Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards/YMMV


 * Breather Level: None of Ripple Star's levels are particularly hard, but the first level is especially easy since it's a 1:1 clone of the very first level of the game sans Waddle Dee/Doo boss fight.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome - Oh, man, where to start?
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Adeleine, Ribbon, and the Fairy Queen. They're cute as all hell, and Ribbon in particular . Fans have begged for them to return, and got their wish in Star Allies when Adeleine and Ribbon became playable characters as a part of the game's expansive free DLC.
 * Despite having no role in the game or any screentime at all aside from the Final Boss fight, is one of the most popular villains in the series thanks to its disturbing design, awesome boss music, and the Wild Mass Guessing its meager bits of lore have inspired.
 * Fridge Horror - Shiver Star appears to be Earth (note the continents and moon), but it's completely covered in ice. And there are (man-made) robots who live in a (man-made) factory, but humans are nowhere to be seen...
 * But why stop there? Is that real snow, or did something terrible...
 * Game Breaker - Hoo boy, does this game have many!
 * Blade + Bomb gives Kirby the ability to throw flurries of exploding ninja stars. They're extremely rapid fire and hit almost instantly. Bosses go down really fast.
 * Fire + Fire allows Kirby to soar for long distances, destroying everything in his path. He can also fly for much longer after Kirby has used his breath, allowing him to soar for great distances past whole levels.
 * Base Fire is just as powerful, but doesn't last as long. And in some cases, that makes it better than the doubled-up version, because you can immediately have Kirby take flight after the attack ends while there's a bit of lag when Fire + Fire's attack ends.
 * Ice + Ice turns Kirby into an almost indestructible snowball. All enemies become absorbed in his path. The player doesn't even have to do anything most of the time. Just grab some popcorn and enjoy the mayhem.
 * Rock + Cutter turns Kirby into a stone form of one of his past companions. In stone form, Kirby is invincible, plowing through most enemies while at worst losing his stone skin if he hits a Gordo or other similar spiked item (without losing health or the power). Now, just mash B until you get Pitch (the small bird), who can fly almost indefinitely, and you'll pass through a level easily. As a bonus, Kirby won't be affected by water currents in this stone form, which helps immensely in a certain water level.
 * Not exactly for this boss though...
 * Rock is as overpowered as ever, completely protecting Kirby from most threats and allowing him to turtle bosses to death... but in this game, it can move. Slowly, but it's definitely an upgrade from how it is in most games.
 * And Rock + Rock is the same thing, but bigger!
 * Fire + Cutter. In addition to looking really cool, this BFS can also be held up and thrown. Helps a lot when fighting Acro and HR-H/E.
 * Spark + Cutter isn't as versatile as Fire + Cutter, but it's still an obscenely powerful, lawyer-friendly dual-bladed lightsaber with ridiculous range. Where it fails in ranged attacks, it makes up for in its So Cool Its Awesome factor.
 * Rock + Needle. It allows you to fire a drill that destroys every enemy in its path (except invincible ones). Also, you can charge through people while holding on to it, making you an unstoppable projectile of doom. Also, it button mashed while in the air, and if a direction (horizontal) is held down, you can float insane distances, because activating the drill stops you from falling. Platforming and fighting help all in one.
 * Ice + Electric. It turns Kirby into a refrigerator and pops out three food items. And it can be used in boss fights. That's right; this power lets you heal during boss fights!
 * Provided you can hit the bosses, that is. Otherwise...
 * Fire + Bomb. Kirby jumps, spins, and shoots fireworks all around him. Usable three times before you have to land, and gets bigger with each use. You keep all of your momentum and mobility when attacking, making it great for moving through levels quickly.
 * In short, with experimentation, even newbie players will stumble upon at least one combo that makes the game a breeze. As a result, the biggest challenges are found in One Hundred Percent Completion, where you are often required to use a particular ability -- not necessarily an effective one -- to find a Shard.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: In 2021, Nintendo announced Kirby and the Forgotten Realm, a game where Kirby finds himself on a post-apocalyptic Earth. While a ground-breaking entry in the series for many reasons, many fans joked about how this game did it first with Shiver Star. It even had an abandoned mall level before Forgotten Realm!
 * Moe: The Fairy Princess/Queen, who is a Meganekko, Dojikko and combines it with a hefty dose of Adorkable.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The true final boss, ..
 * If Stage 5-4 wasn't bad enough already, it's got Creepy Awesome music and one area full of what appear to be medical experiments.
 * Scarfy's transformed state. Especially considering that, in this game, all one has to do to get it to transform is look away from it. Much like Boos, but much, much scarier.
 * King Dedede, in his boss fight when he exposes the Dark Matter. Like in Dreamland 3, it materializes as a surprisingly creepy eyeball bulging outward from his belly.
 * Stage 6-2. The music.
 * Stage 6-3's music. Jazz has never sounded so "oh god something is coming something bad is going to happen HURRY HURRY".
 * That One Boss: Miracle Matter, for some. Particularly his bomb form, which fills the screen with painful bubbles.
 * Depending on how you fight it, HR-H can be a pain. Its weak points (its arms) are rarely exposed and when they are, they're in the middle of a fast and hard-hitting arm sweep attack that is hard to safely hit, let alone hit at all with certain abilities. Its HR-E form is generally easier, but its missile barrages can be annoying to dodge.
 * That One Level: Stage 5-4, a marathon of a factory full of One-Hit Kill deathtraps.
 * That One Sidequest:
 * The Crystal Shard in level 4-2 that requires you to carry the Dynamite powerup all the way to the end of the level (because nothing in 4-2 itself will give you that particular combination) is widely regarded to be most annoying (or close to it) Shard in the game to get.
 * The second Crystal Shard in 4-4. It's not hard to get to, but you'll tear your hair out in frustration while trying to free it from the volcanic rock it's imprisoned in. You don't blow it up with any Bomb powers or crush it with anything related to Stone... . Yeah, because that's totally intuitive and not obtuse at all.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: The graphics are gorgeous for a Nintendo 64 game, and the cutscenes are fluid to ridiculous extremes.