Kirby's Return to Dream Land artwork
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (trophy)
|In the anime||#J24/#E22|
|Type||Melee, Weaponary, Elemental|
|Appearance||Original: A red helmet with a star and purple plume. Kirby's skin is purple in Kirby Super Star/Kirby Super Star Ultra.|
Anime: Similar to the above, but Kirby holds a sword, the light armor extending from the back of his helmet is replaced by a short cape, and the star emblem on the front is green to differentiate from Stone.
Current: A purple cloth skullcap with a forehead protector imprinted with a star outline. Holds a katana like the anime.
|Other Powers||Cuts Rope, Grass|
|Regular enemies||Bio Spark, Moonja|
|“||Excelling in the art of covert combat, this ability contains various moves found in ancient documents from foreign lands. Science cannot explain this ability.”|
|— Ninja's Flavor Text • Kirby: Planet Robobot|
It is best known for being one of the fastest abilities, meaning it is able to deal steady damage in a short amount of time. It is also one of the rarest abilities, as only two regular enemies in the Kirby series yield it when inhaled.
In order to do sufficient damage, Kirby must execute many attacks at a time. This is because Ninja is predominantly projectile-based. Because these projectiles are weak on their own, Kirby must remain at a safe distance and throw tons of them at the enemy. This is where Ninja Kirby's quick reflexes come in handy. This ability also allows to cling to walls and jump-climb them.
In Kirby: Squeak Squad, Ninja was given more properties based off the stereotypical ninja rather than the traditional kind demonstrated in Kirby Super Star. These properties entail walking on water and harnessing "jutsu" (simply Japanese for method or technique).
The Ninja hat originally had the same design as the Stone hat, only with different colors, along with a different skin tone for Kirby in Kirby Super Star Ultra. As of Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Kirby wears a skullcap with a metal forehead piece imprinted with a star insignia. He wields a katana like he does in the anime, which replaces his kunai from previous games.
|Move||Controls||Description||Element||Damage 19960321||Damage 20111024|
|Kunai Throw||B/Y||Kirby throws a piercing kunai straight forward. This can be done rapid-fire to deal constant and heavy damage. Kunai have infinite range and can hit an enemy from off-screen.||None||7 (all hits)||8 (1st hit), 7 (repeat hits)|
|Quad Shock||B/Y (Hold)||Kirby swings his knife in front of him. If it does not collide with an enemy, it will be an ordinary slash. If it does, Kirby will slash upward to create a rising serial shock wave that does lots of damage to foes (but if the button is not held all the way then the attack will be the aforementioned normal slash). This move also works in midair, but it will not create a shock wave whether Kirby hits an enemy with the knife or not (excluding Kirby's Return to Dream Land). The shock wave's range extends much further in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.||None||25 (knife), 24 (shock wave)||25 (knife), 21 (shock wave near), 24 (shock wave far)|
|Stealth Slash||B/Y + Dash or Side B||Kirby swings his kunai forward as he dashes. Kirby is only invincible for half the attack. In Kirby: Squeak Squad, this attack looks like Quad Shock without the shock waves. In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the animation is different in that Kirby unholsters his katana and dashes through his target at high speed with a quick-draw-and-re-sheathing strike. The re-shealthing itself is made more noticeable in Kirby: Triple Deluxe as it is accompanied by a sound effect.||None||18||8 (1st hit), 7 (2nd, 3rd, 4th hits)|
|Air Drop||↑/forward + B/Y (Near enemy)||Kirby grabs the enemy or defeated mid-boss, and he will then proceed to jump into the sky and slam the enemy down into the ground with massive force, doing massive damage to anyone in the way. A similar attack was in Fighter's Kirby: Squeak Squad moveset. The diving hit can't combo with the thrown object's damage.
In the anime, it is known as 飯綱落とし (Izuna Otoshi), which translates to *Fox Spirit Drop*.
|None||Untested||50 (rising hit), 50 (diving hit), 60 (thrown object)|
|Ninja Kick||↓ + B/Y (Midair)||Kirby dives diagonally-forward with his foot outstretched to kick his target. He can repeatedly kick the enemy if the player can maintain Kirby's midair altitude.||None||18||18|
|Hide Guard||B/Y (While taking damage)||Kirby becomes invisible. By pressing B or Y, Kirby reappears in an explosion, destroying nearby enemies and damaging bosses.||None||26 (explosion)||26 (explosion)|
|B||Kirby throws a shuriken at his foes. This was the equivalent for Kirby Super Star's Kunai Throw but this attack deals more damage and is considerably slower. It works when Kirby is wall-clinging, walking on water and in midair as well.||None||N/A||N/A|
|B (Hold)||Requires the Ninja Ability Scroll. Kirby starts building up power around himself. Releasing B causes Kirby to slam his fist into the ground, creating multiple fireballs that heavily damages foes. Because this attack is terrain based, if the powerful technique is used near water, the fireballs evaporate on the water, creating steam.||Fire||N/A||N/A|
|↓ + 1||Kirby creates a puff of smoke around him, slightly damaging nearby enemies. Kirby cannot be damaged while he is hidden by his distraction.||None||N/A||16|
|↑, then ↓ + 1||Kirby abruptly rises up and, with a fan in hand, swings downwards to conjure a plantation of cherry blossoms. Both his fan and the blossoms abruptly damage enemies before fading.||None||N/A||10 (fan swing), 17 (blossoms)|
Ninja appears in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! in episode 24, Ninja Binge, which is its only appearance in the series. In the anime, Kirby shows moves that can't be performed in the games. In the transformation sequence, an energy shuriken forms from a flash of light. Autumn leaves blowing in the wind surround Kirby. The shuriken and leaves vanish, forming his hat. He then pulls out a ninjato.
|Ninja transformation English version|
|Ninja transformation Japanese version|
In the Super Smash Bros. series
|Copy the famous Japanese Ninja to hide in shadows and vanish into the darkness!|
|Hide in shadows and darkness. Use ninja skills on your mission. You're a ninja! A NINJA! Cool...|
|Hide in shadows and fade into the darkness. Become a master Ninja and no one will expect your Blossom Storm!|
|Reinforcements have been called in from a nearby ninja village! Slide into the shadows, and vanish in the darkness. When the time is right, unleash the Blossom Storm technique!|
- In the Super Smash Bros. series, Kirby could use a similar move to Ninja's Kunai Throw by inhaling Sheik.
- The kanji character (忍) used for Kirby: Squeak Squad's flavor text means "do by stealth, endure".
- In the Ninja ability's Kirby Super Star artwork, Kirby's skin is pink, however, in the game, Kirby's skin is purple. This was corrected in promotional artwork of Kirby Super Star Ultra.
- In one piece of Kirby: Squeak Squad artwork, Ninja Kirby appears to be wearing a short mantle on his back, similar to the one worn in the anime. This is not seen in-game, in which it is still a palette swap of Stone (from the Game Boy Advance games).
- In Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby: Triple Deluxe, if Kirby is swimming on the surface of a bed of water with this ability, he will dive right on the surface and breath through a bamboo straw instead of wearing an inner-tube. When he uses his Water Gun attack, water shoots upward out of the bamboo, damaging enemies next to or above him.
- In Kirby: Squeak Squad, Ninja Kirby can walk on water. On water, he can jump and use all of his attacks, but can't wall cling.
- Kirby's Ninja Scroll attack switches its element to water instead of fire when walking on water.
- In Kirby: Squeak Squad, if Ninja Kirby is standing still, he will be in a fighting stance.
- Ninja Kirby attacks using kunai; however, they are meant for stabbing rather than being used as a throwing weapon in real life.
- Despite the fact that the current icon for Ninja Kirby depicts a shuriken, he hasn't been able to use shurikens since Kirby: Squeak Squad.