Kirby's Pinball Land

1993 · Pinball · Game Boy

About Kirby's Pinball Land

Kirby's Pinball Land (1993) is HAL Laboratory's Game Boy pinball game with Kirby as the ball, climbing three-floor tables owned by Whispy Woods, Kracko and the Poppy Bros. to face King Dedede.

Kirby's Pinball Land in Depth

Kirby is the ball, kept in play by two flippers as he bounces off walls, bumpers and enemies for points. Defeating certain enemies earns bonus points and multipliers that combine into a bonus at the end of each life, and Maxim Tomatoes block the drain for a short time. There are three tables, Whispy Woods, Kracko and Poppy Bros., each owned by a classic Kirby boss and made up of three floors, and the aim is to work Kirby up to the top floor to reach the boss. Each floor has gimmicks to help, such as characters that throw Kirby upward or summon a Warp Star.

Warp Stars lead somewhere different on each floor: on the bottom floor back to table selection, on the middle floor to a minigame for extra points and multipliers, and on the top floor to the boss fight, where the player must land a set number of hits without falling back. Beating all three bosses unlocks a fight against King Dedede, after which the tables can be replayed for a higher score. If Kirby drains on the bottom floor he lands on a springboard; a well-timed press of A bounces him back, even to the top floor, but the springboard shrinks with each use until Kirby is lost. Extra lives come from spelling EXTRA with letters that appear after bosses are beaten.

Making Kirby's Pinball Land

HAL Laboratory developed it and Nintendo published it, its second pinball game after the NES title Pinball, releasing it in Japan on 27 November 1993. Famitsu's four reviewers praised its atmosphere, secrets and surprises, with one calling it "very-well rounded", though others found it too easy for the ball to fall between the flippers and one felt it had fewer features than Devil's Crush. Electronic Gaming Monthly's critics complained that the Game Boy screen's blurring made the action hard to follow, but deemed it "one of the better pinball games for any system" thanks to its ball-saving springboard, multi-table play and many hidden things to find.

Kirby's Pinball Land Trivia

It was HAL Laboratory's third pinball game, after Rollerball and Revenge of the 'Gator.
It was the first Kirby spin-off and the second Kirby game on Game Boy.
It was the top-selling Game Boy game in the UK in March and April 1994.
Nintendo Power ranked it the fifth best Game Boy game of 1993.
It was re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console in July 2012.