25 Things You DIDN'T Know About Kirby

25 Things You Didn’t Know About Kirby

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 25 things you may not have known about Kirby.

An Awkward Conception

Given its simplistic design, one would assume that developing games for the Game Boy must be super easy, right? About as easy as making an NES game, right? “Kirby” creator Masahiro Sakurai may tell you differently. In a 2017 interview with Japanese outlet GAME Watch blog, Sakurai revealed that “Kirby’s Dream Land” was developed in a rather bizarre method. Sakurai and his team utilized a Twin Famicom console, which was a Famicom with its Famicom Disk System attachment installed. However, they had to use a trackball for a cursor as well as a virtual keyboard. We can only imagine how tedious it was performing simple tasks with this setup.

Europe: Earth’s Alternate Timeline

As most “Kirby” fans know, many of the games have dedicated museum-like menus that revisit past “Kirby” games through recaps, timelines, and the like. The 3DS title “Kirby Battle Royale” was no different, but in a poll dedicated to the game’s release, Nintendo UK made one glaring error. The poll states that the Cleaning Copy Ability made its first appearance in the series in 2009. This is generally wrong, but…it's also correct on a very specific technicality. “Kirby’s Dream Land 3” debuted the Cleaning Copy Ability way back in 1997 when it first launched in North America. PAL regions didn’t get the chance to play “Dream Land 3” until 2009 when the game was released via the Wii’s Virtual Console service.

Keeby is Canon??

That is no misspelling or mispronunciation on our end. Yes, there is a character named Keeby, and he is the most obscure character in the franchise’s history as he only ever appeared in one game. “Kirby’s Dream Course” allows for two players to take part in its different courses. Player One gets to control Kirby while Player Two gets to control a yellow Kirby named “Keeby”. Unfortunately, Nintendo would forget about Keeby for a long, long time to the point where he would just be morphed into “Yellow Kirby”. It wasn’t until 2022 when Keeby got direct acknowledgement for the first time in ages in “Kirby’s Dream Buffet”.

Not-So-Super NES

Much like “Kirby’s Dream Land”, development for “Kirby Super Star” was a bit unorthodox compared to how most games were being made at the time. Whereas “Dream Land” was bizarre in its toolkit, “Super Star” was strange just when it began development. Rather than jump straight into messing with the SNES’s capabilities, Sakurai and the team went back to the NES for a little bit in order to test various concepts they wanted to use for “Super Star”. It wasn’t until after they confirmed what they wanted to do when they moved the project to SNES. As Sakurai has explained before, this was simply a development style that worked for him. Everyone’s got a method to their madness.

The Lost Copies

Given how many Copy Abilities have been introduced over the years, one would assume there have been quite a number of concepts scrapped mid-development. Well, that’s kind of a given, though few scrapped Copy Abilities have been revealed. “Kirby’s Adventure” in particular had a handful of Copy Abilities that would be scrapped, including one that would make Kirby shrink, one that would let him create blocks, and one that would turn him into a puddle of water. The Animal Copy Ability from “Kirby Squeak Squad” was also planned to debut in the NES classic. As to why they were axed, no reason has been given. But it may be safe to assume it was because of either technical limitations or time constraints.

The Legend of Gunpei Yokoi

Gunpei Yokoi was one of the most revolutionary developers who ever worked at Nintendo, having been responsible for designing two of the company’s most important products: R.O.B. (the Robotic Operating Buddy that saved the video game industry) and the Game Boy, Nintendo’s premier handheld console. Yokoi also served as producer for several legendary NES games including “Metroid”, “Duck Hunt”, “Donkey Kong”, and “Kid Icarus”. “Kirby’s Block Ball” was the first, last, and only “Kirby” game in the entire series that he ever worked on. He and Shigeru Miyamoto had co-produced the game, but reviews were a bit mixed. After the failure of the Virtual Boy in 1996 (which he also designed), Yokoi left Nintendo and went to work at Koto Laboratory. He passed away the year after in a horrible traffic accident. RIP, Yokoi-san.

Who Is John Kirby?

We promise this isn’t a “John Halo” type of joke or anything. During the company’s early years as a video game studio, John Kirby was a member of Nintendo’s own legal counsel. His most famous case was when Universal Studios sued Nintendo over the copyright between “King Kong” and “Donkey Kong”. Since then, there has been a common belief that Kirby the character was named after Kirby the lawyer. That’s not entirely true. In a 2011 interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Kirby’s name was chosen from a list of suggested names back when “Dream Land” was in development. They thought the coincidence with John Kirby’s name would make for a humorous connection. The other reason for the name was because “Kirby” is a harsh-sounding name to contrast such a cute character.

Original Origins

At first, “Kirby’s Epic Yarn” looked like a strange, yet wondrous new spin-off for the pink poyo to embark on. Appropriate given Kirby’s adorable demeanor, but still unexpected. Well, it was a tad unexpected for the devs, too. “Kirby’s Epic Yarn” had initially begun as a brand new, original game starring Prince Fluff. Unfortunately, the project wasn’t coming together. The development team found the game to be “tedious” for the most part, and adding thorns to make the game harder wound up not doing much in the end. It wasn’t until Nintendo suggested the team use Kirby for their game instead when the team found a whole new slew of ideas to implement. And now, “Kirby’s Epic Yarn” is a big favorite among fans.

The Digital Debut

Prior to 2014, Nintendo had already been testing the waters with digital-only games between games you could only get through Club Nintendo and a few spin-offs here and there. But Kirby made his digital-only debut with “Kirby Fighters Deluxe” and “Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe”, both games based on sub-games we saw in “Kirby Triple Deluxe”. However, that record comes with a bit of an asterisk. Despite being digital-only games, both titles could be bought in a somewhat physical form; Japanese retailers sold cards that contained codes to redeem these games. As of 2025, neither can be obtained commercially as Nintendo shut down the 3DS eShop in 2023.

When WWII Affected Dream Land

Did you know that Kirby was actually banned by a country for a time? It wasn’t just him specifically, though. For several decades, many Japanese products were banned from South Korea due Japan’s invasive rule over Korea between 1910 and 1945. When Japan surrendered towards the end of World War II, the US, China, and Britain made a list of demands for the Japanese government to uphold, one of them being to relinquish their power over Korea. Not only did they gain their independence back, but South Korea placed a firm prohibition on imported Japanese goods until 1999. Fast-forward to 2006, and “Kirby Squeak Squad” was the first game in the series to launch in South Korea, two years after Japanese entertainment received full liberalization in the country.

The Generation Skip

This may seem odd at first, but the mainline “Kirby” games did skip an entire console generation. Sure, we all know about “Kirby Air Ride”, one of the most memorable GameCube games on the platform. The thing is that we were supposed to get a tried and true game during the box’s lifetime. At E3 2005, Nintendo unveiled an unnamed “Kirby” game that showcased Kirby befriending enemies and calling in friends for help…and they never really spoke about it again. The House Mario Built would say things here and there about how “Kirby” would supposedly come back with a big new game for home consoles. However, that didn’t happen until 2011 with “Kirby’s Return to Dream Land” on Wii. The concepts seen in the fan-dubbed “Kirby GCN” would seemingly get reused for 2018’s “Kirby Star Allies”.

An Odd Collaboration

Speaking of “Kirby Star Allies”, you may be familiar with the work of that game’s co-developer. While HAL Laboratory was responsible for the general creation of the game, some of the minigames were developed by a company called Eighting, which specializes in supporting bigger studios both during development and post-launch. You may have played other games Eighting has worked on such as “Pikmin 4”, “DNF Duel”, “Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3”, “Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate”, “Bloody Roar 3”, “Bloody Roar 4”, and the “Naruto: Clash of Ninja” games. The studio goes back a long way!

The Disappearance of Shinichi Shimomura

Despite the cutesy nature, Kirby’s games do get pretty dark and grim towards the end. But as we’ve seen with the franchise’s history already, some of those dark undertones bleed into the real world. The case of developer Shinichi Shimomura is one mystery that continues to haunt fans today. Once upon a time, Shimomura was a key developer for the “Kirby” games, having worked as a level designer for “Kirby’s Adventure” and director for “Dream Land 2”, “Dream Land 3”, and “Kirby 64”. He even co-directed “Nightmare in Dream Land” with Sakurai. But for some reason, that’s where his story ends. Shimomura left HAL Laboratory right after “Nightmare in Dream Land’s” release in 2002. No one in the industry has heard from him or seen him since.

The Goal Game Secret

Let’s lighten things up a bit, shall we? We all know the function of the goal game across each and every “Kirby” game. Press A at the right time, and you’ll shoot high up for either points, items, or extra lives. But there is an even bigger reward waiting for you in this minigame. To earn it, you will have to finish levels and reach each floor of the Goal Game in sequential order. So, beat the level, reach the seventh floor, beat the next level, reach the sixth floor, and so on. Do this, and you will get a massive reward of thirty 1UPs!

A Useful Slumber

The Sleep Copy Ability can be such a monumental detriment to your progress. It leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks, and most of the “Kirby” games don’t even give you a health bonus for a peaceful slumber. Some games even make it a hazard. But to this day, only “Kirby Battle Royale” has ever found a way to make it useful. This time, Kirby gets to swing a pillow around to batter foes and can temporarily force opponents into a deep slumber. On top of all that, he can gain health just by standing still. OP? Maybe, but its better than what we get in the main games!

Fast, Fun, Fresh…& Never Frozen

Did you know that there was a point in time where we got a board game based on “Kirby”? It’s true…sort of. It’s not like it was something official from, say, Hasbro or Ravensburger. Yes, there was a Kirby board game, and the only way you could ever obtain one…was by ordering a kids meal from Wendy’s in November 2003. At this time, Wendy’s was offering a line of kids meal toys based on the anime “Kirby: Right Back At Ya!”. To be perfectly honest, the board game wasn’t anything significant; players simply took turns drawing cards to move spaces until someone reached the goal. There wasn’t anything “Kirby” about it aside from name and character usage.

A Surplus of Sub-Games

One of the most fascinating things about “Kirby: Mass Attack” is just how many sub-games are packed in compared to previous games. Most installments get about three sub-games each, sometimes one or two more. But “Mass Attack” boasts the most sub-games out of the entire franchise, clocking in at a total of eight sub-games! The reason why so many were included was because the development genuinely loved all of the ones they made. “Mass Attack’s” development was apparently very troublesome, so the team found the sub-games to be a nice break between dealing with the stress.

Music With New Blood

Throughout the series’ history, the majority of “Kirby’s” music has been composed by Jun Ishikawa or Hirokazu Ando, sometimes both. However, that began to change during development for “Kirby Star Allies”. Ishikawa and Ando still composed music, but they did so with a third composer in tow: Yuta Ogasawara. He has since composed for “Kirby and the Forgotten Land”, “Kirby’s Dream Buffet”, and “Kirby’s Return to Dream Land: Deluxe”. But do you want to know where he came from, what game he worked on before the pink poyo? Would you believe he worked on the sound design for the PC version of “WWE 2K17”?

A Healthy Hiatus?

Since the series began in 1992, we’ve seen a relatively consistent stream of new “Kirby” games. We’ve gotten a new game roughly every other year. But there was a period where things seemed rather…grim. It looked as if we would never see our beloved Kirby ever again. After “Kirby Squeak Squad” launched in 2006, we went for a whole three years, ten months, and thirteen days without a brand new game. Sure, there was the DS remake of “Kirby Super Star” in 2008, but…it was such a long wait until 2011’s “Return to Dream Land”. We nearly starved!

Ineffective Strategy

While Nintendo UK had that weird technicality with “Kirby’s Dream Land 3”, there was one instance where a major gaming publication did not do their due diligence in creating an official strategy guide. When “Kirby 64” launched, Prima Games did fans dirty by publishing an incomplete and incorrect guide for the game. Not only were certain characters misidentified, but the guide lacked any information in regards to collecting all of the Crystal Shards. It was rather shocking given how thorough Prima Games usually was, but this mishap caused some players to begin questioning their integrity.

Kirby, The Savior of HAL

There was almost a point where HAL Laboratory was going to go under. After the success of “Kirby’s Dream Land”, HAL Lab developed an adventure game called “Metal Slader Glory”. Produced and programmed by the famous Satoru Iwata, “Metal Slader Glory” was the largest game ever made for the Famicom, inflating to a colossal…one megabyte. It was also an incredibly expensive game for HAL Lab to develop, placing the company in serious financial risk. Nintendo stepped in to offer help, but only on the condition that Iwata be placed as HAL Lab’s president. Leadership agreed, Iwata was appointed, and the first order of business began: make an NES port of “Kirby’s Dream Land”. Sakurai started with those plans, but the game eventually became “Kirby’s Adventure”, the second biggest game ever made for the Famicom…at seven hundred sixty-eight kilobytes.

Lacking in Power

While we’re on the subject of seemingly low numbers compared to modern times, would you believe that there are “Kirby” games that feature an abysmally low number of Copy Abilities? Yes, it’s hard to imagine given the number of times we’ve seen Fire, Ice, Needle, Wheel, Plasma, Sword, Cutter, Hi-Jump, Sleep, Mic, and Crash with tons of other Copy Abilities in tow. One might assume “Dream Land 2” has the fewest, clocking in at a mere seven Copy Abilities featured. But there is a game with even less than that. The oft-forgotten Game Boy title “Kirby’s Block Ball” only features a measly four Copy Abilities: Burning, Needle, Spark, and Stone.

The Absurdity of “Kid Kirby”

There are a handful of canceled titles that the pink poyo never got to fully partake in. This one, on the other hand, was arguably the weirdest of the entire batch. “Kid Kirby” was a spin-off that was being developed by DMA Design, who we all know today as “Grand Theft Auto” developer Rockstar North. This project was under wraps before GTA was ever a thing, and it was centered on having the player launch Kirby into random objects using the SNES mouse. Two problems arose from this project. The first was that the SNES mouse was selling horribly to the point where Nintendo was struggling to find anyone who wanted the damn thing. But the main factor in this game’s cancellation was that DMA Design was reportedly making slow progress. So, Nintendo pulled the plug. May have been a blessing given those Kirby and Dedede renders.

One Last Adventure

We’ve already mentioned Satoru Iwata a couple of times in this video. Indeed, he was a big part in Kirby’s success starting with “Kirby’s Adventure”. From then on, Iwata would serve as producer and executive producer of just about every single game with the exception of “Kirby 64” (he was a supervisor for that). As we all know, Iwata sadly passed away in July 2015 from a bile duct growth. The final Kirby game he ever worked on was “Kirby: Planet Robobot”, which was released on April 28, 2016, a little under a year after his death. Rest easy, Iwata-san - you will forever be remembered in the Fountain of Dreams.

Voices of the Air Riders

While we’re in the spirit of honoring those who made Kirby such a major icon in video games, “Kirby Air Riders” has a special tribute to one person. In the second Direct dedicated to the game, creator and “Air Riders” director Masahiro Sakurai revealed the two voice actors for the Japanese announcers. Banjo Ginga, who did voicework for “Super Kirby Clash”, would be the male Japanese voice. As for the female, you will be hearing none other than Makiko Ohmoto, the voice of Kirby. Ever since Kirby could speak in 1999’s “Super Smash Bros.”, Ohmoto has been voicing our hero across every single game. She’s even become known as the voice of Lyn in the “Fire Emblem” series and the voice of Ness in the “Super Smash Bros” series.

Was there a Kirby factoid that surprised you? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays!