Kirby Mass Attack

Kirby Mass Attack
Also known as: Atsumete! Kirby (JP) Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: August 4, 2011 Released in US: September 19, 2011 Released in EU: October 28, 2011 Released in AU: October 27, 2011 Released in KR: December 1, 2011 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has anti-piracy features.

To do: Document the demo version of the game. More unused graphics such as unused pieces for a scrapped minigame, world splash screens, and unused food graphics such as grapes. Pre-release screenshots such as a screenshot in a Japanese magazine which shows an underwater level that's identical to stage 10 of Green Grounds but with a different background. Source

Kirby Mass Attack can best be described as Kirby meets Lemmings. Kirby gets split up into 10 smaller (and somehow more adorable) Kirbys that have to work together to destroy enemies, open paths, and get food. It is also the successor of Kirby: Canvas Curse in some ways, and contains unlockable subgames in a variety of genres (including a vertical shoot-'em-up and what's pretty much a remake of Kirby's Pinball Land).

Unused Graphics

To do: There's more sprites to add and other graphics, including graphics intended for remakes of the minigames from Kirby's Adventure; you can find them here. Filenames and directories.

Avalanche

Presumably an unused obstacle meant for the unused Frozed Field level (or just any snow level in general).

Unused Palette Swap Feature

To do: Why is the bottom screen the wrong resolution?

It seems you could originally modify Kirby's color, like in Kirby Squeak Squad, but this feature was scrapped fairly early. The graphics for the menu can still be found in the game, though they were never translated from the original Japanese. Available colors would be indigo, cyan, grey, light pink, pink, red, orange, yellow, blue-green, green, purple, dark grey, and beige.

Unused Enemies

UFO, Shuffler, Hammer Knight, and Block Dragon have unfinished shading.

Only Toroppon's cart is fully detailed.

Only the igloo-shaped Pytago sprites are complete. All three have red guidelines on each side.

Spiky, Rocketon, Carryon, Giga Clanksprout and Tortletummy all seem to be finished.

Big versions of some enemies.

An early version of the wrong door in the haunted house levels.

Some unknown unused enemies.

The Regular Version Of Blipper was supposed to be in the game, but was removed. However, an Electrical Version can be seen in stage 5 of Dedede Resort.

(Source: http://www.spriters-resource.com/ds_dsi/kirbymassattack/)

Unused Subgame Elements

There are even some unused elements in the subgames, particularly Strato Patrol EOS, which was to have Plasma Wisp as an enemy and King Dedede as a playable character.

Unused Hint

An unused screen, in Japanese, with a hint about grabbing:

Can't grab on...

While hanging on to a star,
you cannot grab on to other things.

In the game Kirbys can grab things even if they are hanging on to the star, but this hint indicates that might not have always been the case.

World Splash Screens

There are 4 unused splash screens for every world in the game, including an unused one called "Frozen Field". Several differences can be seen here:

• Green Grounds was called 'Green Ground'
• Dedede Land was changed to Dedede Resort, likely because it didn't sound very fitting. The letters are also yellow instead of light blue.
• An unused world called Frozen Field can be seen here. There is no splash screen for Volcano Valley, suggesting that Frozen Field was supposed to replace Volcano Valley.

Placeholder Stage Select Image

A placeholder stage select screen featuring a 3D render of Galatic NOVA, which is kinda odd since this game is in 2D, the text translates to "Image does not exist".

Unused Music

BGM_TORIDE

A track that sounds like it might have fit into Strato Patrol EOS. "Toride" (砦) is also Japanese for "fortress."

BGM_AFTER_BOSS

A seemingly celebratory theme, using part of the main theme motif.

Regional Differences

Removed Enemy Credits

To do: Upload more of the Japanese enemy credits. Source for upper screen. Source for lower screen. Gameplay of the credits.

The Japanese version has an enemy credits sequence with 35 pictures and Kirby having a picnic that was, for whatever reason, dummied out from all subsequent versions. The untranslated graphics are still in the game's files. It's worth noting that the sprites used to represent the enemies Stickle and Ill Gate in the enemy credits are not the sprites used in the final version of the game but are actually unused sprites. English localizations are in parenthesis where applicable, as only Necrodeus and Kirby are effectively the same.

• 

  Puppon (Beanbon)
  Derappon

• 

  Utouto (Snoozroot)
  Uto Sand
  Uto Puku
  Uto Fire

• 

  Uhho (Oohroo)
  Gaburin (Gobchomplin)
  Toppy
  Sutoppy

• 

  Spydio (Spideroo)
  Mosomoso
  Posura
  Moggy

• 

  Dokuro Daioh (Skullord)
  Dokuron (Skully)
  Dokuro Shogun (Skullseer)
  Dokurosu (Skullion)
  Buufuu

• 

  Necrodeus

• 

  Kirby

Graphical Changes

Japan	International

The localized versions of the Strato Patrol EOS minigame's game over screen, instead of localizing "Holy NightMare" to "Night Mare Enterprises", simply removes the text entirely and replaces it with a background featuring blue clouds in the likeness of Nightmare himself (or eNeMeE, as he is known in the 4Kids English dub of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!). This reflects similar changes made to the international localization of the Hoshi no Kirby anime.

Checklist

The game features a list that contains achievements, with the English names of both the list and of the achievements themselves being different between the American and European versions. In the American version, the list is called "Checklist" with the achievements being called "tasks". In the European version, the list is referred either as the "Award List" or simply as "the list", with the achievements being called "Awards" or "secret challenges".

American version	European version

In the file selection screen, the American version refers to the menu as "Checklist", the name of the list, while the European version calls it "Awards", the name of the achievements. In the American version, the "Extras" text is aligned more to the right than in the European version.

American version	European version

The menu has at the side of the number of achievements obtained "Tasks Completed" in the American version, and "Awards Received" in the European one. The text that appears when opening the menu for the first time also differs, with the American version stating to complete "secret tasks" to fill "the Checklist", while the European version states to complete "secret challenges" to fill "the list".

American version	European version

When completing an achievement, the message that pops up in the American version states that the Checklist has been completed more, while it displays that the Award List has been updated. The width of the exclamation mark (!) at the end of the message also differs.

Japanese version	American version	European version

The Extras that unlock each achievement list page once again call the list "Checklist" in the American version and "Awards List" in the European version, with the European version specifying that a page is being unlocked. The card graphic says "CHECKLIST" at its top left corner in the American version, while it is blank in the European version. In the Japanese and Korean versions, that corner instead says "CHALLENGE LIST".

American version	European version

The Special Shot displayed when obtaining all of the achievements is called "Cleared All Tasks!" in the American version and displays "You Cleared All of the Tasks!". In the European version, the Special Shot is called "Got All Awards!" and displays "You Got All the Awards!".

Extras miscellaneous

The Japanese version has a space after the current number of Medals, displaying "186 /186" instead of "186/186" if all (of) the Medals are collected. All international versions correct that space.

The Japanese and Korean versions of the game separate the "Medals/Extra" text from the number of their amount with some centered dots. The American and European versions instead separate it with colons and a space.

In the Japanese and Korean versions, the high score of each sub-game is listed with a star and then a number, while in the American and European they are listed with a number, a star, and then a colon.

Japanese version	American and European versions	Korean version

The Japanese version display a DS-like boxart for each of the sub-games (Field Frenzy, Kirby Brawlball, Kirby Curtain Call, Dash Course, Strato Patrol EOS, Kirby Quest and Survival Rush). The international versions, including the Korean one, replace the boxarts of all seven sub-games with logos written in English. The Music Player, the Game Album and the Checklist/Awards page unlocks have other types of graphic differences.

Japanese version	American version	European version	Korean version

The graphic for the Game Album in the Japanese version consits of an image of the album itself with its Japanese name on it and four pictures next to it. In the American version, this same graphic was used, while translating the name of the album. In the European and Korean versions however, the album was removed, the four pictures were rearranged, and two more new pictures were added.

Japanese version	American version	European version	Korean version

The graphic for the Music Player in the Japanese and Korean versions consists of an album case with a Kirby picture and "SOUND PLAYER" written on it. In the American version, the same case picture was kept, changing the text to "Music Player" with a different font. In the European version the text was instead removed altogether, along with some "text" on the upper side of the CD, and the picture of Kirby is bigger than in the other versions. The "Start" text is also placed slightly differently between the American and European versions, which doesn't happen with the "Play" text of the sub-games or the "Open" text of the Game Album.

American version	European version

The Special Shot displayed when collecting every Medal displays "You Got All of the Medals!" in the American version and "You Got All the Medals!" in the European version, removing the "of". Unlike the Tasks/Awards Special Shot, the Medal one is named identical between both versions.

Development Text

The following pieces of development text can be found in the ARM9 binary.

wadogo-00-1f

c:/home/wadogo/data/map.d/map

The "map" folder in the game's filesystem contains the levels.

Internal Project Name

The project's internal name is "wadogo", according to the above development text and the filename of the SDAT file, "WADO_SND_new.sdat". The name also appears in the filenames of some press materials released by Nintendo.

Anti-Piracy

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: How does the game detect that it's a copy?

After loading the game, it will freeze with a blank screen if it detects that it is a copy.