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Very well.
1992-Kirby's Dreamland~
This is the first sprite of Kirby, it's simple, like his design, and is done in shades of gray. Despite that, it's still very cute looking...and stuff. It shows that he's short and plump, and I like his pose when you press down--er, nevermind, that was Dreamland 2. His down pose is him completely flat with some of his shoes sticking out. He looks very awkward when he has enemies in his mouth, as well as when he's puffed up. But he's still adorable. I love it in the ending when he turns into the Air Balloon
1993-Kirby's Adventure~
The first Kirby game with color. This sprite shows Kirby's natural pink-ness, though is just a slightly modified version of the sprite from his first game. The most notable changes are when he has an inhaled enemy and puffs up, these are more rounded then his Dreamland 1 counterpart. He also has the ability to do a slide kick, which is a new set of sprites for his character as he never had one in the first game. He changes color when he gets an ability (and that color is usually a reddish orange unless it is an ice-related ability, then it's an icy blue). The sprite poses for holding a weapon such as a sword or hammer also debuted in this game. He also had a funny climbing animation set of sprites, but those seemed to have gotten canned.... (I don't remember them in any other game (being able to do them, that is, he does the climbing animation in the remake during the Yogurt Yard intro))
1993-Kirby's Pinball Land~
These are mostly reused sprites from the first Kirby game and some from Kirby's adventure. Fun Fact: The launchpad at the bottom of the Pinball land stages is the same sprite as the launchpad from Kirby's Adventure.
1995-Kirby's Dreamland 2~
Kirby returns with a more pudgy-like sprite to give him more roundness. (This is my favorite incarnation, obviously) All of his animations have changed with the initial sprite shape in how he runs, walks, jumps and crouches. Interestingly enough, his inhaling sprite is not changed by much. Some of his sprite poses are borrowed from Kirby's Adventure (like when he has an inhaled enemy), but very few. My favorite pose of his is when he gets the fireball ability (it's the pose he does when he appears in the intro), cause it's awesome like that. Another favorite is when he has the parasol ability and crouches (it looks like he's a small beach to me), the crouch pose being completely new as well.
Though not exactly Kirby, he teams up with three friends who have their own individual sprite sets. I won't get into them much, but comment on Kirby's expression while riding with them.
-With Rick, Kirby is usually smiling as he rides on the back of his best bud and is always happy to use Rick's Fire Breath (Kirby looks like he's out to kill someone intentionally)
-Coo's Talons take up most of Kirby's body, giving him a squished look whilst flying and whilst on the ground. It gets even weirder when the stone ability is obtained with the duo.
-Kirby looks either eager or wanting to get the hell out of Kine's mouth. His expression is similar to that when burning people with Rick, but I have no idea why that is.
1995-Kirby's Avalanche~
....not many sprites appear in this game. Though it is Kirby's first 16-bit sprite, it's pretty cool. Otherwise no comment.
1995-Kirby's Dreamcourse~
Kirby is pudgy and brighter than ever in this title. Though from a different perspective of the previous Kirby games, the details to what he looks like from each side is fairly cool. He is a ball throughout most of the game, so these sprites are based on what he looks like before you take a swing. He also looks very happy (and cozy) to be hugging his Warp Star as he completes a hole. He also does a sad animation when you are "JUST THIS CLOSE" to getting in the hole. Awww...... He also has sleeping sprites like in the original Kirby's Dreamland when you get a game over. ...he's so damn cute, D=
1996-Kirby's Block Ball~
These sprites are taken from Kirby's Dreamland 2 and are based on the Kirby's Pinball sprites. Not much interesting about them, but it was a fun game.
1996-Kirby Super Star~
These sprites are a slightly darker shade of pink than the ones shown in Dreamcourse, and are probably the ones most people are familiar with. To be honest, this is my least favorite set. I just think he looks TOO fat in these sprites. ....well, everyone does actually, now that I think about it. The remake using the 32-bit sprites that debuted in the Adventure remake I definitely prefer, so I'm happy for that. Then again, now that I think about it. A co-worker commented on Megaman in Megaman 7 being too big on the screen, and now that I think about it.... I guess that's what I don't like about this version of Kirby. It's similar. He's too big. ...or we're zoomed in closer, I have no idea. His flying and enemy in mouth poses aren't too far from the former, but his inhaling sprite has gotten a make-over. Slightly anyways. With the use of more color, that line that we saw in the previous Kirby sprites is now gone and darker shades of pink are used to gradually outline it. His scurry animation is really cute to look at, and the idea for hats (this is the first Kirby game to have the hats) was a great addition than the different shades of orange and blue in Kirby's Adventure. The guard action is also a nice touch, and different abilities have different animations for the guard, and even flying and scurrying. Getting into those would take a little too much time, so I'll just say the obvious of Mirror's scurrying poses as well as it's guarding, and the flying poses of of Jet Ability. (Though my favorite is Parasol. It's funny that something like that can protect you from all attacks (Ice is funny too))
1997-Kirby's Dreamland 3~
KDL3 is definitely not a favorite game of mine, I guess some of the music, though super cute, bores me a bit. But by god, I LOVE THESE VISUALS. As much as KDL2 will always be my favorite Kirby game (or favorite game ever), KDL3 is a very unique twist. The crayon style of Kirby, and all of the other characters, is so cool. I think people who think Yoshi's Island over this need to shut up and notice ate how more polished these are then some of those. This game looks more like a storybook, damnit, >=/. Kirby's animations are completely different than any incarnation. He does a quick-breathing animation as his idle stance, which seems dumb, but it's still fairly cool. When crouching and running, he closes his eyes (for whatever reason), but it just adds to the cuteness. This run is also significantly faster than his scurry in Kirby Super Star. Also if you jump, and land successfully, he'll do that awesome pose that he did in KDL2. His flying animation is changed so that his face is located at the upper part of his inflated-self rather than the whole body. While his inhaling pose looks strange, it's pretty funny none the less. I'd get into his animal friends and gooey, but that's too much to cover!! (And their individual sprites depending on what ability you have... I'll be darned!)
1997-Kirby's Star Stacker~
Back on the Gameboy, though being a puzzle game, it has some impressive visuals (to me anyways). The Dedede sprite at the beginning of each round always makes me laugh, and always makes me wonder why they made him look like a retard in the anime. Why not awesome like this? As for the Kirby sprites themselves, they're taken from KDL2 (it's where it's at!). Using some walking sprites and some sprites from his spark-ability, as well as a slightly altered version of that said ability for when releasing the stars, he does little dances everytime you win a round. The dance poses consist of dual "awesome poses" from KDL2 and a turn around animation, which is pretty cool. But if you start to screw up, he does this little panic set of sprites that always get me worried (along with the music), poor Kirby, D=. After winning, he rides off determined on a Warpstar. ....and the dancing Kirbies, though not the actual in-game sprites, are awesome too.
1998-Kirby's Super Stacker Stacker (Kirra Kizzu)~
These Kirby sprites are a bit of a mixture of both Super Star and Dreamland 3. ...and I guess I lied, I think these are some of my favorite Kirby sprites. The mixture is just so nice. It's still crayon-y, but not to the extreme like it was in Dreamland 3. Kirby's bigger, but not fat like he appeared in Super Star. And his animations of attacking his opponents in the Story mode are funny (he hits them with the Heart Star Rod, hahaha). The poses that were brought in the first Star Stacker carry over and are applied to the new set of sprites, and it works out very well. So cute!
2001-Kirby's Tilt'n'Tumble~
This game is similar to Dreamcourse as it has a different view on Kirby. All of his sprites are of him rolling around with his limbs (not a ball). Though interesting, he looks a little too like his original Dreamland 1 self, which I guess makes sense since the music in the game comes mostly from the first Dreamland, but still. It's cute, but sometimes I wonder if he's suffering any mental damage from having to roll around and impale his face on numerous things as you go about.
2002, beyond+
The sprites that appeared in Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, have become the pretty much universal sprites for the series. It's small, it's round, it's cute. And it works. I like these sprites and all the incarnations, the inhaling animation is always funny to watch and other poses are done nicely. I'd say the only thing I don't like is how in Amazing Mirror he can make his mouth bigger, and then give out. ...that sprite in general bothers me. So I'm hoping it just won't return. (It's been a while since I played Squeak Squad, so I forgot if they kept it there) Since these sprites (even in Magic Paintbrush) haven't been altered much, there's not really a point of me to talk about every single game. ....or talk about them at all since everyone is familiar with them by now (and that if they aren't, they will be familiar with them come this fall as those are the sprites being used in the Super Star remake). So I guess I got nothing else to say.
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....is that what you wanted when you wanted to talk about sprites, =D?
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