It’s no secret that I’m not particularly proud of Cloud’s Forum Adventures. Not only does it look childish (which makes sense, given that I was thirteen years old when I made it), but its story is very difficult to follow and often makes zero sense. And despite being a clear ripoff of the Kirby franchise, CFA actually has some similarities to its plot… or should I say, the Kirby series has similarities to CFA’s plot.
That’s right: there are many happenings in CFA that are extremely similar to events in Kirby: Planet Robobot and Kirby Star Allies. Except the CFA episodes were actually released first! Of course, this is most certainly a coincidence, but today, we’re going to compare their plot elements and see what looks the same. Spoilers ahead!
Kirby: Planet Robobot & Star Dream
The final boss of Kirby: Planet Robobot is Star Dream, a mechanical marvel that absorbs the consciousness of its creator and sets out to commit intergalactic genocide. CFA didn’t have an antagonist like this, but it did sort of “predict” Star Dream’s name. Take a look:
Storm: Since I have the Star Dream in my possession, everyone who was in the Dream World is now trapped there forever, completely helpless!
This right here is an excerpt from a CFA saga script that never made it into production. The story would’ve revolved around an unused villain named Storm invading the Dream World and stealing its main source of power, the Star Dream. This script was written in 2014, two years before the release of Planet Robobot.
Kirby Star Allies & Void Termina
This is where things get really strange; there are a huge amount of parallels between CFA and Kirby Star Allies. So many, in fact, that even I wonder how this could have happened. Remember, CFA was finished years before Star Allies was ever released. Here’s an interesting one:
The image above is phase two of Kirby’s battle against Void Termina in Star Allies. Beneath it is an excerpt from a scrapped script of Season 3. Instead of revealing Spectra as the true mastermind, the protagonists were originally going to be inhaled into Luna’s stomach where they would have to defeat his soul. This is remarkably similar to Void Termina’s second phase — right down to the roar it unleashes when threatened.
This one’s probably a bit of a stretch, but in the first phase of the Void Termina battle, its mask falls off and reveals a void that absorbs the protagonists into its body. Luna inhaling the protagonist is kind of similar, but to be fair, there are many other instances where a villain “eats” the protagonists and they have to defeat their opponent’s heart or brain or something. CFA is no stranger to adopting clichés and then doing nothing interesting with them, after all!
Here’s a pretty convincing one! After initially defeating Luna’s soul, it would have fired a powerful laser at Cloud, who would have countered it with a laser of his own. The remaining protagonists were then going to supply him with Dream World energy to strengthen the beam. Sound familiar? It’s noticeably similar to the ending of Star Allies where Kirby and Void Termina have the same battle.
Rewinding to Season 2, the antagonist Zerospace violently exploded after its defeat in an attempt to take down Cloud and the Lander. This explosion ends up destroying several planets in the process, but Cloud is able to avoid it. In Star Allies, Void Termina explodes and damages several planets, but Kirby is able to get away in time.
After the debris clears, both Cloud and Kirby are left floating in space. Is this all just a coincidence? Probably. But it’s one of the strangest coincidences I’ve ever seen, and it’s neat to see something like it happen in the first place. That being said, given how many storylines I wrote up for CFA back in the day, I suppose it was inevitable that a future Kirby game would include a somewhat-similar plot.
If you would like to read more Cloud’s Forum Adventures, please follow this link.
