Kirby first hit the scene in 1992 with Kirby's Dream Land on the original Game Boy. Since then he has graced every single Nintendo console. Well, except for the Virtual Boy but that is a whole other story.

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The point is there are plenty of Kirby games out there to try for any platform one may choose. They are great for all ages, even more so than Mario games. That doesn’t mean Nintendo didn’t cancel a game or two in the process. Let’s take a look back at over twenty years of history to see what games the pink puffball could have starred in.

10 Kirby Adventure

This game has no official name although it is often referred to as Kirby Adventure. It was a 2D game in typical Kirby fashion, but with the big gimmick of implementing four player co-op. There is footage and screenshots out there for this list GameCube game. While Kirby Adventure was canceled, this style of gameplay was later reused for the Wii title, Kirby's Return to Dream Land

9 Kid Kirby

This was being made for the Super Nintendo. It would have starred younger versions of all the characters, as if the name didn’t give it away. It would have also used the SNES’ mouse peripheral as the main controller. The craziest part about this game was that DMA Design was behind it aka the studio that would eventually become Rockstar. One reason why this might have been canceled was that the mouse never really caught on. 

8 Kirby Bowl 64

This was kind of like Super Monkey Ball before that game existed. Players would control a ball form of Kirby and rock him around mazes. There is no video footage, but there are screenshots to give Kirby fans a taste of what they might have missed out on. 

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This is not the end of the story however. The groundworks of this game would blossom into two other attempts. 

7 Kirby’s Air Ride

The first conversion was Kirby’s Air Ride. Instead of taking the form of a ball, Nintendo instead gave Kirby something to ride. It’s easy to see both games looking like they came from the same cloth if one compared screenshots. Now, at this point the game looked more like a typical action adventure game from this series. However, once this was canceled, the concept would eventually make its way to the GameCube. That version of Kirby’s Air Ride was a pure racing experience. 

6 Kirby Family 

This was an attempt at a sequel to Mario Family. That game released in Japan for the Game Boy Color and was basically a pattern machine. If one hooked it up to the Jaguar JN-100 sewing machine, they could create and stitch Mario patterns onto clothes. So it was more of an accessory than a game. For whatever reason this same idea for Kirby didn’t make it far as there are only a handful of assets. 

5 Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble 2

Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble was a Game Boy Color game that was released with a special cartridge. Inside the game was an accelerometer which allowed players to literally tilt the game and guide Kirby along. This sequel would have been both a Game Boy Advance game and a GameCube one. The GBA would have been the controller while gameplay would have been shown on the TV. There is video of this game out there along with screenshots but it too, of course, was canceled

4 Kirby Super Star: Kagero Mansion

It’s always amazing to discover secrets about game years later. This entry took two decades to uncover. During the pre-release of the SNES Mini in 2017, Nintendo conducted interviews on their website with developers who had a hand in the twenty-one games that would be included with the system. One such interview was with Masahiro Sakurai who revealed a cut game from Kirby Super Star which was called Kagero Mansion. Technically this isn’t a standalone game, but let’s count it anyway. 

3 3D Kirby

To this day there has never been a full blown 3D Kirby game in the same style as what Mario has had since Super Mario 64. As of right now there only seems to have been one attempt, which was on the GameCube.

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The game has no title and there is only one screenshot depicting Kirby in his Sword form. What’s the holdup on a 3D Kirby? The time is right on Switch.

2 Anime Kirby

Another game that exists only as a screenshot is this and it also has no name. From the style, it looks a lot like an anime with the cel-shading. It presumably would have been for the GameCube. It could have even been a sequel to Kirby’s Dream Land 3 which had a similar art style on the SNES. Also based on this screenshot, one could assume it would be a normal adventure. 

1 Kirby: Right Back at Ya

Speaking of anime, the pink puffball got a show in the early 2000s aka Kirby: Right Back at Ya. During this time Nintendo was releasing conversations of TV shows onto GBA cartridges like SpongeBob SquarePants. While extremely blurry with poor sound, the cartridges did work. Naturally Nintendo wanted to capitalize with their own series so an episode or two of this anime was planned but eventually canceled. It’s not really a game, but it’s adjacent enough to include it on this list. 

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