Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror[lower-alpha 1] is a Kirby platform video game released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. Unlike most Kirby games, King Dedede does not appear in this game.

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
North American box art
Developer(s)HAL Laboratory
Flagship
Dimps
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Tomoaki Fukui
Producer(s)Yasushi Adachi
Masayoshi Tanimura
Shigeru Miyamoto
Kenji Miki
Composer(s)Hironobu Inagaki
Atsuyoshi Isemura
SeriesKirby
Platform(s)Game Boy Advance
Release
  • JP: April 15, 2004
  • EU: July 2, 2004
  • NA: October 18, 2004
  • AU: December 23, 2004
Genre(s)Platformer, Metroidvania
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Plot

There is a Mirror World that exists in the skies of Dream Land. It is a world where any wish reflected in the mirror will come true, and in it lay the Amazing Mirror. However, one day it copied the mind of a mysterious figure called Dark Mind and created a reflected world of evil. Meta Knight noticed this and flew up to save the Mirror World.

Meanwhile, while Kirby was taking a walk, Dark Meta Knight appeared instantly and sliced Kirby into four Kirbys, each with a different color. Dark Meta Knight retreated and the four Kirbys chased after him on a Warp Star and entered the Mirror World.

The two Meta Knights fought in the Mirror World until the real Meta Knight was defeated. He was knocked into the Amazing Mirror, which Dark Meta Knight then cut into eight fragments (which are then scattered across the Mirror World). Kirby must find the eight fragments of the broken mirror to save Meta Knight and the Mirror World from Dark Mind.

Gameplay
Kirby and his different colored copies travel across the hub world.

Unlike the other Kirby games, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror features a maze layout, and is traversed in a style similar to the Metroid and Castlevania games. The game map branches out in several directions and, providing Kirby has the proper power at his disposal, he is able to go anywhere in almost any order, excluding the final sequence. If the player gains access to all mirrors (excluding the one the player is collecting shards for), they will be able to access a new mirror full of Copy Pedestals for their use.

The player explores the worlds, solving puzzles, defeating enemies, and collecting items. Occasionally, a sub-boss will be encountered, at which point the screen will lock into place until the boss is defeated. Swallowing a sub-boss after defeat usually grants a rare or exclusive copy ability. At the end of worlds 2-9 is a boss which the player must defeat to place another shard in the broken mirror in the Mirror Room. Before each boss is an antechamber where there is no music, for dramatic effect. The player respawns there and there are usually items hidden around it for healing before the fight as well as copy pedestals. The player will also occasionally encounter "rest areas" of sorts, where the music reverts to the music from the Mirror Room. There is usually an item and a copy pedestal or two in these areas as well. Some rest areas are part of a system linking back to the Mirror Room, and can be connected via giant buttons that are usually in the room itself, but are occasionally somewhere else in the world.

The player can collect various items to improve in-game performance, such as extra health points and lives, food to replenish health, and batteries for the Cellphone. The game also features two other collectibles: music sheets, which act as a sound test mode once the music player item is found, and spray paint, which can be used to recolor the player's Kirby. Both can be accessed from the main menu. There are also three minigames accessible from the menu, which support single player and multiplayer:

  • Speed Eaters- A game in which the four Kirbys are seated around a covered platter. Once the lid is whisked away at a random time, the fastest person to press the A button and suck in the food on the platter is filled up more (measured by a gauge above each Kirby). The four apples on each platter can be distributed as 4 to one Kirby, 3 to one and 1 to another, etc. If a player hits A before the lid is taken off, they are eliminated for that round. Occasionally, there will be a pile of Bombs on the platter, and any Kirbys that eat it will be knocked out for the next round.
  • Crackity Hack- A game in which the four Kirbys are challenged to break a rock as much as they can, in a similar style to a microgame from Kirby Super Star. There is a colored meter that fills and drains continuously, challenging the player to hit it while it is as full as it can be. Additionally, while the Kirbys are in the air, the player can attempt to line up two sets of crosshairs beneath Kirby and on the rock for added force. If a player is perfect, they will achieve 999 meters and a zoomed shot of the earth will be shown, with the stadium on the daytime side and an upside-down nighttime landscape.
  • Kirby's Wave Ride- A game in which the Kirbys, atop Warp Stars, race over a water track that varies in length and complexity depending on the difficulty setting. For a speed boost, the player can jump off of ramps placed on the track. The strength of the boost and the grade awarded for the jump are determined by the player's timing.

The game also features multiplayer, and the player can call other players or CPU-controlled Kirbys to the location with an in-game cell phone. The three other Kirbys are CPUs by default, but connecting to another GBA (which must also have an "Amazing Mirror" cartridge in it) allows for co-op multiplayer for enhanced teamwork and faster completion. There are several new powers in The Amazing Mirror, such as Cupid (called Angel in the Japanese version), which allows Kirby to fly around with wings and a halo and fire arrows; Missile, which turns Kirby into a missile that can be guided in any direction and will explode on contact with a wall or an enemy or when the B button is hit; and Smash, which gives Kirby the abilities he had in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Also, in this version, Kirby's ability to inhale various things has been expanded upon- now able to move or inhale larger objects by holding down the button until his mouth expands, increasing his inhaling power.

Development

The game is a collaborative development effort between HAL Laboratory, Flagship, and Dimps.[1] Capcom's subsidiary Flagship was responsible for the main planning.[1] Dimps was in charge of programming, design, and sound, while HAL Laboratory provided artwork and debugging services.[1] The game features soundtrack by Hironobu Inagaki and Atsuyoshi Isemura, but some tracks were reserved from Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.

Virtual Console

On August 1, 2011, Nintendo announced that Kirby & The Amazing Mirror would be available to limited Nintendo 3DS owners via Virtual Console, along with nine other Game Boy Advance games that were announced; it was released on December 16, 2011, to join the upcoming Nintendo 3DS price-cut and the Ambassador program starting August 11, 2011. This offer is available in all territories and only to those who became eligible in the Ambassador program (by accessing the Nintendo eShop before the date of the price-cut). Nintendo has no plans to release this game, or any other Game Boy Advance game, to the general public in paid form on the 3DS.

The game was released on the Wii U's Virtual Console on April 3, 2014 in Japan and April 10, 2014 in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Reception

In the United States, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror sold 620,000 copies and earned $19 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 43rd highest-selling game launched for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, or PlayStation Portable in that country.[14]

The Amazing Mirror received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one nine, one ten, one nine, and one eight for a total of 36 out of 40. [4] It received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Game Boy Advance Game" and "Best Platformer" award categories, losing to Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, respectively.[15]

IGN commented on the level design, stating, "It's discovering the hidden pathways that's the real challenge."[8] GameSpot called the layout "daunting," but commented on the map feature. The graphics and sound were referred to as cute, though not amazing.[6]

Notes
  1. Known in Japan as Hoshi no Kirby: Kagami no Daimeikyū (Japanese: 星のカービィ 鏡 (かがみ)の大迷宮 (だいめいきゅう), Hepburn: Hoshi no Kābī Kagami no Daimeikyū, lit. Kirby of the Stars: The Great Mirror Labyrinth)

References
  1. Flagship Co., Ltd.; Dimps Corporation; HAL Laboratory, Inc. (18 October 2004). Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. Nintendo of America, Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  2. "Kirby & the Amazing Mirror for Game Boy Advance Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  3. Parish, Jeremy (October 15, 2004). "Kirby & The Amazing Mirror". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  4. "星のカービィ 鏡の大迷宮". Famitsu. 798. April 2, 2004.
  5. Mason, Lisa (October 2004). "Kirby and the Amazing Mirror [sic]". Game Informer (138): 146.
  6. Torres, Ricardo (October 18, 2004). "Kirby & the Amazing Mirror Review". GameSpot. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  7. Theobald, Phil (October 18, 2004). "GameSpy: Kirby & The Amazing Mirror". GameSpy. Archived from the original on November 10, 2005. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  8. Harris, Craig (October 20, 2004). "Kirby & The Amazing Mirror". IGN. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  9. Reed, Philip J. (January 5, 2012). "Review: Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (3DS eShop / GBA)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  10. "Kirby & the Amazing Mirror". Nintendo Power. 186: 142. December 2004.
  11. Carvell, Stephen (December 23, 2004). "Kirby and the Amazing Mirror [sic] Review". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  12. Vassar, Darryl (November 23, 2004). "Kirby and the Amazing Mirror [sic] Review". X-Play. Archived from the original on November 25, 2004. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  13. Blackmore, Ben (August 7, 2004). "Kirby and the Amazing Mirror [sic]". The Times. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2016.(subscription required)
  14. Keiser, Joe (August 2, 2006). "The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games". Next Generation. Archived from the original on October 10, 2007.
  15. The GameSpot Editors (January 5, 2005). "Best and Worst of 2004". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 7, 2005.
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