HAL Laboratory Archives
The year series creator now video game director and game designer, Masahiro Sakurai, joined HAL.
What is 1989?
This mysterious ability allowed Kirby to inhale objects that are much larger than himself and use their properties.
What is Mouthful Mode? (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
The primary technical failure concerning 4-player co-op and dynamic camera synchronization that resulted in the cancellation of the "Kirby GCN" prototype.
What is the camera lock/multiplayer perspective?
This entity which is said to be "made from the same stuff" akin to Gooey, but does not have the same friendly personality.
Who is Dark Matter?
This trend of a strict marketing discrepancy between box art in Japan and North America where Kirby is depicted with a cheerful, (kawaii) smiling expression compared to North America's.
What is the Angry Kirby phenomenon?
This company HAL Laboratory and Nintendo jointly established to oversee Kirby merchandising and outside media such as the "Kirby Right Back at Ya!" 「星のカービィ 」TV anime.
What is Warpstar Inc.? (current name Nintendo Stars Inc.)
This ability is able to "scan" an enemy and replicate its attacks to gain a new ability, replaced by the ability that was scanned.
What is Copy? (Kirby Super Star + Super Star Ultra)
The technique of reusing existing sprite parts to create new animations or characters was a necessity driven by extreme hardware memory constraints in order to develop early titles.
What is Sprite Kitbashing?
This character who is referred to as the "Master of Puppetry" or "Puppeteer Magician" in the soundtrack of their respective game?
Who is Taranza?
This restaurant chain in Japan operated by Benelic and themed around the franchise serves meals such as burgers and pizza, as well as pastries and drinks with a distinctive theme.
What is Kirby Café?
This Nintendo-licensed console produced by Sharp used to develop "Kirby's Dream Land" did not have keyboard support, instead using a trackball alongside an onscreen keyboard to input values.
What is the Twin Famicom?
This ability is the first anime-exclusive copy ability to appear in the games and allows the user attack their opponents using waves and sprays.
What is Water?
This design rule that aligns enemies and camera positions with the player's intent to maintain consistent engagement to prevent unfair experiences.
What is the Abalone Hitbox?
This lost civilization is a common progenitor for countless conflicts, leaving their "treasures" and "relics" scattered across the universe and various dimentions.
What are the Ancients?
This group of musicians that won a Grammy Award in 2022 for their jazz arrangement of "Meta Knight’s Revenge" from Kirby Super Star.
What is The 8-Bit Big Band?
The year HAL relocated its office to Nintendo's new Tokyo building alongside Nintendo EPD Tokyo, Nintendo PTD Tokyo, 1-Up Studio, and Game Freak.
What is 2020?
This special ability is gained from inhaling special variants of enemies and is used to clear away large obstacles, terrain, and defeat certain bosses.
What are Super Abilities? (Kirby's Return to Dreamland + Dream Land Deluxe)
This detection system implemented in "Kirby and the Forgotten Land" treats Kirby as if he's already landed when the A Button is pressed at a close distance to the ground, rendering general movement more satisfying to the player.
What is Fuzzy Landing? (Fuzzy Detection)
This track, which is unlocked after fully completing the Star-Crossed World DLC for Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
What is "Neichel's Unfinished Track"?
The christened name of this $30,000 sailboat given to attorney John Kirby after Nintendo won the landmark Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. legal case.
What is Donkey Kong?
The two origins behind the name of "HAL" in HAL Laboratory.
What is IBM, but one step ahead, (Caeser Cipher) and HAL 9000? (2001: A Space Odyssey)
This ability functions similarly to Backdrop, Suplex and Fighter. It is also the only ability with no provider, enemy or otherwise and appearsexclusively in a spinoff.
What is Wrestler? (Appears in Kirby Fighters 2)
The memory management controller chip utilized in the NES version of "Kirby’s Adventure" to facilitate bank switching for the high volume of unique ability sprites and animations.
What is the MMC3 mapper?
This track's title pays homage to celestial mechanics where "the distance from a celestial body within which a second celestial body held together only by its own force of gravity, will disintegrate because the first body's tidal forces exceed the second body's self-gravitation."
What is "Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit"?
The title of this special fully 3D-animated episode for "Kirby Right Back at Ya!" was released for the Wii and Nintendo 3DS featured a plot where Kirby must battle a giant lobster-like monster, notable for using assets from Kirby Air Ride.
What is Kirby 3D? (Special Episode: Take it Down! The Carapace Monster Ebizou)