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00:03Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're taking a look at 25 Things You May Not Have Known About Kirby.
00:15Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays and ring the
00:21bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:24An Awkward Conception Given its simplistic design, one would assume that developing games for the Game Boy must be super
00:32easy, right?
00:33About as easy as making an NES game, right? Well Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai may tell you differently.
00:40In a 2017 interview with Japanese outlet Game Watch Blog, Sakurai revealed that Kirby's Dream Land was developed in a
00:47rather bizarre method.
00:54Sakurai and his team utilized a twin Famicom console, which was a Famicom with its Famicom Disk System attachment installed.
01:02However, they had to use a trackball for a cursor, as well as a virtual keyboard.
01:07We can only imagine how tedious it was performing simple tasks with this setup.
01:16Europe, Earth's Alternate Timeline
01:18As most Kirby fans know, many of the games have dedicated museum-like menus that revisit past Kirby games through
01:25recaps, timelines, and the like.
01:28The 3DS title Kirby Battle Royale was no different, but in a poll dedicated to the game's release, Nintendo UK
01:33made one glaring error.
01:35Well, an error to the rest of the world.
01:42The poll states that the cleaning copy ability made its first appearance in the series in 2009.
01:48This is generally wrong, but it's also correct on a very specific technicality.
01:55Kirby's Dream Land 3 debuted the cleaning copy ability way back in 1997 when it first launched in North America.
02:06PAL regions didn't get the chance to play Dream Land 3 until 2009 when the game was released via the
02:13Wii's virtual console service.
02:15So the poll is both right, but mostly wrong.
02:19Kibi is canon?
02:21That is no misspelling or mispronunciation on my end.
02:25Yes, there is a character named Kibi, and he is the most obscure character in the franchise's history, as he
02:32has only ever appeared in one game.
02:38Kirby's Dream Course allows for two players to take part in its different courses.
02:42Player 1 gets to control Kirby, while Player 2 gets to control a yellow Kirby named Kibi.
02:49Unfortunately, Nintendo would forget about Kibi for a long, long time to the point where he would just be morphed
02:56into yellow Kirby.
02:57It wasn't until 2022 when Kibi got a direct acknowledgement for the first time in ages in Kirby's Dream Buffet.
03:05You can get a special color palette for Kirby that is called Kibi Yellow, and it's actually adorable.
03:16Not so super NES.
03:18Much like Kirby's Dream Land, development for Kirby Super Star was a bit unorthodox compared to how most games were
03:25being made at the time.
03:26Whereas Dream Land was bizarre in its toolkit, Super Star was strange just when it began development.
03:37Rather than jump straight into messing with the SNES's capabilities, Sakurai and the team went back to the NES for
03:43a little bit in order to test various concepts they wanted to use for Super Star.
03:47It wasn't until after they confirmed what they wanted to do when they moved the project to SNES.
03:52As Sakurai has explained before, this was simply a development style that just worked for him.
03:58Everyone's got a method to their madness, you know?
04:05The Lost Copies
04:07Given how many copy abilities have been introduced over the years, one would assume there have been quite a number
04:13of concepts scrapped mid-development.
04:14Well, that's kind of a given, though few scrapped copy abilities have been revealed.
04:19Kirby's Adventure in particular had a handful of copy abilities that would be scrapped, including one that would make Kirby
04:25shrink, one that would let him create blocks, and one that would turn him into a puddle of water.
04:36The animal copy ability from Kirby's Squeak Squad was also planned to debut in the NES Classic.
04:42As to why they were axed, no reason has been given, but it may be safe to assume it was
04:47because of either technical limitations or time constraints.
04:55The Legend of Gunpei Yokoi
04:57Gunpei Yokoi was one of the most revolutionary developers who ever worked at Nintendo, having been responsible for designing two
05:05of the company's most prominent products.
05:07Rob, the robotic operating buddy that saved the video game industry, and the Game Boy, Nintendo's premier handheld console.
05:19Yokoi also served as producer for several legendary NES games, including Metroid, Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong, and Kid Icarus.
05:27Kirby's Block Ball was the first, last, and only Kirby game in the entire series that he ever worked on.
05:33He and Shigeru Miyamoto had co-produced the game, but reviews were a bit mixed.
05:38After the failure of the Virtual Boy in 1996, which he also designed, Yokoi left Nintendo and went to work
05:45at Koto Laboratory.
05:46He passed away the year after in a horrible traffic accident.
05:50RIP, Yokoi-san.
05:57Who is John Kirby?
06:00We promise this is not a John Halo type of joke or anything.
06:04During the company's early years as a video game studio, John Kirby was a member of Nintendo's own legal counsel.
06:10His most famous case was when Universal Studios sued Nintendo over the copyright between King Kong and Donkey Kong.
06:18Since then, there has been a common belief that Kirby the character was named after Kirby the Lawyer.
06:27Well, that's not entirely true.
06:29In a 2011 interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Kirby's name was chosen from a list of suggested
06:36names back when Dreamland was in development.
06:38They thought the coincidence with John Kirby's name would make for a humorous connection.
06:43The other reason for the name was because Kirby is a harsh-sounding name to contrast such a cute, adorable
06:50character.
06:55Original Origins
06:57At first, Kirby's Epic Yarn looked like a strange yet wondrous new spinoff for the Pink Pollo to embark on.
07:04Appropriate given Kirby's adorable demeanor, but still unexpected.
07:12Well, it was a tad unexpected for the devs, too.
07:15Kirby's Epic Yarn had initially begun as a brand new original game starring Prince Fluff.
07:21Unfortunately, the project just wasn't coming together.
07:25The development team found the game to be tedious for the most part,
07:28and adding thorns to make the game harder wound up not doing much in the end.
07:38It wasn't until Nintendo suggested the team use Kirby for their game instead when the team found a whole new
07:44slew of ideas to implement.
07:45And now, Kirby's Epic Yarn is a big favorite among fans.
07:49The Digital Debut
07:51Prior to 2014, Nintendo had already been testing the waters with digital-only games,
07:56between games you could only get through Club Nintendo and a few spinoffs here and there.
08:01But Kirby made his digital-only debut with Kirby Fighter's Deluxe and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe.
08:13Both games based on sub-games we saw in Kirby Triple Deluxe.
08:18However, that record comes with a bit of an asterisk.
08:21Despite being digital-only games, both titles could be bought in a somewhat physical form.
08:26Japanese retailers sold cards that contained codes to redeem these games.
08:30As of 2025, neither can be obtained commercially, as Nintendo shut down the 3DS eShop in 2023.
08:42When World War 2 Affected Dreamland
08:53Did you know that Kirby was actually banned by a country for a time?
08:58It wasn't just him specifically, though.
09:00For several decades, many Japanese products were banned from South Korea
09:04due to Japan's invasive rule over Korea between 1910 and 1945.
09:10When Japan surrendered towards the end of World War 2,
09:13the US, China, and Britain made a list of demands for the Japanese government to uphold,
09:18one of them being to relinquish their power over Korea.
09:21Not only did they gain their independence back,
09:24but South Korea placed a firm prohibition on imported Japanese goods until 1999.
09:31Fast forward to 2006,
09:32and Kirby Squeak Squad was the first game in the series to launch in South Korea,
09:36two years after Japanese entertainment received full liberalization in the country.
09:46The Generation Skip
09:47This may seem odd at first, but the mainline Kirby games did skip an entire console generation.
09:54Sure, we all know about Kirby Air Ride, one of the most memorable GameCube games on the platform.
09:59The thing is that we were supposed to get a tried-and-true game during the box's lifetime.
10:12At E3 2005, Nintendo unveiled an unnamed Kirby game that showcased Kirby befriending enemies and calling in friends for help.
10:21And they never really spoke about it again after that.
10:24The house Mario built would say things here and there about how Kirby would come back,
10:28and there was a new game on the horizons, and blah-de-blah-de-blah.
10:31However, that didn't happen until 2011, with Kirby's Return to Dream Land on Wii.
10:37The concept seen in the fan-dubbed Kirby GCN would seemingly get reused for 2018's Kirby Star Allies.
10:49An Odd Collaboration
10:51Speaking of Kirby Star Allies, you may be familiar with the work of that game's co-developer.
10:57While HAL Laboratory was responsible for the general creation of the game,
11:01some of the minigames were developed by a company called Aiding,
11:04which specializes in supporting bigger studios both during development and post-launch.
11:14You may have played other games Aiding has worked on, such as Pikmin 4,
11:19DNF Duel, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,
11:22Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate,
11:24Bloody Roar 3 and 4,
11:26and the Naruto Clash of Ninja games.
11:29The studio goes back a long way.
11:38The Disappearance of Shinichi Shimomura
11:41Despite the cutesy nature, Kirby's games do get pretty dark and grim towards the end,
11:47but as we've seen with the franchise's history already,
11:50some of those dark undertones do bleed into the real world.
11:54The case of developer Shinichi Shimomura is one mystery that continues to haunt fans today.
11:59Once upon a time, Shimomura was a key developer for the Kirby games,
12:04having worked as a level designer for Kirby's Adventure,
12:06and as a director for Dream Land 2, Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64.
12:16He even co-directed Nightmare in Dream Land with Sakurai,
12:19but for some reason, that's where his story ends.
12:23Shimomura left HAL Laboratory right after Nightmare in Dream Land's release in 2002,
12:28and since then, no one in the industry has heard from him or even seen him.
12:40The Goal Game Secret
12:42Let's lighten things up a bit, shall we?
12:44We all know the function of the goal game across each and every Kirby game.
12:48Press A at the right time, and you'll shoot high up for either points, items, or extra lives.
12:55But there is an even bigger reward waiting for you in this minigame.
12:59To earn it, you will have to finish levels and reach each floor of the goal game in sequential order.
13:05So, beat the level, reach the seventh floor, beat the next level, reach the sixth floor, and so on.
13:11Do this, and you will get a massive reward of 30 one-ups.
13:19A Useful Slumber
13:21The sleep copy ability can be such a monumental detriment to your progress.
13:26It leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks, and most of the Kirby games don't even give you a health bonus
13:31for a peaceful slumber.
13:33Some games even make it a hazard, but to this day, only Kirby Battle Royale has ever found a way
13:39to make it useful.
13:45This time, Kirby gets to swing a pillow around to batter foes, and can temporarily force opponents into a deep
13:52slumber.
13:53On top of that, he can gain health just by standing still.
13:56OP? Maybe.
13:58But it's better than what we get in the main games.
14:06Fast, Fun, Fresh, and Never Frozen
14:09Did you know that there was a point in time where we got a board game based on Kirby?
14:14It's true! Sort of.
14:17It's not like it was something official from, say, Hasbro or Ravensburger.
14:25Yes, there was a Kirby board game, and the only way you could ever obtain one was by ordering a
14:31kid's meal from Wendy's in November 2003.
14:34At this time, Wendy's was offering a line of kid's meal toys based on the anime Kirby right back at
14:41ya.
14:41To be perfectly honest, the board game wasn't anything significant.
14:45Players simply took turns drawing cards to move spaces until somebody reached the goal.
14:50There wasn't anything Kirby about it, aside from name and character usage.
14:56Hey, what's that little pink-a-dink you're going to sleep for?
14:59A surplus of sub-games.
15:02One of the most fascinating things about Kirby Mass Attack is just how many sub-games are packed in compared
15:07to previous games.
15:08Most installments get about three sub-games each, sometimes one or two more.
15:13But Mass Attack boasts the most sub-games out of the entire franchise, clocking in at a total of eight
15:19sub-games.
15:25The reason why so many were included was because the staff genuinely loved all of the sub-games they made.
15:31Mass Attack's development was apparently very troublesome, so the team found the sub-games to be a nice break between
15:37dealing with all the stress.
15:42Music with New Blood
15:44Throughout the series' history, the majority of Kirby's music has been composed by Jun Ishikawa or Hirokazu Ando, sometimes both.
15:52However, that began to change during development for Kirby Star Allies.
16:06Ishikawa and Ando still composed the music, but they did so with a third composer in tow, Yuta Ogasawara.
16:13He has since composed for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby's Dream Buffet, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
16:20But do you want to know where he came from? What game he might have worked on before the Pink
16:24Pollo?
16:25Would you believe that he actually worked on the sound design for the PC version of WWE 2K17?
16:38A healthy hiatus?
16:40Since the series began in 1992, we've seen a relatively consistent stream of new Kirby games.
16:47We have literally gotten a new game roughly every single year, if not every other year.
16:52But there was a period where things seemed rather grim.
16:55It looked as if we would just never see our beloved Kirby ever again.
17:05After Kirby's Squeak Squad launched in 2006, we went for an entire 3 years, 10 months, and 13 days without
17:14a brand new game.
17:15The longest wait between original Kirby games in the franchise's history.
17:21Sure, there was the 2008 remake of Kirby Super Star, but it was such a long wait until 2011's Return
17:27to Dream Land.
17:28We nearly starved, dammit!
17:36Ineffective strategy.
17:38While Nintendo UK had that weird technicality with Kirby's Dream Land 3,
17:42there was one instance where a major gaming publication did not do their due diligence in creating an official strategy
17:49guide.
17:49When Kirby 64 launched, Prima Games did fans dirty by publishing an incomplete and incorrect guide for the game.
18:01Not only were some characters misidentified, but the guide lacked any information in regards to collecting all of the crystal
18:08shards.
18:08It was rather shocking given how thorough Prima Games usually was, but this mishap caused some players to begin questioning
18:15their integrity.
18:22Kirby, the savior of HAL.
18:25There was almost a point where HAL Laboratory was going to go under.
18:29After the success of Kirby's Dream Land, HAL Lab developed an adventure game called Metal Slater Glory.
18:42Produced and programmed by the famous Sotoru Iwata, Metal Slater Glory was the largest game ever made for the family.
18:49Inflating to a colossal one megabyte.
18:53It was also an incredibly expensive game for HAL Lab to develop, placing the company in serious financial risk.
19:00Nintendo stepped in to offer some financial assistance, but only on the condition that Iwata be placed as HAL Lab's
19:07president.
19:07Leadership agreed, Iwata was appointed, and the first order of business began.
19:11Make an NES port of Kirby's Dream Land.
19:15Sakurai started with those plans, but the game eventually became Kirby's Adventure, the second biggest game ever made for the
19:22Famicom.
19:22At 768 kilobytes big.
19:30Lacking in Power
19:32While we're on the subject of seemingly low numbers compared to modern times, would you believe that there are Kirby
19:38games that feature an abysmally low number of copy abilities?
19:41Yes, it's hard to imagine, given the number of times we've seen fire, ice, needle, wheel, plasma, sword, cutter, high
19:48jump, sleep, mic, and crash with tons of other copy abilities in tow.
19:57One might assume Dream Land 2 has the fewest, clocking in at a mere 7 copy abilities feature, but there
20:04is a game with even less than that.
20:06The oft-forgotten Game Boy title Kirby's Block Ball only features a measly 4 copy abilities, those being Burning, Needle,
20:15Spark, and Stone.
20:22The absurdity of Kid Kirby.
20:25There are a handful of cancelled titles that the Pink Pollo never got to fully partake in.
20:29This one, on the other hand, was arguably the weirdest of the entire batch.
20:34Kid Kirby was a spinoff that was being developed by DMA Design, who we all know today as Grand Theft
20:40Auto developer Rockstar North.
20:42This project was under wraps before GTA was ever a thing, and it was centered on having the player launch
20:47Kirby into random objects using the SNES mouse.
20:51Two problems arose from this project, though.
20:58The first was that the SNES mouse was selling horribly, to the point where Nintendo was struggling to find anybody
21:05who wanted the damn thing.
21:06But the main factor in this game's cancellation was that DMA Design was reportedly making very, very slow progress.
21:13So, Nintendo pulled the plug.
21:15And you know what? That may have been a blessing, given how awful those Kirby and Dedede renders are.
21:25One last adventure.
21:27We've already mentioned Satoru Iwata a couple of times in this video.
21:31And indeed, he was a big part in Kirby's success, starting with Kirby's adventure.
21:41From then on, Iwata would serve as producer and executive producer of just about every single game with the exception
21:48of Kirby 64.
21:49He was a supervisor for that one.
21:51As we all know, Iwata sadly passed away in July 2015 from a bile duct growth.
21:56The final Kirby game he ever worked on was Kirby Planet Robobot, which was released on April 28th, 2016, just
22:04a little under a year after his death.
22:06Rest easy Iwata-san, you will forever be remembered in the fountain of dreams.
22:17Voices of the Air Riders
22:20While we're in the spirit of honoring those who made Kirby such a major icon in video games, Kirby Air
22:26Riders has a special tribute to one person.
22:29In the second direct dedicated to the game, creator and Air Riders director Masahiro Sakurai revealed two voice actors for
22:36the Japanese announcers.
22:38Banjo Ginga, who did voice work for Super Kirby Clash, would be the male Japanese voice announcer.
22:49As for the female, you will be hearing none other than Makiko Omoto, the voice of Kirby.
22:58Ever since Kirby could speak in 1999's Super Smash Bros., Omoto has been voicing our hero across every single game.
23:07She's even become known as the voice of Lin in the Fire Emblem series, and the voice of Ness in
23:12the Super Smash Bros. games.
23:19Was there a Kirby factoid that surprised you?
23:22Let us know down in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.
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