Kirby and the Crystal Shards is one of those games that holds a special place in my heart. for one, it was my first game in the Kirby series. I first found this game in Project 64 along with many other titles for series I didn’t know about from Nintendo. Truth be told, it wasn’t my favorite game in the lineup, but it was still pretty decent. I did enjoy playing it a lot more once I got it on the Virtual Console later on. I would say my favorite thing about it was the mechanic where you could combine copy abilities to create more powerful or more interesting ways to combat enemies. My favorites were probably the fire sword ( fire + cutter), the light saber (lightning + cutter), and the fridge ( ice + lightning). The first two I liked for their coolness and usefulness and the third one was because it was funny to see Kirby turn into a fridge and throw food at enemies. There were a lot of different ways you could fight bosses because of this mechanic so the game was always a lot of fun to play through. Although I did struggle in the later parts of the game, I eventually managed to complete the game. I got through to the last boss in World 6 and saved the fairies’ homeland. After which I felt satisfied at having actually managed to beat one of these games for once. And then, it happened. Right at the end cutscene when the fairies wave goodbye to you, the queen fairy gives a sinister smile to the camera. My brain froze. I knew that it wasn’t over yet. I can’t tell you how unsatisfied I felt knowing that I clearly hadn’t finished anything. So I went back to the drawing board.
Now it wasn’t hard to figure out what I needed to find. It had to be the crystal shards. At the beginning of the game, the main task was established to be collecting them all and yet I hadn’t done that. I had a feeling that would be the key to helping the queen with her possession. I presumed she was possessed based on how multiple characters get possessed at the beginning of the game and acted strangely as well. So now I had to go back and hunt for the ones I missed in levels. Some weren’t too bad to look for, but some others were especially difficult when you needed the right combination of powers to get it. You also needed to know how to use those powers effectively for some of them too. Like using the lightbulb to light up a dark area for a combination for example. The one I have no shame in admitting I looked up was the one that required you to turn into an animal statue that could climb a wall since it was impossible to float that high. Maybe some of you got that on your first try and good for you if you did. I didn’t so I went and learned from someone who did. That’s all I’ll say about that. Now eventually I did collect them all and beat the last boss again. This time things changed. The completed crystal zapped the evil eyeball thing out of the queen and you end up giving chase to its home planet. There you end up fighting the true final boss to get the true ending. It was a lot of work, but I feel like it was worth it to actually have an ending that doesn’t tell me that I’m not finished yet.
Now the reason I brought this story to your attention is because it taught me an important lesson. Just because you have beaten a game doesn’t mean you have finished it. Lots of games have post-game content now. There are also many that have multiple different endings depending on how you play them and how much time you invest in them. This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about multiple endings in videogames and it probably won’t be the last either. I just wanted to spend some time talking about how I became the player I am today. Now I am a lot more focused on doing everything I can before I move forward with the main quest. If I can accomplish all of the side tasks before doing the main story, then I should most likely have met the requirements for the best ending of the game if there indeed is one to find at all. Kirby and the Crystal Shards was the first game to make me feel annoyed for finishing a game for the sake of finishing it. Now I don’t complete every game I play, some are a bit too out of my depth. However, I at least want to give it my best shot. After all, what really upset me in the end was the game showing me that I could be doing better. So I tried to be better. I might not always succeed, but it never hurts to do the best you can right? See you next week everyone!
That Casual Gamer Guy 