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Nintendo Kirby is officially 30-years-old today

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

HAL Laboratory‘s much-loved platformer star made his debut on this day in 1992, when Kirby’s Dream Land was released on the Game Boy in Japan.

Kirby was born out of a fortunate accident, in that he wasn’t originally supposed to look anything like the way he does now.

Initially called Popopo, his debut game was originally going to be called Harukaze Popopo (Popopo of the Spring Breeze) before HAL renamed it Twinkle Popopo.

Because the character design wasn’t yet final, the development team at HAL used a simple round blob as a placeholder until they had time to make something more detailed.

However, as development progressed, they grew fond of the blob, and decided he looked fine the way he was.

Nintendo and HAL decided to change Popopo’s name to make him appeal to western audiences. As confirmed by Shigeru Miyamoto in a Japanese interview from 1993, Kirby was named after a Nintendo of America lawyer.

John Kirby, who passed away in 2019, successfully defended Nintendo when it was sued by Universal Studios, who claimed that Donkey Kong infringed on its copyright for King Kong.

To thank him for helping it win the lawsuit, Nintendo named the Kirby character after him and gave him a $30,000 sailboat named Donkey Kong, along with the exclusive worldwide rights to use the Donkey Kong name for boats.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is super fun to play! Good way to celebrate!

Diva Kirby GIF by Kéké
 
I 100% the game, can't say I remember any stairs standing out to me. What stage was this?
There's a 3 star stairs challenge that took me 10 tries to get the target time lol.

6YIdp1S.jpeg


A little secret tip for everyone is that you can repeatedly jump with the stairs to run slightly faster. You still have to nail the puzzle order just right though.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Forgotten Land was my first Kirby and surpassingly very enjoyable, this game was blast trying to 100% everything.
 

Jeeves

Member
I think I remember celebrating his 20th anniversary here on GAF, but I could be misremembering. I love to see this franchise enduring the years just by keeping things simple and fun. Great comfort food games. I'm slowly making my way through Forgotten Land and loving it!
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I notice something in opening cutscenes in Forgetting Land. Kirby wasn’t trying to save anyone other than himself.
giphy.gif
 

Fbh

Member
There's a 3 star stairs challenge that took me 10 tries to get the target time lol.

6YIdp1S.jpeg


A little secret tip for everyone is that you can repeatedly jump with the stairs to run slightly faster. You still have to nail the puzzle order just right though.

Lol yeah that has been the hardest part of the game so far (just reached the theme park part). Really made me wish there was a "retry" option at the end of these levels
 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Got to pick up the newest Kirby at some point. The few I have played have been fun.
 
Lol yeah that has been the hardest part of the game so far (just reached the theme park part). Really made me wish there was a "retry" option at the end of these levels
If you know you're not gonna make it you can retry before it ends. But only on challenge stages!
 

Fbh

Member
If you know you're not gonna make it you can retry before it ends. But only on challenge stages!

Yeah I know but I'm usually focused on beating the level as fast as possible and not looking at the clock. And since the game isn't that hard to begin with I'm always cutting it pretty close so I'm not sure if I'll make it until the very end. (the one with the stairs also took me like 10 tries though).
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Yeah I know but I'm usually focused on beating the level as fast as possible and not looking at the clock. And since the game isn't that hard to begin with I'm always cutting it pretty close so I'm not sure if I'll make it until the very end. (the one with the stairs also took me like 10 tries though).
The game is never crushing hard but it has post game stuff that gives nice challenge.
 
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