20 KIRBY

At the age of 19, most teenagers are holding down jobs, going to college, paying bills, and making a video game for beginners? I imagine the majority of teens were preoccupied with the other things listed, but Masahiro Sakurai was tasked with that last one. Employed at HAL Laboratory, Sakurai designed a placeholder character for the game he was working on. Said character was a cute blob-like sprite called Popopo. But as time went on, the young Sakurai favored the placeholder character over whatever was set to replace him. Eventually the name Popopo was dropped in favor of Kirby.

Just how did Kirby get his name? Some believe that the name Kirby was taken from attorney John Kirby, who defended Nintendo of America a few times in court. There's also the belief that Kirby's name comes from the Kirby brand of vacuum cleaners, which makes sense seeing as how vacuums, you know, suck stuff up and that would be Kirby's shtick. Regrettably, not even his father, Sakurai, can recall how Kirby got his name. One thing is certain though. Kirby sounds a heck of a lot better than Popopo.

[Kirby's Dream Land, GB] The game where it
all began.

[Kirby's Adventure, NES] The much-
loved Copy Ability makes it's
debut in Kirby's second outing.

On April 27, 1992, Hoshi no Kābī or Kirby of the Stars was released on the Game Boy in Japan. Sakurai saw Kirby as being pink, while Shigeru Miyamoto saw him yellow. The game's Japanese box art showed that Kirby was indeed pink, but when the game was released on August 1, 1992 in America as Kirby's Dream Land, the box art showed Kirby as being white. Ironic since the original Game Boy's color palates were black and white.

Kirby's Dream Land took gamers through five levels to defeat King Dedede who had stolen all of Dream Land's food. This unique platformer had the players control Kirby as he inhaled enemies and then spat them out as stars.  The game was quite short. Experienced gamers could breeze through the game in less than a half hour, but despite it's length, Kirby's Dream Land was a hit, selling over one million copies. Composer Jun Ishikawa was responsible for crafting the game's score and in doing so, gave Kirby some incredibly catchy, memorable tunes, chief among being Green Greens. Even on the Game Boy, these tunes still managed to resonate with gamers.

[Kirby's Dream Land 2, GB] Sakurai didn't direct
KDL2, but it still plays quite well.

[Kirby's Dream Course, SNES] Golf the likes
of which you've never seen. This is
actually one of the best spin-off titles.

[Kirby Super Star, SNES] KSS featured a ton
of different games and it's impact on
the series can be felt to this day.

Less than a year later, Kirby returned in his second adventure, but this time, Kirby's playground was the aging NES. Most gamers were getting their kicks on the SNES and Genesis, but Kirby gave NES owners one of the last great epic quests on the system. May 1, 1993, Kirby's Adventure hit the NES in America. Now having more power to work with, Kirby's world was given color. Not only that, but Dream Land had far expanded beyond the five levels that Kirby visited on the Game Boy. Kirby now had to transverse across  seven worlds to restore the Star Rod that King Dedede had broken into pieces. Without the Star Rod resting in the Fountain of Dreams, the citizens of Dream Land couldn't have dreams.

[Kirby's Dream Land 3, SNES] While a
visual powerhouse, the quality of
KDL3 is sharply divided among fans.

[Super Smash Bros., N64] Kirby takes a break
from defending Dream Land to smack around
fellow Nintendo stars. 

[Kirby 64, N64] Half the fun of Kirby's N64
adventure was seeing the wealth of different
powers you could come up with via
combinations.

A larger world meant Kirby's skillset would also have to upgraded. In addition to floating, Kirby could dash and slide into enemies. But the biggest addition to the series would be Kirby's super cool Copy Ability. If an enemy has a special power, Kirby can inhale them and take that power to use as his own. If Kirby sees an mook weilding a sword, all he has to do is suck them up, and presto! He's got a shinny new stabbing stick. The wide assortment of enemies gave Kirby a host of different powers to play with. He could turn into a Wheel to move at high speeds, use the hammer to smash foes and unlock hidden passages by pressing switches, or float with the Parasol and whack enemies with it.

He wasn't named at the time, but Kirby's Adventure was also the debut of one of the series favorite characters, Meta Knight. Meta Knight would appear various times throughout the game to send mini bosses Kirby's way or help him by giving him invincibility power ups. When you finally do battle with Meta Knight, he won't fight you unless you are armed with the Sword, since the sword is Meta Knight's weapon of choice. A cool and mysterious character to say the least.

[Kirby's Epic Yarn] Kirby's debut Wii game was appealing on
many levels, but the visuals were truly a sight to behold.

[Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Wii] It spent forever in
development, but when it finally released, Kirby's grand
return to traditional style of play was well worth the wait. 

[Kirby Mass Attack, DS] So many Kirbys, so much power.

Kirby has graced nearly every Nintendo system in existence. He's stared in more platformers on the Game Boy such as Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Block Ball, and on the SNES with Kirby's Dream Course, Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3. Kirby's father may no longer be working with HAL, but even without his involvement, the Kirby games are trucking along just fine. Kirby's Epic Yarn and Kirby's Return to Dream Land aren't just fantastic Kirby games, but are some of the best games on the Wii. Meanwhile, Kirby Mass Attack proves that Kirby still knows hot to entertain gamers on the portable scene.

For such a simple-looking character (somewhere someone is kicking them self for not having thought up Kirby's design), Kirby has given gamers a lot of great games. Sure, most Kirby games may be on the easy side, but not all games need to be difficult to be fun. Why shouldn't younger players be invited to the wonderful world of gaming? It says something that Kirby's games are still plenty appealing to older players as well. Kirby hasn't stuck around for the last 20 years due to dumb luck. Kirby might suck but if his games sucked, he'd have died out years ago.

Happy birthday, Kirby. Keep on sucking.