On his 100th episode, Masahiro Sakurai reveals Kirby's origin documents. Discover Kirby on 2MB, which development tool was used to create him, and the features from the Kirby game that were incorporated to Smash Bros.
Kirby's Development Documents
100th Episode of Masahiro Sakurao On Creating Games
Kirby and Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai treated Kirby fans outside Japan with a video about Kirby's development. In the 100th episode of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, he presented the original design documents for Kirby and other details that were only shown in several Japan-exclusive events.
These documents were presented during Kirby's 25th Anniversary Orchestra Concert in Japan in 2017.
Developed Using Twin Famicom
According to Sakurai, Kirby first appeared in Kirby's Dream Land, released in 1992 for Game Boy. At this time, Kirby didn't have any copy abilities until Kirby's Adventure was released. Kirby's game concept was conceived around May 1990 when Sakurai was 19.
Kirby was created using Twin Famicom with a trackball from HAL Laboratory, which helped develop the first Kirby game. Kirby started as pixel art, which was then combined to create characters. Sakurai and his team could test movements, boss fights, and even the title screen with the Twin Famicom.
2MB Game
In the video, Sakurai also mentioned the creation of characters was based on how much ROM can be used. Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo were created with only the back part different, Gordo, being a symmetrical character to save ROM space.
Despite that, bosses needed to be bigger so new gamers could hit it. With this in mind, characters had to fit into a limited ROM space. Sakurai intended the game to be under 512Kb, but it was released with 2MB.
Smash's Damage Accrual System Formulated From the Original Kirby Concept
In the video, Sakurai mentioned that upon making the original Kirby game, the way the screen had to move along with Kirby and stop when he gets hit and goes flying is actually Smash's Damage Accrual System. It was already thought up while making the original Kirby game.
Surprisingly, Sakurai had forgotten about this feature, which was later added to Smash Bros. While there are still game mysteries in the Kirby game, Sakurai advised embracing the unknown.
