Kirby's Avalanche, known as Kirby's Ghost Trap in European languages, is a 1995 Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game. It is a Spin-Off of the Kirby game series. Whereas most Kirby games are typical platformers, this game is a puzzle game. Specifically, it is an American dress-up of the Japanese puzzle classic Puyo Puyo, the 1992 arcade game's Super Famicom port in particular. Intriguingly, though he wasn't directly involved, series creator Masahiro Sakurai did supervise Avalanche's development, as revealed in an episode of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.
Compared to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Avalanche is closer in accuracy to the original Puyo Puyo: the Practice stages are restored along with the starting stage select (in place of passwords) and there are cutscenes where the player character converses with their opponents before matches (in place of the opponent giving a monologue against you, the player).
The game was re-released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and on the Nintendo Switch Online service in 2022. It has never been officially released in Japan.
This game provides the example of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Kirby himself, in one of his very few speaking roles, comes off as far more sarcastic and rude toward his opponents than his usual portrayals as a Cheerful Child — possibly as an attempt to portray him as a Mascot with Attitude. It's entirely possible the voices spoken in the game are all Kirby, since a voice is heard going "HA HA HA!" whenever Kirby beats an opponent.Kirby: (to Kracko) You couldn't hit a barn-sized lightning rod, Kracko!
Kirby: (to Bugzzy) Oooohhh, I'm so scared!
Kirby: (to Broom Hatter) I'd worry more about cleaning up your Avalanche/Ghost Trap skills, first.
Kirby: (to Poppy Bros Sr.) I'll breathe in your pathetic bombs and send them right back at you!
Kirby: (to Squishy) Go meddle in someone else's affairs, Squishy; I've got to get to the Dream Fountain. - American Kirby Is Hardcore: Kirby comes off as a snarky, smack-talking Mascot with Attitude in this game, compared to the Cheerful Child he's normally portrayed as. Subverted ironically with the cover, despite being Western-made, it's a rather cute image of a cheerful Kirby and Dedede. The game also qualifies compared to the original Puyo Puyo, though not to the extent of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
- The Artifact: The title screen still has inscriptions reading "PUYOPYO", as it did in Super Puyo Puyo. In addition, difficulty is still represented by chili peppers (reflecting Arle's Trademark Favorite Food, curry), though it still fits as a reference to the Superspicy Curry from Kirby's Dream Land.
- Ascended Extra: Most of the opponents in the first half of the game were just regular enemies or bosses in the previous games — mostly from Kirby's Adventure. This also extends to some of the bosses from there, including Paint Roller and Heavy Mole. This is similar to Puyo Puyo itself, in that they both took regular enemies and made them stars.
- Company Cross-References: Before facing Lololo and Lalala, Kirby says "To get this far, you must have a-MAZE-ing skill! Tee hee hee!" and the pair responds with "Oh yeah? Try to figure your way out of this!" This is a nod back to the Block Puzzle gameplay of Adventures of Lolo, the series from which Lololo and Lalala originated.
- Complexity Addiction: Bugzzy's play style is heavily focused upon pulling off devastating chain reactions that require extensive setup beforehand, and is a good example of how trying to set up flashy combos in can be swiftly punished. The player can easily disrupt Bugzzy's strategy with Boring, but Practical quick chain reactions. This often makes Bugzzy even easier to defeat than the previous Lololo and Lalala, due to the Artificial Stupidity being unable to switch strategies and attempting to create a new fancy chain. In fact, once could suddenly find themselves victorious wondering: "How did I do that?!"
- Dolled-Up Installment: Take Super Puyo Puyo, replace the background music and the Madou Monogatari characters with Kirby equivalents, and you have Kirby's Avalanche.
- The Dragon: Meta Knight, much like in Kirby's Adventure, is the last opponent Kirby has to face before being able to fight King Dedede. Interestingly, this is also the first game where he is named in-game, with it having previously been relegated to strategy guides.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In an odd sense; this is the first game where the modern designs of many Kirby characters appeared, such as Lololo and Lalala's White Gloves and Meta Knight's signature navy-and-silver coloration. These designs would make their proper debut in the next year's Kirby Super Star.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: King Dedede is pronounced "Day-Day-Day", as opposed to the long e sounds that debuted in the English dub of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and continued into the Super Smash Bros. series.
- Excuse Plot: Dream Land decides to hold an Avalanche/Ghost Trap competition at the Dream Fountain. Whoever wins is the champion. That's all the plot you get.
- Final Boss: King Dedede is the final opponent faced on the Normal and Hard modes.
- Padded Sumo Gameplay: This can be enabled from the secret menu options (Hold down A + B + X + Y on a second controller and reset the game). Adjusting the "Fall Blob" option below the normal amount can let you turn matches into more drawn out affairs as filling your opponent's field with junk is much harder to pull off.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The vast majority of the soundtrack consists of music remixed from Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Course.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Similar to the method described under Padded Sumo Gameplay, setting the "Fall Blob" option above the normal amount can let you turn matches into a matter of who gets off a decent chain reaction first and floods their opponent with junk.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When facing Whispy Woods:Whispy: Please do not tread on my roots. It would not be a wise decision.
Kirby: [while treading on Whispy's roots] I feel like some apple pie! - Shout-Out: In Meta Knight's intro as the penultimate boss, he tells Kirby that "None shall pass!", referencing the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Trash Talk: In the opponent intros, Kirby gleefully engages in a lot of this. However, he does get out-sassed at least once —Paint Roller: Let me paint you a lovely portrait...Kirby: Oh, how sweet of yo —Paint Roller: ...of you losing to me, HA HA HA!Kirby: Paint Roller, you're the meanest art student I've ever met.Paint Roller: Student? HA! I AM THE MASTER!
- Warm-Up Boss: Waddle Dee is the first opponent in Practice mode, while Poppy Bros. Sr. is the first on Normal mode. Both of them are incredibly easy to beat, rarely rotating their Puyos and having a hard time setting up chains.
- White Flag: When Meta Knight is beaten, his losing portrait replaces his sword with a white flag which he waves around.
- A Winner Is You: All defeating King Dedede gets you is a scene of Kirby celebrating with his newly-earned trophy.
- Worthy Opponent: Kirby and King Dedede seem to view each other as such: in their pre-battle dialogue, Dedede congratulates Kirby for making it so far, while Kirby wishes Dedede good luck.