Game-Breaking Bug Discovered In Switch Online Version Of Kirby 64

This is a game changer and breaker!

Another reason why I'm not touching the expansion pass with a 10 foot pole.

I'm stunned this wasn't picked up.
Oh well, still cheaper than an original copy.

Glad I own the original though, worth a small fortune that my kids get to benefit from.

...really? How is this even physically possible? 🤦‍♂️

@Greatluigi Not only is it not physically possible,
it's DIGITALLY plausible!

Eh. It will be patched quickly.

Its always "shocking" when news come out about Nintendo's emulator isn't working properly.

This is terrible. We need to riot

"Interestingly, Kirby 64 appears to have the least amount of patches and hacks that I’ve seen so far for this emulator. There are the usual renderer settings adjustments present, but there are no CPU instruction patches or hooks."

Yesterday: That's because Kirby is PeRfEcT!
Today: Nintendo will fix it in the next update …

Had that same problem but thankfully got past it but i had it happen to me in another area too

Oh good,
thought it was just me.

Hmm, thanks, I will have to be extra careful around this shark

Now going to play through this on my laptop. Without a subscription fee!!!! Imagine that!
I feel lucky to have grown up before subscriptions ruined everything. The only subscription I wanted back then was to Nintendo Power magazine.

Will no doubt be patched quickly, but this should have been spotted before release to the service. Obviously the testers were asleep that day when it got signed off it seems 🙄

Are they not testing games they release? This isn't the Nintendo I left.

… just rewind the game to before you hit the object?

@Drew250 Doesn't fix the overall problem, it's a bandage on a flesh wound.

Man, it would be nice if they could release something without bugs these days.

@Drew250 N64 app doesn't have rewinds. Assuming it was a tad more difficult to implement the feature on N64 than it was for the other apps.

You could however use save states but you'd have to do that manually of course before bug happens.

It will probably be patched soon anyway

@NiallMitch14 That’s disappointing, it’s the best thing about the switch vc. You can tell I’ve not got the expansion pak 😅

I'll be stunned forever at how bad they screwed up

Just... don't do the thing? Problems have solutions, outrage isn't always the answer.

@Freek Going to forever regret not picking up at least one of the many copies the local Kmart had after the bankruptcy closing sale in 2002. WHAT WAS I THINKING?
(seemed to have almost as many copies as Super Tennis for the SNES, which is easily one of the most common sealed games)

Yeah, I unfortunately encountered this glitch myself yesterday. Had to restart one of the water levels like three times because the game kept softlocking. Happened on the whale boss, too. The only way to get passed him was basically to do a no-damage run.

It's a really glaring oversight and upsetting this was not picked up before release. I'm confident Nintendo will patch it out in the next update though, like they did the Ocarina of Time and Paper Mario errors. It's not ideal, but at least they're fixing them. I'll take it over the Wii U days when the games were so dark you couldn't see them, they didn't have a resolution boost and they never received post-launch updates. As far as I know, none of the Virtual Console games ever received patches, so if there were any bugs, you would've just been stuck with them because Nintendo would release one and then forget about it.

So yeah, it's an annoying oversight, but I still simp for NSO. I know my opinion sucks.

@Fazermint Tell little jimmy who is trying out the game for the first time.

@Fazermint you get stunned if you are hit under water during an I-frame which honestly can just happen during battle or navigation (playing) and stuns Kirby forcing you to reset and even recollect shards.

I think there's some reasonable frustration

Yeah this has happened to me a couple of times and it's a real shame and annoying. It's a pretty significant annoying bug. I highly recommend ppl use save states. Hopefully it will be patched out next update.

@Kirby_Girl You don't have to recollect shards. You can still pause and exit the level as opposed to closing out of NSO and relaunching the app. It will save the shards you found as long as you do it this way.

@Not_Soos Yeah, one can count the VC updates with one hand.

• Star Fox 64 (Wii): Updated to improve classic controller's stick sensitivity, and apparently re-introduce slowdown to make the game less difficult.
• Mario Kart 64 (Wii Korea): It's nearly identical to the US version but has some tiny differences, there's not much info out there, though.
• F-Zero X (Wii U): The controller's stick sensitivity was adjusted due to complaints.

Then there's the disc version of Kirby 64 that added a widescreen border and Wiimote support.

@Not_Soos dont let people your opinion sucks. Even if they disagree, this isnt a big deal in the grand scheme of things. If someone actually yells at you in a chatroom for buying something that you like, then that just means they have bad priorities and bad manners. Trust me, a lot of people here care more about the drama itself over the actual problem (which DOES exist, to be clear. A subscription service is dumb, but i own it sooooooooo)

@Not_Soos never be afraid to voice your opinion, do not let the miserable ones silence you.
Valid criticism is valid, outright harassment is not.
Perks of living in a free society.

@Arkay @nowthisisepic Hey, thanks for the words of support, I appreciate it. I was mostly just joking, though--I know I'm probably in the minority for liking NSO, but no one on Nintendo Life has harassed me over my gaming opinions in a very long time. I think this is definitely one of the more welcoming sites when it comes to gaming discourse; I hardly ever see any toxicity here nowadays, though it used to be a very different story. I don't really take that sort of thing to heart anymore anyways, though.

When it comes to stuff like talking politics over on Twitter, I'm definitely a bit more sensitive about personal attacks, though I've started to gain a thicker skin. At least the people who get mad at me over politics probably think they're contributing positively to society. It always makes me take a step back and question whether I'm on the right side of history or not with my advocacy. But getting harassed over something as petty and inconsequential as a gaming opinion isn't worth losing sleep over because whether my opinion is "right" or not, it really doesn't hurt anybody.

@AlexanderDaniels OK what's his user name

@Not_Soos nothing wrong with not being part of an outrage culture for something as insignificant as an n64 rom.

@Ryu_Niiyama a patch for a 20 year old game, just let that sink in on rediclous that sounds 😏😏

@Not_Soos
No problem in enjoying the NSO.
you are enjoying it for what it is while acknowledging that there are things which other may not like however that doesn't mean you cannot like it.

@Fazermint
At the same time i feel like dismissing those who criticize it as part of some "outrage culture" or "whining" can be part of the problem with the discussion (while often aimed at those who are being unconstructive it can feel like its lumping all criticism) , in the same way there is a difference between criticism and harassment there is also a difference between enjoying something which others may not and outright dismissal or downplaying of others issues (such as when people use the term "haters" which as someone smarter than me put it, is like "an attempt at claiming the moral high ground and simultaneously throwing a cheap shot")

in the end if you are getting enjoyment out of the service then you are getting your moneys worth, and while i personally would like to have a "buy and keep" option i can understand the appeal of the service model.

50-70 dollars yearly everyone.

@Mgalens

I'd go a step further and say there are aspects of NSO that I even dislike--games occasionally releasing with glaring bugs, not being able to delete suspend points (which means you might accidentally load an old one and lose progress across multiple save files), games like Paper Mario having an absurdly small aspect ratio that's as small as the bottom screen of a DS in handheld mode.

But, the pros still greatly outweigh the cons for me. I've been waiting for N64 games to come to the Switch since 2017. To finally be able to take them on the go is a game-changer. Added online support is one of those things I still can't believe Nintendo did, considering how behind the times they are. Before the Expansion Pass, the trickle feed of legacy content was miserable. But they've been consistently adding a new N64 game every 5 weeks, so there's always something new to look forward to. Even on months with few games releasing, it keeps it from feeling like we're in the middle of a drought. And, like I said before, I love how the games got a significant resolution boost and look way more vivid than on Wii U Virtual Console.

It's funny--back in the Wii U days, I swear it felt like everyone was begging for a "Netflix-style subscription service" because they were tired of having to buy the same games over and over again on every console and hated the slow releases. I was one of the few people vehemently against the idea at the time, but Nintendo did exactly that. Of course, the service was a disaster at launch, and everyone seemed to do a 180° on their opinions and miss the Virtual Console service while I actually thought $20/year was a steal once they added SNES games.

I thought it was unlikely when Nintendo fans were saying maybe the N64 games would be free "as a show of good will." That said, I was expecting them to double the price of the Expansion Pass to $40 max. They exceeded even my estimate, and I was pretty miffed about it but knew they were forcing my hand because of how badly I wanted N64.

But with the bundled DLC expansions and Nintendo's commitment to adding more and more content to the service and carrying it over to their next console, I'm quite content with the price and think it's a good value. Every year so far, I've saved money compared to if I were to buy these games individually on VC.

In the past 6 months alone, I would have bought Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Kirby 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, EarthBound, Earthworm Jim, and the Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pack. Buying all of that individually would have cost over $120, which means I saved 70 bucks this year already and still have another six months to go. I might would have even considered the Animal Crossing expansion and other games like F-Zero, but now I don't have to worry about those games I may not like. I just have them to try whenever I want at no extra cost.

With all that said, Nintendo should absolutely make them available for individual purchase for people who want to do it that way. And of course, there's the concern about Nintendo someday shutting their servers down. So it's not a perfect system, but I'm really loving it so far.

@Mgalens

Also, I concur with you: There's nothing wrong with valid criticism on both sides of the argument. Just because I really love NSO doesn't mean I have to put blinders on and pretend the service is perfect. I also don't feel the need to scream "LET PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS!!!" to the people who disagree with me over it, because their opinion shouldn't impact my enjoyment of a game. Deliberate personal attacks are never okay, but I don't get why people take criticism of a game they love as something personal. Even though pizza is my favorite food, I'm not gonna yell at someone who thinks pizza is disgusting and makes them gag. To believe their opinion is somehow taking away from my enjoyment of the food or means they look down on me for not liking what they like would just be absurd.

Language like calling Nintendo fanboys "entitled" and "spoiled" does nothing but encourage unethical business practices and show to Nintendo that not only can they get away with it, but the fans will even applaud them for it. Conversely, though, you shouldn't call someone a corporate shill just because they like something you don't. Sure, I'm subscribed to NSO, but I also acknowledge Nintendo's malpractice and missteps and will vehemently hate Origami King and Star Allies till the day I die. Doesn't mean I have animosity toward anybody who does enjoy those games, it's just an opinion I feel very strongly about. But if you like it, you shouldn't let random guy #987,346,208 on the internet stop you. I don't want anybody to feel bad about it.

@Not_Soos
Yeah its up to you if you feel like its worth it and if you feel like you are getting your moneys worth, its about weighing up those pros and cons.

in regards to buying the games again i remember when Nintendo implemented an account system on wiiu i was hoping it meant that the VC service and library would be carried over rather than reset like the wii>wiiu.

as it is its mainly the issue of no option to buy the games which is the big turnoff, though i also wish there were a few more options for games such as button remapping on a game by game basis (like with wiiu) or screen options like some of those retro collections have.

then again that's just my personal wishes, the service just isnt for me but im happy for those who do like it.

@Mgalens

Honestly, having to purchase games again on Wii U wasn't that big of a drag if you already owned it on your Wii, since you could upgrade for like 1 dollar. I think that was pretty reasonable. I was a very smart kid lol, and I remember buying up a bunch of N64 Wii Virtual Console games on Club Nintendo with my Gold Points even though I didn't have a Classic Controller Pro or anything to play them with. That way I'd be able to upgrade for cheap whenever they came to Wii U. It took an eternity for that to happen, but it eventually paid off, haha.

Button remapping is another feature that is incredibly baffling to have missing. For N64 games it can be very awkward sometimes, as the Z button is mapped to ZL but ZR does nothing and the L button is seldom used. So to drift to the left and right in F-Zero X, for example you have to keep your fingers resting on ZL and R, which is just awkward. I'd also love to be able to ground-pound in Super Mario 64 with ZR instead of ZL.

I'm probably one of the few prople who want this, but I honestly think NES, SNES, and N64 games look really good in widescreen, so I would love the option to stretch the aspect ratio to 16:9 to take advantage of the full dimensions of my TV. Would make games much more palatable in handheld mode, especially. I just can't imagine the eyestrain of playing a game like Mario Kart 64 in tabletop mode with 4 players in 4:3 on an original model Switch. So yeah, there's still a lot of improvement for sure.

Another common perception that I find interesting is the expectation for someone who doesn't enjoy something to state explicitly that they're "happy for the ones who do." I saw someone bring this point up a while back and I kinda agree with him. Just cause I like the service doesn't mean you should feel obligated to be happy for me when you're the one disappointed by it. I think that's kind of an unfair expectation to kick someone while they're down.

I hate Origami King but respect those who enjoy it, but at the same time, I'm not doing backflips for them because I'm so overjoyed, lol. I don't feel like the fans who are lamenting over not getting the game/product they wanted necessarily owe them that. I hope in the future, people can just state their opinions without feeling the need to offer a disclaimer about it just being an opinion and other people being entitled to theirs and being happy for the ones who disagree. It should really go without saying, but even with that preface, people on the internet are still bound to get upset, and it's just dumb. If people were really happy with themselves, they wouldn't need other people to express how happy they are for them. So, no need to do that on my account, lol.

@huyi it’s a patch for the emulator/rom and even if it wasn’t… a software bug is a software bug no matter the age. It isn’t going to fix itself. So nothing ridiculous about it.

I take it you don’t code? I mean if you want to find something to be bothered by, then by all means go ahead but… eh, they will fix it in a patch.

Edit: Oh look, Nintendo’s working on a patch.

Haha Kirby go weeeeeeeeeeeeee

Holy cow that is a lot of text posted up there by a single user!

I am still baffled by how much fail Nintendo has had with their own emulator, is really embarrassing. I find it really ironic how the more advanced and more powerful the newer systems are, the less compatable and less capable they are of running older games properly.

I am so glad I still have my Wii copy of Kirby's Dream Collection.

The interesting thing I learned from this article is that you can pass this boss fight fairly easily by just letting Kirby drift in the lower-right corner of the screen. Good to know!

This bug is annoying! Hooray for save states. Slow and steady.

Im happy that I finished aqua Star now. And hopefully won’t have problems with that bug anymore.

@Tyranexx I might be the only advocate of the game, but play High Noon Revolver on the Switch (different from PC). The game is literally unbeatable. You cannot get past the third level. I have contacted the developer and Nintendo and they will not issue a patch. It is the only game that cannot be beaten.

@Tyranexx I should warn you that the game is incredible difficult and that even getting to see the third level is an achievement. However, once you do reach the third level, at some point about the middle, the game will freeze and crash. It doesn't matter what you do. It will just crash. Most people probably don't know about this "unbeatable game" because it is so HARD to even get to third level. Oddly enough, from what I have played, the third level is actually easier than the first two levels. I wish more people knew about this "unbeatable" game because then they might actually fix it. I am surprised that this hasn't turned into some Twitch meme yet. An unbeatable game and nobody knows about it?? I feel like I am alone on an island.

@Not_Soos
yeah i did like that you got a discount on wiiu VC.
really my only problem i had with that was that there were quite a few games that weren't available on wiiu due to the stores being seperate (i imagine they had to have games go through the whole licencing process again or something since they were selling new versions) i really wanted to carry over the likes of chrono trigger for off-tv play.

good point about the "feeling happy for other takes" thing, i guess it can be force of habit with online discussion at this point

Good news on the upcoming fix. I was throughly enjoying this until encountering the bug twice in a few minutes of play, so I shelved it until a fix appears. Hoping it comes quickly.

Yeah, I just hit this bug last night, but not in the same place. It was like a circular underwater arena and when Kirby froze I just kind of bounced around the circle going right through the boss whenever we met. It was funny and I just watched it for a couple minutes, but I think I'll stop until the patch hits.

Playing through the game right now and I haven't hit this bug. Good to see it will be fixed very soon.

I actually 100% this on Switch yesterday. When I first read about the bug I was considering waiting but just really was in the mood to relive Kirby 64 and I still sits really enjoy it.

I do have to say the bug was a real pain though and I probably would recommend others to wait. When I first saw the video last week I assumed this was something that had a very small chance of happening when you get hit in the water. From playing the game I have to say that I highly underestimated it. I want to say I encounter the bug probably 50% of the times I got hit while in water which is awful. I probably had to reset levels about 6-8 times because of it. Glad they’re fixing it but with how common it occurs I’m confused how they didn’t find this before pushing the game out.

It only affected me on the underwater boss fight, which was very irritating. It did however, create a one-hit Dread Mode difficulty for a couple minutes which was a refreshing change of pace.

Woah!!! This also got me!!! This is the first time I've ever been a part of a known and addressed bug

Yeah, this is why I find outrage for things like this hilarious. It unfortunate the bug exists, but we live in a day and age where things can get patched.

Awesome. I finished the game the other day. Wonderful experience and the underwater levels were a highlight... except for this bug. Thankfully I knew about it and powered through with save states. Usually don't use them but in this case it was warranted. The fix will be useful to 100% the game .

Lol that's some top tier emulation

How do you not find a bug in a game that released TWENTY YEARS AGO!