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Shinya Kumazaki

Kirby Forgotten Land Star Allies connection

There are now two major Kirby games on Switch. Kirby Star Allies came first and was largely 2D, but you might be interested to know that it largely paved the way for Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

Shinya Kumazaki, who was the general director of both games, spoke about their development connection with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream. Kumazaki says that Star Allies was a means of “laying the groundwork for future works and we were sure that the next game would be 3D.” Interestingly, HAL Laboratory felt that Star Allies and Forgotten Land were “a single large connected project.”

kirby timeline

The Washington Post published a new interview today with some of the key developers behind the Kirby series, and some interesting discussion came about when they were asked about a possible timeline or thread that ties the different entries together. 

It actually turns out that “there is no clear timeline for the game stories”, according to HAL Laboratory general director Shinya Kumazaki. Kumazaki explained that this is done so that the development team “constrained by past settings”.

His full words regarding a possibly Kirby timeline are as follows:

Kirby Star Allies

HAL Laboratory’s Shinya Kumazaki opened up about the making of Kirby Star Allies in a recently-released art book for the game. Kumazaki discussed when development began (planning was actually before the launch of Planet Robobot), the previous absence of Kirby side-scrollers on consoles, and more.

Nintendo Everything’s translation is below:

It’s been three years since the launch of Kirby Star Allies, but a new art book recently arrived in Japan. It included an interview with Shinya Kumazaki, the game’s director.

Kumazaki also left a message at the end of the book. After discussing some of the difficulties HAL Laboratory went through while making Star Allies, he also spoke vaguely about the series’ future. Kumazaki mentioned moving on to the “next phase” of Kirby and “planning for the next stage of our future.”

Kumazaki’s message, translated by Nintendo Everything, is as follows:

Kirby Star Allies

It was just a few weeks ago that Kirby celebrated its 25th anniversary. Shinya Kumazaki, who has worked on the series since 2003 and as acted as director since 2008, wrote up a special post on HAL Laboratory’s website in honor of the occasion.

Kumazaki mentioned that “it is now possible to maintain a consistent release and support schedule for our games,” which has allowed Kirby to grow. He also spoke about a philosophy of aiming to please fans by working so hard that the team essentially overdoes it. As for the future, Kumazaki said: “While there are fans there wanting to play a new game in the series, I believe we’ll continue to grow alongside our character and take on those fun and more serious new challenges head on.”

Here’s our full translation of Kumazaki’s message:

Kirby Star Allies

Kotaku published a new round of quotes from Shinya Kumazaki, the chief creator at HAL Laboratory. Kumazaki had plenty to say about the Kirby series, including the synergy between core games and spin-offs as well as having more ideas and not being burnt out on the series.

We’ve rounded up some of the more notable comments from Kumazaki below. For the full article, head on over to Kotaku.

Kotaku published a new piece on Kirby Star Allies today with HAL Laboratory’s chief creator, Shinya Kumazaki. Kumazaki revealed some of the DLC characters that didn’t make it in and why, addressed criticisms that the game was lacking content at launch, and more.

We’ve rounded up some of the notable comments from the interview below. You can find Kotaku’s full piece here.

Kirby Star Allies

In its latest issue, Nintendo Dream posted a Kirby Star Allies developer interview. Shinya Kumazaki, the game’s general director, had a lengthy chat with the Japanese magazine.

Kumazaki spoke about the game’s title, selecting new and returning Copy Abilities, and bringing back Pon & Con. You can find that and more in our translation below.

Nintendo and HAL Laboratory have three Kirby games on 3DS to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary. Team Kirby Clash Deluxe is out now. A new multiplayer action game will follow later in the year. In between the two is Kirby’s Blowout Blast, coming to the 3DS eShop this summer.

In Nintendo Dream this month, when asked how Kirby’s Blowout Blast compares to the sub-game Kirby 3D Rumble in Kirby: Planet Robobot, HAL Laboratory’s Shinya Kumazaki answered that while both are digital games, the former will have an overall volume that’s more like a normal packaged release. The sub-game was made more as an experiment on seeing whether the epitome of Kirby games can be enjoyed in 3D. They had been receiving requests to create a 3D game, and Kumazaki also wanted to challenge himself in making it.

The third “Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon” was hosted on Miiverse earlier today. Once again, director Shinya Kumazaki fielded questions from fans. Kumazaki talked about topics such as copy abilities, characters, difficulty, and more.

For those that missed it, you can find the previous two Miiverse sessions here and here. The latest one can be found in full after the break.


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