Prerelease:Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Early Development
Development on Kirby 64 spanned over three years, beginning in September 1997 and ending in early 2000. It was originally developed for the Nintendo 64DD, but due to the add-on's poor sales, the game was moved to the N64. A prototype of the game, which was worked on until mid-1999, had a different control scheme; the joystick moved Kirby instead of the D-pad. To make the game's controls easier for younger children, developers at HAL changed it so that the control pad was used to move Kirby. The Z button, which does nothing in the final game, was used often in this prototype.

The Animal Friends from Kirby's Dream Land 3 would have returned in this game, but the idea was scrapped before the game was finished. They do make cameos in the Animal Statue copy ability, however, and one of their music tracks is accessible by the Sound Test.

A storyboard for the opening sequence of Kirby 64 was released on HAL Laboratory's website after the game was released in Japan. Despite being close to the final, it has an extra scene where Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede watch the crystal shards and Ribbon fall, similar to the intro for Kirby's Dream Land 3.

June 1999
On June 1, 1999, nine teaser photos of Kirby 64 were released on Nintendo's website, some of which show that there were more aquatic levels planned for the final game. However, seven of these photos reveal that King Dedede, Waddle Dee, and Adeleine were supposed to be playable characters at one point. Dedede is the only character other than Kirby to be playable in the final game.

January 2000
Several prerelease photos were released on January 27, 2000. One of them shows the beginning of the opening cutscene, which has a skybox with more realistic clouds in the horizon. The final version of this scene changes these clouds to be in the shape of rings and hearts.

Another photo shows Kirby near Dedede's castle about to fight some Bumbers, which have a red coloration instead of violet. What's more interesting is that the life meter is flipped by 90 degrees for some reason, and isn't in Japanese numerals.

February 2000
A massive amount of photos of Kirby 64 were released a month later on February 26, 2000 as a teaser. One of them show a different form of Swiss Army Kirby. The grey fork stuck on the right of Kirby was replaced with a potted cactus in the final game.

In addition, the minigames page mentions a boulder in 100-Yard Hop that could slow the player's progress, which doesn't exist in the final game.

Japanese Magazine
A photo of Kirby 64 in a Japanese magazine has a early version of the HUD, which shows portraits for the scrapped playable characters! There are some odd meters on the portraits, as well as one on the right side of the photo. A set of portraits similar to the ones used in this HUD are still in the final game, although unused.

Spaceworld 1999 Trailer
Qf0pwsX73jw The first video footage of Kirby 64 was a Japanese trailer for the game that was revealed at Spaceworld 1999. This footage shows the prototype of the game that uses the Nintendo 64's joystick, and has a lot of differences from the final.

Abilities
Three abilities have different transformations in this trailer. In addition, this trailer shows an version of the Stone icon that's closer to the one from Kirby's Dream Land 3.
 * Ice + Bomb: Originally, Kirby covered himself with a large chunk of ice which explodes after a short while. The final has him transform into a snowman similar to the Chilly enemy, with Kirby as the body and a bomb as the head.
 * Stone: Kirby does transform into a slow-moving golem in the trailer, but he has a brown coloration (the final turns him gray), and he has the ability to jump.
 * Stone + Spark: Originally, this ability would have turned Kirby into a computer chip when activated, where the final has him levitate a rock with electricity.

HUD
The Spaceworld trailer uses a HUD that is notably different from the final!
 * Instead of counting stars by a meter, the Spaceworld HUD uses six star-shaped symbols, which completely fill up every time Kirby collects five of them.
 * Kirby's health is represented by half-circles on the top edge on the Spaceworld HUD, while the final has the health bar in the middle of it. There is a second meter that has an unknown purpose on the bottom edge.
 * The three leftmost boxes in the HUD indicate the crystal shards that Kirby had acquired in the level.
 * Aesthetically, this HUD doesn't have a wood grain texture, and the sides have an curved end.

Cutscene
An early version of the "Desert Desserts" cutscene is shown in this trailer.
 * The aspect ratio of the cutscene is different. While the trailer displays it in 4:3, the final displays it in 16:9.
 * The background is different; the sky is a lighter hue and is more cloudy, and there are no dunes on the horizon.
 * The shot after Kirby faints is shorter, and is positioned higher than the final. The party's reactions are also different; Adeleine seems more worried, Ribbon only tilts her head to the right, and King Dedede and Waddle Dee look at each other until the shot fades to white.

Misc

 * Zoos can be seen in Pop Star's third level, which were removed in the final game.

American Promo
zzW0l-9QmZE An American promotional video for Kirby 64 shows Needle's icon using Cutter's colors, and vice versa. What's more interesting, however, is that the life meter shows Japanese numerals! No version of the final game, including the Japanese ones, have this oddity.

Kirby's Dream Collection Concept Art
A collectible booklet was packaged with the game Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition, which included some concept art for Kirby 64.

Fairy Queen
An early sketch of the Fairy Queen shows a different crown design near the upper left and a slightly different design for her skirt.

Waddle Dee
In one piece of concept art, the Waddle Dee is seen picking up an enemy; the other has him hiding in a house. Presumably, Waddle Dee was intended to attack enemies by picking them up and throwing them at other nearby enemies, something Kirby can do in the final game.

Scrapped Minigame
There was originally going to be a music-based minigame where players would press the buttons as they appeared on screen, with Kirby, Adeleine, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee appearing in a band.