Kirby.exe

It all began on what some people consider to be a perfect summer day. The sun was shining, not a cloud was in the sky and a camling breeze was blowing. For most people my age, they would be hanging out with their friends or playing football or something. Me? Well... I had other things to do. Instead of going outside, I was checking updates of E3 on YouTube. You may call that being lazy, but it was just how I was raised. Being a part of a family of gamers has an effect on you. But, anyway... I was looking at Nintendo's new releases when a pop-up appeared stating that my local game specialty store was having a "BOGO" (Buy One Get One) on used items. At first, I wondered how my laptop knew where I was, but then remembered that, with the age we're in, it was common for pop-up ads to track where you were and what you looked at the most. So, after some quick thinking, I grabbed my wallet, turned off my laptop and biked over to the store. After roughly 5 minutes, I finally got to the game specialty store. EB Games. This was where I spent most of my allowance. Hence why the clerk noticed me as soon as I stepped into the store. She started to talk about the BOGO offer they set, and how the "Get One" game was free, but I told her I knew this already, and she nodded. I only had enough money to buy a used copy of Kid Icarus Uprising-near mint condition- so I took it up as part 1 of the BOGO. Now all that was left was to choose which game I would get for free. After looking through the whole store, one game caught my eye. Kirby Super Star Ultra. The last used copy there. I had heard great things about this game, and being a person who loves nostalgia, I found it to be a little of a treat. So I took it out, not having enough time to actually read the label and placed it underneath Uprising, then walked over to the clerk. She scanned Uprising and put it in a bag. $30.95, the grand total cost for both games. She then took the other case and, as if struck by lightning, froze in that spot, looking at the cover for a few seconds, before turning to me and saying: "Are you sure you want to get this copy? The original owner said it was corrupted and gave it back. We never threw it away, so who knows if it still works or not?" I nodded my head yes and she looked at me a little longer, then scanned the game, all the while muttering "The customer is always right..." Odd. She handed me my games and I headed out. And I could swear that the clerk was doing a prair when I walked out of the store, as if to ward off evil spirits. Once again... Odd. Another 5 minutes later, I was back home and ready to play my games. Uprising sounded interesting, but after all that fuss that the clerk made about Super Star Ultra, it made me want to play the game more. I took the case out of the bag and realized this was no ordinary copy. Plasterd on its face was a sticker that said: "Updated Version! New Ability: Dancing Kirby! Details Inside." A new ability? How come I had never heard of it or this updated version before? I shrugged it off as a promo for that new Kirby game Nintendo announced and opened the case. The sweet stench of new game smell entered my nostrils and I took a long sigh of relief. The sticker wasn't lying about the details being inside; much like Pokémon Black/White's Victini promo, a booklet lay where the manual was. It explained how to set up the ability to go into the game. First I had to imput a set coordinate of button pushes on the title screen. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, SELECT, Start. The famous Konami Code. Strange to see it in a Nintendo game, but it still sounded interesting, so I did as it told me. After entering the code, I heard the Kirby 1Up sound effect and the screens went black. At first, I thought the game froze, but after a while, white text appeared on the top and touch screens. The top screen read "ENTER CODE" while the touch screen showed a textbar with a QWERTY keyboard and everything. I looked at the booklet and it told me to then input the code listed below and I would unlock the Dancing Ability. (The code's not at all important, so I'll leave it out) Upon entering the code, the screens went white and resorted back to the title screen. I pressed Start, went into the first save file and started to play the first "minigame", if you will, of Super Star Ultra. Spring Breeze. At first, it seemed like everything was normal. The game worked extremely well, the graphics weren't just jumbled messes and the controls felt like I thought they would. But one thing that seemed off was the enemies. They seemed paler than usual, and whenever Kirby hit one with a weapon, they would fall to the ground and some white thing would float to the sky. Same thing with the bosses. They never attacted. They just looked at you, like they were waiting for something. And, once again, after beating them, a white teardrop shaped entity would float to the sky. Kirby, being the happy-go-lucky type of character as per usual, always danced at the end. Which brought back to mind the Dancing Ability. I had never seen it in the courses at all. So why add the code? Eventually, I made it to Dedede's Castle. Usually, there would be dialogue between Dedede and Spear Waddledee, but that wasn't present at all. In fact, besides the enemies, nothing was to be seen. After roughly 3 minutes of going through the gauntlent of enemies, I finally made it to King Dedede. When I stepped in, he was just standing there, his back turned towards me. He chuckled, and a dialogue box appeared. "Foolish puffball. You never learn, do you?" Dedede lifted one flipper and foot in the air, leaving him to balance on one foot. Another dialogue box. "You've killed my minions, and for WHAT? Just so you could end me too?" His sprite then flipped to look as though he swapped positions of his feet and flippers, as if he were... DANCING? "Well, no more. Today is the day you feel our pain and suffering." The sprite kept on flipping over and over, until he turned around. He was a ghastly white. Large fangs stuck out of his beak. I could clearly see that something had happened to him. He started to inch towards me, still dancing like a psychopath. Then, he stopped and snapped his flipper. Those white things came down, started floating in midair and they instantly transformed into ghost versions of the bosses I fought earlier. They, too, danced. Dedede laughed heavily and said: "Welcome to the club, Kirby... Where you can dance to your heart's content... That is... If you still have one when we're done with you." King Dedede pointed towards me and the ghost bosses charged at me. As soon as they made contact with Kirby, the screen went black and the death jingle played. One final dialogue box appeared. "Enjoy your stay." Out popped the Game Over screen. Odd. I remebered making a stock pile of lifes for this level, and suddenly they don't work? But that didn't shock me as much as what the Game Over screen was showing. A black background with a spotlight pointed on a colour-drained Kirby, who was dancing the dance that the ghost bosses and Dedede did. ...What had just happened? Had Kirby been... cursed? Maybe this is what the original owner meant by this game being corrupted. Who in their right mind would add this to a Nintendo game? My head was spinning, so I decided to stop playing. I turned off the game and looked at my clock. Midnight. How long had I been playing for? Who knows. Drowsiness was taking control, so I couldn't think properly, so I went to bed, as if I never witnessed what had just happened there. What happened to my copy of Super Star Ultra? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that it's collecting dust somewhere in my house, waiting to be played again. EB Games never allowed me to sell it there; they said it was bad for business. I called Nintendo Customer Service to ask them about it; they deny ever making a new update for the game. I now get skeptical whenever there's a supposed "update" to a game. And, I never get why, no matter how hard I try, whenever King Dedede's theme plays anywhere, I get the sudden urge to dance.