Kirby (series)

• 1. Introduction

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  Kirby is a media franchise created by Masahiro Sakurai and owned by HAL Laboratory, and it began as a rough prototype. Sakurai drew a ball-shaped character as a stand-in. People liked it so much that the stand-in became the final design. From that round beginning grew a series of thirty-nine games, with more than fifty million copies sold worldwide. Sakurai conceived the series for beginners, and he partly credits that choice for its success. Why did a placeholder shape survive? How does a hero who simply swallows his enemies carry a franchise across Nintendo hardware, from the Game Boy to the Switch 2? And what became of the ideas that never reached store shelves?

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• 2. A Name and a Color

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  In 1990, Masahiro Sakurai conceived the character who would become Kirby, and the name came later. During development the hero was called Popopo, and the planned title was Twinkle Popo. The final name was chosen as a tribute to the lawyer John Kirby.

  The first game, Kirby's Dream Land, arrived on the original Game Boy. It reached Japan on the 27th of April 1992, and North America, Europe and Australasia followed in August of that year. It was a simple game with five levels. Kirby could inhale enemies and objects, but he could not yet borrow their powers.

  The Game Boy's monochrome palette hid Sakurai's real intention, which was a pink hero. Shigeru Miyamoto, for his part, first pictured Kirby as yellow. The Japanese box art showed the correct pink. The international box art showed a white Kirby, matching what players saw on the screen.

  The unlockable Extra Game gave returning players a harder mode, with stronger enemies and more difficult bosses.

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• 3. The Power to Borrow

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  Swallow an enemy that breathes fire, and Kirby breathes fire. Swallow one that carries a sword, and he swings a sword. That trade is the heart of the series. Kirby inhales objects and enemies, and he can spit them out as projectiles or swallow them. Certain enemies grant a Copy Ability when swallowed. He can also take in air to inflate himself and fly. In most games he can stay aloft as long as he likes, though his attacks shrink to an air bullet.

  The second game, Kirby's Adventure, reached Japan on the 23rd of March 1993 and made the idea real. It held 25 different Copy Abilities, which replaced Kirby's inhale while he carried one. He kept a power until damage knocked it loose, or until the player discarded it to pick up another. The game also pushed the Nintendo Entertainment System close to its limits, with pseudo 3D effects on some stages. It firmly established Kirby's pink color, and that color carried over to the international box art.

  Later games kept reshaping the borrowed powers. Kirby's Dream Land 2 brought them to the Game Boy in 1995, but system limits cut the count to seven. It added three rideable companions: Rick the hamster, Coo the owl and Kine the ocean sunfish. Pairing up with any of them alters how Kirby's abilities work. It was also the first game in the series directed by Shinichi Shimomura rather than Sakurai.

  Kirby Super Star on the Super Nintendo let Kirby sacrifice his current ability to create a Helper who helps dispatch enemies. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, released in 2000, was the first Kirby game with 3D graphics. It let two of its seven abilities combine into a new compound ability.

  The rainbow sword shows how collecting works in these games. Hidden items unlock more of a game or simply reward curiosity, and they are usually required for 100% completion. They tend to tie into the plot, often forming a special weapon needed against the final boss. In some games that weapon is optional, and it stays usable after the final boss falls.

  Kirby Star Allies, released on the 16th of March 2018, revived the combination idea as Power Combinations and let Kirby throw Friend Hearts to turn enemies into allies.

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• 4. Residents of Popstar

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  Planet Popstar is shaped like a five-pointed star, and Kirby lives there in the kingdom of Dream Land. Most of the land is peaceful, and its people lead laid-back, carefree lives. When threats from the ground or from space shatter that calm, Kirby is the one who must save his home.

  King Dedede debuted in the very first game. He is a gluttonous, bird-like creature who resembles a blue penguin, and he is the self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land. His selfish streak, or sometimes a greater force controlling him, pushes him into clashes with Kirby. When a bigger threat appears that is not controlling him, he usually joins Kirby instead. In recent games he reads more as a rival than an enemy. He has appeared in every Kirby game except Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

  Meta Knight is the enigmatic masked figure of the series. He is chivalrous, similar in size and shape to Kirby, and he leads a group of like-minded warriors. He hopes one day to fight the strongest warrior in the galaxy. Whenever he fights Kirby, his code of conduct leads him to offer Kirby a sword first. His unmasked face resembles Kirby's, yet their exact relationship remains a mystery.

  The common creatures of Popstar include the Waddle Dees, who appear in some form in every Kirby game. One of them, called Bandana Waddle Dee, wears a blue bandana and commonly wields a spear. He occasionally assists Kirby and is playable in some games. A tree known as Whispy Woods, often the first boss, appears in some variant throughout the series.

  Then there is Dark Matter, a recurring antagonist introduced in Kirby's Dream Land 2. In Kirby's Dream Land 3, a second player could control Gooey, a recurring character, and meeting certain conditions led to a fight with Zero as the true final boss. Kirby 64 brought the darkness back in a different form as 02, also written Zero Two, and gave King Dedede his first playable role. In some stages Kirby rode piggyback while Dedede attacked enemies and obstacles with his hammer.

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• 5. Lost and Canceled

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  Kid Kirby was planned for the Super Nintendo as a prequel to the series, built around the SNES Mouse. DMA Design developed it for a 1995 release. It was canceled because sales of the mouse were declining, though early screenshots have since been posted online.

  A sequel to Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble for the GameCube was shown at Nintendo Space World 2001, with a Japanese release set for May 2002. The Kirby theme was eventually scrapped and Kirby was replaced with a generic marble. The game reappeared at E3 2002 as Roll-O-Rama, then was canceled completely.

  Kirby Family was a stranger project. Natsume developed this Game Boy Color program to connect to a compatible Jaguar JN-100 or JN-2000 sewing machine and embroider cloth with a Kirby pattern of choice. It was shown at Space World 2001 and scheduled for the 10th of September that year. It was presumably canceled because Mario Family, released two weeks earlier, sold poorly. The game leaked on the 9th of September 2020, as part of the Game Boy Color lotcheck leak.

  Kirby's Air Ride 64 was meant to follow Kirby's Dream Course on the Nintendo 64, with a snowboard mode as an extra. It was canceled for unknown reasons. Some of its concepts surfaced in Kirby Air Ride, the only Kirby game for the GameCube, released in North America on the 13th of October 2003. That racing game departs sharply from other Kirby games, yet still features Copy Abilities and series enemies.

  A different 2003 item vanished more quietly. A Kirby e-Reader card for the Game Boy Advance came out that holiday season under two names, Kirby Slide and Kirby Puzzle. Swiping it opened a sliding puzzle game. Toys "R" Us stores handed out the cards, and so did the December 2003 issues of Nintendo Power and Tips & Tricks. The card advertised the English dub of the anime and became incredibly rare. All copies are believed to have been destroyed.

  The GameCube then got a full original Kirby game, simply titled Kirby, which was nearly complete and shown at E3 2005. Trouble incorporating a unique multiplayer mechanic got it canceled. A later 3D platformer concept for the system was also canceled because it did not meet HAL Laboratory's quality standards. The multiplayer mechanic survived anyway. In Kirby's Return to Dream Land in 2011, it became a special attack in which all players stack on each other, hold, and release together.

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• 6. Touch, Tilt and Yarn

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  On the 23rd of August 2000, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble became one of Nintendo's first motion-sensor-based games. Players tilted the Game Boy Color to move Kirby on the screen, and a quick flick upward made him jump. It is the only Kirby game with a special cartridge color in North America, a transparent pink.

  Kirby & the Amazing Mirror followed on the 18th of October 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. It cast Kirby in a Metroidvania format, with all levels interconnected and completable in any order. Its in-game phone could summon up to three additional copies of Kirby to fight enemies and solve puzzles.

  Kirby: Canvas Curse arrived on the Nintendo DS in 2005 and removed direct control altogether. Kirby became a helpless ball who moved only when he gained momentum, and the player painted paths with the stylus to steer him. Kirby: Squeak Squad, in late 2006, returned to traditional play. It used the touch screen to store several items and Copy Abilities in Kirby's stomach, and added ability scrolls that upgraded each ability.

  Kirby's Epic Yarn was announced for the Wii at E3 2010 and released in North America on the 17th of October 2010. It began as an original game by Good-Feel called Fluff of Yarn. It received the Kirby license at Nintendo's proposal.

  Kirby Mass Attack, released in North America on the 19th of September 2011, put multiple copies of Kirby into touch screen gameplay reminiscent of Lemmings. It arrived very late in the life of the DS, and it became one of the worst-selling Kirby games of all time. The painted-path idea came back on the Wii U in 2015 with Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, a sequel to Canvas Curse.

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• 7. Beyond the Cartridge

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  On the 6th of October 2001, a Japanese animated series titled simply Hoshi no Kirby premiered on television. Warpstar, Inc. produced it, a company formed from a joint investment by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. 4Kids Entertainment licensed it in North America as Kirby: Right Back at Ya! for 4Kids TV. The Japanese run ended in 2003 with 100 episodes. A special 101st episode was later made for the now retired Nintendo Video service, and it was not in the original anime style.

  The show follows Kirby and his friends Tiff and Tuff after he crash lands on Popstar. The town of Dream Land is called Pupu Village in Japanese and Cappy Town in the English dub. Kirby is a legendary Star Warrior destined to save the universe from the intergalactic conqueror Nightmare. Because he awoke two centuries too early, he arrives in a childlike state with his powers undeveloped. King Dedede, jealous of the attention Kirby receives, orders monsters from Nightmare Enterprises. That company looks like an intergalactic delivery service but is really a front that dupes customers into funding Nightmare's armies. Meta Knight claims loyalty to Dedede while often working behind the scenes to aid or train Kirby.

  The series is not a direct adaptation of any one game. It draws characters and concepts from Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star to tell its own story.

  Hirokazu Hikawa wrote and illustrated the longest-running Kirby manga, Kirby of the Stars: The Story of Dedede Who Lives in Pupupu. CoroCoro Comic serialized it from 1994 to 2006, and it filled 25 tankobon volumes with over 10 million copies printed. A best-of collection later included the series' first new chapter in 11 years. Viz Media published it in English as Kirby Manga Mania. Viz had planned to localize the original series in 2009, but those plans were quietly abandoned by 2011. In all, over 20 manga artists have drawn Kirby manga.

  Since 2013, Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko has published an ongoing series of Kirby novels. Mie Takase writes them, and Tau and Poto Karino illustrate them.

  In 2016, Kirby Café opened as a restaurant chain in Japan. Its two permanent locations are in the Solamachi complex in Sumina and the Canal City Hakata complex in Hakata-ku. Temporary locations have run continuously since August 2016.

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• 8. Reach, Reception and Return

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  Kirby appears in every installment of Super Smash Bros., whose first three games were developed by HAL Laboratory itself. Meta Knight and King Dedede have appeared in every entry since Brawl. Series items such as the Maxim Tomato and the Star Rod turn up as pickups. Knuckle Joe, Nightmare and Chef Kawasaki appear as characters summoned by the Assist Trophy. Every playable Kirby character in Smash can jump more than twice. Kirby has also made cameos in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, EarthBound, Pokemon Stadium and others. Kirby amiibo figures unlock a Kirby costume in Super Mario Maker.

  Critics have been mixed to very favorable across the series. By Metacritic's tally, Kirby: Canvas Curse and Kirby's Epic Yarn are the most acclaimed games. Kirby Battle Royale and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe are the lowest rated. Among mainline games, Kirby and the Forgotten Land rates highest and Kirby: Squeak Squad lowest.

  Kirby's Dream Land had been the best seller at 5 million copies. Thirty years into the series, Kirby and the Forgotten Land overtook it with 7.5 million. That game, released on the 25th of March 2022, is the first true 3D entry in the mainline series, and it introduced the series' new logo. Kirby's Dream Land 3 is the worst-selling mainline game, at just 76 thousand copies, sold only in Japan. In 2002, the brand sold between 150 and 200 million dollars of merchandise.

  Vanpool co-developed the Forgotten Land and most Kirby games since Super Kirby Clash. It shut down on the 31st of May 2023, after finishing Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.

  At the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct on the 2nd of April 2025, two Kirby games were announced for that year. One was an enhanced port of the Forgotten Land with a new game mode, Star-Crossed World. The other was Kirby Air Riders, a sequel to Kirby Air Ride, directed by Masahiro Sakurai himself, his first Kirby directing credit since Kirby & the Amazing Mirror in 2004.

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