Kirby's History
Chances are you've seen Kirby online somewhere before. The cutest pink blob known to humanity is hard to miss! Kirby is a video game character that first launched in 1992 with the game, Kirby's Dream Land for the Nintendo Game Boy. Almost 34 years later, and Kirby still one of the most iconic video game characters (and arguably the cutest!) Since 1992, Kirby has appeared in over 50 games, ranging from action platformers to puzzle, racing, and pinball, and has been featured as a playable character in every installment of the Super Smash Bros. series (1999–present). He has also starred in his own anime and manga series.
Kirby was created by Masahiro Sakurai as the player character of Kirby's Dream Land. Sakurai conceived the idea around May 1990 at the age of 19 while he was working at HAL Laboratory. The character's design was intended to serve as a placeholder graphic for the game's original protagonist in early development and thus was given a simplistic ball-like appearance. Sakurai switched to the placeholder design after deciding that it served the character better. The character was known as Popopo during development, as the first game was planned to be titled Harukaze Popopo (lit. "Spring Breeze Popopo", or "Popopo of the Spring Breeze"). The game was later renamed to Twinkle Popo; however, after Nintendo became involved in its release, Nintendo and HAL chose to change the name of the game and its protagonist so that it would appeal to Western audiences. The name "Kirby" was chosen from a list of potential names provided by Nintendo of America. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that "Kirby" was chosen partly in honor of American lawyer John Kirby, who defended Nintendo in the Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. case, and partly because the harsh-sounding name contrasted amusingly with the character's cute appearance.
Have you heard his classic theme before? Listen below!