Retro fans rejoice as four Kirby mini games have been preserved by classic games enthusiasts online. It is now in the modern times that we truly appreciate how wonderful the old games were and how painstaking they are being developed considering the amount of technology that was available back then. Today, we celebrate Kirby and its mini games that just got rescued from decomposition.
Kirby's Toy Box (Kirby no Omocha Hako) was a game made for a Super Famicom add-on, Satellaview. The add-on allowed titles to be downloaded via satellite technology, which back then is ground-breaking since the internet wasn't born yet. Kirby's Toy Box haven't been heard of since then, and that is a long time.
Fortunately, a twitter user Super Famicon bumped into an online seller who got a hold of and preserved four out of ten mini games from Kirby's Toy Box. The games are called: Pachinco, Arrange Ball, Cannon Ball, and Circular Ball. After a tweet about it was sent out, Frank Cifaldi, a fellow preservationist broadcasted a message asking people with the same interest as theirs to help out win the bidding. Ultimately, they raised £665 or roughly $840, enough to purchase the mini games.
Kirby is a series of video games created by Nintendo and HAL laboratory. Mostly the gameplay comprises of platform, puzzles and action. The games are famed for their artistic and bright settings, sprinkled with simple gameplay and cute characters. Music is also one of the game's selling point as its cheerful and upbeat tunes subconsciously dig into the gamer's head. Kirby is also best known to inhale its enemies. Today, over 21 games are registered under the Kirby series and has collectively sold above 35 million units all over the world. The title is also one of the all-time world's best 50 video game franchises.
Kirby appears to be a pink spherical little creature that can blow up by inhaling either air or enemies. The creature's mission is often saving the world from various evil entities. One of the most notable enemies is King Dedede, who claims to rule Dream Land. You may check out playable titles here.
The story sounds nice, what's your twist?
Well, it's good news that 4 of Kirby's mini games got salvaged and preserved for good but according to Cifaldi via Kotaku, the copies of the game are ROM variations of European copies. He also emphasized that it isn't as attractive as the genuine copy that is now considered lost. But, hey, at least the game is now in good hands, right?
"We do stuff like this all the time...But preserving a slight ROM variation for the European version of a common game isn't as sexy as a Kirby game that was genuinely considered lost."
At this point of writing, I would also like to congratulate and thank the people who save retro games such as the Kirby games. We are all getting older and video games that we consider retro today will be artifacts in the future. Although considered very old by then, there will be a lot of learnings to be taught in between the lines of code that comprise these retro games.
