For a very, very long time, Nintendo and HAL were trying to make a pseudo-3D Kirby game work on the GameCube. The two companies tried for years to bring the project together, so much so that the project continued tests after the GameCube had come and gone. That project was eventually shelved, but today brings us yet another glimpse at what almost was.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen gameplay for the title, but it does showcase a few bits we’ve never seen before. You can certainly see how this game’s style eventually led to ideas present in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, but the style and overall approach in that Wii release ended up being quite different.

This project, even though it was first birthed decades ago, would eventually pave the way for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Without these trials, missteps, and failed prototypes on the GameCube, Kirby may have never made it to his fully 3D debut in 2022!

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Comments (3)

mock turtle

2y ago

Wait, I thought Kirby's long (long, long) lost GameCube game eventually became Kirby's Return to Dreamland on Wii?


rawmeatcowboy

2y ago

@mock turtle

There are certainly elements from that project that were moved to Kirby's Return to Dreamland, but Nintendo did confirm that 3 Kirby projects were shelved, this one included. You can see Nintendo discuss it in this feature: https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/kirby-dream-land/0/0


nekotaku

2y ago

That looks great, why would they cancel that!?