The 'Shroom:Issue 152/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
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Hello, Strategy Wing readers, and welcome to the month of November! For me personally, this month brings with it the end-of-semester onslaught of project deadlines and last minute assignments as professors struggle to fit in everything they wrote down on their syllabi. It's also the period where I start to listen to Christmas music, but that seems less important.

Unfortunately, we don't have Koops, Your Emblem is on Fire this month, but don't despair. Cling tightly to your swords and axes and lances for now, because the section will be back next month. Outside of that, I don't have much to announce. That said, while we have a sizable team of writers right now, we're always ready to welcome new sections and ideas. Perhaps you want to join Koops in telling us about Fire Emblem and want to cover Three Houses? Or, if you'd prefer, you can turn to Luigi's Mansion 3 and provide all the best tips for exploring the (surprisingly large) haunted hotel. Of course, by the time this releases, plenty of readers are going to set out on their journeys in Galar. If you want to give us the rundown on this new adventure, that's a route you can go, too (if you want to stake your position in the associated controversy, well, The 'Shroom has Critic Corner, too). Perhaps videogames aren't your focus, though? That's alright. We can still find a place for ideas beyond games. Maybe you're certain you have holiday decorating and shopping down to an artform and want to share your approach with the world? Or perhaps you just want to teach us how to prepare the perfect Thanksgiving dinner? You don't have to be a be a gamer to write a special section for Strategy Wing!

If you have any ideas for a regular section or a special one-off submissions, head on over to the sign-up page and follow the instructions printed there. Before you go off to apply for The 'Shroom, though, keep scrolling down and read the sections our team has prepared for you this month!

Section of the Month I'm pleased to see readers continue to show their appreciation for our two newest writers! and take a joint first place this month on account of their efforts to dissect Kirby's ability bubbles and to tackle the first chapter of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. captures second with his coverage of Mimikyu, proving once again that the tragic Pokémon that just wants to be loved has a talent for drawing in the audience. Please continue to vote for our old and new writers alike!

Racing Like the Staff
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Hello readers and welcome to Racing like the Staff, a section where I do 150cc on different Mario Kart games, but the twist is, I take on the Grand Prix by using the combination that a staff and expert staff member used in that Cup. If you're still a little confused, by this I mean if the track is in the Mushroom Cup, then that's the Cup that I race in. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of the Mario Kart games before Mario Kart 7, so it's only that, 8 and Deluxe that will be getting this treatment.

We're almost doing another repeat here, although we've done the Mushroom Cup twice in Mario Kart 7, today we're doing a course that appears in Mario Karts 7, 8 and Deluxe: Melody Motorway – or Music Park to some. Honestly, this isn't one of my favourite tracks from Mario Kart history, nor is it, as it turns out, done by one of my favourite characters. But I do many things for you readers, and play as Baby Daisy will just have to be one of them.

The combination for normal staff for Melody Motorway is Baby Daisy with the Buggybud, Normal tyres and Super Glider, and the stats are as follows:


 * Speed – One and a half bars
 * Acceleration – Four and a half bars
 * Weight – Just under two bars
 * Handling – Just over five bars
 * Grip – Just over four bars

Wario Stadium
This was definitely not my race. Although I was soon up into second place, a stray Green Shell from Shy Guy knocked me down to fourth, below Toadette, Shy Guy and Rosalina. During some jumping sections, I got ahead of both Rosalina and Shy Guy, and had overtaken Toadette for the lead just before the end of the anti-gravity section. However, we were neck and neck, and I got pushed off a boost because of her superior weight – who thought you'd say that about Toadette? – and she kept the lead, before hitting me with a Red Shell, dropping me below Shy Guy. Like before, I got ahead of them both during the anti-gravity section, and this time kept my lead. But just before the anti-gravity section, a spread of Bananas dropped me to second, before Shy Guy hit me off the track, dropping me below Rosalina and Morton. A Triple Red Shell got me past Morton and Toadette, but Rosalina's weight hit me off, and she was able to get second in the gliding section ahead of my third.

Sherbert Land
I managed to get this race off to a much better beginning than in Wario Stadium. My high acceleration meant that I zoomed ahead of Rosalina, although Shy Guy still retained the lead, until he drove into some of his ice-skating brethren. Although I didn't have to worry about anything for the rest of the race, they were clearly gaining on me on the minimap, and I think had there been another lap, I would've had to have begun fending off attacks from Shy Guy.

Melody Motorway
I thought I started this race off well, but Rosalina soon managed to pass me. I taught I'd gotten ahead of her when she drove into a Bouncing Note and I overtook, but a Red Shell from Baby Mario scuppered those plans, and dropped me to third, before Shy Guy slipstreamed past me. I thought I'd get them with my Mushroom over the shortcut, but this failed, and it was only a Lightning Bolt, that forced to fall off the drum which allowed me back into second. I was then able to glide past Rosalina for first. She overtook me on the piano, but I lobbed a Green Shell at her and took back first. Thankfully, despite falling off the glockenspiel, I retained my lead, and kept it for the rest of the race.

Yoshi Valley
Shy Guy quickly accelerated past me, and it looked like my race might be over after I fell of the bridge, and then Rosalina knocked me off as soon as I was back on. Although I was significantly behind third place, a Mushroom shortcut helped me, and I was up into second as we entered the maze portion. A Banana slipped up Baby Mario, and I was past, but he was always very level with me. As such, when I hit a Banana on the final lap he pounced, I briefly lost second to Rosalina, but I drifted round her. Baby Mario then drove into the Yoshi Egg, and another Mushroom-boosted shortcut sealed my victory.

Although I had a ten-point lead in the final standings, wow this Kart combination is slow. Although acceleration is useful at the starts, I think I only ever felt like I had Sherbert Land under control, and even then add another lap on and the story would've been different. From this section, I'm used to leaving people like Baby Mario in my dust, but here he kept a constant presence in Yoshi Valley. If acceleration over speed is your thing, this should work for you, but maybe something a little more zippier for the rest.

The Kart of Champions combination is Wario with the Sport Bike, Cyber Slick tyres and Parafoil. The stats are as follows:


 * Speed – Just over five bars
 * Acceleration – Just under three bars
 * Weight – Four and a half bars
 * Handling – Three bars
 * Grip – One bar

Wario Stadium
Much like last time, this wasn't my race. It seemed to get off to a good start until a Banana from Mario dropped me to fourth place. Thankfully, Baby Peach and Daisy took themselves out, allowing me to try and get Mario, but a whole load of Item shenanigans dropped me to sixth. A Boomerang got me back up to fourth, before Daisy and Mario took each other out, allowing me into second, and then Baby Peach hit a fireball. I thought the race was mine, until some weird things happened in the anti-gravity section, spearing me off the track. A double Boomerang hit from Mario is all it took to drop me from 10 coins to one, and my lead into a third.

Sherbert Land
Despite a small bit of competition from Daisy, and not for relevance, I got the best start, and from that great start saw off all competition. Even a Blue Shell couldn't stop me from leading ahead of Baby Peach.

Melody Motorway
Daisy did have the lead at the start, but as soon as my Green Shell and her were acquainted, I had no worries for the rest of the race.

Yoshi Valley
Baby Peach overtook me at the start, but as I fell off the bridge, I made sure to take her down with me. I stayed ahead of her, and overtaking Mario on the straight was absolutely no issue at all. I thought like other races, I'd be settling in steer around and win with no competition, but a Banana and bad placement for the giant Yoshi Egg, saw me fall back behind Baby Peach, although I was able to overtake her on the bridge again, and sail to the finish line.

Other than the enclosed walls of Wario Stadium, this combination really worked. Where the track is enclosed, or quite narrow – like on SNES Rainbow Road – it could certainly be a difficulty, but for the rest of this tracks, this combination really works.

I hope you enjoyed this section, and I'll see you next month where I'll take a look at a combination hopefully from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If you've got a combination you'd like me to review next, feel free to private message me on the forums.

Mach Speed Mayhem
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Hello, 'Shroom readers! Welcome to the latest edition of Mach Speed Mayhem, with your host, me! For this month, the voting base has decided that we'll be covering #01: Mighty Gazelle! Once a human driver, a fateful moment changed his life forever, and created one of the F-Zero Grand Prix's memorable racers!

Main Series

Mighty Gazelle was introduced in F-Zero X, and you could even play as him from the start in that game - since characters were unlocked in batches of six, Gazelle and Jody Summer are added alongside the SNES quartet to be your starting grid. That game gives us the basics of his backstory, that he was severely injured in an accident three years ago. He survived by the skin of his teeth, but his body was too injured to be saved, so the best in 27th century medical technology preserved his mind in a robotic body! This has drawn protests over his competition (nobody's quite sure why they protest the post-human cyborg but allow the undead magic racer, the android, the actual robot, and the terrorists to race...) but he doesn't care. He's in it to win it. F-Zero X also provides something interesting; clearing Master Mode with a character gives you a special closeup drawing of that character and a quote from them. Doing so with Mighty Gazelle in X gets you a picture that shows his human form - the only time in the main series that we see what he looked like before becoming the cyborg he is today.



In F-Zero GX, where he was no longer a starting character, the lore clarifies that it wasn't just any accident that changed him; it was the Huge Accident that has been mentioned in Blood Falcon, Deathborn, and Pico's articles, the one that suspended the F-Zero Grand Prix. While nobody died in the Huge Accident, Gazelle was more injured than anyone else, necessitating the emergency surgery. He refuses to allow anyone's protests to get him down, and would never skip a race, and if anything becoming a cyborg made it easier for him! He has no fear of death, and uses this to push his skills to the limit, drawing on all his past races to fine-tune his body and mind to racing perfection! When Mr. Zero gets an interview with him, we get to learn a little more on that regard - he's here to win glory and return dramatically from his near-lethal accident, and outright credits his new, upgraded steel body as the key to his success. Not the only key, though; those people calling it a victory for science are just salty and don't want to admit he's more skilled than they are! However, Mr. Zero never brings up the people who protest him racing at all - perhaps the F-Zero writers felt they said enough in his bio?

Regardless of what other people say, though, Mighty Gazelle's stance is very clear. Namely, he is completely and totally down for his new nature as a post-human cyborg! When asked about his plans for the money, he wants to spend it on an antique robot body for the aesthetic appeal. When asked what he's not doing while racing, he uses his cyborg nature to perform disaster rescue in places humans can't go. When asked about his romantic life, he states he has a non-cyborg girlfriend he's happy with. Most of all, when asked if he misses having a human form? "Not at all." Mighty Gazelle's response is to brag about how good some aspects of his metal body feel. He's fully embraced his new lease on life, and shows no regrets about his new body. Now that's what I call going with the flow! In Story Mode, Mighty Gazelle makes a minor cameo in Chapter 3's intro cutscene as one of the guests of the Dollars bar, but doesn't do anything more than show up and bump into Silver Neelsen. Chapter 7, though, he appears in the intro cutscene when introduced by the announcer (the only racer to get that treatment outside of the original four and Black Shadow), and participates as one of the 30 cars in the big race. Nothing really significant with him there - he races, he can steal the win from you, but he's not really a major threat you have to specifically watch out for.



Onto his vehicle, the Red Gazelle! Described by Mighty Gazelle himself as resembling a gazelle leaping across the plains of the savanna (somehow), this machine was constructed by Cyber Stick Inc. The company knew exactly what kind of a machine to make for Mighty Gazelle - after all, they made him! Or specifically, provided the technology that allowed for his reconstruction. In building a machine that worked with their new creation, they gave it listed stats of an E body, A boost, and C grip, sacrificing endurance for sheer speed. In F-Zero X, this provides a machine that's difficult to use for a beginner, but once you've gotten some experience with F-Zero, becomes a powerful tool in your arsenal. That'd explain the difference between the guides I found that called it junk and those that praised it while saying it's tough, for sure. When it returned for F-Zero GX, the Red Gazelle... kept accurate stats! It's still a fragile and weak machine that can break down with a few good hits, but a powerful booster makes up for it. Especially in the hands of the AI - it's not considered a top tier machine for humans, but in the AI's hands you'll often see it dominating the Grand Prix races. Notably, Red Gazelle has an odd, unique factor - compared to every other machine, the camera is somewhat slower to catch up with the machine when on uneven surfaces or angled turns, potentially throwing off your driving. This is controlled by a very specific stat that exists to determine the speed of camera adjustment... one of about 25 hidden stats the game never tells you about.



GX had a really complicated physics system.

GP Legend series

In the F-Zero GP Legend anime, Mighty Gazelle only appears midway through the series, when he's first created. To learn his full story though, we need to go quite a bit earlier! Episode 11 introduces anime original character Clank Hughes, a precocious hacker kid with an attitude. It turns out this attitude comes from being told his father, Roy Hughes, was a Dark Million operative, and Clank being angry and spiteful to cover his pain. However, Captain Falcon knows that Roy was actually a deep cover spy, infiltrating Dark Million for the good guys. He was apparently killed when one of Falcon's attacks on Dark Million went haywire, and that guilt combined with seeing potential leads Falcon to take Clank in as a ward. But enough about Clank, he's got his own article down the line. The reason I bring up Roy is because in this continuity, Roy Hughes and Mighty Gazelle are one and the same!

Episode 28 opens with Black Shadow showing Miss Killer a brain in a jar, explaining that he'd like her to bring Dr. Stewart here to work on said brain. To that end, the Mobile Task Force receives a politely worded letter telling them to send Dr. Stewart if they want to revive "Roy", and the leaders decide that even if it's a trap, they can't just leave Roy in the hands of the enemy - after all, he was a trusted member of their team. Dr. Stewart ends up on the Dark Million base; when he's taken to see Black Shadow, the latter dances around why he still has Roy's brain or what he gains from making Dr. Stewart revive Roy, and the doctor is taken to a medical facility to get his work underway. There, Dr. Stewart gradually makes Roy a new robot body, and during the process erases his memory to keep Roy from suffering severe trauma. And so Roy Hughes is reborn, as Mighty Gazelle! Once Mighty Gazelle is finished, Black Shadow sends Dr. Stewart and Gazelle back, even supplying Gazelle with a new machine... oh, and also a bomb inside him. It's a race against time for our heroes to figure out the password to deactivate the timebomb, which is surprisingly easy to figure out... just as Black Shadow wanted. His plan has only begun.



The next episode opens with Mighty Gazelle capturing a criminal, while Clank - who's become a huge fan of the guy - is confused about why the rest of the group is trying to keep him from meeting the new robot buddy. As the episode unfolds, Gazelle keeps making cool saves and good rescues, but with a couple suspicious oversights. While he easily thrashes foot soldiers of Dark Million when others are watching, he lets one escape when no one is around to notice (except a spying Rick)... Eventually, Clank explains to Gazelle that the Mobile Task Force suspects him, and Mighty Gazelle decides to go confront Dark Million. Rick catches up to him and interrogates him, resulting in Black Shadow's programming taking full control! With the program activated, Mighty Gazelle goes on a rampage, ignoring his past alliances with the Task Force and even taking Clank hostage as he demolishes their base. Before anyone can pin him down, he makes his escape in the Red Gazelle as he fights off the Dragon Bird and Astro Robin, and is retrieved by Dark Million. Not that Black Shadow cares much either way; he got the really important stuff out of this - Dr. Stewart's medical research, allowing him to create Blood Falcon!

Mighty Gazelle himself isn't followed up on until episode 34, where a regular race is crashed by the Red Gazelle! After knocking out several cars, he goes for Rick and Jack, only for Captain Falcon to show up and knock him out. With Gazelle shut down and captured, Dr. Stewart is able to wipe his programming, unfortunately resetting his memory again as well. Someone's gotta teach him everything, so despite his personal doubts, Clank gets put in charge of helping Gazelle learn everything again. A turning point comes when Mighty Gazelle accidentally discards Clank's pendant, a picture of him and his father. He makes up for it by steadfastly searching the garbage all day for the pendant, which gives him the first hint of who he is, while elsewhere, Clank accidentally learns that Mighty Gazelle is actually Roy - and he doesn't take it well, angrily shouting his dad isn't a heartless robot. Later that day, Dr. Stewart explains things to Gazelle, while Rick tells Clank that the "heartless robot" spent all night finding his treasure. It's at the next race that things come to a head; once again, Mighty Gazelle barges into the race in the middle, but despite the fears of our heroes, this time it's to flatten the Dark Million agents and ensure a heroic victory! He stops and meets a confused and scared Clank, and gives him a hug, Clank realizing that Mighty Gazelle really is his dad and finally reuniting with him properly.

Then Zoda drops a giant bomb on the racecourse, and while everyone else is able to get inside a shelter in time, Gazelle and Clank can't make it. Gazelle sacrifices himself to protect Clank from the force of the blast, collapsing and fading as Clank desperately calls for him. Dr. Stewart promises to save him, and that depressing note is where the episode ends - as well as where Mighty Gazelle's anime role ends! Roy is mentioned once more by Falcon as a friend of his, and Clank borrows the Red Gazelle in the final episode, but the only time we see Mighty Gazelle himself again is in the seven-years-later epilogue of the series... where he's inexplicably the human Roy Hughes again. How? If you thought this show would explain, you haven't read many of my articles. The GBA games don't use him for anything special, but the F-Zero Climax bio for him is a bit odd - it says he was revived by Dr. Stewart, but intentionally avoids mentioning his true identity or why he was revived, which stands out when some of the other bios are happy to give anime spoilers.

Other Information

Mighty Gazelle is one of the racers who's made appearances of some kind in the Super Smash Bros series. While he never got any trophies, the Red Gazelle got a sticker in Brawl, and Gazelle himself appears as a spirit in Ultimate. There, he's represented by fellow machine Mega Man, starting damaged after the Huge Accident but more powerful in his new form. The floor of SNES Mute City is electrified as well - don't touch the million volts of running power!

Like The Skull, Mighty Gazelle's name was actually different in the F-Zero X Japanese version. There, he was called the less-catchy "MM Gazelle", and no I don't know what the MM stood for. It was changed to Mighty Gazelle for overseas, and it's stuck that way ever since. And with Mighty Gazelle covered, here's where I'd tell you to vote for the next issue... except there won't be any voting! Issue 153's subject has been pre-decided. I'll see you next month with another writeup!

Pokédex Power
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Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section written by the person is actually wearing a Pokémon shirt right now, covered with a lot of Generation I Pokémon, which is convenient as this is the generation we'll be looking at. It has Pokémon like Pikachu, Psyduck, Gengar, Snorlax and even the Generation II Pokémon Togepi.

However, we're not looking at a Pokémon that is on my top today, instead we're looking at our first Dragon-type Pokémon since Dragalgae back in the February edition. Dragonair is apparently quite a mystical Pokémon, and one not really encountered in the first generation, as I believe Dratini was only available in the Game Corner, unless it hid in the Safari Zone as well. And sadly, Dragonair's most prominent appearance in the anime is banned in my country due to man frequently shooting or pointing a gun at the others.

Other than FireRed I don't have a lot of experience with Generation I, and truthfully I don't think I ever got a Dragonair in that game, so I have no idea what it's like as a Pokémon. But I'm more interested in its entries, so let's see if they're any good!

Generation I

We don't learn a whole lot about Dragonair from its initial entries, until Pokémon Stadium. Most of its initial entries deal with the Pokémon being a mystical being, which given the rarity of Dragon-types at this point in the Pokémon series is certainly believable, before lightly touching on its ability to change the climate. We also learn that Dragonair has either a mystical or a gentle aura, so we can at least assume that it is a gentle, benevolent Pokémon. However, despite claims it can control the climate – mind coming over and helping us out with ours? – Stadium quickly changes it to just the weather, with becomes the norm for the rest of its entries in future series. But why the change? Is it simply that weather is a lot easier to justify than a Pokémon that can control the climate? Stadium does however explain where Dragonair lives, and tells us it can fly, although it doesn't explain how.

Generation II

Generation II mainly focuses in on Dragonair's ability to change the weather, although it flip-flops over how it actually manages this. Some entries say this comes from the aura that it exudes, while others say the orbs actually do it. It is possible that the orbs also creates the aura, but my interpretation of the entries is that the aura is separate from the orbs. Silver gives the only other entry, saying that Dragonair is called the divine Pokémon, but again why? I mean, Dragonair certainly looks like a divine being, but is there any reason that people would begin calling it one?

Generation III

Again, the weather conditions are the main focus of Generation III's entries, but at least it seems like we get a much more clear-cut reason as to why Dragonair controls the weather, this being the amount of energy it stores within itself, and the orbs act as a way to discharge that energy from itself. However, only FireRed gives a new fact, focusing in on Dragonair's ability to fly, although it doesn't explain how. Can it control the air currents to move itself around in some form of levitation?

Generation IV

Generation IV seems to go back to old theories about Dragonair controlling the weather, with it either happening from the aura it exudes or the orbs. I would prefer it if we could at least keep some consistency in what allows Dragonair to control the weather.

Generation V

Generation V is just a repeat of entries from the previous generation.

Generation VI

Has Generation VI actually given us new entries? Don't be silly, of course it hasn't.

Generation VII

The Pikachu and Eevee entries are just from Pokémon Yellow, so we'll ignore those. The entry for Sun slightly annoys me, as the Pokédex can't really decide what allows Dragonair to control the weather, so it's a little bit irritating to see that some theory around it has existed for a while, because it really doesn't feel like. The entry for Moon was clearly written by someone who had just discovered a thesaurus, and could've been written in a much simpler manner, but it's nice to see its interactions with ancient civilisations. It would be nice if Ultra Sun would explain what the offerings were for, are they for good weather conditions or poor ones? Presumably you'd want rain at some points of the year, so are there different offerings for different weather conditions? I do really like the entry for Ultra Moon though, almost going for a look into Chinese mythology with dragons granting luck, but I still want to know why Dragonair can fly.

Conclusion Dragonair's Pokédex entries continuously trip over themselves over what actually allows Dragonair to control the weather, and if Galar has new entries for it, I'm sure it'll be back to old explanations or even a brand new one. As a result of this, we don't know anything else about the Pokémon, other than its natural habitat and its ability to fly. But how does it fly? Seven generations in, and we still don't know whether it's manipulating air currents, or whether it has another mechanism to fly. We also don't know how it feeds, so what offerings do people leave this Pokémon? Fruit? Meat? Human sacrifices? Hopefully, a Galar Pokédex, if Dragonair makes it in, will answer some, if not all, of these questions.

The Anatomy of a Kirby
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Hello, my dear readers! It's me, Archagent Everlasting, here once again with another Anatomy of a Kirby! Today we're going to be talking about another fundamental part of Kirby's abilities that is not necessarily a copy ability: the Ability Scrolls!



The Ability Scrolls are items that Kirby encountered in his war against the Squeaks! For some reason, perhaps because the Squeaks had stolen them, they were contained in treasure chests scattered about the entirety of Dream Land.

Every Ability Scroll that Kirby had found and read directly improved his knowledge of one of his various Copy Abilities. They usually gave him information on how to use them more effectively or taught him how to use a new technique regarding the ability in question.

To go into more detail, the Animal scroll taught him how to drill in a new way.

Kirby reforged the Beam Whip to be faster and stronger, and to conduct electricity through metal once he read the Beam Scroll.

The Bomb Scroll taught Kirby how to use Sparks or Ice on the Bombs to make them more potent. The Bubble Scroll taught him how to build up a large Bubble.

He learned how to fire more arrows in his Cupid form from the Cupid Scroll, reforged the cutting blade for the Cutter Scroll to be even larger, learned to control his energy better with the Fighter Scroll in order to send out maximum energy blasts more frequently, and figured out how to control the direction of his Fire Breath.

The Hi-Jump Scroll taught him to jump higher and the Hammer Scroll helped him rebuild the Hammer to be even stronger.

Ice was the same as Fire.

Laser taught him to harness the full power of the Laser Goggles.

With Magic, he relearned the Roulette technique he had become familiar with in his adventures in the Mirror World.

Ninja allowed Kirby to release Fire from the ground, and evaporate water near him into steam.

He also learned how to use the Parasol for even more damage output, and even to conserve his energy while sleeping to regenerate his wounds.

Kirby also learned to charge up a larger electric shield around himself with the Spark ability, learned to imbue his Sword with the elements of Spark; Ice; and Fire, and how to apply the same elemental properties to the people he throws.

Tornado and Wheel he both learned how to apply the terrain around him into his attack, and the UFO form he goes into was altered in order to make sure he could create a spark that went around him.

I believe that's all there is to cover on the ability scrolls, which were an often forgotten part of Kirby's history. Tune in next time to learn more about the anatomy of a Kirby!