Kirby's Epic Yarn

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It's Kirby. He's Yarn. And it's Epic!

"This grass feels funny," Kirby thought. "It feels like... pants."

Kirby's Epic Yarn is an entry in the Kirby series, released on October 2010 for the Nintendo Wii. Bearing much in common with a commercial for Kirby's Adventure from almost two decades ago, the game's overall design is vastly different from Kirby's other appearances. The animation style is meant to look like everything is a yarn outline with minor details such as facial features. The layout of the worlds and levels is scrapbook-like, with simple pieces of fabric such as cloth and felt. Many of the enemies are also made up cloth, felt, and pipe cleaners.

Another key feature in the game is that Kirby has lost the ability to inhale, as the air goes right through his new body. Instead, Kirby can create a whip-like object using yarn that he uses to wrap around enemies. The enemy will turn into a ball of yarn which Kirby can carry and throw at other enemies to defeat them or grab items. Kirby can also use this ability to pull down scenery such as walls to progress or scrunch up the scenery to make gaps shorter so that he can jump across them (as he can no longer puff up and float).

The story kicks off when Kirby, out on a stroll, tries to chow down on a tomato. This turns out to be the head gear of Big Bad Yin-Yarn, who sucks Kirby into Patch Land. There, Kirby meets Prince Fluff, who explains that Patch Land has been broken into pieces and that the world has to be sewn back together. The two decide to work together to restore Patch Land and stop Yin-Yarn.

Tropes used in Kirby's Epic Yarn include:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Most of the level names.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: A few places have them.
• All Cloth Unravels: One of the enemy types and boss has that kind of weakness. Justified because of the settings of this game.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: Averted. This game is so adorable, Kirby actually gets to smile on a US boxart for once (though Kirby 64 and Kirby Super Star Ultra broke this trend before it).
  • The US TV spot, however, plays it straight.
• And Then What?: Yin-Yarn pulls this on himself at one point in the game. He really doesn't have a plan for what to do after conquering Dream Land, but he says he'll think of something.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating
• Angry Eyebrows: Prince Fluff has them, but they don't prevent him from looking completely adorable.
• An Interior Designer Is You: Kirby gets an apartment that you can decorate with items from shops and levels.
• Art Shift: Imagine if your quilt-stitchin' Grandma was asked to design a Kirby game.
  • The scenes taking place in Dream Land aren't any better, with everything portrayed as choppily animated paper cutouts (Yin-Yarn is still portrayed and animated like the rest of the game, obviously).
• Auto Scrolling Level: A few of them.
  • Justified with Boom Boatyard, as Kirby is rushing straight into the heart of a pirate ship armada. If he stays in one spot, the missiles hit him. And to win the level, he has to unravel them or be unraveled himself. Therefore, the side-scrolling could be inferred as Kirby's choice, possibly showing Fridge Brilliance on the part of the developers.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: King Dedede and Meta Knight. They're justified, though, as Dedede is not so much "cursed" as "had his limbs attached to strings on a cross like a marionette", and defeating him means breaking the cross, and your goal with Meta Knight is to stun him long enough to destroy the swords that Yin-Yarn is using to control him.
• Big Ball of Violence: How Dedede gets captured.
• Big Damn Heroes: Meta Knight drops off a Metamortex during the final boss fight.
• Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: An angel (Angie) rescues you -- though as punishment, you drop beads. Works for getting crushed, too.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: King Dedede, like previous games in the series, but this is the first time Meta Knight gets brainwashed by the main villain.
• Cartoon Bomb: One of Squashini's attacks straps Kirby and Prince Fluff to a giant one.
• Christmas Episode: Snow Land has a happy, Christmas themed stage called Evergreen Lift.
• Circling Birdies: A few stunned enemies have them.
• Cool Board: Kirby's Surfing transformation.
• Cool Car: Two of Kirby's transformations on land.
• Covers Always Spoil: The back of the box shows Kirby's fight with a yarnified Dedede and the game disc has a completed world map on it.
• Cranium Ride: Which you can do.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Yin-Yarn pulls an ambush on Meta Knight to capture him, as Meta Knight would shred him in a fair fight.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The game started out as "Fluff's Yarn", starring a totally new character, Fluff. When the game didn't seem to be turning out very well, Nintendo suggested turning it into a Kirby game. The story appears to still hold elements of the original game, what with Prince Fluff being Kirby's partner.
• Electric Jellyfish
• Everything's Better with Plushies: The entirety of the game.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: The bead streak counter.
• Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Capamari.
• Evil Overlooker: The box art for the game has Yin-Yarn doing this.
• Face Ship: Kirby can turn into a huge tank or a rocket ship, both of which has his face. Also, Meta Knight's Battleship, the Halberd, reappears.
• Fast Tunnelling: The Digger transformation. Justified because it's cotton which is being tunneled and is simply thrown out from the current plane.
• Floating Water
• Foregone Victory: Pretty much every boss falls under this, due to game mechanics. Then again, the actual challenge is trying to obtain Platinum Medals, which unlocks bonus levels, by trying to obtain as much beads as possible without losing them.
• Fungus Humongous
• Gosh Dang It to Heck: The narrator uses the word "darned" in one cutscene. Then again, it might be for another reason.
• Gravity Screw: Present in the Mysterious UFO level as a major gimmick.
• Ground Pound: Kirby can transform into a heavy weight to do this.
• Helpful Mook: Unarmed Waddle Dees are not only totally harmless, but you can actually use their heads as helpful stepstools.
• Heroic Dolphin: Kirby's Dolphin transformation.
• Hot Wings: The boss for Hot Land actually is named Hot Wings.
• Humongous Mecha: Kirby can transform into one at certain points. In two-player mode, Prince Fluff teams up with him in this act, and together they make a Combining Mecha. Also, the final boss.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: "Hey! You can't be mean to my Waddle Dees! Only I can be mean to my Waddle Dees!"
• Idle Animation: Kirby jumps rope with his whip (which is also part of his body).
  • If you go to the roof of the apartment building, crouching causes Kirby to sit and eventually fall asleep.
• Improvised Parachute: Kirby can transform into one.
  • ...Even though Kirby can't inhale or hold air in this game, yet he can use a parachute. Or rather, turn into one.
• Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Or threadmills if you like.
• Interface Spoiler: The menu for choosing your furniture has silhouettes of all of the items you haven't gotten yet.
• Last Lousy Point: So you bought out the shops and finished all of the minigames, yet you're still missing five fabrics. When the apartment tenants say they've come over to play, it means you can find them in Kirby's Pad. Each gives a personalized fabric if you've completed all of that tenant's minigames. Becomes Search The Freaking Forums on the Game FAQs/GameSpot boards due to the number and frequency of topics asking this.
• Lens Flare: A tongue-in-cheek example is seen in beach levels, made of white yarn and what appears to be dryer sheets.
• Let's Play: Medibot and My Name Is Kaz.
• Letting the Air Out of the Band: After beating Yin-Yarn's first form.
• Macross Missile Massacre: One of Mecha Yin-Yarn's attacks.
• Magicians Are Wizards: Squashini, who is also partly a Death Dealer.
• Martial Arts and Crafts: A literal example. Since Kirby lost his suction ability, but got it replaced with a yarn whip.
• Meaningful Name: Each of the apartment tenants has a name related to the nature of his or her minigame stages.
• Mind Control Eyes: Dedede and Meta Knight.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Fangora is a fearsome dragon and one of the largest bosses in the game... and it's also the first boss (and thus the easiest).
• Mook Maker: Patches with a face on them.
• Musical Pastiche: Yin-Yarn's boss music incorporates elements from several different boss themes built around the Kirby 64 boss music.
• Mythology Gag: Behold, the Japanese commercial for Kirby's Adventure.
• Nitro Boost: The off-roader and train can collect items which cause speed boosts.
  • In two-player mode, Prince Fluff provides a self-regenerating version for the off-roader.
• Non Lethal Bottomless Pits: Okay, so everything is non-lethal in this game, but still!
• Oh Crap: Kirby and Prince Fluff's reaction when, right after they beat Yin-Yarn, his needles come to life and create a giant mecha.
• One Hundred Percent Completion: There are several categories of things to collect -- character biographies, cloth samples, furniture, music, and movies.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Fangora, a dragon made from yarn.
• Patchwork Map: Patch Land is this, and not just because it's literally made of patchwork.
• Perpetual Frowner: Prince Fluff.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: The fight with Squashini is presented as a magic show, with yarn Waddle-Dees sitting in the "audience" with their backs to the Fourth Wall. They also give away Squashini's secret during the hat trick.
• Quicksand Sucks: Or quickfabric to be more precise.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: Prince Fluff wears a crown all the time.
• Recurring Riff: Many previous songs in the franchise were remixed in this game. In addition, the majority of songs unique to this game have a distinctive 12-note melody.
• Rise to the Challenge: Several levels, namely Cozy Cabin.
• Roar Before Beating: Fangora.
• Rocket Punch: In 2-player mode, the secondary player controlling the tankbot can allow it to use a homing rocket punch.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Prince Fluff.
• Sequential Boss: Yin-Yarn has a second form, and a few bosses change their attacks after being hit.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of Dedede's attacks.
• Shout-Out:
  • For older works, there's a Shout Out to Jack And The Beanstalk in the first world.
  • Squash + Harry Houdini = Squashini.
  • The boss of Space Land, Meta Knight, uses four different swords (though not all at once). Their colors? Green, blue, purple, and red.
  • Blub-Blub Ocean introduces the Dolphin transformation, which has the same controls and gameplay style as Ecco the Dolphin. It even has the same "Swimming through water paths in the sky" gimmick.
  • The title screen is a shout-out to the NES era (and parts of the Super NES era), in which you choose between "1 Player" or "2 Players".
• Sleep Cute: Fountain Gardens has two sleepy Waddle Dees right before the Tankbot section, with a red bead heart floating above them. Whether you let them be or unravel them mercilessly is up to you.
  • They'll respawn anyway.
• Smart Bomb: Kirby's saucer transformation can do that after capturing enough objects.
• Spiritual Successor: Arguably, to Yoshis Island -- both games have a unique visual presentation, and their respective protagonists make use of a long, thin object (the yarn whip in Epic Yarn and Yoshi's tongue in Island) to create projectiles as well as transform with the help of special bubbles.
• Springy Spores: Mushroom Run
• Stock Sound Effect: Some really stand out, like Fangora's roar and especially the stock wind sound.
• Storybook Opening: Every cutscene is narrated like this.
• Stealth Pun: Both "Epic" and "Yarn" mean "story".
• Suddenly Voiced: The game has a narrator during the cutscenes, much like listening to an audio book.
  • Kirby himself, after realizing the grass is pants.
• Super Happy Fun Trope of Doom: If Cozy Cabin were any cozier, we'd all need treating for multiple puncture wounds.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Pretty much all of them.
  • Fangora: If he never stuck his tongue out, you couldn't grab it.
  • Hot Wings: If it never shot flaming birds at you, you wouldn't have anything to stun him with.
  • King Dedede: If he never belly-flopped at you, you'd never get a chance to stomp him.
  • Meta Knight: If he never shot projectiles, you wouldn't have anything to throw at him.
  • Yin-Yarn: If he didn't spawn smaller enemies, you couldn't hit him. Averted with his second form, which would haven been invulnerable if Meta Knight hadn't shown up.
• Took a Level In Badass: Whispy Woods returns and is able to put up a good fight against tankbot Kirby, which is no easy feat.
• Tractor Beam: The U.F.O. transformation.
• Tube Travel: In a few levels, Kirby unravels into a single, long piece of yarn and travels through tight spaces. You can control moving forward and backwards, as well as move left or right when the path branches off.
• Twinkle in The Sky: After the final boss is defeated.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: Becomes a shmup briefly in two levels. There are also two bonus levels entirely dedicated to this trope.
• Victory Fakeout: Yin-Yarn again.
• Video Game Settings:
  • Big Boo's Haunt
  • Blackout Basement: Dark Manor.
  • Bubbly Clouds: Cloud Palace.
  • Gang Plank Galleon: Boom Boatyard.
  • Gusty Glade: Several levels have winds and water currents. Tempest Towers is entirely based on this mechanic.
  • Green Hill Zone: Many of the levels in Grass Land.
  • Hailfire Peaks
  • Lethal Lava Land: Many of the levels in Hot Land.
  • Level Ate, Band Land, and Toy Time are all mashed together in the same world, Treat Land.
  • Palmtree Panic
  • Shifting Sand Land
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Snow Land.
  • Space Zone: Space Land.
  • Underground Level
  • Under the Sea: Deep-Dive Deep.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: Castle Dedede.
  • Nostalgia Level: Dream Land as a whole.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kirby can do that in this game.
• Weird Moon: Found in 4-1. When interacted with, it turns into...
• ...WeirdSun
• Whip It Good
• A Worldwide Punomenon: All the time. Really. For example, the names of… well, everybody. The title of the game itself, for that matter.
• Your Reward Is Cloth: Every time you beat one of the timed challenges back in Quilty Square, you get fabric from the resident.