seems that we have officially gone full zero percent.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Done with a huge sphere of Waddle Dees, of all things. Later, in the final secret level, you get to blast the spheres to bits with the Friend Star. This is also done in Dimension IV, if you take a secret path. It also gives you a chest with a Friend Heart in it if you manage to shoot it down before it falls out of the stage.
• Alliterative Name: The level names in Dream Land and Planet Popstar are all alliterative (though it's only borderline with Clash at Castle Dedede). The rest don't follow this pattern (with the exception of Heavenly Hall and Mareen Moon).
• All Webbed Up: The new Spider ability lets Kirby entrap foes in balls of web, which can then be kicked around to hurt other enemies. Unlike ice blocks, they're subjected to gravity and can be picked up again and swung around as weapons. This ability is from the spider enemy Como, which never granted any copy ability in its previous appearances. Taranza also has a similar moveset, mixed with some of his attacks from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.
• Ambiguous Situation: In the English version, what happened to Galacta Knight before Morpho Knight replaces him is unclear. Does the butterfly absorb/fuse with Galacta Knight to transform into Morpho Knight? Or does the butterfly/Morpho Knight outright kill Galacta Knight before facing the heroes? The question is instantly answered in the Japanese version, however, where Morpho Knight is stated to be a psychopomp butterfly from the underworld that takes the souls of warriors to the afterlife, which is what it does to Galacta.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: Averted this time around; Kirby has a cheery and a happy-go-lucky smile on the North American boxart. This might have something to do with the friendship theme of the game.
• Apocalypse Cult: This is the true nature of the Jambastion faction: the reason they're collecting the Jamba Heart pieces is so they can revive Void Termina and destroy the universe.
• Arc Symbol: You'll see a lot of Heart Symbols in the game. From the Friend Heart you'll throw multiple times, to the structures having the symbols on them, to the Point Stars having a heart design in Guest Star mode. See also Wicked Heart Symbol below for more.
• Arrange Mode: The "Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!" mode is a "Helper to Hero"-style mode where, as a Friend or Dream Friend, you traverse the 5 worlds. 1-Ups, food, and picture pieces are now point items, and Maxim Tomatoes are now regular food. In addition, all Friend Star segments are omitted, and you fight Morpho Knight after Hyness.
• Art Attacker: The new (albeit reminiscent of the special Paint ability from Kirby Super Star) Artist ability allows Kirby to bring paintings to life and hurt enemies with brushstrokes and sculptures. Vividria (the mini-boss that gives the ability) does this too.
• Art Evolution: While the art design is similar to Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, and Planet Robobot, new lighting and texture work for all of the characters brings this to the forefront. King Dedede, in particular, has been given another new redesign that reworks his proportions similar to his Franchise/Super Smash Bros. design.
• Artificial Brilliance: AI-controlled allies are fairly smart when it comes to battling and realizing they have the ability to solve a puzzle or progress.
• Artificial Stupidity: However, they can get confused when it comes to using friend abilities.^note Particularly, when they're confused over who's going to give the Friend Ability to whom (including the player character). And then there's the case of abilities/friends that can give more than one kind of Friend Ability (Cleaning/Broom Hatter, Rick & Kine & Coo, Gooey, Adeleine & Ribbon, Daroach) — you have to wait for them to cycle through, and if your reflexes aren't fast enough, you'll end up with the wrong one. Their pathfinding skills also leave much to be desired, as any stage with moving walls or obstacles that need jumping over generally results in dead or severely injured allies.
• Artsy Beret: Vividria is a young artist with a beret, who's determined to enter an art school. Kirby can inhale her to become Artist Kirby, which also comes with a red beret. Also, Adeleine is back.
• Ascended Meme: When Magolor is cooked by Chef Kawasaki or Cook Kirby, he'll pop out with cooked eggs. In the Kirby fandom, he's often called an egg.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • The Three Mage-Sisters each bring out elemental equipment when they Turn Red, and if counteracted, they'll go into a lengthy stun.
  • During the behemoth phases of Void Termina's boss fight, his five reptilian eyes act as his weak spot. Interestingly, they do not appear simultaneously: when one is defeated, another one appears.
    • This is subverted for the most part with Soul Melter EX's Void Termina, with the sole exception of the last one (his mask).
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Galacta Knight shows up at the end of Guest Star ???, making players expect a battle with the strongest warrior once again. But then a butterfly appears and lands on his weapon. His theme song fades out as he is replaced with Morpho Knight.
• Balloonacy: Infusing the Bomb ability with the Bluster element gives Kirby and his allies tornado-bombs that lift them upwards.
• Beam-O-War: During the climax, Void Termina engages Kirby and his pals in several rounds of Beam-O'-War, each with different button inputs.
• Battle Aura:
  • Whispy Woods, King Dedede, and Meta Knight all gain a purple aura surrounding them once they Turn Red as the Dark Hearts possessing them become stronger. Parallel Meta Knight and Parallel Dedede do the same in their fights.
  • The Three Mage Sisters become surrounded by the aura of their respective elements in their second phases (ice for Francisca, fire for Flamberge, and lightning for Zan Partizanne).
  • Morpho Knight becomes surrounded in a bright yellow cloudy aura in their second phase.
• Beam Spam: In the Ultimate Choice on Soul Melter difficulty, Void Termina and especially Void Soul love their laser beams. Hope your jump-roping/bullet-hell skills are up to par. This is extended even further with Soul Melter EX, especially that mode's final boss. Hope you have good reflexes.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him:
  • All of the bosses besides the main villains get better after being beaten. This is also how you can deal with allies brainwashed by Void Termina or Morpho Knight, although using Friend Hearts to reclaim them again is more optimal.
  • This is strongly implied to happen with the defeat of Void — or, as the game calls it, him being "reborn" into a better being.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Aside from Whispy Woods and Yggy Woods trying to inhale Kirby and friends, Hyness's second phase includes using some of the Team-Up Abilities against you, like Friend Circle. Void Termina also uses elemental weapons, just like many of the mix abilities.
• Berserk Button: Flamberge doesn't like seeing Francisca upset. As stated in her boss description:
  One of the three Jambastion mages, the Blazing General Flamberge rains fiery vengeance upon who stand in her way. She gets pretty mad if anyone does anything to upset Francisca. In fact, she's kind of riled up right now...
• Big Bad: Hyness, the leader of Jambastion.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: Parallel Meta Knight's boss subtitle, "Otherworldly Frost Blade", isn't meant to indicate he's An Ice Person (as he has no ice-based attacks). "Frost blade" is a Chinese idiom used to refer to an Absurdly Sharp Blade.
• Blow You Away: For the purposes of the game's elemental system (and the absence of the Tornado ability), the Cleaning and Wing abilities (and the respective Friends) provide the Bluster element in ability combinations. Coo (with 2 of his moves) and Magolor can also give the Bluster element.
• Blue Means Cold: The Blizzard element is blue.
• Boss-Only Level: Notably one of only three main series games to completely avert this, every boss has a short level leading up to it.
• Boss Remix:
  • Meta Knight's boss theme is a remix of the Revenge of Meta Knight ending theme, rather than his usual boss theme.
  • Morpho Knight's schtick is that he lets all the playable Dream Friends have one of their own. Each Dream Friend has a unique theme when fighting him, usually a remix or medley of end boss themes from their game of origin. Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandanna Waddle Dee share a remix of Nightmare's theme from Kirby's Adventure.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters (both when fought and when fighting Morpho Knight EX) have a remix of the Friend Power theme, of all things!
• Boss Rush: The dedicated boss rush mode is now called The Ultimate Choice, and it comes with a difficulty slider akin to Kid Icarus: Uprising and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Challenge its maximum Soul Melter difficulty to earn a souped-up final boss and its EX version to face an even more powerful version of said boss.
• Boss Subtitles: New to this game are introduction cards that appear before major boss fights in Story Mode and Heroes in Another Dimension, which include short descriptions above the boss's name. In Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! and The Ultimate Choice, only the final boss of a level or difficulty gets the subtitles.

  • Guardian of the Forest Whispy Woods
  • His Royal Nemesis King Dedede
  • The Lone Swordsman Meta Knight
  • Dual Defenders Pon & Con
  • Frozen General Francisca
  • Blazing General Flamberge
  • Lightning General Zan Partizanne
  • Old-Growth Elder Yggy Woods
  • The Metal Heavies Goldon & Silvox
  • Big Bad Mama Grand Mam
  • Bringer of Icy Doom Francisca
  • Cycloptic Stormcloud Kracko
  • Dual Thunderheads Twin Kracko
  • Bringer of Flame Flamberge
  • Bringer of Shock Zan Partizanne
  • Officiant of Doom Hyness
  • Temporal Warrior Galacta Knight
  • Reborn Butterfly Morpho Knight
  • Destroyer of Worlds Void Termina
  • Essence of Chaos Void Soul
  • Otherworldly Arbor Parallel Woods
  • Unearthly Storm Front Parallel Twin Kracko
  • Unearthly Thunderhead Parallel Big Kracko
  • Otherworldly Frost Blade Parallel Meta Knight
  • Otherworldly Dark Liege Parallel Dedede
  • Fell Officiant Corrupt Hyness
  • Repentant Retaliators The Three Mage-Sisters
  • Dark-Winged Disaster Morpho Knight EX
  • The True Destroyer of Worlds Void Termina
  • Astral Birth Void

• Bowdlerise: A lot of the game's dialogue was toned down and made more humorous in localization. For example, one of Flamberge's lines was originally "I'll burn you to the degree that hellfire will seem lukewarm compared to you." In the English version, she struggles to come up with a threat before landing on "I'll scorch you to such a degree that even tasty, toasty marshmallows will seem like ice cubes compared to you!" Her "Jam-blasted!" is also a toned-down version of "Jamaddamn".
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • The game's plot revolves around the mysterious Jamba Heart splintering into smaller heart pieces that spread across the galaxy, many of which land in Dream Land and cause its inhabitants to behave with hostility. Those affected by the hearts are surrounded by dark purple smoke and have new mutations — Whispy Woods can grow far more apples than seemingly possible, King Dedede becomes incredibly muscular, and Meta Knight can clone himself and gains telekinetic powers. Kirby was hit by one of the pieces, but it was a benign one that gave him his friend-making powers.
  • Void Termina's final form (including Void Soul) and Morpho Knight (EX) can send out waves that turn your allies against you. You can either knock them out and revive them or use another Friend Heart to reclaim them.
• Brick Joke: In Zan Partizanne's final boss fight in the story mode and the Star Allies mode, it's mentioned off-hand in her boss description that Hyness often forgets her Overly Long Name. It seems like a one-off gag, but in Hyness' boss description in the higher settings for The Ultimate Choice, there's a small glossary of commonly used words in the Jamba cult. It then lists an example of a sentence used in the Jamba language;
  Example: "Zan Par...? Jaway majaja! Japologa vun."
  Translation: "Zan Par...? I forgot again! I'm very sorry."
• Bullet Time: During the third Void Termina phase, flying close to the boss as it swoops towards you either gets you hit or causes time to slow, allowing you to pound on its weak point with quick-charge or rapid-fire rounds.
• The Bus Came Back: Numerous elements from past Kirby games have been resurrected for this game:
  • Abilities:
    • The Clean ability — now named Cleaning — returns from Kirby's Dream Land 3. It even brings Nago, Pitch, and ChuChu back for the ability's various new attacks!
    • The Water ability properly returns from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, after being replaced with the Poison ability in Kirby: Planet Robobot. Wing and Beetle, which were absent from Planet Robobot, return as well, along with the associated mooks/friends Birdon and Beetley.
    • Yo-Yo, Plasma^note Although Spark gained all of Plasma's abilities from Return to Dream Land to Planet Robobot, Plasma replaces Spark in this game and does not gain Spark's abilities, and Suplex finally return after being only in the Super Star games and a near-10-year hiatus. Paint, meanwhile, doesn't return, but the new Artist ability is reminiscent of it. In addition, Cook returns after last being seen in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror proper, and Chef Kawasaki had enough cachet to appear as a friend with some of his miniboss moves (though Cook Kirby remains roughly the same).
    • The ability to mix Copy Abilities together returns from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, though the way it works is divided into two: weapon abilities being imbued with elemental abilities as in Kirby: Squeak Squad, and one ability move brushes a compatible friend for a powerful attack. However, some do reference 64, such as Stone having "Curling"-based friend attacks and Artist's Still Life painting summoning Fridge Kirby.
  • Characters:
    • A bit of a downplayed example (he was playable in the game preceding this one, Kirby Battle Royale), but after serving as a support character who tossed healing items to Kirby, King Dedede, and Meta Knight in Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot (both of which can be considered more "traditional" Kirby games), Bandana Waddle Dee makes his return as a playable character in the more traditional-styled Star Allies, armed once again with his trusty spear that he utilized in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.
    • Whispy Woods is finally back after spending both Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot Demoted to Extra.
    • Many, many characters, most of whom have not been seen in a long time, return as Dream Friends.
  • Enemies:
    • The Gim and Burning Leo enemies make a return after only appearing in their debut game over 20 years ago, with the closest thing to a reappearance being the remake Kirby Super Star Ultra, which was released 10 years ago as of the release date of this game.^note Burning Leos also had a very small cameo in one of Kirby Mass Attack's sub-games.
    • Bugzzy, who first debuted in Kirby's Adventure and later reappeared in Kirby Super Star, also makes a full comeback in this game; his only appearances after Super Star were limited to remakes and cameos.
    • After being replaced by Moonja in Return to Dream Land, Bio Spark finally makes a comeback as the Ninja-giving enemy and friend.
    • Plugg, an enemy that only appeared in Kirby 64, makes a surprise return, this time becoming the friend with the Plasma ability.
    • Pon & Con, who have only been fought in Dream Land 3, return as bosses.
    • Chef Kawasaki finally reappears as a mini-boss rather than being relegated to minor cameos, and even gets upgraded to friend status — with some of his miniboss moves to round out the Cook ability's limited repertoire.
    • An odd case is Marx from Super Star, in that he comes back as an ally even though, unlike Magolor, he never had an official Heel–Face Turn (in fact, he was presumed dead after his defeat).
    • Likewise, Dark Meta Knight from Amazing Mirror and Triple Deluxe's Dededetour returns after being absent for 4 years, especially notable in that the last time we saw him, King Dedede smashed the portal to the mirror world, leaving him presumably trapped there (that said, Dededetour is of dubious canonicity).
    • The mask-like enemy Two Face makes a reappearance after previously only being in Kirby's Dream Land, making it the longest absence for a Kirby enemy at twenty-six years. Notably, it was the only enemy from the original game to have not made a reappearance until now.
  • Other:
    • Helpers return from Kirby Super Star, now rechristened friends. The player can make up to three friends now. The ability hats also return from that game, and the design of the copy pedestals also follows Super Star's this time around.
    • The mounting system and Team Attack returns from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where you can mount onto one of your friends to control them directly, and fire off a special attack by holding the Guard button together (can only be done in multiplayer).
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Morpho Knight's Boss Subtitles refer to him as the "Reborn Butterfly". In a way, the butterfly "kills" Galacta Knight and then he "reincarnates" as Morpho Knight. Upon his defeat, he ascends into the sky in a ray of light.
• Call-Back:
  • With the very first stage of the game, there's already a surprising bit of canon nod to the events of the last game. Ordinarily, when Kirby beats the bad guy, everything goes back to the exact way it was, but the altered terrain of Green Greens brought about by the Haltmann Works Company's invasion seems to have stuck, now having the same rolling geometry but devoid of the technological assimilation. The stage theme is even an orchestral version of "Re:Green Greens", signifying that while nature's been restored, the changes remain.
  • A piece of dialogue towards the end of the game and the true form of the Final Boss seem to imply that the Jamba cultists are in some way connected to Dark Matter. Likewise, the same piece of dialogue implies some sort of connection to the Ancients from Return to Dream Land, which could connect that game to the Dark Matter lore. Taken further with the True Final Boss of Soul Melter EX, in which its second form name-drops the ancients in its Flavor Text. Some of Void's attacks are taken directly from Dark Mind, Drawcia and Zero, and the backgrounds change to match. The translation guide that appears in the pause menu for Corrupt Hyness' second form states that Lor means "Paradise" in the Jamba language. It is also the name of Magolor's ship, hinting at ties with the Halcandrans as well.
  • In the Japanese version of Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Magolor Soul's pause menu description asks the player to release his soul from "hatred and obsession". The same phrase would later be used here in reference to Void Termina, who is stated to have been corrupted by a similar darkness brought on by the darkness inside Hyness. As icing on the cake, Void Termina even uses the Master Crown, which took control of Magolor in Return to Dream Land, in one of its attacks as the Final Boss.
  • The bosses in Heroes in Another Dimension use the naming scheme "Parallel X"^note "Another X" in the Japanese version, following the naming scheme used by Parallel Susie and Parallel Landia in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe
• The Cameo:
  • Popon, an enemy from Kirby's Dream Land 3, appears as part of the Goal Game.
  • Various astral bodies from previous Kirby games can be seen in the fourth "world" of the game, Far-Flung Starlight Heroes. This includes Ripple Star (the final world from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards), Eternal Star Halfmoon (the final planet from Milky Way Wishes in Kirby Super Star), pieces of Galactic Nova (also from Super Star), and the Lor Starcutter◊ (Magolor's ship from Kirby's Return to Dream Land). They seem to appear at random, but in similar locations each time.
  • After the 2.0 update, Dyna Blade can sometimes be seen flying near King Dedede's castle.
  • After the 3.0 update, the Dragoon can sometimes be seen circling around the second world, Planet Popstar.
  • After the 4.0 update, Shadow Kirby sometimes swoops in on a Warp Star above the Jambastion.
• Canon Immigrant: Cleaning Kirby's hat is directly inspired by its Right Back at Ya! appearance, making it one of the few anime-exclusive hats to become canon. Additionally, Octacon from the first episode appears as one of Adeleine's paintings.
• Character Select Forcing: You're pretty much required to have a cutting ability and a fire ability in order to defeat Grand Mam, who conveniently summons enemies with those abilities during her fight, but it's also the reason why she's absent from the Ultimate Choice to prevent it from becoming Unwinnable if the player isn't Kirby and doesn't have a friend with those abilities. She's also one of two bosses without a harder variant, the other being Marx, even if you only get to fight him in the credits of Heroes in Another Dimension, who is also absent from the Ultimate Choice.
• Charged Attack: Aside from Plasma and many other abilities with their charge attacks, Friend Star has a charged attack where it suddenly flies in a loop while the star shines, damaging everything in its way. Star Allies Sparkler's shots can also be charged; if 2 human players charge and release a shot at the same time, it results in an even more powerful shot.
• Chekhov's Gag: At the end of the first world, upon defeating Dedede, there's a brief joke in which the credits start rolling as if you'd beaten the game. Much later on, the exact same thing happens upon defeating Hyness in Guest Star mode, foreshadowing the appearance of Morpho Knight.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the opening movie, the Jamba Heart has four heart-tipped spears impaled into it. When Kirby and friends board the Friend Star at the end of the game, the four spears surround Kirby and transform the Friend Star into the Star Allies Sparkler. The Ultimate Choice further elaborates on the true purpose of the spears: according to ancient manuscripts, they are legendary weapons that were once used to originally defeat Void Termina.
  • Before fighting Grand Mam, there are segments in which you have to cut multiple bombs hanging from ceilings and set them off to blow up walls. Guess what Grand Mam's weakness is?
• Chekhov's Gunman: Every Kirby game since Return to Dream Land has featured a butterfly with bright orange wings in cutscenes. It seemed fairly innocuous at the time, but here, the exact same butterfly approaches Galacta Knight, creating Morpho Knight.
• Circling Birdies: During the second phase of the boss fights against the Three Mage-Sisters, they will see stars when they are stunned.
  • Francisca will be stunned if the player attacks the soda stream with the Zap element, electrocuting the current through the stream, which will electrocute her.
  • Using the elements of Blizzard, Splash, Bluster, the Artist ability, or Adeleine & Ribbon, the player can extinguish the cannon’s fuse, causing it to explode, which will stun Flamberge.
  • With the Splash element, the Artist ability, or Adeleine & Ribbon, the player can attack Zan Partizanne while she's using her thunder drums, which will then cause her thunder drums to electrocute her and explode, leaving her stunned.
• Cobweb Trampoline: One of the powers granted by the Spider ability/Taranza is to create one of these.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: In multiplayer, each player has a distinct HUD color assigned to them: player one uses pink, player two uses yellow, player three uses blue, and player four uses green. The characters themselves are mostly colored with their specific color, save for the player one, which will always use the default color for each. The only exceptions are the Dream Friends, who retain their normal color palette the first time you summon them, regardless of which player they are; whenever you get a second or third of the same Dream Friend (particularly in Ultimate Choice), they'll get palette swapped in the same way as normal friends.
• Color-Coded Elements:
  • Every ability in the game has a characteristic color, as it is now a tradition in the series, but this is especially important for the elemental powers that the combo mechanics provide: Sizzle is red, Blizzard is light blue, Splash is blue, Zap is the classic Kirby Yellow-Green (which can lean in either direction as needed), and Bluster is a more cool, gentle green. Also with the Three Mage-Sisters: Francisca is blue (for Ice and Water), Flamberge is red (for Fire), and Zan Partizanne is yellow (for Electricity).
  • Thanks to just how prominent elemental effects are in this game, impact stars other than the regular yellow appear. Despite giving abilities, they can't be directly turned into friends via Friend Hearts, as they're not technically "enemies", Copy Essences, or Ability Hats.
    • Francisca's most powerful axe attacks and Hyness's ice magic leave behind light blue stars that provide Ice.
    • Francisca's soda stream attack creates dark blue stars that give Water.
    • Flamberge's cannon and Hyness's fire magic give scarlet stars that provide Fire.
    • Zan Partizanne's lightning laser and Hyness's lightning magic create green stars that give Plasma.
    • The thunderous spheres Partizanne summons from her drums make rich orange stars that provide Beam.
    • The fights against Void's core (under its various names) in story mode and The Ultimate Choice: Soul Melter [+EX], in addition to all of the above, give purple ESP stars, black Bomb stars, turquoise Wing stars, and brown Stone stars.
• Combat Medic: Artist Kirby/Vividria qualify for this, though heavily leaning towards the combat side of things as Still Life only gives a few healing items when used. Chef Kawasaki even moreso, but only on Kirby's side. He has quick attacks that can rack up damage very quickly and a well-timed Cook Pot can easily restore even four players' health to full. Adeleine joins these rankings with Al Fresco, an improved version of Still Life.
• Combat Resuscitation: Like in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, player characters can revive their fallen teammates (as long as they don't get crushed by obstacles or dropped into bottomless pits). Revived teammates will be left with half health.
• Combination Attack: Some abilities, instead of combining to make new ones, can be used in this manner. One example is an ally with an icy attack using it on someone with the Water ability, creating massive icicle projectiles.
• Company Cameo: The Kirby series' famous "HAL rooms" appear again here, but there was another cameo in the Japanese version. Before localization, Jambastion was called "Jamahalda", and Jambandra Base was called "Majuhalgalor".
• Composite Character:
  • The Cleaning ability utilizes Nago, ChuChu, and Pitch's respective versions when paired up with Kirby. This is most likely so that it can have a more extensive repertoire than just sweeping and vacuuming.
  • Rick, Coo, and Kine already count as this due to being three characters in one, but they take it a step further by implementing different abilities into their movesets (Burning and Stone for Rick, Parasol and Cutter for Coo, and Ice for Kine, respectively).
  • Gooey also implements different abilities into his moveset (in this case, Parasol, Burning, and Stone). However, he also gets previously established powers that he never had before, such as using his tongue like the Whip ability and shooting purple lightning bolts similar to Dark Matter.
  • Adeleine and Ribbon are also treated as a single Dream Friend. It's mostly Adeleine who attacks, with Ribbon providing flight assistance.
• Conlang: The boss description for Hyness (unhooded) in The Ultimate Choice shows the alien language used by him and the Three Mage-Sisters and their translations. For example, "bonjam" means "hello", while "jamanke" means "thank you". Their word for paradise is Lor.
• Continuity Nod:
  • This isn't the first time Meta Knight has cloned himself, nor the first time a counterpart of his cloned himself. With four Meta Knights flying around, it may remind players of Landia's second phase as well.
  • For the first time since Kirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knight offers Kirby a sword before starting his boss battle, complete with a "GRAB IT!" prompt. Also like in Super Star and Super Star Ultra, you aren't required to grab the Sword. Ignoring it will elicit a unique response from Meta Knight.
  • Mike Kirby's Fatal Chorus sees the return of Super Star's deep "CHESTO" yell.
  • Burning Leo's colors as player 3 (cyan body with green shoes) is the exact same coloration as his helper palette in Super Star.
  • One of Artist and Vividria's moves is to animate crude drawings of King Dedede and Meta Knight that highly resemble their Kirby's Adventure appearances in shape and movement^note It can also create a very big stuffed Kirby like in Blowout Blast or Bandana Waddle Dee, with similar style as well. Her Friend Ability is a drawing of a Kirby refrigerator that spits out three pieces of food.
    • Another one of Artist's moves is to chisel a sculpture out of a stone block and bludgeon enemies with it, which can take shape of the Dreamstalk, the recurring enemy Kabu, or a Greek statue of Susie.
  • The game as a whole seems to be a Whole-Plot Reference to Kirby Super Star Ultra:
    • The worlds are shown in a menu screen in separate buttons, akin to the "game selection" screen in Super Star.
    • The first world, Dream Land, is a Whole-Plot Reference to Spring Breeze, which in turn was one to Kirby's Dream Land — it even ends with the super-fast credits from the former. King Dedede has stolen all the food in Dreamland (albeit this time due to influence from the Jamba Heart piece) and so Kirby must go through several levels, venture through his castle, and defeat him.
    • The second world, Planet Popstar, features a trek through a (mostly) linear world map to take on a winged foe, very similar to Dyna Blade. The Giant Switches throughout in each level work exactly like the hidden Switches that open the Trial Rooms in Dyna Blade^note and by extension, the ones that unlock various bonus games and trial rooms in Kirby's Adventure.
    • "Fortress of Shadows" is one to Revenge of Meta Knight, as both have Kirby traverse a giant flying fortress through several levels in order to repel an attempted invasion of Dreamland, complete with an intense escape after the boss is defeated and a self-destruct initiates.
    • "Far-Flung Starlight Heroes" involves Kirby exploring multiple themed planets outside of Popstar, fighting souped-up bosses in most of them. Some of the planets include a fall-themed planet, an ocean-themed planet, and a cavern-themed planet full of mini-bosses. Not unlike Milky Way Wishes.
    • Heroes in Another Dimension plays somewhat similar to the Great Cave Offensive with its various collectables and exploration focus, mixed with Revenge of the King's harder bosses.
    • There is no Gourmet Race equivalent, even though Gourmet Race was only a short diversion in Super Star.
    • Guest Star is a mix of Meta Knightmare Ultra and Helper to Hero, being a speedrun through the main game with a Galacta Knight-esque new boss battle at the end like the former and with the ability to use any character other than Kirby himself for the latter.
    • Star Slam Heroes also plays similarly to Megaton Punch.
  • The game involves a crystalline structure breaking into pieces that gets spread across multiple planets, including Popstar, and Kirby and his friends set out to find them all. Sounds familiar?^note The twist, however, is that the crystalline structure in this game is actually evil, and Kirby didn't manage to get the pieces — they're instead lost and/or collected by the bad guys for their evil plan.
  • The last few games have all had their worlds contain an alliterative pun that causes them to spell a word when their worlds are listed out. This game's Popstar, while just a single world, retains that feature by having its level list spell out F.R.I.E.N.D.S.^note Well, not quite — the level list is ordered to place regular levels before secret levels, but the secret levels are positioned in such a way that if you follow the line, it spells out F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
  • The Star Allies Sparkler takes design cues from the Dragoon.
  • Kirby's Stone ability lets him take the form of statues; included with these is Magolor with Gem Apples, the Robobot Armor, Taranza and Queen Sectonia's true form, a chest containing Dark Nebula, Dedede with a tambourine bouncing off a drum ^note based off the minigame Dedede's Drum Dash, even using his Triple Deluxe design rather than his updated Star Allies look, Ultra Sword Kirby brandishing a bluefin tuna, Meta Knight and Captain Vul, a girls' statue featuring Susie and Ribbon, and most surprising of all, a statue of Brobo and Gryll from two obscure spin-off games^note Kirby's Block Ball and the Japan-only SNES sequel to Kirby's Star Stacker, respectively. With each update, statues were added related to the Dream Friends of that update.
  • Most of the Celebration Pictures reference past games in the series, even using appropriate music.
    • "The First Rival" is based on Kirby's Dream Land, using the original character designs for Kirby and King Dedede (though other characters use their modern designs, including Kabula). Its music is the title screen theme, "Welcome to Dream Land".
    • "Friends' Getaway" is based on Kirby's Adventure and features the Fountain of Dreams in its Nightmare in Dream Land design. Its music is a remix of Rainbow Resort's theme.
    • "A Dream Above the Clouds" is based on Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, featuring the animal friends from those games, as well as Gooey. Its music is the first level theme from the latter game.
    • "Super Ultra Battle!" is based on Kirby Super Star and its remake, and it includes Galacta Knight and Masked Dedede. Its music is the "Arena Showdown" theme.
    • "A Delicious Picnic" is based on Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, taking place on Ripple Star. It uses the Goal Game as its basis, and features Kirby's friends (Adeleine, Ribbon, and Waddle Dee), as well as Dedede's N64 design. Its music is the credits theme from that game.
    • "Chasing Our Dreams" is also based on Kirby 64, and spotlights Adeleine and Ribbon, but also features Waddle Dee and Dedede's N64 design. Its music is a remix of "Planet Popstar".
    • "The Great Labyrinth Battle" is based on Kirby & the Amazing Mirror and Kirby: Squeak Squad, using character artwork directly from those games. Its music is "Squeak Squad Appears!" from the latter game.
    • "FIGHT FOR THE CROWN!" is based on Kirby's Return to Dream Land, depicting much of its story, including Landia and the final boss. Its music is the final boss's first theme, "Under My Control".
    • "The Shape of a Heart" is also based on Return to Dream Land, and features Magolor, Landia, the Lor Starcutter, and Magolor's One-Winged Angel form. Its music is a remix of the "Magolor, the Distant Traveler" theme.
    • "A Miracle Sent to the Skies" is based on Kirby: Triple Deluxe, showing Kirby giving chase after Dedede and Taranza, with an image of Queen Sectonia in the stars. Its music is the credits theme, "One of the Miracles".
    • "Rockabilly And Blues" is also based on Triple Deluxe, showing Taranza, Queen Sectonia, and Sectonia's true form, locked away within the Dimensional Mirror. Its music is a remix of "Moonlight Capital", the theme of Royal Road.
    • "Robobot Memories" is based on Kirby: Planet Robobot, and it includes Susie, President Haltmann, and Star Dream. Its music is the final boss's first theme, "VS. Star Dream".
    • "Break Time Breakdown" is also based on Planet Robobot, showing Susie working on her Business Suit. Its music is a remix of "Time for Dessert!", the theme of the ice cream factory stage in Overload Ocean.
    • "Bad Boss Brothers" features nearly every final boss across the entire series: Dedede, Nightmare, Dark Matter, Marx, Gryll, Zero, Zero Two, Dark Mind, Drawcia, Yin-Yarn, Necrodeus, Magolor, Queen Sectonia, Dark Crafter, Star Dream, and Void Termina. Its music is a remix of Zero's theme from Kirby's Dream Land 3.
  • Void Termina features eyes similar to that of Dark Nebula on different parts of its body. It can also attack with Fire, Ice, Lightning, much like Dark Nebula. Its third form sports crystalline wings similar to 0², and utilizes a replica of the Master Crown that shoots lasers. Its final form resembles Drawcia Soul, but with Kirby's face, and the area it's fought in bears a strong resemblance to Dark Star from Kirby 64, with its floor and background being made from the same hexagonal, cell-like tiles. At least a few of its attacks reference Drawcia Soul and different forms of/beings related to Dark Matter (including Zero and Miracle Matter), with the boss even taking on a similar appearance to Dark Matter during some attacks. Void, the True Final Boss of Soul Melter EX, directly takes some of Dark Mind's attacks, as well as Drawcia Soul's and Zero's. It even shapeshifts into similar forms, with the backgrounds changing to match the Dark Mind and Drawcia Soul battle as well as Hyper Zone 1.
  • The final secret level references the things that happen in Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. There, after traversing a long path filled with puzzles, you get to take the big power-up of the game (in this case, Friend Star) and use it to screw around and fight multiple mini-bosses, ending with fighting the game's version of Whispy Woods. The levels also end with a throwback to old Kirby games; for this game, after entering a door above Nintendo Gameboy-shaped platforms, Kirby and friends end up in a simulacrum of the original Green Greens of Kirby's Dream Land, complete with monochrome graphics and 8-bit music.
  • Guarding as either Rick, Kine, and Coo or Gooey causes them to conceal themselves in a bag, a reference to how the animal friends had to be freed from bags in Kirby's Dream Land 2, as well as Gooey being a placeholder after said animal friends were rescued. Adeleine's pictures from "Canvas Cover" are level select images from Kirby 64, or sometimes the credits' picture of herself. Dark Meta Knight stands in one of his mirror shards like in his Triple Deluxe battle.
  • Extra Planet Alpha utilizes the same "go into doors to change the scenery" gimmick that Planet Floria had in Kirby Super Star, only this time you're changing the time of day instead of the season.
  • The character description for Rick, Kine, and Coo refers to them as a "triple deluxe pack of pals", referencing their cameo in the Kirby Fighters sub-game.
  • When playing as the first round of post-release Dream Friends, the floor of Hyness' battle arena changes to resemble the Hyper Zone where Kirby first faced Zero. The theme when fighting Morpho Knight will also change into a remixed theme from their respective games if you're playing as them; see Boss Remix above. When playing as one of the second round of post-release Dream Friends, it resembles the inner core of Dark Star, where Kirby fought 0².
  • When Daroach is involved in the Cook Potluck/Supper Party combination attack, he gives strawberry cake as a healing food item. That's the same food he and the Squeaks (supposedly) stole from Kirby in Kirby: Squeak Squad and also give to Kirby as compensation for the misunderstanding.
  • The credits sequence is a reference to both the ending of Kirby's Dream Land and the Kirby Master bonus videos from previous Kirby games, where multiple enemies cheer on Kirby and friends on a stage.
  • One that occurs in-game: the beginning of Heroes in Another Dimension says that Hyness has opened portals to Another Dimension, while showing a picture of him in the end of the Guest Star ???? mode performing a ritual to open the portal.
  • The bad ending of Heroes in Another Dimension ends with the same musical sting from Kirby 64's bad ending when the corrupted Fairy Queen glares into the camera.
  • The final portion of Magolor's unique level 5 in Guest Star Allies mode is a reference to the final part of the final level of Dangerous Dinner in Kirby's Return to Dream Land with large, regular enemies replacing the mini-bosses such as a large Rocky replacing Moundo and 2 large Driblees replacing the 2 Water Galboros.
  • There are a few continuity nods in the title screen skits. An incomplete list:
    • Kirby, Daroach, Dedede, and Meta Knight will show up and pose as a reference to Squeak Squad.
    • Marx, Meta Knight, Birdon, and Coo will show up and pose, referencing several Super Star (Ultra) subgames, with Marx representing Milky Way Wishes, Meta Knight representing Revenge of Meta Knight, and Coo and Birdon representing Dyna Blade.
    • In one skit, Kirby will settle down for a nap before Taranza shows up and attempts to kidnap Dedede like in Triple Deluxe.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Compared to the Haltmann Works Company, Jambastion runs on magic, with three Mage-Sisters as generals and Hyness himself being some sort of mage. Furthermore, while the Final Boss of Planet Robobot was a supercomputer related to Nova, this game's is a sort of dark god related to Dark Matter.
• Credits Gag: The end of the fight against the corrupted King Dedede is punctuated with the credits scrolling really fast while the camera pans into the distance, then the credits rewind while the camera re-focuses on the arena when the purple heart that corrupted Dedede flies away. Later, the same thing happens at the end of Guest Star mode before the appearance of Galacta Knight and then Morpho Knight.
• Curbstomp Battle: In Fruity Forest, finding the hidden HAL Room awards you with a Friend Platform that triggers Friend Star. The exit to the room leads directly to the boss room, so you can proceed to waste Whispy Woods in record time with Friend Star.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: With the concept of helpers from Super Star returning, you'd expect it to work the same? Getting friends here works differently. As opposed to throwing away your power to a helper back then, you have to throw hearts at anything, whether if it's a Copy Essence, a discarded Ability Star, or an enemy itself. It does make it a little easier, but frustrating for those used to Super Star's mechanic.
  • A more minor example: in previous games, if you have the Sword ability and tilt the Control Stick up, the blade will glow purple and allow you to fire a Sword Beam just like the Skyward Strike in Skyward Sword (this move's called "Sky Energy Sword"). In this game, tilting the Control Stick up is used to activate friend abilities instead, so if you try to use the Sky Energy Sword, it won't work.
• Darker and Edgier: It may not start as tensely as Planet Robobot did, but Star Allies becomes one of the darkest games in the Kirby franchise once Hyness enters the room. He turns the tone from saving brainwashed enemies with The Power of Friendship to a game about stopping a Sinister Minister who constantly abuses his minions and even throws their bodies and himself as sacrifices to the Jamba Heart so he could destroy the universe with a God of Evil.
• Dark Reprise:
  • Hyness's first theme is actually a corrupted, slowed-down version of the theme from the first level of Planet Popstar, "Friendly Field".
  • The theme for the last two stages of the game reprises, of all songs, Green Greens. A more intense remix is used for Void Termina's fourth phase/Void Soul/Void.^note While some other final boss themes in the series (notably CROWNED and VS. Star Dream) also reference Green Greens in a miniature Triumphant Reprise to show Kirby's bold struggle against the villain, Void Termina's is the only one where the Green Greens part is prominent and definitely not triumphant.
  • The theme for the final boss of Heroes in Another Dimension, The Three Mage-Sisters, is a remix of the Friend Star/Train theme.
• The Day the Music Lied: When Galacta Knight appears, it plays a boss opening for him, then starts blaring his background music in the middle of the cutscene… for a few seconds. Then a mysterious orange butterfly appears, he vanishes into a cloud of light, and reveals a new boss, Morpho Knight.^note Despite this, Galacta Knight's whole theme is available in the Jukebox.
• Deathly Dies Irae: The "Song of Supplication", the Three Mage-Sisters' Leitmotif, begins with the Dies Irae in the melody. It gets played for all the "day of wrath" symbolism it's worth when they are revealed to be priestesses of an Apocalypse Cult trying to revive Void Termina, whose battle theme is a much more menacing Boss Remix of the song.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In this case, defeating a miniboss means you can throw a Friend Heart at them to turn them into friends. You can also do the same to 1) Whispy Woods (he'll give you lots of Point Stars, some food, and some Picture Pieces), 2) King Dedede and Meta Knight (they'll instantly become your friends), and 3) Pon & Con (this time it's mandatory). This is also how The Three Mage-Sisters are unlocked.
• Demonic Possession: Whispy Woods, King Dedede, and Meta Knight are turned evil by a purple Jamba Heart. They also gain magical powers in the second phase of the boss fight: Whispy Woods grows bigger and starts dropping a barrage of apples, King Dedede magically gains Super-Strength and giant muscles, and Meta Knight starts flying and creating copies of himself.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you play as Chef Kawasaki in the Ultimate Choice, you will be unable to use Cook Pot in the rest areas in between bosses. This is to prevent players from cheesing the difficulty by getting extra healing food in a safe room. Additionally, cooldown timers on healing friend abilities do not progress in between battles, to prevent people from simply letting the game sit to recharge them.
  • Similarly, Artist's Still Life and Adeleine's Al Fresco moves won't produce items in the rest areas.
  • Dream Friend Rick retains his other useful gameplay traits from the Dream Land trilogy that the game or supplementary material neglect to mention, such as his ability to climb walls and not slip on ice.
• Dirty Coward: One of Hyness' moves in the second half of his battle is to quite literally use his own allies as a shield while poking in from behind to attack.
• Disappears into Light: In a sense. When Morpho Knight is defeated, he floats into the air before dissipating into glowing butterflies that vanish.
• Dismantled Macguffin:
  • The purple Jamba Heart breaks apart and gets scattered into multiple planets in the form of purple shards (the pink shards were from the heart spears that were sealed in the Jamba Heart). The purple shards corrupt multiple people, while at least one pink shard falls onto Kirby, giving him his Friend Heart ability. The Three Mage-Sisters are looking for the Jamba Heart pieces for some reason. They're revealed to be some part of a dark god, Void Termina, which Hyness was trying to revive. According to the info screen if you pause during his fight, Hyness messed up the revival ritual somehow (from not knowing the details of how Void Termina was sealed), causing the game's opening to occur.
  • Also, since Hyness and his Mage-Sisters didn't find all of them and instead sacrificed himself and his generals to complete the Jamba Heart, there must still be a few nasty Jamba Heart fragments skittering around the cosmos...
• Don't Look At Me: Meta Knight, as usual, but also Hyness. He flips out when Kirby knocks his hood off.
• Double-Meaning Title: If you read the katakana for "Star Allies" a certain way, it can be read as "star arise", which sounds a lot like a synonym for "Astral Birth".
• Dramatic Irony: The pause screen description for King Dedede's boss fight questions why he would steal and hoard all the food in Dream Land, calling it something he "would never do". The irony is, of course, that this is the same scheme he attempted in Kirby's Dream Land, only after 25 years of Character Development, it's now horribly out-of-character.
• Dual Boss:
  • Some miniboss fights come in pairs.
  • Pon & Con serve as this just like in Dream Land 3, right down to their boss subtitle being "Dual Defenders", though they share a health bar this time. This also applies to their upgraded versions, Goldon & Silvox. Kracko returns times two as "Twin Kracko" (after a short warm-up round as a single Kracko), while Meta Knight splits into four clones in his second phase (fewer if you have only yourself or one friend).
  • The "Heroes in Another Dimension" mode added via update has a boss fight involving all three Mage-Sisters at the same time.
• Dub Name Change: Discounting the names of mooks and friends (of which there are many):
  • The abilities Clean and Stick becomes Cleaning and Staff, respectively.
  • Dream Shrines become Dream Palaces. Dark Fortress Jamahalda^note note "HAL" in the name becomes Fortress of Shadows, Jambastion. Great Demon Star Majhalgaroa^note once more, featuring "HAL" becomes The Jambandra Base. Under-God Satellite, Ende becomes The Divine Terminus.
  • Fran-Kiss and Fran-Rouge become Francisca and Flamberge. Prayer Song to God (Francisca and Flamberge's battle theme) becomes Song of Supplication.
  • Nesper becomes NESP, Jahalbeat^note again, "HAL" becomes Jammerjab, Puranna becomes Driblee, and Vivitia becomes Vividria.
  • Yggdral Woods becomes Yggy Woods. Ances Big Mom becomes Grand Mam.
  • Swing 'n' Shake! Woodcutter Contest becomes Chop Champs. Galactic Homerun King becomes Star Slam Heroes.
  • Hoshi no OOOO^note "XXXX of the Stars" Star Friends Go! becomes Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!
  • "Destruction God" Ende Nil becomes "Destroyer of Worlds" Void Termina. Soul of Nil becomes Void Soul.
  • Twinkle Star Allies becomes Star Allies Sparkler.
  • "Valfrey Knight"^note based on the words "butterfly", "valkyrie", and possibly "Freyja" becomes Morpho Knight.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: If you earn at least 100 Friend Hearts in "Heroes in Another Dimension" (which is no small feat by any stretch of the imagination), the power of the Friend Hearts combine to create a gigantic Friend Heart that Kirby throws at the Mage-Sisters, purifying and befriending them. The Mage-Sisters summon a Warp Star for Kirby and pals so they can escape from the alternate dimension, and as they leave one small Friend Heart falls off and touches Hyness, purifying him as well.
• Easter Egg:
  • The HAL Rooms are back; there are three of them this time. Per tradition, one of them is found by flying up high and entering an object in the background.
  • As an Internal Homage to his iconic boss fights, Meta Knight's boss battle opens with Meta Knight standing on a ledge, with a Sword planted in the ground with a "GRAB IT!" prompt over the Sword. If you wait long enough or fly over the Sword and attempt to attack Meta Knight directly, an alternate boss intro plays in which Meta Knight hops off of his ledge and kicks away the Sword before commencing battle.
  • King Dedede and Meta Knight are both playable characters and bosses. During their respective boss fights, there is a brief moment after their defeat but before the victory cutscene in which you still have control. Should you throw a Friend Heart at them during this period, they will immediately join you as an ally, saving you the trip to a Dream Palace.
  • Throwing a Friend Heart at Whispy Woods after the first encounter with him will cause him to rain down Point Stars, healing items, and Picture Pieces. Also, while he normally gives out fruit items when befriended, he'll instead give cooked ones if he's set on fire during the battle.
  • When you're fighting King Dedede, you can use a water ability (Water, Parasol, Cleaning, Kine or Gooey) on the rotten fruits he throws; they'll turn into food items. Francisca's icicle attacks can be melted with fire and drop food items as well, even in The Ultimate Choice.
  • When fighting Yggy Woods, the boss starts raining cherries at the start of the second phase, one of which is a golden, glowing cherry. If you inhale the golden cherry instead of destroying it, it will bestow the Festival ability.
  • Playing Guest Star Mode with any of the patched-in Dream Friends replaces some of the levels with special themed levels unique to each character (either to make maximum use of their specialized abilities or to reference their game of origin). You can also find special HAL Room-like rooms that spell the names of the characters with star blocks; those rooms also house the final Power-Up Hearts. In addition, Morpho Knight's theme music is replaced by a unique background track corresponding to the playable Dream Friend; see Boss Remix above. You also get a unique ending picture for playing with any of them (King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee are also given one).
  • During the fight against Void Termina's second phase in Story Mode, you can try hitting the suspended Three Mage-Sisters and Hyness at the top of the room. Doing so will make them fall to the ground along with you getting some helpful food items.
  • You can try throwing the Friend Heart at Void Termina's heart (including Void Soul and Void) and it'll actually get damaged, unlike any other enemies in the game.
  • After the update with Wave 1 Dream Friends, you can try finding murals of said Dream Friends at separate levels. More were added to accompany the Wave 2 Dream Friends. Even more were added to accommodate Wave 3.
  • After unlocking the Mage-Sisters as Dream Friends, they may randomly appear with Kirby in the Jukebox as part of the band.
• Edible Theme Naming: The first world in the game, World of Peace - Dream Land, has the stages Donut Dome, Honey Hill, Fruity Forest, and the secret stage Extra Eclair.
• Electrified Bathtub: Whenever electricity encounters water, it spreads across the surface, akin to Squeak Squad.
  • Two of the combination attacks (Thunder Splash and Zap Splasher) are based around using the electric and water element to either shoot larger electric blasts or drops of electrified water at enemies.
  • When Twin Kracko uses its downpour attack, you can try attacking the water with electricity; it'll take some damage. This also works for Parallel Twin Kracko/Parallel Big Kracko.
  • This is how you stun Francisca and Zan Partizanne - using enough electric damage on the former's soda stream will electrocute her, and the latter short-circuits if you get her Thunder Drums wet.
  • One of Void Soul's attacks involves raising the water in the arena and firing a laser beam to electrify the water, whereas Void (no suffix) not only uses shallow water to impede your movement against its ground slams, but has an aura of electricity to send shocks across the surface.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
  • This applies to most elements throughout the game; usually used for puzzles, it also applies to certain enemies. For instance, Puppet Waddle Dees are instantly destroyed by fire, a Water Nucleus can be defeated quite easily with electricity or ice, and a Shield Carrier can be defeated with element opposite of the shield it's carrying. Bosses also take more damage from certain elements, such as Whispy Woods, who actually has a unique animation for being defeated with fire.
  • In addition to having elemental weaknesses, the Three Mage-Sisters' special attacks can be cancelled using certain elements, stunning them briefly. Francisca's Soda Beam can be stopped with electricity (and her icicles can be melted with fire and will produce healing items when doing so), the fuse for Flamberge's Mega Broiler can be blown out with ice, water, or wind, and Zan Partizanne's thunder drums can be shorted out with water.
• Elemental Weapon:
  • Most weapon-type abilities like Sword, Cutter, and Hammer can be imbued with elements Sizzle, Blizzard, Zap, Splash, and Bluster to grant them additional effects.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters similarly have an icy axe, a fiery flamberge, and an electrifying partisan.
  • The Final Boss, Void Termina, can turn its hands into big Blade Below the Shoulder infused with either fire, ice or electricity. In its third form, it can also attack with fire and ice arrows, and falling electric spears. Its more powerful version fought in the Ultimate Choice (Soul Melter + EX) do this too.
• Empty Eyes: Kirby gains these when accessing Soul Melter EX in The Ultimate Choice's difficulty select screen. And unlike the other difficulties, instead of looking at the curry, he's facing the player. It remarkably resembles Void Termina's core's "main" face, too.
• End of an Age: The game as a whole, especially after its three free updates, is partly intended to be a celebration of Kirby's history as a whole, which is why the game compiles so many mechanics and characters from the previous games. General director Shinya Kumazaki stated that this game's successor would be the "next phase" of the franchise, and indeed, Kirby and the Forgotten Land was revealed to be the series's long-awaited Video Game 3D Leap.
• The End... Or Is It?: Beating Heroes in Another Dimension with less than an A rank will net you an ending where Kirby's team simply leaves the Mage-Sisters and Hyness unconscious, with the ending card having "The End?".
• Enemy Mine: Marx and Dark Meta Knight. Marx only joins Kirby and his friends against the Jambastion cult because he fears they might destroy the planet he wishes to rule, while Dark Meta Knight is only joining to seemingly take the power of the Dark Hearts for himself or find a new master to serve.
• Evolving Credits:
  • Each character the player cleared Guest Star mode with (i.e those marked with a crown) will appear in the credits cheering on the character the player has just beaten the mode with. After the update for the Wave 1 Dream Friends, all of the Dream Friends (including the ones already in the game) also gets updated credits where 1) special throwback images are put at the end of the image slideshow in the credits roll for each character, and 2) one of 2 big "The End" pictures is shown in the very end (one requires you to play either King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee or Meta Knight, another requires you to play either Rick, Kine & Coo, Gooey or Marx). Naturally, the Wave 2/Wave 3 Dream Friends get the same treatment.
  • Not exactly the same, but similar in concept: the final boss arena in Guest Star mode appears to be "evolving" through the Dream Friends update. Normally, it's an altar set outside the Jambandra Base, with a dark space background and a few vines and flowers growing. With the Wave 1 update, it now has a sunset sky, the Jambandra Base has been flipped upside down and is beginning to crumble, a "pool" resembling Hyper Zone has opened up in the middle, and the flowers and vines have grown. With the Wave 2 update, the background is still a sunset sky, but the Jambandra Base has deteriorated further, the altar itself is starting to fall apart, the pool has grown and now resembles Dark Star's core, and the overgrowing vines and flowers are brightly glowing. Finally with the Wave 3 update, the sky is still sunset, but the Jambandra base has completely crumbled, save for the battle arena and the spot where Hyness stands, the pool is showing Another Dimension, the flora is gone, and random pieces of debris are floating towards the sky. Moreover, there's an extra animation where, after Hyness is defeated, he "sinks" into the Another Dimension pool.
  • Similar to the above, the bonus level changed with each update. The statue at the end of the Green Greens section now has additional statues for all of the Dream Friends.
• Exotic Eye Designs: On the box art, the lower side of Kirby's eyes notably have an astral look in them, referencing the title's theme.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Void Termina has five reptilian eyes on his body: one is on his forehead, two on his shoulders, one on his torso, and one on his back.
• Facial Façade: The final boss Void Termina in its core form homages Zero Two's fake smiley face by having its expression change to laughter whenever it uses its needle attack. Its face also alternates between an eyeball akin to the Dark Matter or a face resembling Kirby's. This trait is also retained by its stronger variants Void Soul and Void.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: After defeating King Dedede in Story Mode or Hyness in Guest Star, the credits roll super-fast as if you have beaten the game. Then they rewind before revealing what comes next: the purple Jamba Heart that possessed King Dedede in the former and the emergence of Morpho Knight in the latter.
• Fastball Special: Suplex, Beetle, Fighter, and Gooey can be used to throw your allies as projectiles at enemies as the "Friend Throw" move, down to using their own specific throws. The Cleaning Ability has "Friend Super-Vac", where a vacuum grabs multiple allies before throwing them.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning:
  • The Three Mage-Sisters correspond to this, with Francisca as ice, Flamberge as fire, and Zan Partizanne as lightning. Hyness uses all three elements, as does Void Termina, and by extension, Void.
  • Just like Squeak Squad, these are also elements that can be imbued as Friend Abilities, though it's also expanded to wind and water. Interestingly enough, Daroach also has access to all three via Fire Bombs, his Ice Laser staff, and Doc.
• Fiery Redhead: Flamberge. In more ways than one.
• Flaming Sword: Combining Sword and Fire gives Kirby the Fire Sword from Squeak Squad, now named the Sizzle Sword. While it isn't as big as the Burning/Cutter ability's sword from Kirby 64, it can create trails of fire across the ground. Flamberge also wields one, and Void Termina can, too.
• Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Planet Earthfall and Falluna Moon, the first two levels of Far-Flung Starlight Heroes, are fall-themed versions of Green Gardens, Star Allies' first level.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Towards the end of the game, the Big Bad has a Villainous Breakdown rant upon which he goes full Motor Mouth and starts rambling about his plot to revive the Dark Lord. The text scrolls by so fast that it's nearly impossible to catch everything he's saying without stopping the cutscene at each individual text box^note the Switch has a video capture function that makes this easy to pull off, but if you do so and stop to read what he's saying, you might notice a few key pieces of text that suggest a connection to previous games.
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider: While the spider-like Como enemies have appeared in previous games, they were almost always portrayed as generic spider enemies. In this game, however, they can be transformed into friends. Taranza is also available as a Dream Friend, using a souped up version of the Spider moveset, as well as some moves from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, and "Queen's Phantom".
• Fun with Acronyms: The first letters of the levels in World 2, including the secret levels, can be rearranged to spell F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Although the secret levels are listed after the main levels in the Stage List, if you follow the line away from Dream Land, you'll cross them in the right order.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Void Termina, who has no purpose other than to end all life in the known universe. Unlike many other bosses like him in Kirby games, however, he has many things that make him stand out: the sheer amount of references to previous bosses, and particularly Dark Matter.
• Glass Cannon: Adeleine has less HP than other characters, referencing her Zero-Effort Boss status in previous games, and most likely to balance out her ability to use her boss paintings as shields.
• Golden Ending: The good ending for Heroes in Another Dimension is this for the whole game. Unlocked by collecting at least 100 out of the 120 friend hearts scattered across the four dimensions, the ending has Kirby use a gigantic friend heart to finally Heel–Face Turn the Mage-Sisters and presumably even Hyness as well. They then bid him a heartfelt farewell. The credits even refers to this as a Happy Ending.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The events of the game are revealed to have been caused by the revival ritual at the beginning of the game being botched, causing the dark energy from the Jamba Heart to disperse across the universe. The villains spend most of the game tracking down and recovering the lost energy. It's later revealed in The Ultimate Choice that Hyness never actually knew how the ritual worked in the first place, since the ancient manuscripts that told of Void Termina never explained it.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Void Termina, the dark god of destruction Hyness seeks to revive. Considering all the continuity nods and references it has to past villains, it might actually be this to the whole Kirby series. Void uses attacks from Dark Mind, Drawcia Soul and Zero (with its color palette and backgrounds changing to match). Furthermore, the pause screen outright states it "exists in all dimensions".
• Green Thumb: Ninja still has its Blossom Storm technique from Kirby's Return to Dream Land that allows the player to summon an explosion made out of leaves and cherry flowers. Now, the species of the flowers changes if the ability is embedded with an element due to a friend combo. Taranza also has an attack where he pulls a smaller version of the Dreamstalk out of the ground as a damaging wall.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In Hyness's second phase, he summons the Three Mage-Sisters and renders them unconscious. His proceeding attacks treat them more like dolls than actual living beings, as he throws them at you and grabs them and swings them around as bludgeons. Subverted with Corrupted Hyness, who instead uses wooden logs as representations of the Mage-Sisters.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Dedede (and his parallel counterpart) undergoes this in his boss battle after he loses a good portion of his health, complete with his robe and gloves bursting apart.
• Hades Shaded: Uniquely among the Mage-Sisters, Flamberge.
• Hammerspace: Certain weapon-based abilities that involve throwing the weapon out as a projectile utilize this, as after tossing such, Kirby/the friends just pull out another one from nothing. This includes Bonkers with his literal hammer, who now has access to the move when he couldn't do such before in Kirby Super Star or its remake.
• Harder Than Hard: The Wave 3 update adds a new difficulty for The Ultimate Choice called "Soul Melter Extra", which is toggled via a button press and replaces many of the bosses with their more difficult "Parallel" counterparts from "Heroes in Another Dimension", including an EX Version of Morpho Knight, and an even-more-souped-up version of Void Termina, alongside the true final boss, Void.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: By throwing a heart at certain enemies, they will become your friends and fight alongside you.
• Hint System: Unlike most previous games, this one gives hints (specifically, for the right powerup to use) whenever you encounter a puzzle, especially in the "orange star" rooms. This only applies in the main story and Guest Star mode; Heroes in Another Dimension lacks them.
• Hijacked by Ganon: It turns out that Void Termina is connected to Dark Matter. As if that wasn't enough, a future update shows his true form, Void, to be modeled after Zero. Yes, Dark Matter's core.
• An Ice Person:
  • Ice is one of the elemental abilities that can be used to mix with to create Blizzard abilities. Chilly, Daroach, and Kine use ice attacks.
  • Francisca has ice-related attacks. She even carries an axe that is shaped like a snowflake.
• Home-Run Hitter: The objective of the Star Slam Heroes minigame is to hit an incoming meteor into deep space.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The Ultimate Choice, the Star Allies version of The Arena, has difficulty levels that are represented by varying levels of spicy: "Sweet Breeze" being the easiest, followed by "Mild Stroll", "Zesty Expedition", "Spicy Adventure", "Sizzling Threat", "Fiery Showdown", "Infernal Crisis", and finally, "Soul Melter". Wave 3 tacks on "Soul Melter Extra" as an extension of the existing "Soul Melter" difficulty.
• Idle Animation: Almost every playable character has two different ones. Rick has one where he goes to sleep on the spot and tosses and turns, and it's notable for lasting around a minute and a half long.
• Improbable Weapon User: Artist lets Kirby create sculptures, which he can proceed to use as melee weapons. Cleaning Kirby attacks with a broom or a bucket of water. Also the recurring Parasol, as well as the returning Yo-Yo. Adeleine and Ribbon expand upon the painting theme, attacking with brushstrokes and paintings of old enemies.
• Immune to Mind Control: Void Termina's fourth form, Void Soul and Void and Morpho Knight (EX) have attacks that can turn the members of your group against you. However, the player character merely takes damage from this move instead.
• Kiai: Kirby unleashes several very impressive examples during the final Beam-O-War with Void Termina's core.
• Kill It with Fire: Hammer Whispy Woods with enough Sizzle element attacks, and the poor tree will catch fire and start panicking while the fire inflicts even more damage to him. Whispy's bark will even turn into a black char if you defeat him after burning him. The attack also works on Yggy Woods and Parallel Woods.
• Knight of Cerebus: After the lighthearted fantastic journey through space while making friends everywhere, Hyness and Void Termina are almost certainly this, with them both wanting the destruction of everything. The former's over-the-top Motor Mouth Motive Rant and how he fights in the second phase is the closest he gets to having a comedic moment, and even then 1) the humor is lessened significantly if you actually pause and read what he's saying, and 2) the way he fights is a rather Black Comedy at best^note He absorbs the life force of the three Mage-Sisters and uses their mindless bodies to attack, including literally throwing and swinging them around. The latter is among the darkest Final Bosses in the series, not just in design and description, but also due to the many Wham Shots it has.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: With all the references to previous Kirby titles, Star Allies assumes that the player is a Kirby veteran. Consequently, checking Marx’s pause description will have it casually drop the fact that he was the Final Boss of Kirby Super Star and its 2008 remake, something that was originally supposed to be a plot twist. Similar, the Celebration Pictures casually spoil the final bosses of most of the previous games, with Kirby's Return to Dream Land's showing up more than once.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: As the latest traditional Kirby title, this game has a lot of design differences from the previous traditional games Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, and Planet Robobot.
  • The level layout of this game is very different. While there are only four worlds in Star Allies (compared to six or seven), each one has more levels than worlds typically do, and the last world has almost as many levels as the first three combined. Additionally, this game incorporates boss encounters into stages rather than including boss only levels (more akin to Kirby Super Star), and you fight multiple bosses in every world besides Planet Popstar. While each world has its own level map, there's no world selection map like in earlier games, being replaced by a menu with blurbs for each world (again, like Kirby Super Star).
  • There's only one major collectible per stage, that being a large Picture Piece that fills in pink spaces of Celebration Pictures. They don't unlock side content like Energy Spheres, nor are they needed for progress like Sun Stones and Code Cubes. Rather than unlocking a bonus stage in each world by collecting items, Kirby can find switches hidden in certain stages that reveal extra levels. Heroes in Another Dimension, however, rectifies this by introducing the quest for the 120 Friend Hearts, which will require you to master your puzzle-solving skills; collecting at least 100 unlocks the Three Mage-Sisters as playable characters.
  • This is the first game to include elemental damage for abilities; certain big enemies and bosses have a Logical Weakness to an attack element, either taking heavy damage when exposed to it or getting stunned for a long time. In earlier games, elements (aside from Blizzard) only affected puzzles and not enemies.
  • This game does not have upgraded boss refights in an extra mode, as they appear elsewhere instead. Upgraded mid-bosses, which are colored monochrome and have no add-on to their names, are encountered in the later levels of story mode. Upgraded bosses make up a lot of the fights in the final world, either with different designs (Yggy Woods, Goldon and Silvox) or as Recurring Bosses (each Mage-Sister is fought twice, with stronger attacks in their second round). The post-release modes Heroes in Another Dimension and Soul Melter EX added upgraded versions of every boss except for Goldon/Silvox and Grand Mam (the sole boss with no variants at all), meaning that some now have three different forms.
  • This game keeps The Arena and The True Arena from prior Kirby games, but rolls them up into a single game mode that doesn't bear the word "Arena" in it at all: "The Ultimate Choice". Rather than those modes, which had one difficulty each, this one uses a difficulty slider similar to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, with the highest difficulty (and equivalent to The True Arena) being a secret unlockable. Due to the lack of separate Arenas, the upgraded versions of bosses replace the originals on higher difficulties.
  • Special items that character can hold have existed throughout all of the mainline games since Return to Dream Land (though they were only a major mechanic in that game), but Star Allies only has the keys.
  • Most Kirby games have multiple enemies that provide a single ability type, but Star Allies only has one enemy type for each ability (that being the friend for the ability), and most of its enemy roster consists of neutral foes. The lone exception is Ice, which has both Chilly and Mr. Frosty, although the latter turns into the former when hit with a heart.
• Law of 100: The Point Stars return in this game; as always, collect 100 for an extra life. There are bigger Point Stars that are worth different amounts of normal Point Stars; they're appropriately rarer. In Guest Star ???? mode, the stars are turned into hearts. In Heroes in Another Dimension, the stars resemble their appearance in Return to Dream Land's Extra Mode.
• Life of the Party: The new Festival ability, which triggers a full-party dance that acts as a Smart Bomb. All defeated enemies drop collectible stars.
• Load-Bearing Boss: After defeating Zan Partizanne in her first fight, she sets the Fortress of Shadows to self-destruct, forcing you to utilise several Friend Abilities in order to escape its collapsing halls.
• Long Song, Short Scene:
  • Galacta Knight's theme is reused in this game... for all of a few seconds before he gets replaced by Morpho Knight. This is in a cutscene, so the only way to listen to the rest of the song is to go to the Jukebox or purchase the six-disc soundtrack CD release.
  • Pretty much every one of the post-game Dream Friends' special final boss themes in Guest Star ????, which are all full remixes or medleys of the final boss tracks from their home games. The boss fight, meanwhile, would last about half or less of the music's length, thanks to the loving, in-depth remix being on a battle where the Purposely Overpowered Dream Friend you're playing is likely souped-up as much as possible.
  • Void's theme in Soul Melter EX. While the fight is unlikely to last longer than a few minutes (win or lose), the theme is a whopping 6 minutes and 12 seconds long, making it the longest song in the series to date.
• Lost in Translation: It's not immediately obvious since the game's translation appears competent on the surface, but the translation job of Star Allies is notorious for being inexplicably altered in numerous ways from the original Japanese text, which not only includes misinterpreting titles and lines but also flat-out changing characters by altering their dialogue or descriptions and even removing text altogether. The changes are notable enough that HAL Laboratory formed their own localization management division starting with Super Kirby Clash to prevent issues like this from happening again, and specifically mentioned in an interview their collaboration with the localization teams for Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
• Macabre Moth Motif: The fearsome Morpho Knight, a manifestation of the seemingly innocuous butterfly seen in every Kirby game intro from the past few years, has an overwhelming butterfly motif, including butterfly wings, butterfly-themed swords, and fiery butterflies flying away when it moves. This is pushed even further with Morpho Knight EX, whose orange/red color scheme is traded in for a red mask, black body, and red eyes.
• Magic Knight:
  • They're more "mage" than "knight", but the Three Mage-Sisters have skills with melee weapons that they imbue with their own magic.
  • Morpho Knight (and EX) is more "knight" than "mage", but he displays some supernatural abilities such as teleporting, emitting magical soundwaves that brainwash your allies, and summoning red smoky ghosts to attack.
• Making a Splash: Aside from the returning Water ability, water is also one of the elements that can be used in mixes to create Splash abilities. Water, Cleaning (through Pitch and Nago), Parasol, Kine and Gooey can utilize and provide the Splash element. Artist and Adeleine's paint attacks, while not being able to provide water for Friend Abilities like the aforementioned friends/abilities, are nevertheless considered liquid by the game, so they extinguish flames and will hurt Flamberge and Zan Partizanne more. Francisca and Twin Kracko also use it in a few of their attacks.
• Meaningless Lives:
  • With the autosave feature and the fact a game over does nothing more than give you the option to continue which just sends you back to the map, lives have little justification. Many, many bonus rooms award extra lives and stars compared to previous titles. Point Stars alone virtually guarantee you hit the triple digits for life count even if you go out of your way to avoid 1-ups. This is all compounded by the fact this game saves your life count even when you quit the game.
  • There's significantly less lives available in "Heroes in Another Dimension", but there's still a good amount being given.
• The Medic: Chef Kawasaki is the least versatile friend with only three basic attacks which aren't even very effective in comparison to the rest of the allies. This is made up by the fact he, unlike Cook Kirby, has unlimited uses of Cook Potluck/Supper Party with a cooldown and can therefore summon healing food around enemies whenever he likes for everyone to partake in.
• Medley: Nearly all of the boss themes against Morpho Knight with any of the Dream Friends (aside from the three base Dream Friends, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee), will play a remix or medley of their debut game's final boss theme:
  • "Dark Cloudy" is a medley of Real Dark Matter's theme from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and the main theme of Cloudy Park.
  • "The Maidens' Struggle with Darkness" is a medley of 0² and Miracle Matter's themes, while also including a Dark Reprise of Ripple Star's level select theme from Kirby 64.
  • "Dark Mirage" is a medley of the Kirby & the Amazing Mirror boss theme and Dark Mind's second phase theme.
  • "Supreme Ruler's Coronation - OVERLORD" is a huge medley of "C-R-O-W-N-E-D", Dangerous Dinner's world map theme, "Sky Tower", and "Road to Victory" from Return to Dream Land.
  • "Phantom of the Moon's Spirit" is a medley of all of Queen Sectonia's boss themes from Triple Deluxe.
  • "Deus Ex Machina at a Young Age" is an orchestral medley of both "Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection" and "Mind in a Program" from Planet Robobot.
• Mind-Control Eyes:
  • As expected, King Dedede has red eyes during his boss fight as an obvious sign that he's been corrupted by the Jamba Heart.
  • Though hard to notice, Meta Knight's eyes have an orange hue during the first phase of his boss fight similar to Dark Meta Knight, a clue that he's also been corrupted. In the second phase, they turn purple.
• Mini-Game Credits: You can control Kirby or your friends in the ending credits of either Story Mode, Guest Star, or "Heroes in Another Dimension". Then, multiple enemies spawn, which Kirby and the friends can beat to score points. Near the end, Meta Knight or Dedede will appear, and you can beat them up for extra points, and after that, falling Point Stars appear that you can grab for more points. With the Wave 3 update, Marx appears as a boss during the "Heroes in Another Dimension" credits.
• Mirror Match: You can fight King Dedede as King Dedede. This also applies with Meta Knight. As of the Wave 3 update, it also applies to the Three Mage-Sisters.
• Moth Menace: It turns out the cute little butterfly we've seen in every recent Kirby game can vaporize (or assimilate) Galacta Knight and turn against Kirby's friends, although it is unclear why he does that.
• Motor Mouth: When finally confronted at the end of the game, Hyness proceeds to disclose his grand master plan to revive the Dark Lord and how Kirby and pals are in the way. He does this over the course of eight full text boxes written out in 13 seconds by using nigh-unreadable hyperspeed text scrolling. This is done while the camera is slowly zooming in on him and he's flailing wildly to give off the impression that he's crazy.
• Multi-Mook Melee:
  • In some parts of the levels, there'll be multiple respawning mooks that Kirby and co have to beat before they can proceed through the level. They may sometimes throw mini-bosses into the mix.
  • In the Ability Planet, entering the red star door will initiate an extended version of the respawning mooks, along with the appearance of all mini-bosses. If you can defeat them all, Kirby will be awarded with 20 treasure chests.
• Musical Nod:
  • The expected nods to iconic songs like King Dedede's theme and Green Greens are obvious, but there are some obscure ones as well: the minigame Star Slam Heroes uses a remixed version of Nebula Belt's music from Kirby Air Ride, and Planet Misteen has a remix of one of Grass Land's themes from Kirby's Dream Land 3. The game's opening also starts out with a brief quote of Super Star's opening theme in a similar context.
  • The Dream Friends also bring in a bevy of remixes from their source games used as their personal jingles and Boss Remixes.
  • The main theme of Heroes in Another Dimension is a medley of various final level themes from across the series: "Infinite Power" (from Return to Dream Land), "Beautiful Prison" (from Triple Deluxe), "L86" (from Planet Robobot), and Rainbow Resort (from Kirby's Adventure).
  • If you don't get at least 100 Friend Hearts in Heroes in Another Dimension, you don't get to unlock the Three Mage-Sisters and therefore get the "bad ending". The music that plays during this "bad ending" is the music from the bad ending of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and a remix of the bad ending credits music from Kirby's Dream Land 3.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: When Hyness is defeated by Kirby and pals, he realizes that he doesn't have enough power to revive the Dark Lord. In a final bid to complete the Dark Lord's revival ritual and summon Void Termina, he sacrifices the three Mage-Sisters and himself to the crystal heart, which successfully completes the heart and calls Void Termina. However, it's subverted in that the three Mage-Sisters and Hyness get spat out of Void Termina halfway through the final battle; meanwhile, Void Termina doesn't even slow down, and in fact grows wings immediately after ejecting them. Hyness and the Mage-Sisters do eventually get better, and the three sisters are unlocked as friends after getting the happy ending in Another Dimension.
• Mythology Gag:
  • King Dedede getting possessed by an evil entity and suddenly Hulking Out has already been done before.
  • Cleaning Kirby wears a star-pattern kerchief on his head, just like he did in the anime (and the canceled GameCube game).
  • Old Growth Elder, Yggy Woods, is undoubtedly based on the "Elder Woods" concept artwork dating back to the original Twinkle Popo development.
  • An image of Kirby is used to represent each difficulty setting for the Ultimate Choice. For the highest setting, Soul Melter, his face◊ turns into that of his Demon Frog possessed state◊ from the same episode as Buff Dedede above.
  • Morpho Knight's design is based on a concept design for the canceled GameCube game.
• Nerd in Evil's Helmet: The Jambastion cult's leader, Hyness, has a mysterious hooded appearance, but once his first phase is over, his hood falls off, revealing a goofy, bulgy-eyed, big-nosed face.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The opening shows someone performing a strange ritual on a crystalline heart, which the hearts breaks into purple and gets spread into multiple planets, with one of the pink shards from the spears that sealed the crystal heart falling into Kirby, giving him his heart powers. The purple shards turns people bad, including King Dedede, which alerts Kirby. This is all because Hyness actually botched the ritual to summon Void Termina.
• Nice Mean And In Between:
  • The second wave of Dream Friends are the friendly and cheerful Adeleine & Ribbon (Nice), the cold and ruthless Token Evil Teammate Dark Meta Knight (Mean), and the polite-but-thieving Daroach (In-Between). Wave Three follows a similar theme: the formerly-evil prankster Magolor (In-Between), the already-redeemed Taranza (Nice), and Susie (Mean), who aims to mechanize planets and their people.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters also follow this trope too: The polite, collected, but shy Francisca (Nice), the Hot-Blooded Fiery Redhead Flamberge (Mean) and the stern, earnest, and straight-laced Zan Partizanne (In-Between).
• Nostalgia Level:
  • The last secret level ends with a recreation of the first screen of Green Greens from Kirby's Dream Land. Like in Kirby's Adventure, the game even goes monochrome to set the mood.
  • Playing Guest Star mode as the post-launch Dream Friends will alter the level design to incorporate segments from their original games.
• Obviously Evil: Lord Hyness would have to think pretty hard to come up with a more evil-sounding title than "Officiant of Doom"^note "Demon God Officiant" in Japanese. He also casually punts Zan Partizanne out of his way as she begs for his aid before he fights Kirby. And he certainly looks the part, either In the Hood or without it. This is all before he discloses his Evil Plan.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Hyness, whose ultimate goal is to summon what amounts to a god of destruction to end all life in the universe out of pure spite. Bonus points for actually being a maniac (he's an insane cultist, after all). This also applies to the god he's summoning, Void Termina.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: You can damage Void Termina, Void Soul, and Void by throwing Friend Hearts at them. No other boss in the game has this weakness.
• Playing with Fire:
  • As always, Fire is one of the copy abilities, as well as one of the elements that can be used for Friend Abilities to create Sizzle abilities. Aside from Fire itself, Fighter (through Giga Force Blast), Rick, Gooey, Daroach, and Magolor can also utilize and provide fire.
  • Flamberge has a visibly hot-blooded personality, which carries over to her use of a flamethrower in addition to her fire-shaped... well, flamberge.
• Pointless Band-Aid: In addition to the usual backwards purple baseball cap, the Yo-Yo ability now comes with a bandage on Kirby's cheek. Considering the ESP and Wheel abilities also come with baseball caps, this might have been done to make Yo-Yo Kirby more visually distinct.
• Poison Mushroom: King Dedede tosses out rotten food in his muscular form, which will damage Kirby if he tries to inhale it. Water Kirby, Driblee, and anyone else with watery powers can use their attacks to convert the projectiles into real healing food.
• Post-Final Boss: While the credits roll, Dedede appears for a friendly tussle. Guest Star ??? has Meta-Knight instead, and Heroes in Another Dimension has Marx if you get the happy ending.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • The theme of the game. Making friends and combining your power with your friends' power is one of the most obvious examples. On the other hand, you'll be outright encouraged by loading screen tips to eat your friends for their abilities...
  • Also used literally. After defeating Void Termina's final beam, Kirby calls upon the power of all of the friends (including Dream Friends), and then has them attack Void Termina to vanquish it for good.
• Power Trio: The Three Mage-Sisters, consisting of Francisca, Flamberge, and Zan Partizanne.
  • The animal friends from Dream Land 2 work this way, working together as one character while each contributes their own mobility and two or three attack moves.
• Pre-Ending Credits: The credits roll in high speed after defeating Macho Dedede; but since the main threat is still at large, cue the credits rewinding just as quickly. Fittingly, the music tracks played in both scenes are named "Sudden Happy Ending" and "Things Seldom Go Right..." in the original Soundtrack.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • Broom Hatter, Como, and Chef Kawasaki, all frequently-appearing enemies in the series, finally get the chance to be friends in this game, alongside Plugg, Beetley, NESP, and Wester. Basically, this trope applies to any friend who wasn't a helper in Kirby Super Star.
  • The Dream Friends promote a large number of major characters from throughout the series to playable - Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Gooey are the only ones who have been regularly playable in the main gameplay modes of a title, though Rick & Kine & Coo have been controllable as Power Up Mounts. As for the rest:
    • Wave 1, in addition to Rick & Kine & Coo and Gooey, includes Marx, who incorporates both his normal beach-ball balancing form and his flying Final Boss form. The latter grants him access to nearly all of his attacks from said fight, some of which can be accessed by infusing his beach ball with elements.
    • Wave 2 includes Adeleine & Ribbon, Dark Meta Knight, and Daroach. Adeleine was only playable in that title's minigames and Ribbon was controlled alongside Kirby in the True Final Boss, while Dark Meta Knight and Daroach are both playable for the first time. In addition, Adeleine & Ribbon's "Ado's Painter" ability allows them to create a drawing of Waiu, Ice Dragon, or Kracko, all of which can be riden and controlled, providing the three of them a bit of playability as well.
    • Wave 3 promotes Magolor, Taranza, and Susie, all of whom are former bosses and thus haven't been playable before. This update also promotes The Three Mage-Sisters, though you have to earn them first by completing "Heroes in Another Dimension" with an A or S rank.
• Projectile Webbing: Kirby's new ability introduced in this game, Spider, lets him (among other things) shoot webs at range that quickly encase minor enemies in pods.
• Purposely Overpowered: The Three Mage-Sisters as playable Dream Friends, having access to 4 out of 5 of the elemental powers, several hard-hitting and wide-reaching Invulnerable Attacks, a screen-clearing move that recharges over time, and Zan Partizanne in particular having the fastest movement out of any character in the game. Justified, as the conditions to recruit them involve beating Heroes in Another Dimension. For that reason, their Guest Star route has them fight the Parallel versions of the main bosses (excluding themselves and Hyness), ending with them fighting a more powerful version of Morpho Knight.
• Puzzle Boss: Grand Mam, a King Mook version of the Iron Mam enemies from Super Star^note which was a miniboss in its own right. She's impervious to all attacks, and uses giant bombs tethered to her body with rope as makeshift fists. Her weakness? Use Sword or Cutter to cut the bombs off, then use Fire to trigger the bombs. The explosion will blow off Grand Mam's armor and render her vulnerable to your attacks. Sadly, this prevents her from being included in The Ultimate Choice, Another Dimension, and Guest Star.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Three Mage-Sisters; they're part of the bad guys' group, they have similar designs and fighting styles, and serve as three separate bosses across the game. They also have unique personalities each.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The True Destroyer of Worlds, Void Termina gets a sinister black and red Palette Swap in Soul Melter EX. Morpho Knight EX, fought in the Mage-Sisters' Guest Star and Soul Melter EX, gets a black-with-red scheme to replace the fiery orange-and-red palette.
• Reed Snorkel: If you are floating on water with the Ninja ability, you can spit water above you with a reed.
• Remixed Level: Downplayed with the secret levels, which tend to mix parts of a few previous levels.
• Retraux:
  • Void's Sad Battle Music eventually incorporates chiptune elements alongside the somber piano, at one point adding a brief riff from Dream Land Green Greens.
  • Beating Soul Melter Extra unlocks the Dream Button, which allows you to change Kirby into his 1992 box art design. Said design sports much simpler facial features, including beady eyes and whiskers in place of his signature cheek blush, as well as an overall duller color palette and pointy arms.
• Revenge Before Reason: According to Hyness' Motive Rant, the Jambastions' entire plot is fueled by pure spite at everyone who cast them to the edge of the universe. Nevermind the fact that Void Termina would likely kill the Jambastions alongside everything else in the universe if it had its way.
• Rewind Gag: Happens with the Fake-Out Fade-Out credits after defeating King Dedede in Story Mode or Hyness in Guest Star, in which they roll super-fast as if you have beaten the game. Then they rewind before revealing what comes next.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Once Flamberge finds out that Kirby had defeated Francisca, she swears to incinerate him for it. She also has the most explosive temper out of the three Mage-Sisters.
• Sad Battle Music:
  • The "Song of Supplication" that plays in the battles against Francisca and Flamberge, while fairly energetic, has a melancholic tone.
  • The battle against Void incorporates a slow, somber piano reprise as the fight transitions into new phases.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The distance that the meteor is launched in Star Slam Heroes is measured in light-years, reaching a maximum of 9,999 light-years on the hardest difficulty. At the speed of light, that would mean that several millennia pass in-game.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Meta Knight and King Dedede have several attacks that can’t be pulled off when the player is in control of them. However, this is justified in that the corruption of the Jamba Heart shards is what made them able to pull off those moves. Completely averted with Daroach and the Mage-Sisters, who can use every attack they had when they were bosses in their respective games, on top of brand-new ones in the former’s case.
• Self-Duplication: When possessed by the Jamba Heart shard, Meta Knight gains the ability to duplicate himself into four copies. Kracko also gains this ability. At least two of Void Soul/Void's attacks involve it duplicating itself into 4. Dark Meta Knight cribs this from the Mirror ability.
• Sequel Non-Entity:
  • This game drops the Leaf, Archer, Circus, Wheel, Jet, Mirror, Doctor, Poison, Smash Bros., and UFO abilities that were in Planet Robobot. It also surprisingly ditches the Spark ability, normally a series staple, in favor of Super Star's Plasma, even though Spark had already been given most of Plasma's abilities ever since Return to Dream Land.
  • The only miniboss to return from Planet Robobot is Bonkers. The rest are missing.
• Sequential Boss:
  • Kracko and Hyness are given a second phase each, with a new health bar, as a surprise.
    • Parallel Kracko starts out as twins, before merging into one huge cloud, inverting the old surprise, most likely to throw off the player.
  • The final level ends with it pitting you against Zan Partizanne (for the second time), then her boss Hyness, and finally the Final Boss, with no break in-between. In "Another Dimension", you fight Corrupt Hyness first, then ALL THREE MAGES AT ONCE. Your sanity wishes you the best of luck.
  • The fight with the final boss is a grueling 4-phase one (like Star Dream before it). First you fight the Demon God form with the Star Allies Sparkler, then you enter its body and fight its "First Core" on foot, then you're spat out of its body for another fight with its Angel form (again with the Star Allies Sparkler), and finally you enter its body again to fight its Final Core again, this time being exposed. There's also the story mode-only fifth phase, although it's more of a Quick Time Event.
• Ship Tease: After clearing "Guest Star" as one of Wave 2's Dream Friends, the picture shows Ribbon drawing Kirby in what could be interpreted as Love Doodles.
• Shock and Awe:
  • The Plasma, ESP, and Beam abilities provide the Zap element for ability combinations. Adeleine's drawing of Kracko, Doc's UFO (by Daroach), Magolor's basic magic blasts, and Taranza's Queen's Phantom move (where he summons a shadow Sectonia for a lightning attack) can also impart some Zap.
  • Zan Partizanne of the Three Mage-Sisters uses lightning-based attacks. She also wields an electric partisan. As a Dream Friend, her attacks can imbue the element on others as well.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Staff ability is based on Ruyi Bang, the staff of Sun Wukong from Journey to the West that can magically extend itself; in fact, its Chinese name is identical. In addition, Staff's name in several languages is similar to "Baton"^note French (Bâton), Spanish (Bastón), and Italian (Bastone), which seemingly references Kirby's "Baton" ability exclusive to the anime.
  • As usual, one of Kirby's Stone outcomes is a model of HAL Labs' headquarters and Mt. Fuji. But this time, the HQ is accompanied by Qbby!
  • The puzzle piece screen highly resembles that of those seen in Streetpass Mii Plaza, with blue random pieces on the edges and pink fixed pieces in the middle.
  • Bandana Waddle Dee's Guest Star mode has the subtitle The Legend of Dee.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters wield an axe, sword, and lance/spear, respectively, bringing to mind the Weapon Triangle from Fire Emblem.
  • Adeleine's animation for when she's selecting a Boss Painting has her stand with one hand on her hip and the other on her chin while rhythmically tapping one foot, in a manner identical to the Villager's "paused/deciding" pose from Animal Crossing.
  • Ribbon's third palette gives her dark blue clothes and light blue hair, which results in a strong resemblance to Cirno.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters have a tag-out mechanic similar to that of the Pokémon Trainer in Super Smash Bros., complete with pressing down and B to perform the switch.
  • One of the title screen animations features a Waddle Doo seemingly commanding a group of Waddle Dees (including Bandanna Dee). This is a reference to the anime in which there was only one Waddle Doo who served as the general of the Waddle Dee army.
• Shows Damage: If Whispy Woods is hammered with Fire attacks from both sides, it will burn up all the way to the eyes for massive amounts of damage; when it goes down from this, all the burnt wood is charred black.
• Sizable Snowflakes: Francisca is surrounded by a faint fog which constantly emits huge snowflakes. Her axe is also shaped like one.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Seems to be a recurring thing for Kirby by this point. While not as drastic as it was in Planet Robobot, Kirby still manages to nap through the arrival of the shadow hearts on Planet Popstar, including getting hit by a stray pink heart from a heart spear that gives him his friend-making powers.
• Smashing Survival:
  • Some bosses like Whispy Woods and Mr. Frosty can suck up/eat Kirby and company, prompting button-mashing to get them to spit you out and reduce the damage you receive.
  • When the Final Boss reveals its true form and transforms into Dark Matter, it engages Kirby and friends in multiple rounds of Beam-O-War, where you must mash the face buttons or rotate the analog stick to beat back the boss's beam. The exact command changes with each round, and culminates when the boss upgrades his laser into a Wave-Motion Gun, which causes Kirby to fight back with his own Wave-Motion Gun and prompt mashing all of the face buttons at the same time.
• Socialization Bonus: The game will definitely be easier when played multiplayer. This can help you get the specific ability mix quickly, and defeat bosses quickly, but there are also extra things that can only be done with 2 or more players; see Wave-Motion Gun below.
• Song of Prayer: The "Song of Supplication" may be an instrumental battle theme, but it also has lyrics provided in pause screen descriptions for the Mage-Sisters on Soul Melter. The twist is that the singers belong to an Apocalypse Cult, and they're singing to a God of Evil, in order to fulfill their prayer of restarting the world.
  In spite of all, we sing to you! Please hear our pleas and help us too! In spite of all, sadness rose! In spite of all, yearning grows! We call to you! We dream of you! In spite of all, this all is true!
• Squashed Flat: Returning from Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot are enemy attacks that will make Kirby, King Dedede, and Meta Knight drift to the ground like a piece of paper. This time, the other friends and Dream Friends can join in the "fun".
• Stealth Pun:
  • Why is Hyness spelled with a Y? Because underneath his hood, he looks like a blue hyena.
  • The final difficulty level for Ultimate Choice is called "Soul Melter" because you're going to fight Void Soul in the end.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Unlike the other times he's done it, this time all the food King Dedede pilfered has gone bad, seeing as how he's not storing it in any fashion that keeps it fresh.
  • When Corrupted Hyness attempts to use his Life Drain move, he doesn't regain health due to attempting it on logs instead of living beings.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: Compared to The Ultimate Choice's Soul Melter difficulty, which halves your maximum health and only gives you six regular Tomatoes as healing items, its more difficult counterpart Soul Melter EX leaves you with a full health bar while granting two Tomatoes, two Pep Brews, and two Maxim Tomatoes.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • The Spear ability (which was absent from Planet Robobot as well as this game) has been succeeded by the Staff ability, which uses similar jab attacks but has longer range, aerials that can be aimed diagonally, and a pole-vault skill; as a trade-off, Staff cannot throw projectiles, cut ropes, or perform the helicopter maneuver like Spear can. That said, the Spear ability exists in spirit with Bandana Waddle Dee, who brings in all of its abilities with his moveset.
  • While Mirror did not return for this game (despite already having a helper in Super Star, making a big comeback in Robobot, and being voted into Kirby Battle Royale), Dark Meta Knight has its split attack and the Ring maneuver by hitting down and B, on the ground and in the air respectively.
  • Interestingly, after Spark did this to Plasma, for this game Plasma has done it to Spark. This example is rather surprising since, starting in Return to Dream Land, Spark previously gained most of Plasma's moves from Super Star, particularly its Charged Attack mechanic and associated projectiles. In this game, Plasma retains its charge mechanic, but it retains the weak Plasma Needle instead of Spark's electric field attack, and it has new upward and downward attacks instead of Spark's continuous lightning bolts.
• Swap Fighter: Two Dream Friends feature this mechanic.
  • Rick, Kine, and Coo automatically switch who is active depending on the current environment, with Rick on the ground, Kine in the water, and Coo in the air.
  • The Three Mage-Sisters each have full movesets, and you can cycle through each of the three of them with down B.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Grand Mam can only be made vulnerable with a cutting ability to cut off her bomb arms, and a fire ability to make them explode her armor off. She conveniently summons Sir Kibbles, Blade Knights, and Burning Leos, which give cutting and fire abilities.
• Teleport Spam:
  • True to his debut, Marx's air dodge while flying is replaced by a short-range teleport which can be spammed. Daroach has the same. Plasma Kirby and Plugg have a Flash Step that costs some plasma charge to perform.
  • Unlike the similar bosses before him, Morpho Knight can quickly teleport around the arena, especially after he Turns Red.
• Telescoping Staff: The new Staff ability, capable of changing length mid-swing and even allowing Kirby to pole-vault with it. Jammerjab is the new enemy and friend associated with the ability.
• Theme Naming: All three of the Mage-Sisters are named after the weapons they wield. While Francisca's double-bitted axe isn't quite a francisca, she does still use it as a thrown weapon a few times. Zan Partizanne and Flamberge wield a partisan and flamberge respectively.
• Title Drop: Kirby and his friends are typically collectively referred to as the "Star Allies" by the game. The upgraded Friend Star that Kirby and friends pilot to fight Void Termina is also called the "Star Allies Sparkler", and the game's final level is even literally called "Kirby Star Allies".
• Token Evil Teammate: Each wave of the Dream Friends has at least one of them:
  • This is Marx's role as a Dream Friend. Unlike Magolor, who had a Heel–Face Turn between games, Marx (as shown in the Japanese pause description) is only teaming up with Kirby for his own personal gain because the threat posed by the villains has him worried for his safety. But apparently, he's fine as long as you keep him well-fed. Furthermore, he hasn't been a threat since being defeated by Kirby (he was even presumed dead until now).
  • Dark Meta Knight from Kirby & the Amazing Mirror as well, especially considering him being much darker and more ruthless than regular Meta Knight without any of his redeeming qualities. He may even be the one responsible for corrupting Queen Sectonia in Kirby: Triple Deluxe. It is strongly implied that he is only teaming up with Kirby to take the darkness of the Jamba Heart for himself, and thus it is unlikely that he is truly reformed.
  • Susie, revealed as part of Wave 3, never had a full Heel–Face Turn like Magolor or Taranza, who were released alongside her, and in fact (in this game) has a similar motive to her boss back then. At least, like Marx, she can act civil and friendly.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Adeleine and Ribbon are this to the Wave 2 Dream Friends. Daroach, while still succeeding in pulling off a Heel–Face Turn, is mostly an Anti-Hero seeking to collect the Dark Hearts for treasure, while Dark Meta Knight is an outright Token Evil Teammate.
  • Taranza, of the Wave 3 Dream Friends. Although Magolor has turned over to the good side, he's mostly Reformed, but Not Tamed and is The Gadfly, while Susie hasn't pulled off a proper Heel–Face Turn and is still yearning to revive the Haltmann Works Company after its destruction.
• Took a Level in Badass: So many characters get stronger in this game, whether it be simply getting stronger, being Promoted to Playable, or both.
  • Meta Knight clearly got stronger since his last outing in Planet Robobot, now being able to lift massive boulders and strike through them with no issue, just to hammer home that he's a Magic Knight. In the final update, he even gains a new Super Smash Bros.-esque Counter-Attack.
  • In the 4.0 update, Bandana Waddle Dee gets a new move where he slides across the ground with his spear planted in the ground. Not only does it deal a good amount of damage, it also carries him a fair distance and he's completely invulnerable during this!
  • Whispy Woods can now drop Burst Fruits and jump high into the air, much like he can in the Kirby Clash games.
  • Pon & Con can now run across the stage faster after they Turn Red.
  • Kracko initially starts out with his usual tricks, but after defeating him the first time, he splits into two and the battle begins anew as Twin Kracko.
  • Adeleine is no longer a One-Hit-Point Wonder like in Kirby 64, and is now more capable of fighting, even if she is much weaker than the other Dream Friends.
  • Dark Meta Knight has a bunch of new moves of his own to differentiate himself from Meta Knight, such as a replica of Meta Knight's new Upper Calibur attack, a spiraling uppercut, and even moves taken from the absent Mirror ability.
  • Daroach can now charge up his ice laser and drop fiery bombs just like when he was possessed by Dark Nebula.
  • If his evolution from being The Unfought in his debut game to being a boss and the initial Big Bad of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe wasn't enough, Taranza now has all of his moves from his boss fight, and can now summon a giant phantom version of Queen Sectonia and create his own smaller replica of the Dreamstalk.
  • Susie is now able to fight outside of her Business Suit with her new Ray Gun, and can even use moves taken from the absent Jet ability.
• Trick Boss:
  • During Falluna Moon, the second level of Far-Flung Starlight Heroes, there is a rematch with Whispy Woods, who uses somewhat different attacks. After defeating him, the level's not over — you still have to fight Yggy Woods, an older and stronger version of Whispy Woods.
  • Kracko is (by ordering of levels, since you can technically take him on first in the final world) a late-game boss, but he goes down surprisingly quickly compared to past fights in the series... because after his health bar is depleted, he splits into two giant clones with powered-up attacks. Inversely, you fight Parallel Twin Kracko in "Heroes in Another Dimension" and pat yourself on the back... before they come together and form Parallel Big Kracko, who takes up a quarter of the screen.
  • Hyness fights less fiercely than his generals do at first, but once his health bar is depleted, his hood flips off, initiating the second part of the battle where he starts attacking crazily and uses his generals as multipurpose puppets. This happens again in 'Another Dimension', only this time the Mage-Sisters are wooden logs with the three Mage-Sisters' hairstyles and berets, followed by all three of the Mage-Sisters attacking you.
• Underground Monkey: Goldon & Silvox are this to Pon & Con, while the four Parallel bosses are this to Whispy Woods, Kracko, Meta Knight, and King Dedede respectively.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The Friend Star turns the game into a 2D horizontal Shoot 'Em Up. In a very similar fashion to Planet Robobot's rail shooter final boss, the battle with Void Termina with Star Allies Sparkler turns the game into a 3D arena shooter.
• Victory Fakeout:
  • After defeating King Dedede, the credits start rolling, but they scroll too fast to read. When they are done, they reverse off the screen, and the Jamba Heart piece that was beaten out of Dedede flies off. Kirby and friends chase after it into the next level.
  • A similar case happens near the end of Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!, with the same fast-moving credits showing up after defeating Hyness as the Friend of choice. After they're reversed, a portal suddenly appears and Galacta Knight shows up for a sudden boss fight... before a butterfly lands on him and the real final boss of the mode is revealed to be Morpho Knight.
• Video Game Caring Potential: In addition to befriending enemies and KO'd mid-bosses, Kirby can use Friend Hearts on some of the bosses. Whispy Woods drops a ton of Point Stars, some Picture Pieces, and food, while King Dedede and Meta Knight can be recruited into Kirby's party without having to rely on the roulette of the Dream Palaces. For Pon & Con, and the Mage-Sisters if you reach the Golden Ending, the game outright enforces this.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Kirby and his allies first encounter Hyness, he enters a long yet unnaturally fast Motive Rant explaining why he wants to revive Void Termina and destroy the universe. Then, once you remove his hood, he flips out, and goes out of his way to absorb the life out of his mages, and swings them around like a bunch of elemental tools. That's not even going into mention his deranged, puppet-like movements.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The story is one of Kirby's most sweetest and most horrifying; you recruit friends and even old enemies with The Power of Friendship to stop a deranged cult leader plotting to resurrect a dark god to destroy all life in the universe.
• Waiting Puzzle: Finding the HAL Room in Heavenly Hall requires waiting 86 seconds in a certain room, upon which the door will appear.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Subverted with Hyness, given how he is the first character we see in the opening cutscene. However, his motives are kept sealed shut until you finally encounter him at the end of the game, and the game doesn't show us his true face until he enters his second phase.
  • Galacta Knight, as expected. This time, he gets assimilated by a red and orange butterfly, who becomes the butterfly warrior known as Morpho Knight, who's an even larger spoiler than Galacta Knight ever was.
  • All of the bosses in Heroes in Another Dimension count. Nothing foreshadows that the Jamba Heart shards that were purged from King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Whispy Woods at the beginning of the game would go on to manifest into each of their respective Parallel counterparts, while Corrupt Hyness and the Three Mage Sisters are kept hidden until the end of the post-game.
  • Void Termina, good lord. He's by far the biggest Walking Spoiler in the entire series, with his relevancy and importance to the series spanning across the past, present, and future. Not only that, but he's also a giant walking Continuity Cavalade and is also said in the Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions to be The Maker of the entire Kirby universe as a whole. That's not even going into the mention that he's implied to be the same species as Kirby and Dark Matter!
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Parallel Woods in "Heroes in Another Dimension". The Whispy Woods battle in the main game was just a Warm-Up Boss as usual, and even his stronger counterpart Yggy Woods was still manageable. But in this mode, if you haven't taken the increased puzzle complexity as a warning sign, then Parallel Woods' projectile spam will hammer in just how much the challenge has ramped up.
• Water Guns and Balloons: Francisca's gun initially appears to be a standard water cannon, but it's actually a soda bottle mounted on a firing mechanism — which she shakes to build up gas pressure before she fires it in a zig-zag pattern.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • The Team Attack: Multiple players piggybacking on one player can team up to charge and fire a gigantic laser beam that inflicts a One-Hit Kill on all normal enemies in its path and deals fair damage to bosses. If Marx is on the bottom of the stack, using the friendship beam will trigger a unique animation where Marx mimics his beam attack from his boss battle.
  • Francisca can shoot a continuous Reflecting Laser of water, while Flamberge uses a large cannon to unleash a torrent of flames, and Zan Partizanne can use both her partisan and her drums to fire a laser of lightning.
  • Have other (human) players when piloting the Star Allies Sparkler? Other players can help charge your shots too. Combine this with a fully charged shot to get a giant honking laser beam as a result that does massive damage.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Should you be playing alone, then if your character dies, you instantly lose a life since there are no AI characters to revive you. Should you fall into a bottomless pit or get crushed, you lose a life on the spot, allies or no.
• Wham Episode: The biggest example in the series, dropping probably the biggest bombshell the series has dropped via Void, whose mere existence reveals so much about both the Ancients and the entire franchise in general.
• Wham Shot:
  • In a vein similar to that of the instance in the previous title, whereupon NOVA's visage was revealed beneath Star Dream's completed exterior, upon entering the second phase of the Void Termina fight within the beast's stomach, it reveals its true form: a pink, wispy sphere of energy with three dots forming a face. Specifically a face identical to Kirby's.
  • Damaging it enough to get to its own second phase leads to yet another reveal: the "mouth" in Void Termina's face opens up to reveal a massive eye, the energy sphere opening up petals to assume another familiar form — that of Dark Matter. Even worse, its soul form frequently alternates between two faces: Kirby's and 0²'s disguise face.
  • Take a look at the splash screen background when Void's Boss Subtitles show up. It's the Hyper Zone.
  • Halfway through he fight with Void, it starts shapeshifting into forms resembling Dark Mind, Drawcia Soul, and Zero, even taking on their colour palette and respective backgrounds. And then it pulls attacks from those bosses.
  • And to end it all, after finally defeating Void, its face goes wild and distorts into various different configurations...before it just smiles. And not just any smile, it's Kirby's trademark smile.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see the fate of the Three Mage-Sisters or Hyness after being spat out of Void Termina mid-battle. Francisca and Flamberge were launched into space after their battles earlier in the game and were no worse for wear. In addition, all four of them are notably flailing when spat out (plus, the sisters all have normal skin complexion, implying they are free from Hyness' influence from his previous battle), so it seems unlikely that any of them are outright dead. Although, at the time it could have been assumed that their life force was consumed by Void Termina, as he does not weaken after they are spit out.
  • "Heroes in Another Dimension" reveals that they escaped into Another Dimension in order to find another vessel of Void Termina. They return to get revenge for you beating up Corrupted Hyness (by all three of them fighting at the same time). They are eventually restored to their former selves if you collect 100 Friend Hearts prior to the battle, and can be recruited as playable characters.
• Wicked Heart Symbol:
  • The Jambastion cult is in possession of the Jamba Heart, a purple, cracking, heart-shpaed crystal. When Hyness does a ritual on it, many smaller heart pieces break of off it and fly into space, with pink hearts from the spears that sealed the Jamba Heart being benign and dark purple hearts from the Jamba Heart itself having minds of their own; the purple ones proceed to cause a Hate Plague on many of Planet Popstar's residents. It's later revealed that the breaking of the Jamba Heart was an accident, as Hyness was using it to summon Void Termina and messed up the ritual.
  • The Jambastion sigil is a horned heart with wings. The Three Mage-Sisters have it on their hats, as well as a heart symbol on each hand and two heart-shaped gems attached to their uniforms, connected by a yellow bead chain.
  • Void Termina's mask/head is shaped like a heart. His actual heart, while shaped more like a sphere, has heart symbols coursing through its veins.
• Wind Is Green: The color hues of Bluster attacks and abilities are of a greenish cyan. On the same note, when a new combo is made with a wind-elemental ability, the presentation card features leaves flying in the background.
• Wintry Auroral Sky: The sky of the frigid Planet Frostak is almost completely covered in multicoloured auroras.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Three Mage-Sisters are fought as a team at the end of Heroes In Another Dimension.
• Womb Level: The second and fourth phase of the final boss involves Kirby and co going into Void Termina's innards and falling near its heart. You can see multiple threads of flesh adorning the fleshy walls, Red Tears, and the heart itself, which surface-wise looks quite detailed.
• World Tree: Referenced in the name of Yggy Woods, who is named after the mythical Yggdrasil. Fittingly, it's an Underground Monkey version of Whispy with leaves over his eyes and mouth to emulate Big Ol' Eyebrows and a drooping mustache, plus autumn (i.e old) leaves and dirty patches on his bark.
• Your Size May Vary: Marx has access to his boss form, but it is comparatively much smaller than it was in Super Star, as it's more or less just his normal form but with his wings.

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