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Version 1 - Kirby's Adventure (1993)

Perhaps Kirby's single most iconic ability, it's Sword Kirby! Wherein Kirby gets a sword, and that's rad. Of note is that in its debut in Kirby's Adventure, it was one of three (four if you count Star Rod) abilities which change Kirby's set of sprites beyond simply recoloring them, having him hold a weapon in his poses instead of just pulling it out when he needed to use it. In this case he wields a fairly generic-looking sword, with a silver-white blade and a tan hilt, with stripes down the handle for grip.

Speaking of grip, one thing that has changed throughout the years but which I have opted not to portray in this lineup is how Kirby holds his sword. It varies on a game by game and art by art basis - sometimes the sword is just attached to his flappy arm, like with velcro, sometimes it is sticking out of his arm, and sometimes Kirby's flap wraps around it like a hand. It's very inconsistent, and presumably tends to just be whatever looks best for the specific pose or to the specific artist.

Kirby's Adventure is the only game in which Sword Kirby appears without a hat, though other hatless games would include sword-like abilities, such as Kirby 64's fire sword Kirby wielded as his Burn-Cutter combo ability.

Version 2 - Kirby Super Star (1996) / Kirby: Right Back At Ya! (2001~)

Something interesting, and vitally important, happened to Sword when it came back in Kirby Super Star and was granted its hat. Remember those three abilities that all had Kirby wielding a weapon? They were Sword, Hammer, and Parasol, and all three made an appearance in Kirby Super Star - but only Sword got a hat, as the other two remained distinct only in that Kirby held the weapon. The reason? We can't know for sure, but I think we can make a pretty good guess as to why Sword Kirby ended up with its iconic green cap.

Firstly, the hat's design is shared by another ability: Bomb Kirby, which has the same floppy hat but in blue and white instead of green and yellow. The hat used by Bomb Kirby is directly copied from the hat worn by the "mascot" of Bomb, the Poppy Bros. (both Sr. and Jr.). Secondly, well... surely you've heard of The Legend of Zelda? By taking a floppy jester-like hat and coloring it green, suddenly the hat looked an awful lot like Link's! The sword, too, got a fresh coat of paint to resemble Link's Master Sword - specifically, the blue hilt resembles the iconic blue of the Master Sword's hilt. The yellow blade could be pulled from the final evolution of the sword in Link to the Past, the Golden Sword, but that may be just a coincidence.

By solidifying Sword Kirby's design as a reference to Link, even giving Kirby access to Sword Beams while at full health, Sword Kirby became an icon. In fact, this hat is essentially exactly the same now as it was back in 1996! The colors have shifted around slightly, some appearances making it a darker green and some making the yellow closer to a tan, but all in all the hat has remained roughly unchanged. Instead, we will be looking at the evolution of the sword, which has had some distinct changes through the game series.

This appearance, yellow sword and simple blue hilt, would also be how Sword Kirby appeared in the anime. The anime would have one tiny difference in that the base of the blade has a blue stripe, but I didn't think that was worth a whole new image.

Version 3 - Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) / Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (2004) / Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) / Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008)

Though Nightmare in Dream Land took cues from the anime for a lot of its designs, Sword Kirby got a brand new blade! This new blade design brought it even closer to Zelda's Master Sword, having an appearance not unlike a simplified, exaggerated version of it - it has a bright blue hilt with a yellow-orange gem in the center of it (side note: the gem appears more yellow or more red in different pieces of art and depending on lighting) and two "wings" extending off of the guard on either side. The blade has been adjusted back to silvery-white as well, perhaps because by this point the most recent appearance of the Master Sword do not include upgrading it to make it golden.

This appearance would go on to be the baseline for every Sword Kirby appearance for the rest of the franchise, though there are a few added details I would like to highlight.

Version 4 - Kirby Air Ride (2003)

Sword Kirby in Air Ride is really odd to me, because it has the then-modern design shared by all the other games of its era, but it opted to make the blade yellow again. This is the one and single appearance of the modern blue hilt with a yellow blade. Even the famous scrapped Kirby Gamecube game, though it had several models and enemies reused from Air Ride, reverted the sword back to silver, as can be seen both in the trailers and in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trophy.

Additionally, Kirby Air Ride added some detail to the guard's wings in the form of a little detail line around the outline. From the Brawl trophy it doesn't look like this detail was preserved in Kirby GCN, though.

Version 5 - Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) - Present (2023~)

When Sword Kirby made it to 3D once again, it would have one final detail added in a small dark-blue crescent mark added to each wing of the sword guard. And that's it! Outside of some additional detailed texture work that was added in Return to Dream Land and further expanded upon in Star Allies and Forgotten Land, Sword Kirby's look has remained constant. Fitting for one of Kirby's most iconic abilities! If I had to guess, I would put this one as one that I probably won't need to revise with a future iteration, unlike, say, Fire Kirby which is already outdated. But that's a design I can talk about another day.

Description

<- prev | next ->

Version 1 - Kirby's Adventure (1993)

Perhaps Kirby's single most iconic ability, it's Sword Kirby! Wherein Kirby gets a sword, and that's rad. Of note is that in its debut in Kirby's Adventure, it was one of three (four if you count Star Rod) abilities which change Kirby's set of sprites beyond simply recoloring them, having him hold a weapon in his poses instead of just pulling it out when he needed to use it. In this case he wields a fairly generic-looking sword, with a silver-white blade and a tan hilt, with stripes down the handle for grip.

Speaking of grip, one thing that has changed throughout the years but which I have opted not to portray in this lineup is how Kirby holds his sword. It varies on a game by game and art by art basis - sometimes the sword is just attached to his flappy arm, like with velcro, sometimes it is sticking out of his arm, and sometimes Kirby's flap wraps around it like a hand. It's very inconsistent, and presumably tends to just be whatever looks best for the specific pose or to the specific artist.

Kirby's Adventure is the only game in which Sword Kirby appears without a hat, though other hatless games would include sword-like abilities, such as Kirby 64's fire sword Kirby wielded as his Burn-Cutter combo ability.

Version 2 - Kirby Super Star (1996) / Kirby: Right Back At Ya! (2001~)

Something interesting, and vitally important, happened to Sword when it came back in Kirby Super Star and was granted its hat. Remember those three abilities that all had Kirby wielding a weapon? They were Sword, Hammer, and Parasol, and all three made an appearance in Kirby Super Star - but only Sword got a hat, as the other two remained distinct only in that Kirby held the weapon. The reason? We can't know for sure, but I think we can make a pretty good guess as to why Sword Kirby ended up with its iconic green cap.

Firstly, the hat's design is shared by another ability: Bomb Kirby, which has the same floppy hat but in blue and white instead of green and yellow. The hat used by Bomb Kirby is directly copied from the hat worn by the "mascot" of Bomb, the Poppy Bros. (both Sr. and Jr.). Secondly, well... surely you've heard of The Legend of Zelda? By taking a floppy jester-like hat and coloring it green, suddenly the hat looked an awful lot like Link's! The sword, too, got a fresh coat of paint to resemble Link's Master Sword - specifically, the blue hilt resembles the iconic blue of the Master Sword's hilt. The yellow blade could be pulled from the final evolution of the sword in Link to the Past, the Golden Sword, but that may be just a coincidence.

By solidifying Sword Kirby's design as a reference to Link, even giving Kirby access to Sword Beams while at full health, Sword Kirby became an icon. In fact, this hat is essentially exactly the same now as it was back in 1996! The colors have shifted around slightly, some appearances making it a darker green and some making the yellow closer to a tan, but all in all the hat has remained roughly unchanged. Instead, we will be looking at the evolution of the sword, which has had some distinct changes through the game series.

This appearance, yellow sword and simple blue hilt, would also be how Sword Kirby appeared in the anime. The anime would have one tiny difference in that the base of the blade has a blue stripe, but I didn't think that was worth a whole new image.

Version 3 - Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) / Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (2004) / Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) / Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008)

Though Nightmare in Dream Land took cues from the anime for a lot of its designs, Sword Kirby got a brand new blade! This new blade design brought it even closer to Zelda's Master Sword, having an appearance not unlike a simplified, exaggerated version of it - it has a bright blue hilt with a yellow-orange gem in the center of it (side note: the gem appears more yellow or more red in different pieces of art and depending on lighting) and two "wings" extending off of the guard on either side. The blade has been adjusted back to silvery-white as well, perhaps because by this point the most recent appearance of the Master Sword do not include upgrading it to make it golden.

This appearance would go on to be the baseline for every Sword Kirby appearance for the rest of the franchise, though there are a few added details I would like to highlight.

Version 4 - Kirby Air Ride (2003)

Sword Kirby in Air Ride is really odd to me, because it has the then-modern design shared by all the other games of its era, but it opted to make the blade yellow again. This is the one and single appearance of the modern blue hilt with a yellow blade. Even the famous scrapped Kirby Gamecube game, though it had several models and enemies reused from Air Ride, reverted the sword back to silver, as can be seen both in the trailers and in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trophy.

Additionally, Kirby Air Ride added some detail to the guard's wings in the form of a little detail line around the outline. From the Brawl trophy it doesn't look like this detail was preserved in Kirby GCN, though.

Version 5 - Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) - Present (2023~)

When Sword Kirby made it to 3D once again, it would have one final detail added in a small dark-blue crescent mark added to each wing of the sword guard. And that's it! Outside of some additional detailed texture work that was added in Return to Dream Land and further expanded upon in Star Allies and Forgotten Land, Sword Kirby's look has remained constant. Fitting for one of Kirby's most iconic abilities! If I had to guess, I would put this one as one that I probably won't need to revise with a future iteration, unlike, say, Fire Kirby which is already outdated. But that's a design I can talk about another day.