Please remember that WiKirby contains spoilers, which you read at your own risk! See ourgeneral disclaimer for details.
Sprite
Asprite is a movable two-dimensional bitmap or pixel-based piece of artwork which represents acharacter,enemy,item, or other such object that is rendered separately from the background. Sprites are almost universally used to represent objects in games which run on hardware that uses bitmap to represent graphics, and are also commonly used in games for newer hardware to cut down on memory usage or for stylistic throwback purposes.
A sprite is distinguished from other bitmap graphics such as "tiles" or "backgrounds" in that they typically display several different states or animations which can change based on input from the player or from the game's code. Sprites also tend to be rendered on top of these other graphics, completely separate from them. In games that run 3D vector or polygon-based graphics, sprites are usually replaced with polygonal objects calledmodels.
In theKirby series, sprites are used for all strictly two-dimensional games. In the games that do use sprites, they are employed for the following objects:
- Playable characters such asKirby or aHelper
- Enemies and bosses
- Items such asMaxim Tomatoes
- Objects such asStar Blocks orWarp Stars
- Heads-up display elements such as theCopy Ability display or thehealth bar (these are commonly a mix between dynamic sprites and static tiles)
Sprites can also be found in 3D games; they are commonly used for 2D assets such as the menus or heads-up display, but can be found in gameplay as well. The most notable examples of a 3DKirby game using sprites in this context areKirby Air Ride and its sequel,Kirby Air Riders, where all collectible items such aspatches andfood are represented as two-dimensional "billboard sprites" (which refers to sprites that always face the camera in a 3D environment).
Chronological list of sprite-basedKirby games[edit]
- Kirby's Dream Land
- Kirby's Adventure
- Kirby's Pinball Land
- Kirby's Dream Course
- Kirby's Dream Land 2
- Kirby's Avalanche
- Kirby's Block Ball
- Kirby Super Star
- Kirby's Toy Box
- Kirby's Star Stacker (Game Boy)
- Kirby's Dream Land 3
- Kirby's Star Stacker (Super Famicom)
- Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble
- Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
- Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
- Kirby: Canvas Curse
- Kirby: Squeak Squad
- Kirby Super Star Ultra
- Kirby Mass Attack
Trivia[edit]
- InKirby: Triple Deluxe, the collectibleKeychains represent many sprites from earlier titles. These keychains themselves, however, are fully rendered polygonal models, as opposed to actual sprites. A similar case applies to theCharacter Treats inKirby's Dream Buffet.
See also[edit]
| ||||||||||||||
