Galactic Nova (also known as just Nova or NOVA) is a character in the Kirby series, debuting in Kirby Super Star .
Physical Appearance[ ]
Nova is a large, mechanical comet made in the shape of a pocket watch. Nova's center is designed to look like a sun with a red shooting star above its right eye. All around the edges of Nova are seemingly random items. Going clockwise the items are: a weathervane, several gears, a telescope, a wind-up key, a drafting compass, a globe, two halogen lamps, a grandfather clock pendulum, a pocket watch without numbers and crooked arms, a triangular ruler, several piano keys, a magnetic compass, and a light bulb next to the ring (greatly resembling the crown found on real-world pocket watches) that lies on top of its head. Nova has two purple eyes, a cat-like mouth and a small hole on the upper left corner of its face. The back of Nova shows four nozzles that form its main engine cluster.
After the destruction of its core, the small hole on Nova's face becomes bigger and its right eye slightly closes, whilst its left eye fully closes.
Games[ ]
Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra [ ]
Milky Way Wishes [ ]
In "Milky Way Wishes", while Kirby and others watch the Sun and Moon fight, Marx shows up and asks Kirby to find Nova and make a wish to make peace between the Sun and Moon; when speaking about how to ask Nova, it is depicted floating in space with its eyes closed before awakening. Once Kirby collects power from the seven stars, Nova appears to the right of Halfmoon.
In "Marx's Mad Plan", Kirby uses the power of the stars to summon Nova, who abruptly floats in from above. Before he can make a wish to make peace between the Sun and Moon, Marx knocks him out of the way and makes a wish to control Popstar. Nova agrees to grant this wish and blasts off toward Popstar, ignoring that Kirby was the one to collect the power required to summon it. The power of the stars transform into the Starship, allowing Kirby to pursue Nova and stop him; the Sun and Moon push back against Nova as it flies toward Popstar, giving Kirby time to fly into the comet and damage its heart. Before reaching Nova's core, Kirby, in his Starship, traverses through a passageway populated by Dacoogas, Patas, and Volms that serve to defend Nova's interior.
In "To the Battlefield", the left side of Nova's head shatters due to the destruction of its core, paralyzing it. The Starship transforms into a Warp Star and Kirby flies to an unknown planet to face Marx.
In "Kirby's Triumphant Return", Marx gets launched into the destroyed part of Nova's head, causing a chain reaction that creates a massive explosion. Nova is obliterated, being blown to pieces, with its seemingly random components flying into random directions.
In Kirby Super Star Ultra, when summoning Nova, the stars combine together, three streams of electricity converge at a point, and then Nova suddenly appears. When entering Nova and when fighting its nucleus, the interior is significantly darker than in Kirby Super Star. Upon defeating Galactic Nova Nucleus, the FMV cutscene "To the Battlefield" plays before returning to Kirby flying on his Warp Star in sprite form; this was done seamlessly in Kirby Super Star, which lacked FMV cutscenes.
Galactic Nova Nucleus[ ]
Galactic Nova Nucleus (called Heart of NOVA in Kirby Super Star) serves as the boss of Galactic Nova. It involves shooting at cores that move up and down in the pillars surrounding Nova's heart. The pillars start by slowly rotating around the heart, moving to the left. When two pillars are destroyed, the pillars start spinning faster. When four pillars are destroyed, they spin even faster. Once a fifth pillar is destroyed, they stop spinning, then spin in reverse, moving to the right. When one pillar remains, the heart starts spinning faster. There are eight pillars total and the cores have four different colors, each color having a different durability. There are three red cores, two blue cores, two green cores, and one yellow core.
In Kirby Super Star, the red cores take nine shots to destroy, the blue cores take seven shots to destroy, the green cores take eleven shots to destroy, and the yellow core takes four shots to destroy.
In Kirby Super Star Ultra, the red cores take eight shots to destroy, the blue cores take six shots to destroy, the green cores take ten shots to destroy, and the yellow core takes four shots to destroy. Some of the gaps in the pillars are adjusted to make traversal easier; this is most noticeable with the seventh pillar, which barely leaves any room to slip past the second green core.
When all of the pillars are destroyed, everything stops moving as the place starts to explode. Kirby escapes just as an explosion damages Nova's head. Right after he escapes, Kirby goes to fight Marx.
Galactic Nova Nucleus returns as a boss in The Arena.
Meta Knightmare Ultra [ ]
In "Galactic Knight", Meta Knight collects the power from all the stars and summons Nova; the explosion during the events of Milky Way Wishes that caused Nova's demise reverses and the debris recombines and revives it; however, its head is still damaged from when its core was destroyed, with the left eye remaining mostly closed. Meta Knight wishes to fight the greatest warrior in the galaxy. Nova fulfills this wish and summons Galacta Knight, a warrior sealed away in fear of his power.
The True Arena [ ]
In "Marx Soul Appears", a flashback from "Kirby's Triumphant Return" of Marx colliding with Nova is shown. The unconscious Marx floats in the debris of Nova's explosion before absorbing its power and being brought back as Marx Soul.
Kirby Mass Attack [ ]
Image does not exist
An unused splash screen depicts an image of Galactic Nova resembling its appearance in Kirby Super Star Ultra. This was presumably used as a placeholder or error handling message.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse [ ]
While Nova himself does not appear there is a song in its name that can be obtained from the first Treasure Chest in Wonder Space. It can be listened to in the Music Room.
Kirby: Planet Robobot [ ]
Star Dream Soul OS blasts the Halberd.
Star Dream is implied to be the result of President Haltmann's mechanization process of a clockwork star. This is reflected in the fact that the Access Ark appears to have a silver Galactic Nova underneath its outer shell. It attacks by using some of the objects that surrounded Nova (weathervanes, compasses, pocket watches, light bulbs, and telescopes, and grand piano keys). Star Dream's defeat causes a white explosion, and its two eyes are seen during the explosion, resembling when Nova itself was annihilated back in Milky Way Wishes.
This connection is furthered by the appearance of Star Dream Soul OS, which is golden in color instead of silver, and has an outline resembling Galactic Nova's. The beginning of Star Dream Soul OS's final phase is similar to the original Galactic Nova Nucleus battle, and later on during the same fight, it uses the enemies found within the short level before the nucleus as projectiles.
At a specific time of day[1] , Galactic Nova appears in the background of Level 3 of the Kirby 3D Rumble sub-game. This can only be seen by turning the camera using a New Nintendo 3DS' C-Stick.
Kirby Star Allies [ ]
Nova's pocket watch
Nova's pocket watch can appear in Far-Flung Starlight Heroes.
Super Kirby Clash [ ]
Galactic Nova appears as a Sticker that is available in the Shoppe for 20 Gem Apples after clearing the Tough: Blocky Party Quest. It displays the text "OK. ->" when used and the sound for Star Dream's third phase activation plays.
Kirby's Dream Buffet [ ]
Galactic Nova appears as a Character Treat.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe [ ]
The player can get a dress-up mask of Galactic Nova in Merry Magoland after completing 40 Stamp Rallies. Wearing it changes Kirby's voice to various sound effects derived from Star Dream and other clockwork sound effects.
Kirby Air Riders [ ]
| Spoiler alert: Plot-specific details are within this box |
|---|
| Galactic Nova is the main antagonist and true final boss of Road Trip. In the process of fulfilling Zorah's wish for freedom, he manufactured mobile machines and sent them to Popstar. Machines that survived their journey had a chance to be united with a rider, who would imbue their willpower onto the machine, activating it and creating a powerful bond with them. However, while the riders were bonding with their machines, Nova sent worker drones and materials to Zorah's location; the worker drones would tear Zorah's body apart and extract his core, where it would be encased in a newly-manufactured body: Gigantes, a dreadnaught-sized machine of destruction incarnate. As with the machines manufactured by Nova, Gigantes was inactive, and required an immense amount of willpower to activate. As such, Nova sent a pulse from Gigantes' position, attracting machines that received strong willpower from their riders; many rider-machine pairings approached Gigantes, heading toward their imminent doom. However, part of Zorah's will freed itself from capture and manifested as Noir Dedede, where he intercepted incoming riders and destroyed their machines to prevent them from activating Gigantes.
Upon getting the normal ending of Road Trip, Gigantes will be destroyed, and Noir Dedede will dissipate. Nova will watch on before flying away from Popstar. If the player meets the conditions to get the true ending, Gigantes, now transformed into Hyper Gigantes, will be destroyed, emitting a road of light from its core that leads straight to Nova. The rider will then pair up with Leo to take the fight directly to Nova, where Leo and the rider work together to destroy its heart, causing it to explode and truly ending the threat to Popstar, as well as allowing Zorah to truly be free, having his wish fulfilled. In Air Ride, Galactic Nova has its own course. Taking place in outer space, the riders approach to see a conflict between a planet and Nova. The riders get inside Nova, destroy its core, and escape the resulting explosion. This course has 1 lap by default; if the player adds more laps to the course, the events that transpire will repeat for each lap. In [Top Ride]], the Nova course is also dedicated to Galactic Nova. Despite its apparent connection to Nova, it is more generally space-themed, with the only distinctly Nova part being the heart that appears near the end of the course. It has 2 laps by default. |
| End of spoilers |
Music[ ]
| Milky Way Wishes: Shooting | ||
|---|---|---|
"Milky Way Wishes: Shooting"
"Milky Way Wishes: Shooting"
"Milky Way Wishes: Shooting"
"Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection"
"Soul 0 System / Vagrant Keepsake of Oblivion"
"A Deus Ex Machina from Childhood"
"A Deus Ex Machina from Childhood"
"Galactic Nova"
Galactic Nova is a gigantic mechanical comet in Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra , summoned from the powers of the Dream Fountains of multiple planets and having the power to grant one wish. Nova's ability is central to Marx's plot to take control of Dream Land. This is the theme music that plays when Kirby flies into Nova with the Starship. A remixed version of this theme is used for part of the battle against Star Dream in Kirby: Planet Robobot .
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Quotes[ ]
Trivia[ ]
- In Kirby Super Star , for a split-second before Nova's explosion, its eyes open and the previous injury it sustained after Kirby destroyed its core suddenly vanishes. This may be an oversight or an error.
- Nova's heart spins clockwise from the top in Kirby Super Star, but counterclockwise from the top in Kirby Super Star Ultra.
- Nova is missing its globe in its official artwork for Kirby Super Star Ultra .
- Nova's eye color is blue in official artwork, while it is lavender in-game.
- Star Dream's eyes behind the Access Ark's plating is also blue.
- Nova's eye color is blue in official artwork, while it is lavender in-game.
- The chain that emerges from the piano keys and ends at the pocket watch is gray and is on top of the triangular ruler in Kirby Super Star. However, in Kirby Super Star Ultra, the chain turns dark blue and it appears under the triangular ruler.
- The fight with Galactic Nova Nucleus (as well as the entire level leading up to it) seems to reference a well-known and humorous tradition in the famous Shoot'em up series, Gradius. The final boss does not put up much of a fight and is dispatched rather easily, this being the reason why the level preceding it is deemed harder than the actual fight. In this case, all Nova can do to fight back is to try to hit Kirby with the pillars rotating around its heart, although this does prove to be fatal if not avoided.
- In Kirby Super Star Ultra, it is implied in the Pause Screen description of Marx Soul that Nova is not the only being of its kind. It states that Marx "absorbed a Nova's power" instead of simply saying "he absorbed Nova's power."
- In Kirby's Return to Dream Land , Magolor mentions that the ancients, people of the past who created legendary treasures and pieces of technology, crafted "clockwork stars that soar the cosmos."
- Star Dream from Kirby: Planet Robobot is possibly one of the other clockwork stars. The pause menu description of Star Dream Soul OS's second and third phases, as well as the first half of the fourth phase hints that Haltmann simply reactivated a dormant machine. This machine could have just been the Mother Computer, or an entire clockwork star.
- Haltmann also claims that he reactivated Star Dream with the knowledge gained from analyzing "the most advanced civilizations in the known universe," one of which was likely the ancients.
- In Kirby Super Star, Nova is depicted as being a neutral entity who submits to the one requesting a wish to it, be it for good or evil. In Kirby Air Riders , however, it seems Nova may have malicious intent regarding granting wishes, as while it grants Zorah's wish for freedom, it does so by destroying Zorah's body and extracting his core to put into a massive vehicle, Gigantes, capable of destroying Planet Popstar; Gigantes is initially dormant, and becomes awakened by receiving the strong willpower of Riders and their Machines, of which Nova created, thus additionally creating a trap for any unassuming Riders.
- As Marx's wish never got granted (or at least, not completely), it is unclear whether Nova also had malicious intentions when granting this wish. Though Nova did head straight towards Planet Popstar with the Sun and Moon teaming up to hold it back.
- Galactic Nova's role in its stage from Kirby Air Riders references many aspects of the Death Star from the Star Wars franchise.
Artwork[ ]
Gallery[ ]
Sprites and Models[ ]
Maps[ ]
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