Day 36: Clanky Woods
My favorite first boss in the Kirby series, and my favorite Woods fight in the series so far, this is Clanky Woods from Kirby: Planet Robobot.
Keeping in line with Planet Robobot's industrial motif, Clanky Woods is a robotic version of the classic Whispy Woods boss, and the Kirby series' second attempt at changing up the iconic formula.
Lyra: Actually, it's more like the fifth attempt given the fights with him in Dream Land 3, 64, and King Golem from Amazing Mirror came before this.
Me: The second time a Woods fight is done right.
Lyra: I didn't think the fight with him in Dream Land 3 was that bad.
Me: Your opinion!
Armed with either Spark, Cutter, or the new Doctor ability, Kirby enters the arena to square off against Clanky Woods in a three phase showdown.
In the first phase, Clanky will attack you by either shooting homing missiles out of its mouth, using its drill roots to dig up rocks for throwing at you, ground pounding you, or jumping to the top of the screen and dropping its balls down on you with the last three balls it drops being bombs that leave trails of flames upon exploding, but they can be destroyed so you don't have to worry about them. After dealing enough damage, the second phase begins.
In phase two, the platform you fight Clanky on will turn into a full ring and he'll take advantage of this by chasing you down in an attempt to turn the Kirby into the world's cutest pancake. Other than that, Clanky Woods will continue to shoot homing missiles and throw rocks at Kirby. These attacks are even easier to avoid given Kirby has more room to dodge these attacks.
After taking enough damage, Clanky will trap Kirby by raising all but one small part of the arena up, trapping him in a narrow space, kicking off the third and final phase. In this phase, Clanky Woods will shoot drill missiles from the doors on the walls of the space Kirby is trapped in, throw more of the green balls he calls leaves at you from the background, worth noting you can potentially bounce these balls back at him do deal more damage, jabbing at you with its drill roots, and more homing missiles. Keep attacking Clanky until his health is all gone and he's left crying tears of oil.
Clanky Woods is not only my favorite first boss in the Kirby series, but it's so far, in my opinion, the best iteration on the classic Whispy Woods fight, and words cannot describe how jarring it felt when Nintendo went back to the old Whispy Woods formula in Star Allies instead giving it another creative spin like with Flowery and Clanky Woods. Well, I guess there's always next Kirby game...whenever that is.