Transitive Mechanics and Cost Curves

Applying Cost Curves in Kirby: The Crystal Shards

Kirby has a unique power, he can take others` powers by consuming them. The abilities Kirby can receive in this game revolve around this. I will attempt to establish what I believe the cost curve is in this game. Every power can be used to damage enemies that aren`t immune to it, so I will be avoiding this aspect of their benefits.

Power	Benefit	Cost	Total
Burn	Breaks metal blocks	N/A	+1
Ice	Freezes water and lava	N/A	+1
Spark	Current travels through water	N/A	+1
Cutter	Cut rope	N/A	+1
Bomb	Lights fuses	N/A	+1
Needle	Kirby sticks to surfaces	N/A	+1
Stone	Invincible Breaks Metal Blocks	Slower Rolls down hills	0,-1

I have listed Stone as a cost of 0 or -1, since rolling down hills is a situational cost.

The interesting thing about Kirby comes from combining the powers. There are 49 possibilities, any power can be combined with any other power. 49 combinations is too much for the scope of this blog. I will analyze some of the combinations, and their benefits and costs

Power	Benefit	Cost	Total
Burn - Burn	Travel through air as fireball	N/A	+1
Burn - Ice	Attack Upwards and Downwards	Can’t move	0
Spark - Cutter	Guards against attacks from behind while stationary Wide attack range	Only one jump	+1
Cutter - Bomb	Throw a ninja star in a straight line	N/A	+1
Bomb - Ice	Explode to kill enemies, will happen on contact, after time runs out, or B is pressed	Can’t jump	0
Needle - Burn	Fire a flaming arrow	Must be aimed, difficult	0
Ice - Spark	Food is a weapon and a health source	Can’t Move	0
Cutter - Ice	Increased Speed Jump Attack	Only one jump	+1

 
These are just some of the available combinations. An ability centric game like Kirby doesn`t have huge costs associated with the abilities available. Nonetheless, this information is paramount to the player`s success in the game. As the Kirby franchise progressed since this game, they have continued to add in new powers.