Designer Masahiro Sakurai shares a lengthy, must-see video exploring the development secrets behind the original Kirby’s Dream Land on the Game Boy.
Kirby’s been part of Nintendo’s pantheon for over 30 years now, having made his debut in Kirby’s Dream Land on the Game Boy in 1992. It was a landmark game not just for the pink star warrior, though, but also for designer Masahiro Sakurai. The jolly platformer was Sakurai’s first title – incredibly he was just 19 when he first started working on the project.
To mark the 100th episode of Sakurai’s YouTube series, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, the veteran designer digs into the history of Kirby’s Dream Land. In a 17-minute presentation, Sakurai talks about the game’s origins, the hardware used to make it, and some of the design tricks he and his collaborators used to squeeze the platformer onto the Game Boy’s meagre hardware.
Maybe it was just us, but we were fascinated to learn that Kirby’s Dream Land was largely developed on a regular Famicom Twin System (essentially a Japan-only NES with a proprietary disc drive) with a trackball attached. With just 64kB of memory to play with, Sakurai managed to make one of the best action-platformers on Nintendo’s handheld – partly by making cunning design decisions like mirroring or recycling sprites.
It’s a great video, and a worthwhile watch for Kirby fans or anyone who’s interested in the finer details of game development. Sakurai would, of course, go on to direct the Super Smash Bros series. Over 30 years on, though, Kirby arguably remains his signature creation. With over 30 games in the series so far, it’s now one of Nintendo’s most popular and recognisable franchises. Not bad going for a game that was developed on a regular console without the benefit of a keyboard…
