Level 2-1
Copy Abilities
Watch your head! This area is littered with coconut trees. If you get near one of them, the coconut hanging from its branches falls—and explodes! A new Copy Ability in this stage helps with falling projectiles, but for now take your time and suck up the coconuts one at a time.
Head through the first door you come across to find a Waddle Doo hanging from a parasol. Sucking up the parasol grants you the Parasol Copy Ability, which helps protect you from those falling coconuts.
Be careful as you approach the end of the first area. There’s a new type of enemy that Kirby’s Dream Land fans are sure to remember. Scarfy looks joyful and innocuous at first, but the second Kirby tries to suck it up, it transforms into Mutant Scarfy and begins chasing Kirby aggressively. After a moment, Mutant Scarfy will explode.
Hold Kirby’s mouth open with the B Button, and keep a constant lookout to avoid eating a bomb. While you’re learning the minigame, it’s better to miss out on some eggs for the sake of not eating a bomb. Once you’re more experienced, be a bit more daring, but for starters, making it to the end with as many eggs as possible nets you a solid prize.
Level 2-2
Copy Abilities
There are a lot of new abilities to get and try out here. We explain the new powers as you go along.
You encounter your first real Bomb Block at the start of this stage. Bomb Blocks, when attacked, destroy set blocks and obstacles. What a Bomb Block destroys is never random, and while they can open new paths for you, sometimes they cause you problems. Always pay attention to the spark produced by a Bomb Block, and when you see one of these explosive cubes, take a quick look at your surroundings to gauge what the Bomb Block might destroy—or unleash.
You get to choose from three different Copy Abilities as you approach this level’s Miniboss: Spark, Fire, and Sword. We find that Fire is a good match against most Minibosses, but pick the power you’re most comfortable with to get the most out of it.
Miniboss: Grand Wheelie
Grand Wheelie is one of the easier Minibosses in the game. Despite being a sentient wheel, it doesn’t move particularly fast, and it only has two real ways of attacking: spitting out normal-sized Wheelies, and driving into you. When it spits out smaller Wheelies, suck them up and spit them back at Grand Wheelie. You can tell when it’s about to shoot out a Wheelie when it topples over onto its side.
We suggest you dump any powers you have and suck up Grand Wheelie for its Wheel Copy Ability. You can drive through the rest of this level with little effort—and it’s a great time!
Level 2-3
Copy Abilities
In the second area of this level, you come across a Bomb Block high above your head. You need a power that can reach it in order to destroy the wall of blocks and reach the door. We suggest using Beam, which you can find in Level 2-2.
Once inside the room, find a UFO and a Maxim Tomato. Quickly drop your current Copy Ability and suck up the UFO to get the UFO Copy Ability, arguably the best Copy Ability in the game!
Ice Cream Island has a fair amount of water areas, which you already know are terribly limiting when it comes to Kirby’s Copy Abilities. One power in particular really helps in these areas, and that’s Sword. Sword works in the water almost the same as it does on land, giving you a nice sweeping motion with your attacks, instead of that pitiful spritz of water from Kirby’s mouth.
After the first swimming area of this stage, fly straight up to find a Bomb Block. Destroy this Block and follow the path it uncovers to find a 1-Up!
Miniboss: Meta Knight’s Knights
Meta Knight is a hard character to pin down. On one hand, he throws Invincibility Candy to Kirby, but on the other, he calls his flunkies to take Kirby out. Is he friend or foe? Tough call… Well, there’s no use ruminating over this dilemma, especially when you’ve got a slew of Knights to combat.
We personally find fights with Meta Knight’s crew much easier as normal Kirby. Any of these Knights can be sucked up with little effort, and spitting one into another defeats them both at the same time. Take your time, and this fight will be easy.
Level 2-4
Copy Abilities
As you jump across the clouds of the first area, be on the lookout for this door. When you come across it, enter it and head to the bottom of the room to find a 1-Up. Climb up the room’s right side to reach the door leading back to the clouds.
Shortly after you leave that corridor, you encounter a Maxim Tomato surrounded by Star Blocks.
You get another opportunity to pick your power at the start of the next area. The powers up for grabs this time around are Stone, Fire, and Parasol. As always, we suggest Fire, especially because you’re about to fight a rather stationary Miniboss, but the choice is yours to make!
Miniboss: Mr. Tick-Tock
Mr. Tick-Tock isn’t much harder than Grand Wheelie. That being said, Tick-Tock does have a few tricks up his sleeves—er…bells?—that you should know about.
Tick-Tock’s main method of attack is ringing his eardrum-damaging bells. If Kirby is near and is hit by either the notes or sound waves Tick-Tock produces, he takes damage. If Kirby doesn’t have a power, he can suck up the music notes and use them to attack Mr. Tick-Tock. Be careful, however, because when Tick-Tock starts ringing, he might surround himself with the aforementioned sound waves, which can’t be sucked up and damage Kirby if he’s too close. When he starts ringing, pause for a moment and see what attack he’s performing, then rush in and do your work!
Once you’ve defeated Mr. Tick-Tock, suck him up to gain the Mike Copy Ability.
You run into another new Copy Ability in this stage, one that is quite different and useful. Laser allows you to shoot a laser beam from Kirby’s hands, which is cool, but there’s more to it than shooting projectiles. If Laser is fired at a slope, like the slopes in the bottom-left and -right corners of this room, the laser beam redirects based on the angle of the slope. In the case of the slopes in this room, the laser beam directs up into those Bomb Blocks above Kirby, allowing that 1-Up to drop. Pretty handy, huh?
Museum
Here is a colorful display of enemies with special abilities. Eat the one you want! You can find Laser and Fire here.
Arena
Two fighters go in, but only one leaves. Eat a Tomato and an ability for a win!
Your opponent for this Arena is Mr. Frosty. Keep your distance and wait for him to throw ice blocks at you. Suck up the blocks and slap a “Return to Sender” on them to make short work of the slippery walrus.
Level 2-5
Copy Abilities
Watch your head! Several enemies in this first area of Level 2-5 parachute down on parasols; one of those enemies is our favorite cannon, Shotzo! Enemies hanging from parasols are hard to predict, but that’s not the only challenge here. Some of the parasols double back after the enemies release them. They angle toward Kirby and explode when they hit the ground. If you thought the enemies were unpredictable, get ready for the parasols!
Before you head through the door at the end of this area, head a little farther right to find a healing soda. Normally we’d recommend not drinking sodas you find on the ground in the middle of an island, but we insist you do it this one time, specifically if you’re missing a couple of bars of health.
When you reach the area containing Noddy (the enemy that gives the Sleep Copy Ability), drop down and follow the lower path for a healing item, while avoiding more Noddys and some Gordos along the way. The healing item is worth the trip.
Once you complete this area, you end up in an area in the sky, full of buildings on clouds. Notice all the buildings have windows, but amongst these windows is an imposter! Jump and press Up to send Kirby through the would-be window like the door it actually is! What’s inside? A Flamer enemy that yields the Fireball Copy Ability!
After completing the cloud village area, you come to a tall area covered in Star Blocks. Suck up one of the Starmen here to get Hi-Jump (if you didn’t have it), then start jumping! Jump until you reach the door at the top of the area, then head on through.
As soon as you go through the door, Poppy Bro Jr. greets you, riding on a Maxim Tomato. If you were hurting for health before now, you’re in luck!
Ice Cream Island Boss: Paint Roller
Paint Roller is an interesting Boss in that most of its attacks come from enemies it paints into existence. It skates from canvas to canvas, damaging you if you are in its path. Maneuvering gets trickier, as Paint Roller spontaneously changes its path from one canvas to another, so be constantly ready to avoid it. Your best bet is to hover in one corner of the room until it comes to a stop.
You can suck up and swallow some of the enemies and items Paint Roller paints to attack you for a Copy Ability. Consult the following list of items and their corresponding powers:
A baseball: Ball Copy Ability
A lightning cloud: Spark Copy Ability
A parasol: Parasol Copy Ability
A bomb: Crash Copy Ability
A car: Wheel Copy Ability
With the exception of the bomb, we suggest you spit all items at Paint Roller, instead of using the Copy Ability. Paint Roller moves around a lot, making it pretty hard to hit. Shooting stars at it deals the most damage, with the few opportunities you safely get.