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Prerelease:Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

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This page details prerelease information and/or media for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

Like Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror's development was pretty silent. This game was mainly handled by Flagship and Dimps, while HAL Laboratory Inc. provided Artwork and Debugging Materials. A playable Demo was released, a public website containing various screenshots was put up and a trailer was shown at E3 2004 for the game's English localization.

Development Timeline

  • 2003
    • Dec. 29 - A Demo build is compiled to be later released in various Gekkan Nintendo Tentou Demo discs.
  • 2004
    • Apr. 15th - The game is released in Japan.
    • May 11th - The game's English version is presented at E3 2004 [1].
    • Jul. 2nd - The game is released in Europe.
    • Oct. 18th - The game is released in the United States.

2004 Japanese Website

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror has a mini-website. Surprisingly, many of the screenshots depict lots of pre-release material.

Cell Phone

Early Final
AmazingMirrorPhoneEarlier.png KirbyAmazingMirror-PhoneOfficial.png

In the FAQ section, an alternate design of the phone is depicted. It was originally a Flip Phone! The final is a normal Cell Phone that added a thicker antenna and a red button.

Collection Room

Early Final
AmazingMirrorSprayPaintEarly.png AmazingMirrorSprayPaintFinal.png

The Collection Room's items went under slight revisions. Shading was added to the Spray Paint sprites and many dark spots in the World and Area Maps were removed. The default Kirby icon also had two pixels of its mouth altered.

World Map

Early Final
AmazingMirrorWorldMapEarly.png AmazingMirrorWorldMapFinal.png

The A Button was originally used to switch maps in place of the Select button. Also, the text at the side of the A button says エリアマップへ (To Area Map) instead of きりかえ (Switch).

Rainbow Route

Early Final
AmazingMirrorRainbowRouteEarly.png AmazingMirrorRainbowRouteFinal.png

Many grass tiles were modified in the final. Most notably, the tiles that formed the corners of the landscapes were modified to blend better with the environment. The transparent spots in the middle of the early image were turned into opaque spots in the final and a random plant to the bottom right was removed. Notably, Rainbow Route's background is the same as the one shown in the Demo.

Cabbage Cavern

Early Final
It hurts to see...! Much better.

Moley's room had a brighter background. The brightness of some slope tiles were also adjusted.

Mustard Mountain

Early Final
AmazingMirrorMustardMounteinMapEarly.png AmazingMirrorMustardMountainMapFinal.png

Mustard Mountain uses the early name "Mustard Mountein". The A Button was used to go to the next area, as shown by the text next to it that reads つぎのエリア (Next Area), while the L/R buttons were used to Zoom in and out, as stated by the text saying ズーム (Zoom). The room indicators were also moved to the top.

Early Final
AmazingMirrorMustardCannonEarly.png AmazingMirrorMustardCannonFinal.png

The cannon in this room was incorrectly positioned. Some tiles inside the wall to the right were moved around, and a random pebble to the left was removed.

Olive Ocean

Early Final
AmazingMirrorGlunkOceanEarly.png AmazingMirrorGlunkOceanFinal.png

The tiles around the stone and bomb blocks were altered and moved around for the final build. The area's name is also absent.

Early Final
AmazingMirrorGobblerRoomEarly.png AmazingMirrorGobblerRoomFinal.png

The water and platforms are positioned lower in the final.

Crackity Hack

Early Final
AmazingMirrorKrackityHackEarly.png AmazingMirrorKrackityHackFinal.png

The timer's font had shadows added in the final.

Early Final
AmazingMirrorKrackityHackCrackEarly.png AmazingMirrorKrackityHackCrackFinal.png

The background was moved a bit to the top left. Aside from the lack of shading, the meter counter had an "m" at the sides, while in the final, two small zeros are present.

Early Final
The pedestal kind of looks like it has eyes... This was for the better.

The pedestal Kirby is standing in was completely redesigned. Confetti was also added in the final game.

Speed Eaters

Early Final
AmazingMirrorSpeedEatersEarly.png AmazingMirrorSpeedEatersFinal.png

The Kirbys' sprites had different shading and thinner eyes. Pink and Green Kirby were moved closer to Yellow and Red Kirby respectively, and the background's ceiling was slightly altered.

2017 Kirby's 25th Anniversary Copy Ability Video

Bizarrely, an official video detailing all of Kirby's Copy Abilities has many shots of old builds of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

Cupid

Early Final
AmazingMirrorCupid25thEarly.png AmazingMirrorCupid25thFinal.png

This room from Rainbow Route was altered for the final game. A Cupie was in this room at one point, and most importantly, the passage to the top right didn't exist yet! The area's name to the bottom left also wasn't there.

Fire

Early Final
AmazingMirrorFire25thEarly.png AmazingMirrorFire25thFinal.png

This room's background was using a lighter and earlier tileset. The area's name wasn't present yet.

Missile

Early Final
AmazingMirrorMissile25thEarly.png AmazingMirrorMissile25thFinal.png

The soft floor had the tiles of a hard floor, giving the impression that Kirby rocketed through some hard floor. Rainbow Route's name is nowhere to be seen, too.

Early Final
AmazingMirrorMissile25thSecondEarly.png AmazingMirrorMissile25thSecondFinal.png

The area's name is not present. That's pretty much it.

HAL Laboratory Inc. Website

Even more bizarre, the website for HAL Labs has four more screenshots depicting pre-release material for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

Central Circle

Early Final
AmazingMirrorCentralCircleEarly.png AmazingMirrorCentralCircleFinal.png

The Mirror uses its Demo appearance in this pre-release screenshot, Olive Ocean's door has differently colored shells and U.F.O Kirby is using the incorrect palette. Contrary to popular belief, U.F.O Kirby can be brought into the Central Circle if Magic's ability roulette is used inside it.

Rainbow Route

Early Final
AmazingMirrorDualPathEarly.png AmazingMirrorDualPathFinal.png

This pre-release screenshot depicts one of the earliest builds of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. The Kirby's Swords aren't positioned correctly, the Cell Phone is using its Flip Phone design, the health bar was thinner and had a completely different sprite when they were depleted, the background was moved to the right, the Door in the path above isn't using a small star, the tiles in the ceiling of the cave below were smoothened and the grass below Green Kirby was removed. Of course, the area's name wasn't available. Classic.

Beginning of Mustard Mountain

Early Final
AmazingMirrorBigRoomEarly.png AmazingMirrorBigRoomFinal.png

The early build is using the Demo's Cell Phone sprite and lacking the area's name. The wall to the left had a small protrusion added for the final game.

Olive Ocean

Early Final
AmazingMirrorPrankRoomEarly.png AmazingMirrorPrankRoomFinal.png

Small patches of grass were added to the bottom right and the top left in the final build of the game. And for the last time, the area's name isn't available in the early screenshot.

References