Proto:Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

This page details one or more prototype versions of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

To do: What does makoto refer to?

This demo can be found on the Gekkan Nintendo Tentou Demo discs 2004.3.1, 2004.4.1, 2004.5.1 and 2004.6.1. According to the internal build date string and filename on the 2004.3.1 and 2004.5.1 discs ("Ver021tr_03122919.bin"), it was compiled on December 29, 2003 - 2 months and 2 days before the final game's Japanese build date, and 3 months and 17 days before the final Japanese release. The name in the ROM header is "MAKOTOSAMPLE".

Download Kirby & the Amazing Mirror prototype File: KirbyAmazingMirror-GBA-Proto.7z (3.0 MB) (info)

To do: A LOT. Like 80% of the Demo is still unknown: Copy Abilities are most likely all fully programmed, with differences to note. The pointers to their code and graphics are simply directing to nothing, which was intentionally done so the player wouldn't toy with them if they somehow got access to them. Cutscenes and other things related to them might not be fully finished. Several animations are different between the final game and this demo. There's more sound-based differences. Most enemies are also likely coded-in. The parameter data of some of them is also intentionally dummied-out, so they should be edited to point to their respective code. Check for more general gameplay differences, as there are a lot of movement and attacking quirks in this version.

Sub-Pages

Notes

Graphical Differences Some used, some unused.

Audio Differences And then HAL said "let there be less bass".

Pause Screen Kirby found dead in one of the pause screens!

Room Differences Every room has one!

Debug Menus Three debugging screens with interesting functions.

Early Script

To do: There's an even earlier version of the script, found as compressed graphics. They look more crude and use kanji. Document them here.

Hidden away in the Demo's data, there's an early version of the game's text for the opening and ending cut-scenes. It seems like the Mirror World was once called "かがみのせかい" (Kagami no Sekai/Mirror World), until it got changed to "かがみのくに" (Kagami no Kuni/Mirror Land) in the final script. Other than that, it's pretty close to the final game.

Opening

The text for the first line in the opening is mostly the same, except "Kagami no Sekai" was changed to "Kagami no Kuni" in the final game.

Prototype	Final
Translation (Prototype)	Translation (Final)
Above the skies of Pupupu Land! The Mirror World is in a big pinch!	Above the skies of Pupupu Land! The Mirror Land is in a big pinch!

The third line of the opening also received the same name change, but it also doesn't highlight "Kagami no Sekai" in orange like the final game.

Prototype	Final
Translation (Prototype)	Translation (Final)
Meta Knight flies into the Mirror World to protect Pupupu Land!	Meta Knight flies into the Mirror Land to protect Pupupu Land!

Ending

The ending only seemed to alter all the instances of "Kagami no Sekai" to "Kagami no Kuni".

Prototype	Final
Translation (Prototype)	Translation (Final)
Dark Mind, who tried to take over the Mirror World, was defeated.	Dark Mind, who tried to take over the Mirror Land, was defeated.

Prototype	Final
Translation (Prototype)	Translation (Final)
This will end the disaster in the Mirror World.	This will end the disaster in the Mirror Land.

Prototype	Final
Translation (Prototype)	Translation (Final)
Kirby of the Mirror World will be the one to keep the peace.	Kirby of the Mirror Land will be the one to keep the peace.

Enemies and Objects

Generally speaking, about half of the objects and enemies are present, of which some, but not all, are shown during the prototype game. The following listed enemies and objects exist in the prototype; the ones in red appear to be unused.

Since the object and enemy IDs in almost all cases match with the ones used in the final game, it seems the developers had mostly finished planning which enemies and objects they were going to implement. There was early work started on things like Boss Endurance and the Warpstar bonus game.

Dark Mind's forms names are numbered 1, 2 and 3, but those were stripped away in the final version.

Unused Enemies

Stoppy

There's an unused enemy with only its graphics present at offset 00575780 in the ROM. Its health bar name appears to be at 00775004, reading "ストッピー (Stoppy)", likely derived from "stopwatch". There is no code associated with the enemy, as everything was wiped clean. Only its animations and graphics remain, which got removed from the final game. This enemy still has some leftovers in the final game in the form of unused behavior, its health-bar name, and object ID. However, the graphics were completely removed.

It takes an appearance of a wind-up clock toy with floating hands, likely meant to throw bombs.

Alternate Shooty

Several sprites depicting a creature that greatly resembles the enemy Shooty can be located at 005A4984. The debug menu treats it as a separate character, and its graphics are located way after Shooty's, found in-between Mr. Frosty and Wiz. The graphics, like Stoppy's, were removed entirely from the final game. This enemy has no unique health-bar name, so it's most likely a variant of Shooty. It was most likely meant to just fly around, since it doesn't have many graphics, and the ones that it does have seem to be for its propeller on its back rotating.

Abilities

Available Abilities

Only the following abilities can be acquired:

• Wheel, Beam, Bomb, Cupid, Cutter, Fighter, Fire, Ice, Laser, Parasol, Spark, Stone and Sword.

Wheel doesn't show up in the ability roulette but can be acquired from a rolling Golem (in the King Golem battle). There are several differences in the abilities present, compared to the final game.

Fighter

Fighter is slightly different than what it is in the final.

Prototype	Final

In the prototype, the standard B attack in the air is the downward kick; in the final, this move was changed to ↓+B, and the B attack was changed to the ←/→+B on ground, but with less momentum.

Prototype	Final

The ←/→+B in air attack was also given much less momentum in the final.

• The ↑+B uppercut has a different sound effect.
• The lowest charge of the (hold)B Hadouken is faster in the prototype; charged and low-health shots are same.

Bomb

• Bombs can be thrown faster in the prototype.
• A held bomb explodes faster in the prototype.

Sword

• The slashing combo takes slightly longer to start in the prototype.
• You can't go into the multi-hit ground combo (after the first slash) as quick as you can on the final version.
• Sword Kirby's sound effect when doing the spinning attack in the air is cut off.

Stone

Prototype	Final

Stone Kirby in stone form was pinker in the prototype version.

• After using Stone, the game adjusts your angle to 0° or 180° in the final version, but not in the prototype.
• When Kirby is going into Stone form while running, he gets a little speed boost, making him roll further.
• When Kirby is grounded and turns from Stone back to normal, he bounces lower in the prototype than he does in the final game.

Spark

Prototype	Final

The diadem and spark hair got brightened and refined for the final release.

Cutter

In the prototype, the Cutter Boomerang falls all the way off the screen when it hits a wall; in the final, it dissipates almost immediately.

Wheel

When driving through enemies, the game uses "punching" sound effects that would later be used for the Fighter ability.

Unavailable Abilities

The following abilities cannot be acquired outside of memory editing:

• Burn, Throw, Sleep, Cook, UFO, Tornado, Magic, Smash, Mini, Crash, Missile and Master.

Most of their moves have been removed for this prototype.

Master

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Master Kirby has Sword's hat in the prototype. Additionally, the jewel in the hilt is green in the prototype, but red in the final.

U.F.O

Despite not being obtainable, U.F.O's moveset remains in the ROM. While it more-or-less works fine, its graphics do not load properly. However, its beam and projectiles do load, albeit with some minor graphical issues.

Prototype	Final

Despite being very similar to its final version, the Chain Beam disintegrates with a neat effect halfway into the animation in the prototype. This is most likely unintended behavior due to U.F.O loading sprites that it shouldn't be using.

Smash

Prototype	Final

Kirby's arm is animated in the prototype while performing a Vulcan Jab. In the final game, Kirby's left arm disappears, while motion effects are shown in front of him.

Not only that, but Kirby also has an extra pose in the prototype for the ending lag of the move.

Prototype	Final

Additionally, Twinkle Star's effects are smaller and less detailed in the prototype. The animation alternates between a big motion effect followed by a thin and small motion line. Please note that the black background was added for better visibility.

Prototype	Final

Lastly, Smash's icon has the Smash logo behind Kirby in the prototype, although with the thicker line being on the wrong place. Other elements were also slightly changed. The sparkles around Kirby received some minor adjustments, and Kirby received some "motion" effects around his hands and shoes. Kirby's eyes were also originally shut.

Attract Mode

The Demo only has 1 attract mode cut-scene. It depicts Kirby just sloppily wandering about in the Central Circle. The final game has 6, and none of them depict him in the Central Circle. Below is a comparison of the early cut-scene and the first one shown in the final game.

Prototype	Final

Most notably, the version from the Demo is much more shorter, and it seems like whoever was recording the inputs really didn't know what they were doing.

Unused Room

There's a single unused room in the Demo that doesn't resemble any of the unused rooms in the final game. It also occupies the ID 03 E7, an ID not used by anything in the retail builds. It's simply a duplicate of the switch room in Moonlight Mansion with no objects, warps, and doors. There's no way in and no wait out, but the CPU Kirbys can still get in if Kirby calls them. The room successfully calls the theme "Castle/Building Area" upon being entered, which is the theme used by most of Moonlight Mansion and Carrot Castle.

To access it, you can use the following cheat code. The room will load when starting the game at the title screen or when losing a life.

CPU Kirby Arrival Point Differences

To do: Make and compare map images showing the door locations in the proto and in the final release. Two examples: https://imgur.com/a/HOvVB4v

The doors that CPU Kirbys arrive at when calling them have different locations compared to the final version.

Other Differences

Missing Features

• Intro sequence, save game selection and game mode selection are absent.
• Map screen, Area name and area ID display are absent.
• Pressing L to warp out of a level doesn't work. It behaves like R instead, calling the other Kirbys.

Gameplay-Related

• You can inhale infinitely. In the final game, Kirby stops and coughs after a while.
• Getting hit does not stop the inhaling process. Objects and enemies that have been fetched by Kirby's inhaling will continue to fly towards him after he has been hit. In the final version, when Kirby is hit, the fetched enemies will instantly die, instead.
• When inhaling food or items, Kirby isn't stuck like he is in the final game. He can stop inhaling and move, while the food continues to fly towards him.
• Unpausing takes slightly longer in the prototype.
• To unpause, you have to press A in the prototype as opposed to Start in the final version. Pressing B works on both versions.
• Kirby jumps about 5 pixels less high compared to the final game.
• Crouching makes the camera scroll down much sooner.
• After Kirby lands with horizontal speed, he walks a bit further in the prototype. In the final game, he stops almost immediately.
• After landing on a slope from a great height so that Kirby spins in the air, you can jump out while airborne.
• When running and letting go of arrow keys, Kirby switches to walking in the prototype. In the final game, he keeps running for a short while.
• When Kirby keeps getting hit and repeatedly loses his ability, his ability star moves away quicker in the final version. This behavior isn't present in the prototype.
• When starting to float, Kirby can cancel into using his ability or inhaling, in the final game. This feature isn't present in the prototype.
• Shadow Kirby can be inhaled immediately, whereas he behaves like a heavy enemy in the final game.
• Shadow Kirby doesn't drop anything on death, but he drops a Maxim Tomato, 1-Up or Lollipop in the final game.
• Shadow Kirby doesn't reappear if you redo the room. He does reappear in the final version.
• CPU-Kirbys can inhale your ditched ability star. In the final game, they can't, making it easier for players to try and retrieve their lost ability.
• CPU-Kirbys will keep following you through the rooms persistently. They leave you alone more easily in the final game.
• CPU-Kirbys can't grab the Warpstar. In the final version, they can.
• The game's wall-ejection behavior appears to work slightly differently.
• When opening a chest, the acquired item is shown slightly longer in the prototype.

Graphical

• When airborne, Kirby is placed about 6 pixels lower than on the final version. As a result, his sprite can reach partially inside the floor before Kirby gets grounded. It looks like the correlation between his sprite and hitbox is different.
• Kirby's animation when airborne and on the ground is different; it is more still in the final version.
• Some door graphics are different.
• The mirror shard from King Golem doesn't have a blue flashing light. Neither does the Kirby victory dance or the Moonlight Mansion mirror that appears after pressing the button.
• Kirby's facing direction after entering a room differs in some rooms.

Bugs

• There are minor graphical bugs with the arrows pointing at offscreen CPU Kirbys, as well as with the mini Kirby icons in the top left of the screen.
  • Arrows will sometimes not be shown even when CPU Kirbys are off-screen.
  • Arrows will be shown when CPU Kirbys have fallen into the void and died.
• A bug with enemies' invincibility periods: when Kirby, after getting hit, touches an enemy, the enemy gets hit every frame. However, if Kirby ate an Invincibility Lollipop, the enemy's invincibility period works normally.
• Ability Stars can continue bouncing after falling into pits, sometimes enabling them to get stuck in the ground. This was fixed in the final game where Ability Stars break as soon as they fall far enough into a pit.
• A minor graphical bug with the ability roulette: the ability display is graphically glitched for one frame, then intact for three frames. In the final version, the display is never glitched.
• There's a minor graphical bug with falling Parasol Waddle Dee.
• Stone Kirby as a stone can fall through a Warpstar. In the final version, he de-transforms and grabs the Warpstar.
• Kirby is noticeably invisible for a brief moment after entering a room.
• There's a rare glitch where swallowing an ability may cause enemies on the screen to zip horizontally across the room very quickly.
• When entering a door while a CPU Kirby transforms, the screen will turn grey for a split second.
• There's a glitch in the room before King Golem where a sword-wielding enemy will try to deflect your puff of air even when you aren't anywhere near him nor exhaling.
• CPU-Kirbys can enter a Cannon, which makes them turn into Pink Kirbys and stop acting. In the final version, CPU-Kirbys are disabled from entering Cannons.

Development Text

Build Date

Similar to the build dates in each of the retail versions of the game, this version's build date can be found at 0xA2BF78 in the ROM:

0.21
Mon Dec 29 19:37:23  2003