Enemy Emulation Finale

And so it ends. No big, fancy work for this one -- just clean results. The stint lasted way too long, more than it deserved, due to scheduling issues. Let's wrap it.

1. Glide - Theorizer
2. Cake - Kirazy
3. Sand - Leirin

The Best

It was obvious where some entries just stood out from others. They had actual time put into their design, how the power was used, and to make sure it wasn't rubbing pre-existing abilities the wrong way. These are the creme de la creme.

1. Cake by Kirazy (90%)
2. Sand by Leirin (82%)
3. Kinetic by SuperYoshi888 (79%)
4. Glide by Theorizer (78%)
5. Cannon by MarioKirby (73%)
6. Snow by KrackoCloud (73%)
7. Snowball by Commander Keen (71%)

The Results

I just scooped off the few that I liked best, in no real order. There was a whole voting thingie that clashed ability against ability, and here's how the public saw the entries squaring off. The average rating was 55%, about all "Okay" votes, which shows a remarkably strong case for averaging.

The Wrap-Up

I guess there were more impressive powers than I expected to be pulled out, even in the limited framework. Maybe a full blown power making contest isn't so far out of reach. Well, it is for the now as things will probably shift back to character creation stints.

- Back to the Interactive Fandom Directory -

The Peeves

Yes, I have to air grievences, but I'm being nice and shoving it far away out of view since it's... lengthy, as per normal. No, I'm not going to just pick bad entries and shame them. Well, not yet, anyways. Still, there were some trends that struck me as odd. One of them was where people decided to put details. In how the ability makes Kirby look? No. In how it is used? Nopers. In how it hampers the player? That one deserves a sentance or so, and it's not even good at all to deserve the counter-balance. What was with that?

A lot of the hats and even some ability names came across as uninspired. Many times, they were just taken from the enemy, if not both being snagged at once. The scalping was really quite sad. No actual ability is like that. Hammer doesn't have Bonker's hat, Suplex isn't a bug shell, and Sword isn't a helmet. They aren't just chop 'n' plops. As for titles, I hate to name names, but "Life Drain"? Really? Couldn't think up anything better than that? Just "Drain" wasn't good enough? And, of all the Prank abilities, no one could think up anything more than Prank for a name? Clown, fool, trick, comedian, joke, anything else would have shown actual effort. C'mon, people! ... Try!

Also, how many times could folks not know the enemies they were supposedly emulating? Admitedly, I had a few skate by me, but it wasn't wholly offsetting the submission. The Ax ability originally mentioned "that guy from Dream Land 2" in passing, but the regular Ax Knight can be eaten even if Butch can't, so all is well. Still, you have no idea the amount of Shotzos that were rejected before someone realized a mobile and inhalable version existed. Lovely was in pretty ample supply as well, always paired with a completely inappropriate ability for a flower who swayed. Thank goodness it didn't matter since the plant is well rooted and not edible. The other repeat offender was Blockn. I guess since Kirby is never naked, no one realizes who can and can't be sucked in newer titles.

And then, unpredictable powers. This is the only finite complaint I can claim as the rest were all just superficial. I guess that's good? What ability does this? What game plain does this? Something big and fancy like Magic's roulette can be tolerated as a gamble. That's it's inherent gimmick -- a crazy surprise. However, in a game, you should never attack and not know what the result will be, and several powers thought just that would be super swell. Variable strengths, sizes, speeds, and even entire effects were all slots on the wheel. That's just terrible. In a platformer, you want certainty in your action. Even on a barrage attack, you know pretty well what area is going to be saturated in the volley. Leave chance to RPGs.