Proto:Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

This prototype has popped out of nowhere on December 2011. Nobody knows if it has been dumped from a GBA cartridge, but there is an identical (byte-per-byte) version in the GameCube Japanese Interactive Multi-Game Demo Disc - May 2004.

Title Screen
The title logo was completely redone. Furigana was also added below the game title's kanji.

Mirror Gate
The lines surrounding the star have been removed from the final version. It's otherwise identical.

Rainbow Mirror
The mirror itself is one pixel lower in the prototype.

Cell Phone
The black button became red and the antenna is slightly more visible.

Signal waves
There are no waves emerging from the antenna in the prototype.

Demo completion screen


After defeating the King Golem boss and watching the ensuing cutscene, this screen - advertising the game's release in March 2004 - is shown and the game returns to the title screen. The same also occurs if you game over.

World Map
Though only viewable when the one present switch is pressed, the colors of the world map are much brighter in the Proto. As may be expectable, the locations for other areas are not present.

Available
Several of the abilities in the final are not available in the prototype; available abilities are Beam, Bomb, Cupid, Cutter, Fighter, Fire, Ice, Laser, Parasol, Spark, Stone and Sword. There are several differences in the abilities present.

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

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.

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

Spark
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.

Unavailable
A few abilities not yet available are present, mostly unfinished.

Master
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.

Level Design
The switch remains after being pressed in the prototype; it disappears after being pressed in the final. The left door is closed off in the prototype, and the ability trophies are not yet present.

The background use in this room is surprisingly more fitting in the prototype. It may have been changed so that the bosses in the background could only be seen in the hallway before the boss itself, which was not present yet.

This Golem activates when approached from the right in the prototype; it activates from the left in the final. The switch below is also not present.

Chests
This chest with a cherry inside is replaced by a standalone cherry in the final. Probably removed since it would be much more convenient to just get the food rather than watch the chest animation.

Differences in gameplay
(Copied from Thread )

- No intro sequence

- No savegame or game mode selection screens

- You can inhale infinitely

- Minor glitches with the arrows showing at off-screen Kirbys

- Pausing doesn't have a sound effect

- No map, no area name/number display, no enemy healthbars

- Penultimate area of Rainbow Route completely different(not vertical in proto, instead a long horizontal area)

- Much of Moonlight Mansion's tileset changed in final, including palette

- Minor changes to level design

- Enemy placement and type almost always different

- Some backgrounds different (noticeable in Moonlight Mansion)

- Several chests missing

- When walking off a ledge or after spitting out air, you are placed about 6 pixels lower than on the final version. Also his sprite is partially inside the floor before Kirby gets grounded. So it looks like the correlation between his sprite and hitbox is different.

- The "enter door" sound effect is slightly different, as if it plays twice quickly in a row.

- Kirby jumps about 5 pixels higher in the final version

- When Kirby lands after falling with falling momentum, he walks noticeably further in the proto.

- When running and letting go of arrow keys, Kirby will keep running until he runs out of speed on the final version. He switches to walking in the prototype version.

- Enemies' invincibility periods don't work when Kirby moves through them (after he got hit), so they are hit once every frame. Their invincibility periods are intact when Kirby moves through them, after he ate an invincibility candy.

- Kirby uses flying animation when on ground able to fly in proto; more still in final.

- The "ability get" sound effect plays right away when inhaling an enemy in the prototype version.

- Ability stars don't move away quicker when hit by an enemy, in the prototype version.

- When using Spark ability's or Fire Kirby's attack, its sound effect stops playing after a buddy Kirby inhaled an ability or if certain sound effects play, in the prototype version.

- To leave the pause screen, you have to press A, unlike start in the final.

- You can't cancel out of your "blowing up" phase by inhaling or using your ability, in the prototype version.

- Cannot inhale food.

- Ability stars can fall into pits and don't break right away, unlike in the final version.

- You can't L-Warp in the prototype version. Sometimes L doesn't do anything. Other times it behaves like R.

- CPU-Kirbys can inhale your ability stars in the prototype version, they can't in the final version.

- Ability roulette doesn't have any sound effect. The ability display is glitched for one frame, then intact for three frames, etc. On the final version, the display is never glitched.

- As Sword Kirby, 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 Kirby, when rolling across the ground in stone form doesn't assume his normal stance (when he's lying on his side or diagonally) in the prototype version.

- When switching from Stone form to normal form, he bounces lower in the prototype version.

- It seems, when Kirby is going into Stone form while running, he gets a little speed boost, making him roll further.

- The "Dark Kirby" sound effect is different on the prototype version.

- You can inhale Dark Kirby right away on the prototype version. On the final version he behaves like a heavy enemy.

- Dark Kirby drops a 1-up, maxim tomato or invincibility candy on the final version. In the prototype version, he drops nothing.

- In Dark Kirby's room in RR, As long as Dark Kirby hasn't disappeared yet you won't be able to descend into the pit on the left. Fixed in the final version by moving the screen to the right, so there's no pit to fall into.

- After Dark Kirby disappeared, if you die, he will appear again on the final version, but he won't on the prototype version.

- When falling into a warpstar as Stone Kirby in stone form, he will fly through the star on the prototype version, but he will grab it on the official version.

- Moonlight mansion theme starts playing a room after the room you landed in with your warpstar from RR, on the prototype version. On the final version, the theme starts playing in that room already, instead.

- CPU Kirbys can't grab warpstars on the prototype version.

- After going through a door, Kirby is invisible for a few frames.

- Wall ejection works differently (= the way Kirby is ejected by the walls, when he's inside them (by using glitches))

- Going through the gate in Moonlight Mansion towards the main room makes a different sound effect than the usual going-through-door sound effect.

- When opening a treasure chest, the acquired item is shown slightly longer than on the final version.

- After beating King Golem, the main room sound theme starts playing on the prototype version. And there's no blue flashing light around the mirror shard. After acquiring the shard, it takes about 3 seconds longer to switch to the mirror gate cutscene.

- I spotted a swallowing-ability glitch where another enemy on the screen zipped horizontally...

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 0x in the ROM:

0.21 Mon Dec 29 19:37:23 2003