Kirby's Toy Box Title screen ofKirby's Toy Box - Ball Rally. Details Developer(s) HAL Laboratory Publisher(s) Nintendo Release date(s) February 8, 1996 Platform(s) Satellaview Supported languages Japanese

Game chronology ←Kirby's Block Ball Kirby Super Star →

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Kirby's Toy Box^{[Japanese title]} is a collection of tenKirby-themed mini-games which were broadcast on theSatellaview service of theSuper Famicom in Japan, starting on February 8, 1996.^[1][2]

The eight original games areball-related, such asBaseball which involves a simple game of baseball, except thatKirby is substituted for the ball. Most of them are played like traditional arcade games where the player has to attain a high score before hitting aGame Over. The trial versions ofSamurai Kirby andMegaton Punch were included as a promotion forKirby Super Star, which would release soon after.

Mini-games[edit]

The games aired twice daily in pairs. The first three-week run (February 8 through 28) consisted of six different games with a new pair scheduled for transmission each week, initially at 19:00-20:00 then again at 22:00-23:00 each day, with the twoSub-Games fromKirby Super Star starting transmission on February 22, 1996.^[3][4] The second 15-day run (March 7 through 21) rotated through all ten minigames with a different pair of games each day, first at 15:00-16:00 and then again at 19:00–20:00.^[5]

Kirby's Toy Box - Pinball[edit]

This is a simple game of pinball on a single board, retaining some concepts featured inKirby's Pinball Land. The player has to launch Kirby from aCannon into the playfield and keep him from rolling down the drain. There are various enemies in fixed spots which when hit will earn the player points, while certain combinations will also light up items for short-term assistance.

Enemies[edit]

• Kracko andCo-Kracko - bumpers, each hit adds up 50 or 30 points respectively
• Waddle Dee - a spot target, adds 100 points
• Bounder - climbs up and down and halts Kirby's movement, adds 30 points
• Chick - an orbit target, adds 100 points or 1000 points when hatched (hit 4 times)
• Elieel - four hiding in the side lane, each add 100 points
• Mr. Frosty - captures and kicks Kirby back, adds 300 points or 1000 points when hit 5 times (adds ×1 to the bonus multiplier)
• King Dedede - higher-difficulty target, adds 300 points or 1000 points when hit 5 times (adds ×5 to the bonus multiplier)

Both lower and upper rollovers add 30 points. Lighting up upper ones gain the playerEnergy Drinks in the outlanes, while doing the same with the 3 Kirby sprites place aMaxim Tomato between the flippers to protect from draining the ball.

Kirby's Toy Box - Star Breaker[edit]

ABreakout-style game with a few major differences toKirby's Block Ball. In place of a paddle are twoRicks with a trampoline which with their movement also dictate Kirby's direction, who acts as the ball. The key difference is the constant gravity applied to the bouncing Kirby.

There are 5 stages where every Star-shaped brick has to be crushed (70 points). A "Star" counter is present which constantly decreases on its own, and when higher than 0 (zero) grants Kirby one safe bounce off the ground if he misses the trampoline. Each crushed brick disposes aPoint Star which when collected (10 points) increases the Star counter by 5, while each ground touch decreases the same by 10.

Once the player clears the first five stages, in the sixth is aBoss fight withKing Dedede. There are no bricks to crush and Point Stars to be collected - instead, King Dedede has to be hit 10 times. He floats in the air in circles and every so often throws hammers at Ricks which can stun them for a second. Defeating King Dedede grants 11,000 points, and the game continues by cycling back to the first stage.

Kirby's Toy Box - Round and Round Ball[edit]

In this mini-game, the player has to fire three Kirbys through a spiral tube (which is designed likeEfreeti). The power of each shot has to be adjusted to aim for higher-scoring holes, while good timing ensures a multiplier or 1–2bonus lives. From top to bottom:

• 1st hole - 10 points
• 2nd hole - 500 points
• 3rd hole - 200 points
• 4th hole - 100 points
• 5th hole - 50 points

The bonus multiplier cycles 1 through 7, with the last numeric 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and then 1UP and 2UP. Reaching a score of 5000 also adds one bonus Kirby ball to fire.

Kirby's Toy Box - Arrange Ball[edit]

This is a mini-game inspired byPachinko andA-One LSI Arrange Ball, an old handheld electronic game. The player is given exactly 9 Kirby balls, one for each of nine holes in a 3×3 set-up. Each ball is launched into the field by a plunger at adjusted power, and shall fall through pins in its way into unoccupied holes. The objective is similar to a bingo game - scoring rows, columns and diagonals.

NineMr. Frostys highlight occupied holes and one large lies behind the board. They otherwise do not serve any other functions.

Completing a single column or row awards a little over 200 points each time. Arranging all 9 Kirbys is awarded with 100,000 points and captioned with "Congratulations!".

Kirby's Toy Box - Pachinko[edit]

As the name implies, this is a mini-game based on Pachinko machines. The player controls the rotation of the knob (indicated in the bottom-right corner) to adjust the power at which Kirby-shaped Pachinko balls are launched. An unlimited number of balls is given to score as many points as possible in 120 seconds.

For every ball landed into any of seven pockets 10 points are awarded. If one lands directly atop the big Kirby in the center, the player wins a temporary chance to earn more points - Kirby will raise his arms and award 100 points for each ball that hits him inside a 5 seconds frame.

Should the player quickly figure out the right power/angle of the knob, it is possible to make and keep most, if not all balls follow the same path into any of the pockets. In that case, scoring several thousand points is feasible in 2 minutes.

Kirby's Toy Box - Baseball[edit]

This mini-game is based on theYakyūban (野球盤, literally translated as "baseball board")^[6] toy manufactured by Japanese toy company Epoch Co.^[7].

The player controls the bat with the + Control Pad and can move it within its box, while pressing the A Button makes the bat swing in order to hit an incoming ball. Balls are pitched from the central circle after random intervals of time with varying velocities and angles, giving the player little time to correctly react to each pitch.

The objective of the game is to hi-score as many runs as possible. One shot to a HIT, 2B or 3B inlet at the end of the field makes all present Kirbys respectively move one, two or three bases towards the home base (each time a Kirby makes it to home plate, it counts as a run), starting on the first base on the right. Batting a ball into the golden-colored HR field makes all present Kirbys complete a home run, and for each of them 1 point is awarded to the score.

Each missed or a shot to the FOUL inlet is a strike, and three strikes are penalized with an out. Three outs and the game is over. Scoring the HR field clears out any strikes the player has received.

In the2 player game, two players compete in ten rounds. Notably, the balls are considerably slower and harder to score. The player with more accumulated score wins.

Kirby's Toy Box - Cannonball[edit]

In this mini-game dedicated to real-time multiplayerartillery battles, two players (or one player versusCPU) each operate a large mechanical robotic Rick. They can be moved slowly back and forth and lob spherical Kirbys at their opponents over hills and destructible terrain. The objective of this game is to destroy the other player's Rick first to win a round.

Head of one's robotic Rick acts as its turret and is angled up ↑ or down ↓ with respective D-pad buttons. Destroyed terrain cannot be walked over, while horizontally moving clouds hamper projectile trajectories. One Rick can endure6 hits (its tone is also redder with each hit) which resets its turret's angle. Several terrain patterns are cycled through.

This is the only of ten mini-games where the goal is not setting a high-score.

Kirby's Toy Box - Ball Rally[edit]

This is the last of eight original mini-games in the collection. The player has to guide as many from a total of 50 balls from the entrance door placed in top left towards the exit in the bottom right. The only control is an A button press which alternates extension and retraction between two sets of green platforms.

In the first half, the left part of the field, they start by rolling down several pink slopes. Balls that make through are launched by aspring into the second half, which includes Pachinko-like pins that lead intospikes (but occasionally return balls back), and ultimately have to go down a spiral slide and into the exit.

These balls are dropped in at random delays (quicker as the game nears its end) into the field, so proper timing and swift commands are needed to avoid losing balls to spikes. As more Kirbys join the playing field, it becomes increasingly difficult to guide them all to the exit. Each consecutive ball doubles the bonus multiplier (2, 4, 8, ... 128) which resets whenever another is knocked out. When the counter is below 30 balls, several large rolled-up King Dededes may also join the field. Kirby balls are worth 10, while King Dedede ones are worth 100 points each.

Development[edit]

Not much is known about the development forKirby's Toy Box and it was rarely mentioned ever since release. In aSmash Bros. DOJO questionnaire,Masahiro Sakurai states he has never seenKirby's Toy Box.^[8] From the whole collection, onlyStar Breaker has a unique soundtrack which was composed byTakane Ōkubo. Other mini-games reuse background music and sound effects fromKirby's Dream Course, with the main exception of the title theme, which is a remix of thetitle theme fromKirby's Adventure.

Trivia[edit]

• According to several sources, the trial versions ofSamurai Kirby andMegaton Punch were exact ports of those that would be released inKirby Super Star.^[1][9] Furthermore, as of December 2020, they remain the only mini-games in the collection not publicly dumped as ROM files.^[10][11]
• The concept for KO'd Kirby, later reused inKirby Mass Attack, theKirby Fighters games, andKirby Battle Royale, might have originated in theBall Rally mini-game. If King Dedede or Kirby balls get knocked out by spikes, they turn into white-colored angels and float upwards off the screen.

Gallery[edit]

Sprites[edit]

• 
  Kirby, as he appears on the title screen for all games
• 
  Kirby fromStar Breaker
• 
  King Dedede fromStar Breaker
• 
  The twoRicks fromStar Breaker
• 
  Kirby as the ball inBaseball
• 
  Kirby as a player inBaseball

Other images[edit]

• 
  "These (modes) are all games!" - a splash screen promoting the futureKirby Super Star game, showing its corkboard
• 
  Description of the mini-games and airing schedule report fromFamimaga (1996, #4) magazine
• 
  Pre-release screenshots of the mini-games fromFamitsu (1996, March 1st)
• 
  Similar pre-release screenshots fromMonthly Satellaview Tsushin (March 1996)
• 
  A mix of final and pre-release screenshots fromMonthly Satellaview Tsushin (April 1996)

Audio[edit]

• https://wikirby.com/wiki/File:KTB_Title_Screen_sample.mp3
  Title theme for most minigames
• https://wikirby.com/wiki/File:Retry_-_Kirby%27s_Toy_Box.mp3
  Jingle that plays when retrying a game

Names in other languages[edit]

External links[edit]

• God-Bird.net list of Satellaview games
• Nico Nico Pedia article
• かびほし☆ fansite overview of each mini-game
• マイナーなカービィゲーム - PPPLand fansite
• SFC Mania, blog by randnetdd

References

• Kirby's Toy Box
• Games on Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• Spin-off games

• Articles with titles from non-English languages
• Articles which list Japanese names