During the nineties, Nintendo commissioned DMA Design, the studio behind Grand Theft Auto, to develop Kid Kirby for the Super Nintendo, a canceled project that has now been completely recreated by the community to play on PC.
That ambitious game for the sixteen-bit console never made it to store shelves back then, but a fan has managed to revive it from scratch on computers with a free release that brings its mechanics and vision back to life.
A Project Rescued from the Past
Scottish studio DMA Design, globally famous for creating the Grand Theft Auto franchise before becoming Rockstar North, was tasked in the mid-nineties with developing a Kirby prequel centered around Nintendo's pink puffball. However, that Super Nintendo development was ultimately scrapped and remained for decades as one of the most curious trivia stories in gaming history. Today, thanks to fan dedication, this lost concept returns on PC with a playable adaptation capturing the spirit of those original ideas.
This PC release is not a traditional reverse-engineered decompilation of existing game code, but a fully made recreation offering eight distinct stages and a final boss encounter. Each level introduces fresh mechanics to keep gameplay engaging, staying faithful to the platforming feel that defined Nintendo's classic era.
Throughout the stages, defeating certain enemies grants Kirby his iconic copy abilities, which players can trigger by pressing the Space key or Right Click. The system prevents picking up a new power while an existing one remains active. Classic abilities such as Beam and Parasol feature a default duration of 10 seconds, though players can press the ability key again to cancel them early if they wish to return to normal.
Copy Abilities and Modern PC Controls
The control scheme features dedicated movements to navigate stages and launch Kirby across the screen. Pressing Up or W allows Kirby to enter doorways, while Left or A slaps Kirby upward, and Right or D slams him downward. One of the most unique additions in this PC recreation is the paper airplane transformation, a mechanic directly inspired by the paper plane form from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. While transformed, tilting up gains altitude while slowing forward momentum, while tilting down accelerates forward movement at the expense of losing height.
The fan adaptation also includes several accessibility and navigation options tailored for PC users. The game can be paused at any time using P or Enter, a feature that also works within the central level hub to let players resume their run or head back to the main menu. Cutscenes can be skipped using Space or Enter, and anyone who skips the intro by mistake can simply wait on the title screen without pressing anything to let the opening cinematic play automatically.
In terms of display settings, the build carries over a shortcut from testing that toggles fullscreen with the F key from the options menu when running at a resolution of 1024×896 pixels. This recreated version of Kid Kirby is currently available as a free download on PC for retro gaming fans and preservation enthusiasts who want to experience this unusual crossover between Nintendo and the future creators of Grand Theft Auto.