Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Kirby's Epic Yarn

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kirbys_epic_yarn.jpg
It's Kirby. He's yarn. And it's epic!

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

Kirby's Epic Yarn (known in Japanese as Keito no Kirby, or "Kirby of Yarn") is an entry in the Kirby series. Developed by Good-Feel, it released on October 2010 for the Nintendo Wii. Bearing much in common with a Kirby's Adventure commercial 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 levels and stages is scrapbook-like, with simple pieces of fabric such as cloth and felt. Many of the enemies are also made up of 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). Finally, Kirby also gains the ability to shapeshift into numerous forms such as a car, a weight, among others.

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.

The game later received a Spiritual Successor, Yoshi's Woolly World. It also received an enhanced Nintendo 3DS port called Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn.


This video game provides examples of:

  • 100% Completion:
    • There are several categories of things to collect — character biographies, cloth samples, furniture, music, and movies.
    • Extra adds getting an S-Rank on the Dedede Gogogo and Slash & Bead mini-game stages, completing all of the Fuse Bead objects unlocked from said mini-games, and clearing every stage in Devilish Mode with full health.
  • Action Bomb: Bombers will explode no matter how they're dealt with. They fall off a ledge? They explode. Run into them? They stop and prepare to explode. Attempt to unravel them? Same thing as running into them. Roll them up? Turns into a unique bomb projectile that explodes. The last one can actually be helpful, however, since it has a good blast radius and flies at an arc instead of a straight line.
  • Alliterative Name: Many of the stage names, like Flower Fields, Weird Woods, Lava Landing, and Cool Cave.
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: A few places have them. The most notable are giant Danglerfish in Deep-Dive Deep and Kracko's lightning in Cloud Palace.
  • All Cloth Unravels: One of the enemy types and boss has that kind of weakness. Justified because of the settings of this game.
  • 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:
    • You can find various pieces of furniture as hidden treasures in each stages.
    • Every time you beat one of the timed challenges back in Quilty Square, you get fabric from the resident.
  • Animal Gender-Bender: The stage-unlock for Deep-Dive Deep involves waking up an anglerfish to illuminate the entrance. Doing so requires using a "heart" patch for attracting a mate to excite it, and it's rather clear from the Tertiary Sexual Characteristics that the gender dimorphism is completely opposite of reality, where in real life males are tiny and females are large, here the male is large and the female is tiny.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: Kirby gets an apartment that you can decorate with items from shops and stages.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: Zigzagged. While completing a stage perfectly in Extra's new Devilish Mode requires not taking any damage to get prizes, Prince Fluff will always give just one Life Bead at a stage's halfway point in that mode rather than a 100 Bead gem or Ravel Ability to restore any lost Life Pieces. Get hit beyond that point, and it's a reset or a imperfect finish.
  • Art Shift: Imagine if your quilt-stitchin' Grandma was asked to design a Kirby game. The scenes taking place in Dream Land are instead portrayed as choppily animated paper cutouts (Yin-Yarn is still portrayed and animated like the rest of the game, obviously).
  • Attack Its Weak Point: The first four bosses have a weak point in the form of a pullable button, which reveals itself after either hitting them (everyone besides Fangora) or after tiring them out (Fangora). Dedede himself lacks it but not the marionette control bar controlling him, and Meta Knight has the weak point be the boss weapon rather than the boss itself, but the final boss has one again.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level:
    • Any of the Off-Roader or Wave Boarder-built stages, as they have a lack of capacity to move backwards.
    • 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 stage, he has to unravel them or be unraveled himself.
  • Band Land: Melody Town. This stage is made entirely out of musical instruments including pianos, drums, and harps, and Kirby himself turns into a musical note to earn gems by snaking his way through the brass instruments.
  • 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 magic marionette control bar", and defeating him means breaking the control bar, and your goal with Meta Knight is to stun him long enough to destroy the swords that Yin-Yarn is using to control him.
  • Berserk Button: Capamari quite literally Turns Red with rage after his knit cap is unraveled. Possibly because it's guarding his button weak spot, possibly because it reveals that's he's an octopus and not a squid.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: The weapon of choice of the We-Devil, where it shoots a powerful shot from its tail after locking onto its prey. After firing, it waits for it to reload, potentially allowing Kirby a window to smack it away.
  • Big Bad: Yin-Yarn, a mysterious being who has conquered Patch Land and now intends to do the same to Kirby's Dream Land.
  • Big Ball of Violence: When Dedede gets captured, the cutscene has him vanishing into a cloud of smoke as he fights Yin-Yarn's Waddle Dees.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: Dark Manor, a haunted mansion, though the only ghost are the near-harmless Stogues.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Meta Knight drops off a Metamortex during the final boss fight.
  • Big Fancy Castle: Castle Dedede, which Yin-Yarn takes over and makes into the final normal stage.
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows: Prince Fluff has a pair of them denoting him as the wise resident of Patch Land, even if they also make him look rather silly and completely adorable.
  • Blackout Basement: Dark Manor. The only light sources are Kirby, lanterns, some beads, Stogues (even while rolled up, temporarily), and Flamers. Everything else is pitch-black.
  • Bombardier Mook: Ookis are monkey-like creatures that hang from trees. In stages where Kirby is transformed into a tank, they throw apples, which deal damage. However, in other stages they throw beads, making them helpful instead of a threat.
  • Book Ends: Kirby uses the Tankbot for his very first and very last Metamortex Transformations within the story.
  • 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 is brainwashed and turned into a boss like in many previous games in the series, but this is the first time Meta Knight also gets brainwashed by the main villain.
  • Cartoon Bomb:
    • One of Squashini's attacks straps Kirby and Prince Fluff to a giant one.
    • Bombers turn into them when rolled up.
    • The Button Ravel Ability hat lets Kirby attack with buttons that explode on contact with enemies.
  • Christmas Episode: Snow Land has a happy, Christmas-themed stage called Evergreen Lift, where you hoist a star up to the top of a massive tree. Earlier, Cozy Cabin has plenty of evergreens decorated with beads.
  • Collision Damage: Averted unlike other Kirby games, as simply running into any enemy will not harm you. Damage will occur only when it is obvious (weapony, spikes, electricity, aggressive maneuvers, etc.). Simply put, if it doesn't look harmful to the touch, it most likely isn't.
  • Cool Board: Kirby's Spin Boarder transformation rides one.
  • Cool Car: The Fire Engine transformation lets Kirby spray water to put out fire enemies and fires and temporarily solidify lava to make platforms. Turning into an Off-Roader makes Kirby faster and gives him the ability to jump higher.
  • Cyber Space: Tube Town seems to take place in a computer or television or sorts, with lots of circuitry and cathode rays.
  • Cranium Ride: You can ride on the head of pretty much any enemy as Collision Damage and Goomba Stomp are absent. You also get to ride on a dinosaur's head in Dino Jungle to get across a strong current river.
  • Degraded Boss: In Yin-Yarn's fight, Yin-Yarn brings back Fangora and Capamari before fighting you himself. Since he made these versions on the spot, they can only take one hit and have more restricted patterns.
  • Demoted to Extra: In Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, as it's single-player only, Prince Fluff is no longer playable, and takes Bandana Waddle Dee's place of handing out goodies roughly halfway through each stage, giving out either Ravel Ability hats or 100 Beads if you have the hat he wants you to have by then in Normal Mode. Devilish Mode has him handing out a Life Bead, which either replenishes your Life Piece count, or gives you 100 beads if you're already at 5.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Meta Knight is the final boss faced at Patch Land. However, it's pretty dang obvious that it's not the end if you've been watching the cutscenes, as Yin-Yarn is still on the loose and has just conquered Dream Land.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: The game started development as completely unrelated to the Kirby series. 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 remaining as Kirby's partner.
  • Eating the Enemy: Unlike most games, Kirby can't do this here because now that he's made of yarn, the air goes right through when he tries to use his Vacuum Mouth ability. He can only do this while in Saucer form.
  • Electric Jellyfish: Jelly Jr.s are white jellyfish that attack by electrifying themselves.
  • Escort Mission: Carrie's minigames require you to carry her through various stages and get her to a certain spot within a time limit. Thankfully, they're only necessary if you want 100% Completion.
  • Evil Overlooker: The box art for the game has Yin-Yarn doing this.
  • Evil Puppeteer: King Dedede is possessed by a floating puppet control bar that attaches its strings to him and forces him to fight Kirby. To defeat the control bar, you must use its buttons to pull its strings off one by one.
  • Faceship: Kirby can turn into a huge tank or a rocket ship, both of which have his face. Also, Meta Knight's battleship, the Halberd, reappears.
  • Fast Tunnelling: The Digger transformation, which moves faster if it's digging through dirt. Justified because it's cotton which is being tunneled and is simply thrown out from the current plane.
  • Fastball Special: In co-op mode, Kirby and Prince Fluff can throw each other to reach hard-to-get-to places fast or break some blocks.
  • Fiery Salamander: Candlemanders, which appear mostly in Hot Land, are salamanders that can turn into fireballs to attack Kirby.
  • First Town: Patch Land which is the very first stage in the game as well as its map screen being the home of Kirby's Pad.
  • Fisher Kingdom: Patch Land seems to act as this as those who enter it become yarn versions of themselves.
  • Floating Water: Fossil Reef had bubbles of water in the air, either stationary or moving.
  • Flying Saucer: One of Kirby’s transformations is a flying saucer which can fly around and suck enemies in with a tractor beam to use a shock bomb.
  • Foregone Victory: Pretty much every boss falls under this, due to the game mechanics that don't allow Kirby to die. Then again, the actual challenge is trying to exceed bead counts for Gold Medals, which unlocks bonus stages, by trying to obtain as many beads as possible without losing them.
  • For the Evulz: This really seems to be Yin-Yarn's only motivation for taking over Dream Land, as he has no idea what he is going to do once he becomes its ruler.
  • Fungus Humongous: Mushroom Run contains many huge, bouncy mushrooms.
  • Gangplank Galleon: Boom Boatyard is a harbor full of small and huge ships.
  • Guardian Angel: Angie is said to be traveling the world but will always pop into patch land if Kirby gets stranded.
  • 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 stage as a major gimmick. It has switches that toggle the gravity between low and normal. Low gravity enables Kirby to jump higher and gives him some extra air if he unravels opponents, but his Ground Pound becomes useless.
  • Green Hill Zone: Many of the stages in Grass Land, mostly Fountain Gardens and Flower Fields. Whispy's Forest fits the standard style, but atypically, it's the first stage of the game's last level.
  • Ground Pound: Kirby can transform into a heavy weight to do this.
  • Gusty Glade: Several stages have winds and water currents. Tempest Towers is entirely based on this mechanic.
  • Hailfire Peaks: Treat Land, which has Toy Time, Fungus Humongous, Band Land, Level Ate, and Big Boo's Haunt stages. The centerpiece of the hub is even a giant cake with layers decorated to look like the different stage themes.
  • Harmless Freezing: Unlike most Kirby games, being frozen by a Chilly or Freezo just stuns you, not even making you lose beads. You will lose time in tenant challenges, however.
  • Helpful Mook:
    • Unarmed Waddle Dees are not only totally harmless, but you can actually use their heads as helpful stepstools.
    • In Cool Cave, a giant Rolling Clod can be used to break some cloth blocks that are guarding an item.
    • Stogues in Dark Manor create a temporary light source if rolled up.
    • Snip-Snaps, enemies that hide in crevices and chase Kirby, are needed to trigger switches in Tube Town.
    • Twiggy Woods create good platforms and swinging spots when their buttons are pulled.
    • Soochers, in an attempt to slice Kirby, create platforms that allow Kirby to make progress in Yin-Yarn's boss fight.
  • Heroic Dolphin: Kirby can transform into a Dolphin in select water stages, granting him a Spin Attack and faster mobility.
  • Hot Wings: The boss for Hot Land is a fiery bird whose name actually is 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: King Dedede chastises Yin-Yarn for enslaving his Waddle Dees, despite his treatment of them not being much different.
    Dedede: "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). He can also lay down and falls asleep for a cat nap.
    • If you go to the roof of the apartment building, crouching causes Kirby to sit and eventually fall asleep.
  • Improvised Parachute: Even though Kirby can't inhale or hold air in this game, he can use a parachute. Or rather, turn into one.
  • Interface Spoiler: The menu for choosing your furniture has silhouettes of all of the items you haven't gotten yet.
  • Jungle Japes: Dino Jungle is a jungle full of dinosaurs, and Secret Island is a tropical, much more thickly-grown variation.
  • King Mook: The giant mariner to the cannon mariners.
  • 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 GameFAQs/GameSpot boards due to the number and frequency of topics asking this.
  • Lens Flare: A tongue-in-cheek example is seen in Splash Beach, made of white yarn and what appears to be dryer sheets.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Lava Landing (in a volcano) and Temper Temple (in a lava-filled temple) in Hot Land. Hot Wings also has lava underneath her arena that can blast upwards.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: After unraveling Yin-Yarn, Kirby and Fluff prepare to perform the victory dance, which gets abruptly interrupted when Yin-Yarn's needles reveal themselves to be sentient and knit a new enemy for them to fight.
  • Level Ate: Treat Land itself is this (as the theme of the world is building a gigantic cake), but especially the case with Sweets Park, which of course among things has giant cakes and cookies as platforms.
  • Level in the Clouds:
    • Cloud Palace is the "yarnified" version of series classic Bubbly Clouds, complete with a remix of its theme.
    • Big Bean Vine takes place on clouds in the stage's second half.
  • Lighter and Softer: Perhaps the lightest and softest of all Kirby games. No Eldritch Abomination taking over the world, cutesy setting...even King Dedede's routine Demonic Possession is done with nothing more than marionette strings. Yin-Yarn himself is much more comedic than previous antagonists and even his transformation into a stronger form lacks the usual graphic or horrifying methods of past villains instead simply being knitted back into existance as a giant tank.
  • Lilypad Platform: Some lilypads appear in the Flower Fields and they can be walked on by Kirby and Prince Fluff.
  • Logical Weakness: Kirby's transformation into a yarn-outline ends up getting rid of his inhale and float abilities since the air now goes right through his body.
  • The Lost Woods: Weird Woods is a forest at nighttime, complete with creepy living trees. Parts of Whispy's Forest are also this.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: One of Mega Yin-Yarn's attacks is spinning in place while firing a barrage of missiles that Kirby must shoot down.
  • Martial Arts and Crafts: 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 are mind controlled by Yin-Yarn, which is seen with their eyes being turned purple.
  • Mini-Boss: Yarn versions of Whispy Woods and Kracko are fought at the end of their respective Dream Land stages. There are also four Mini Bosses to face in the Bonus Stages: Wicked Willow, Blast Mariner, Space Kracko, Combo Cannon, and the Reactor.
  • 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 spawn enemies.
  • Multi-Mook Melee: The Buster challenges revolve around defeating every enemy in the stage.
  • Musical Pastiche: Yin-Yarn's boss music incorporates elements from several different boss themes built around the Kirby 64 boss music.
  • Myopic Conqueror: Yin-Yarn, the Big Bad, is one of the few main Kirby villains who successfully took over Kirby's world. He then realizes that he didn't think of what to do after that, but he says that he'll figure something out.
  • Mythology Gag: Behold, the Japanese commercial for Kirby's Adventure, where everything is made of yarn.
  • 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: Everything is non-lethal in this game, including falling into a bottomless pit, which causes Angie to rescue you, but you'll lose a lot of beads.
  • No-Damage Run: Invoked in the remake's Devilish Mode. You have to retain all 5 Life Pieces after Prince Fluff tops you off to unlock a new piece of Furniture.
  • Nostalgia Level: Dream Land as a whole, containing star and bomb blocks, star doors that take you to other parts of the stage, cannons, and remixed music from older games.
  • Oh, Crap!: Kirby and Prince Fluff's reaction right after they beat Yin-Yarn, when his sewing needles suddenly come to life and create a giant mecha.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: Castle Dedede on the map screen is located atop of the clouds in a dark purple sky.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Fangora, a dragon made from yarn.
  • Painting the Medium: 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.
  • Palmtree Panic: Splash Beach is, well, a beach, and the first part of Meta Melon Isle is tropical.
  • Patchwork Map: Patch Land is this, and not just because it's literally made of patchwork.
  • Prehistoria: Dino Land is full of dinosaurs as stage props.
  • Pumpkin Person: Squashini is a pumpkin-headed ghost magician.
  • Pun-Based Title: "Yarn" means both "string" and "story".
  • Quicksand Sucks: The quicksand, or quickfabric to be more precise, found in Pyramid Sands makes Kirby sink.
  • Racing Minigame: Every stage involving truck monsters, as well as every Mara challenge. You don't have to beat the truck monsters to continue, just if you want that gold medal.
  • Retaliation Mode:
    • Fangora rushes upwards after diving down in the background when he gets hit.
    • Hot Wings changes the platforms of the arena, blasts everything not above the platforms with magma, and rushes out of the magma cloaked in flames when she gets hit.
    • Capamari performs a rushing attack out of the pots in the arena of his second phase once he gets hit.
  • 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 stages, namely Cozy Cabin, where a building has a large roll of cloth unrolling from below. Kirby must rise to the top to avoid getting crushed. Except when it comes from above. Drop to the challenge?
  • Roar Before Beating: Fangora starts its boss battle by roaring at the player. Kirby is not intimidated.
  • Rocket Punch: In 2-player mode, the secondary player controlling the Tankbot transformation can allow it to use a homing rocket punch.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Prince Fluff, but only if there are two players, and on the original Wii, as Devilish Mode replaces 2-Player in Extra.
  • Sequential Boss: Yin-Yarn has a second form, and a few bosses change their attacks after being hit.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Pyramid Sands and Dusk Dunes are deserts. The former is more clearly one, with pyramids, cacti, and sandy tornadoes.
  • Shockwave Stomp: One of Dedede's attacks. You can roll up the shockwave and use it as a weapon.
  • 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 eranote  (and parts of the SNES era), in which you choose between "1 Player" or "2 Players".
  • Signpost Tutorial: The tutorial stage is laden with signposts that demonstrate what certain buttons do in specific scenarios like when he transforms into a tank or a saucer.
  • Sizable Snowflakes: Some starry snowflakes approximately as big as Kirby are knit on the back- and foreground of some Snow Land stages. And then there are the ones in Frosty Wheel, where they are big enough to be used as ferris wheels.
  • 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.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
    • A lot of Snow World's stages; Snowy Fields is icy and has snowball throwing Waddle Dees, Cozy Cabin is partially outside with light snow, Mt. Slide is a giant snowy mountain, Frosty Wheel is full of snowflakes and replaces Kirby's car dash with a sled, and Frigid Fjords is an icy racetrack with falling icicles.
    • Cool Cave (oddly in Hot Land), but that's less "ice" and more "crystals".
  • Smart Bomb: Kirby's saucer transformation can launch an attack that destroys every enemy on screen after capturing enough objects.
  • Snowy Sleigh Bells: Most of the stages in Snow Land have a soundtrack heavily featuring sleigh bells, creating a very charming, wintery atmosphere.
  • Space Zone: Space Land is primarily this, with Future City, Stellar Way, Outer Rings, and parts of Moon Base taking place outside in space.
  • Spike Balls of Doom: The Me-Devil's weapon of choice, though the spikes only pop out right when the Me-Devil is planning to drop his ball.
  • Spoiler Cover: The back of the box shows Kirby's fight with a yarnified Dedede and the game disc has a completed world map on it.
  • Springy Spores: Mushroom Run contains many huge, bouncy mushrooms.
  • Steel Drums and Sunshine: The game's remix of Ice Cream Island uses steel drums for part of the main melody to fit the tropical stage Meta Melon Isle.
  • 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 Speaking: Kirby himself, after realizing the grass is pants. But it also applies in-game where he even uses his voice tone from the anime.
  • Super Happy Fun Trope of Doom: If Cozy Cabin were any cozier, we'd all need treating for multiple puncture wounds.
  • Super-Persistent Predator: The 3 varieties of Devils (Me-Devil, We-Devil, and Ye-Devil) in Extra all have one goal: get Kirby to 0 health. Smacking them away only gives you a half minute of reprieve (and a decreasing amount of beads).
  • Swordfish Sabre: The Sawgills are blue sawfishes with, as one could expect, a saw-like rostrum that will damage Kirby if he touches it.
  • Tactical Suicide Boss:
    • Fangora: If he never stuck his tongue out, you couldn't grab it.
    • Hot Wings: If she never shot flaming birds at you, you wouldn't have anything to stun her with.
    • Squashini: If he just stuck with his bomb attack, he would never make any projectiles that could be thrown back at him. Possibly justified, as he decides his attacks by a slot machine, so he can't really choose what to attack with.
    • Capamari: In his second phase, if he didn't attack with tentacles or send Octopeas out, then there would be no ammo.
    • King Dedede: If he never belly-flopped at you, you'd never get a chance to stomp him. You can also stun him with the stars he creates from his hammer attack. Apparently he still hasn't learnt anything since 1992.
    • Meta Knight: If he never shot those crescent-shaped sword beams at you, 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.
  • Tank Goodness: One of the transformations in this game is a giant tank. Mega Yin-Yarn is also a giant tank.
  • Temple of Doom: Temper Temple in Hot Land. Most of the "doom" comes from the copious amounts of fire and lava.
  • Tentacled Terror: Capamari is a giant octopus, but he disguises himself as a giant squid with a knit cap. During the first phase of its boss fight, it tries to grab and throw Kirby around with its tentacles.
  • Thematic Sequel Logo Change: Epic Yarn's logo is made out of cloth and felt, representing the arts-and-crafts themed Art Shift.
  • Timed Mission: All of the tenants' mini-game challenges in Quilty Court are timed.
    • Zeke's Hide and Seek has you find 5 Zeke copies hidden throughout 18 stages.
    • Beadrix's Run has you collect an specific amount of beads in 20 stages.
    • Carrie's Carry has you carry her through 12 stages and get her to a certain spot.
    • Buster's Training has you beat all enemies in 20 stages.
    • Mara's Race has you race Mara to the victory party ball in 30 stages.
  • This Is a Drill. The Ye-Devil has this for a head, and plans to skewer Kirby with it if he's in its line of sight. As it takes a bit to line up and actually attempt to, Kirby can jump over it and attack the exposed Ye-Devil's backside.
  • 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.
  • Torso with a View: What happens when Kirby's made out of yarn and tries to suck things in? The air goes right through his now very hollow body, since now that he's yarn he's just an outline.
  • Toy Time: The Toy Tracks stage. It is clearly set in a giant playroom with large blocks and stuffed animals and it has a section where Kirby turns into a train and has to be controlled by drawing tracks on the screen.
  • Tractor Beam: The Saucer transformation lets Kirby use a beam to suck up enemies and gems.
  • Tube Travel: In a few stages, 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 Mega Yin-Yarn is defeated, Kirby and Prince Fluff deal with his needles by flipping them into Patch Land, causing this to happen.
  • Underground Level: A few stages take place in underground caverns, most notably Mole Hole.
  • Under the Sea: Blub-Blub Ocean, Deep-Dive Deep, and Fossil Reef, three stagess almost exclusively underwater.
  • Under Water Boss Battle: Kirby fight Capamari under the seas.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level: Two transformations, the Rocket and Star Shooter, turn the game into this. The former is a vertical shooter while the latter is horizontal.
  • Victory Fakeout: Yin-Yarn's main body is unraveled by Kirby and Fluff, apparently destroying the villain in the process. However, it turns out that the needles he holds are what contain his sentience, and they promptly knit him a new body.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Waddle Dees are sometimes doing cute and/or harmless things, but Kirby can be a jerk and destroy them anyway. The most egregious example of this may be the two Waddle Dees sleeping under a tree with a heart of beads above them. You could wrap up one of them and toss him at the other, destroying them both. You've got to be in a really heartless mood to do that, though...one would hope.
  • Visual Pun: The cloth background of the broken Patch Land is ripped, showing an outer space background behind it. It's a rip in the fabric of space and time.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kirby can shapeshift his yarn body into new forms, such as a car to move faster, a parachute to glide, or a heavy weight to ground pound.
  • Weird Moon: Found in Splash Beach. When interacted with, it turns into a Weird Sun. Apparently day and night have to be manually changed in Water Land, or at least in Splash Beach, if Kirby wants to get beyond the sleeping tower of sea turtles.
  • Wintry Auroral Sky:
    • The path to the Snow Land boss fight is revealed by unknitting a snowman on the map, and its yarn is used to knit a white aurora that decorates the night sky, among other things prior to.
    • Bizarrely, there's a aurora above the goal wheel in Stellar Way, which is in Space Land.
  • World of Pun: The names of all main characters are puns based on their defining traits. The title of the game itself is a pun on yarn meaning both fabric and story.

Alternative Title(s): Kirbys Extra Epic Yarn

Top