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Gigantes
| Gigantes | |
|---|---|
 Artwork of Gigantes from Kirby Air Riders. | |
| Details | |
| First game | Kirby Air Riders (2025) |
| Type | Legendary |
| Strength(s) | Size Offense Defense HP |
| Weakness(es) | Boost Turn |
|
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Gigantes (/ˌd͡ʒaɪˈɡæn.təs/, pronounced akin to "gigantic") is an Air Ride Machine and boss that appears in Kirby Air Riders. It is a giant mechanical structure that Galactic Nova facilitated the construction of in the story of Road Trip, where it appears as the regular final boss. Gigantes may also appear as one of the legendary Air Ride machines in City Trial.
Appearance[edit]
Gigantes is an immense behemoth of a machine that resembles some of the largest land vehicles on Earth, such as bucket-wheel excavators and spaceship-carrying transporters, with details on its top side similar to an aircraft carrier. Most of Gigantes is a dull, weathered metallic color, with hints of red and silver throughout. It moves on four independently-jointed, four-wide tank treads that can not only aim different directions, but lift and drop the vehicle. Each of these treads has a red, glowing light on the outside edge that acts as a weak point until it is destroyed. Attached to the port side is a wrecking ball on a crane, which lowers when the machine performs a Quick Spin. The starboard side has a large flat surface that regular-sized machines can land on. This surface has guiding lines painted on it that match those commonly seen on aircraft carriers. Additionally, similar lines can be observed outlining the shape of Galactic Nova's face on it.[1] In the middle of the landing surface is a tower that acts as the machine's bridge, which glows red until it has taken enough damage. Dozens of weapons are scattered across the machine's surface, with the cannons found on it capable of firing missiles. The back of the machine features two giant thrusters, with a set of five smaller ones between them. Like the other weak points on the machine, they glow red until they take too much damage. On the very front of the vehicle's body is a red core that glows when the machine is at low health, appearing somewhat like a large singular eye. If it is being ridden by a rider, they can be seen on the very top of the starboard side of the machine, operating it.
Should Gigantes gain the will of many machines at once, it transforms into Hyper Gigantes, galvanizing its exterior to a silvery shine and turning its lights from red to yellow. Other smaller changes dot its surface, such as the wrecking ball and other parts of the vehicle gaining purple and yellow lights. The face of Galactic Nova is also more prominent in this form due to said lights.[2]
Game appearances[edit]
Kirby Air Riders[edit]
Road Trip[edit]
Story[edit]
When Zorah's wish to be able to move reaches the Fountain of Dreams and eventually Galactic Nova, the device chooses to grant the wish by transforming it into a huge machine called Gigantes, loaded with enough firepower to destroy Popstar. However, like the other machines it created, Gigantes cannot move by itself. It must first call for a machine bonded to a rider, and use that machine's will to grant itself the power to move. Knowing this, a fragment of Zorah's will manages to manifest itself as Noir Dedede to patrol the area and ward off any incoming machines, so they cannot reach Gigantes and activate its terrible power.
When the player reaches Gigantes after fending off Noir Dedede several times along the way, the player's machine activates it, forcing them to battle it. After it is weakened, Noir Dedede attempts to merge with it, but allowing it to do so will cause both to self-destruct. The player must beat it there in a final race and deal the finishing blow, destroying Gigantes but causing Noir Dedede to fade away.
However, if the player has collected every Air Ride machine in New Game +, then their initial approach will be interrupted by a beam from Gigantes that halts their machine's momentum, throwing them off. It draws in all of the machines and absorbs them to activate and power up, transforming into Hyper Gigantes. Seeing this, Noir Dedede calls the Dragoon and Hydra to assist, offering the player their choice of the two to take down the full-power doomsday machine.
Once defeated, Noir Dedede fuses both legendary machines with the flipped-over machine to fire a laser from its core that solidifies into a road called Journey's End, which the player can ascend using a new legendary machine, Leo, to confront Galactic Nova. Upon Galactic Nova's defeat, Hyper Gigantes is destroyed but Zorah's core remains intact; the player's Air Ride machines reassemble it into its original form, at which point Zorah leaves Popstar in peace.
Battle[edit]
Gigantes is battled in a large arena at the end of The Farthest Reach. Like other boss arenas, items and abilities will spawn regularly to bolster the player's offense, and there are also numerous jump pads present that will launch them into the air, allowing them to reach and attack the parts of Gigantes that are above ground level. It must be destroyed by attacking its red weak points: one on each tread, the nozzles on the back, and the walls of the bridge. Once all of these are destroyed, the core on the front lights up, which is the final target that must be destroyed to finish it off.
The battle with Hyper Gigantes plays out much the same, with the addition of Noir Dedede joining the player as a CPU ally, riding the legendary machine that they did not choose.
Attacks[edit]
All attack names are conjectural.
| Gigantes' attacks in Kirby Air Riders | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Description | Notes | ||
| Battery Fire | Gigantes opens fire with its turrets, spraying volleys of shots into the air at varying angles that can catch out airborne riders. It also launches several homing missiles that curve towards nearby riders. | The missiles are usable by a player-controlled Gigantes. | ||
| Boost | Gigantes charges up the thrusters at its rear, launching in a straight line until it reaches the edge of the arena after a while. Its thruster nozzles will deal damage to riders that get too close as it charges, and it leaves a trail of damaging flames in its wake. | A modified version of this attack is usable by a player-controlled Gigantes by fully charging and releasing a Boost. Hyper Gigantes takes less time to charge. | ||
| Crash Down | Gigantes jumps into the air, attempting to hover over the player before dropping down onto them, creating a shockwave on impact. | Hyper Gigantes emits a bigger shockwave. | ||
| Quick Spin | Gigantes extends its wrecking ball to the ground and whirls around in place several times, flinging off any riders on its flight deck and dealing damage to grounded riders who get too close. | This attack is usable by a player-controlled Gigantes by Quick Spinning. | ||
| Tracking Laser | Gigantes emits a tracer ray from its top spire that attempts to track the rider's position. After a few seconds, it will fire a large laser beam that sweeps horizontally to try and catch them. | Hyper Gigantes can use this and Battery Fire simultaneously. | ||
| Hyper Gigantes only | ||||
| Wrecking Bomb | Hyper Gigantes whirls its wrecking ball around before detaching it as a projectile. It explodes on impact into a burst of numerous energy orbs. | |||
| Eruption Laser | Hyper Gigantes fires a laser from its core that it waves over a large area of the ground, causing it to erupt into a storm of flames. | |||
| Gigantic Flip | Hyper Gigantes launches into the air and performs a backflip as it moves towards the player, creating a shockwave on landing similar to Crash Down. | A rare attack that appears to be used only when the player is behind Hyper Gigantes. | ||
City Trial[edit]
Like other legendary machines, Gigantes may appear in City Trial as three parts, which must all be collected by one player (or team) in order to assemble it. The pieces of Gigantes can be obtained rarely from red boxes, and more commonly from rare boxes. They can also spawn around the map on their own, though this is uncommon. Completing it causes its boss theme to play for all players as the sky turns red and the entire monstrosity descends from above, obliterating whatever it lands on. Assuming Gigantes survives to the end of the city portion of the game (a simple feat, given its incredible power), the Stadium is automatically set to VS. Gigantes, which pits all players against the Gigantes player under a special ruleset.
Due to the overwhelming scale and overcentralizing gameplay of the completed behemoth, Gigantes has special considerations. The odds of its parts being available in a round are much lower than those of the other legendary machines, and it is not available from guaranteed sources such as the hidden island, the Halberd, or the "wild legendary" Field Event. Gigantes's rider is unable to collect patches, Copy Abilities, or any other items, and they cannot use their Special or choose to dismount. Any legendary parts in hand for other machines are released and scattered around Skyah. Field Events will not occur while Gigantes is present, though they will run to completion if they already started, and some (such as the Gordo rain and meteor rain events) are not eligible for selection at all if Gigantes is capable of appearing.[3]
Mechanics[edit]
On a macro level, Gigantes controls the same as any other machine, just on a far larger scale. It is capable of Quick Spinning, though it takes much more time to perform one than any traditional machine. This Quick Spin lowers the wrecking ball on it downwards, and deals immense damage to any riders caught in it. Additionally, it will throw off any riders that may be on top of the machine. It is also capable of charging a boost. When the boost is fully charged, its thrusters produce giant orbs of energy that damage any player that comes into contact with them. It can also move forwards or even backwards while it charges, which may catch other players off guard. When it releases a boost charge, Gigantes will accelerate forward rapidly, and can slightly turn while it does so. In normal motion, Gigantes has very slow acceleration. It can turn surprisingly quickly for a vehicle of its scale, though it has a lot of inertia, meaning it faces difficulty when trying to turn back and forth.
Its ability to Quick Spin and Boost is roughly where its similarity to other machines ends, as otherwise it is a completely new experience. Similar to normal machines that have been enlarged, Gigantes can destroy most buildings by running into them, but also cannot leave the main area of Skyah because of its size. When not boosting or Quick Spinning, Gigantes can lock onto riders in front of it (indicated by red reticles surrounding each targeted player) and launch homing missiles at them by pressing the boost button; however, these missiles are unreliable because they tend to just run into Gigantes as it also moves towards the targeted opponents.
As Gigantes, the goal of City Trial changes significantly. Rather than collecting patches to power up for the Stadium, the player must instead disrupt the other players so they cannot do so, weakening them so they are unable to pose a threat during VS. Gigantes. For opponents, the best move is often to hide in areas where Gigantes cannot reach them (such as beneath the city), though destroying any of its red weak points will grant a large sum of patches. Most of this machine is invincible, save for the aforementioned weak points, which can be damaged until they are broken. The red light at the front is its last weak point and only becomes vulnerable after Gigantes has taken significant damage. To defeat Gigantes, all of these must be destroyed, just like in its boss fight.
Gigantes's stats are essentially constant (as it is unable to collect patches to change them), and are as follows:
- Top Speed: 27 mph (45 km/h)
- Boost: 5 (4 prior to ver. 1.1.0)
- Offense: 280
- Defense: 54
- HP: 1,750
How to unlock[edit]
Gigantes can only be used in City Trial and its designated Stadium event. In local play, it must be defeated in Road Trip before its three parts can appear in City Trial. Doing so clears the Checklist task listed below. In online play, it can appear at any time, even if the player hasn't cleared Road Trip before.
- Road Trip - Watch the normal ending in Road Trip
To unlock its Stadium event, the player needs to clear the below Checklist item.
- City Trial: Field (Offline) - Collect 7 total Gigantes parts
This can take a while to do because the parts of Gigantes spawn much less frequently compared to other legendary machines.
Gallery[edit]
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Gigantes' icon in Kirby Air Riders -
License icon from Kirby Air Riders, featuring Gigantes' icon -
License icon from Kirby Air Riders, featuring artwork of Gigantes -
License sticker from Kirby Air Riders, featuring Gigantes' icon -
License sticker from Kirby Air Riders, featuring artwork of Gigantes -
License sticker from Kirby Air Riders, featuring stylized artwork of Gigantes -
Screenshot of the first Gigantes part in Kirby Air Riders -
Screenshot of the second Gigantes part in Kirby Air Riders -
Screenshot of the third Gigantes part in Kirby Air Riders -
Gummy of Gigantes from Kirby Air Riders -
My Machine decal of Gigantes' icon from Kirby Air Riders -
Nintendo Switch Online icon for Kirby Air Riders
Names in other languages[edit]
- Gigantes
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ギガンテス Gigantesu |
Gigantes |
| English | Gigantes | "Giants" in Latin; in Greek mythology, the Gigantes were a tribe of giants that fought against the Olympian gods in a war known as the Gigantomachy |
| Traditional Chinese | 巨靈 Jùlíng |
Giant Spirit |
| Simplified Chinese | 巨灵 Jùlíng | |
| Dutch | Gigantus | - |
| French | Gigantes | - |
| German | Gigantos | - |
| Italian | Colossus | From "colossale" (colossal) |
| Korean | 기간테스 giganteseu |
Gigantes |
| Portuguese | Gigantus | - Name likely changed because "gigante" is the word in Portuguese for "giant". |
| Spanish | Coloso | Colossus |
- Hyper Gigantes
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ハイパーギガンテス Haipā Gigantesu |
Hyper Gigantes |
| English | Hyper Gigantes | - |
| Traditional Chinese | 超巨靈 Chāo Jùlíng |
Super Giant Spirit |
| Simplified Chinese | 超巨灵 Chāo Jùlíng | |
| Dutch | Hyper-Gigantus | - |
| French | Hyper Gigantes | - |
| German | Hyper-Gigantos | - |
| Italian | Iper Colossus | Hyper Gigantes |
| Korean | 하이퍼 기간테스 haipeo giganteseu |
Hyper Gigantes |
| Portuguese | Hipergigantus | Hyper Gigantes |
