LINE app adds Kirby stickers globally
Posted on 8 years ago by Jake in Mobile, News | 8 Comments
As Japan gets the latest Kirby game, popular instant-messaging app LINE has added some animated Kirby stickers to their lineup. Retailing at 240 Yen/1.99€/£1.49/$1.99 or 100 LINE coins, they’re the perfect way to add a little more of the pink puffball to your life.
Kirby voice actress re-tweets news about today’s Nintendo Direct
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 18 Comments
Yesterday, Nintendo’s Japanese Twitter page posted news about the new Nintendo Direct. Makiko Ohmoto, the voice of Kirby, ended up re-tweeting the news a few hours ago. That’s set off speculation that Kirby will be featured in some form during today’s presentation – be it a new game or something else. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen.
More: Kirby, Makiko Ohmoto
Kirby hat from StreetPass Mii Plaza to be sold in February (Japan)
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Random | 12 Comments
3DS owners can obtain a bunch of different hats for their Mii in StreetPass Mii Plaza. One of these is based on Kirby, which features the character as a completely wearable item.
In Japan, ensky will be bringing out a real life version of the hat. You can actually reserve it right now on Play-Asia as an import item for $30. It should be available towards the end of February – Play-Asia lists February 25.
More: Kirby, StreetPass Mii Plaza
HAL Laboratory shares a message for Kirby’s 23rd birthday
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments
As the first Kirby game shipped in 1992, the character (and the franchise overall) is celebrating its 23rd birthday this year. Developer HAL Laboratory decided to post a special message on Miiverse in honor of the occasion. Head past the break for the full note from Kirby Triple Deluxe director Shinya Kumazaki.
More: HAL Laboratory, Kirby, Shinya Kumazaki
Nintendo teasing three classic Kirby games for the Wii U eShop this week
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 23 Comments
Three classic Kirby games are coming to the North American Wii U eShop this week. Nintendo won’t say which ones they are yet, but each one is being released in celebration of the character’s birthday.
Nintendo sent out the following tweet just a few minutes ago:
To celebrate the birthday of everyone's favorite pink puffball, we're releasing 3 classic Kirby games in the #WiiU #eShop on 7/30!
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 28, 2015
We could be hearing about the names of these titles tomorrow, if previous leaks are anything to go by. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll know on Thursday morning at the latest!
More: Kirby, Virtual Console
HAL Laboratory working on some non-Kirby projects
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Over the past few generations, HAL Laboratory has primarily worked on Kirby games. We’ve seen a few non-Kirby titles here and there (most recently with BoxBoy!), but that character is certainly the studio’s bread and butter. Interestingly, BoxBoy! director Yasuhiro Mukae recently informed Kotaku that “several” projects are in the works that are unrelated to the character.
Mukae mentioned:
Certainly, as you say, the Kirby series is HAL Laboratory’s main development focus, but we actually have several other projects proceeding along in parallel (not that I can give details on them right now, of course). We also have a few experimental projects in the works with smaller teams, so there certainly isn’t any rule that we must be involved with Kirby projects. Like I discussed in the first question, BoxBoy got its start as an experimental project along those lines.
I was involved in the development of Kirby: Triple Deluxe, but I was also working on the BoxBoy experiment at the same time. Handling both projects simultaneously presented some big challenges, but creating a game with a new character like Qbby made me feel happier than I’ve ever felt before.
Once Kirby: Triple Deluxe development wrapped up, I was able to devote myself fully to BoxBoy. This happened right when it went from an experiment to an official development project, and full-on development began at that point. Some of the Kirby: Triple Deluxe team also joined the BoxBoy project right about then.
As I wrote earlier, our development efforts may be chiefly devoted to Kirby, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule that everything has to be related to Kirby titles. I’m getting the chance to be involved a lot more often with non-Kirby things, such as this BoxBoy project—though, again, I can’t give details quite yet.
Below are some other noteworthy tidbits shared in Kotaku’s interview: