Trivia / Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • Whoever wrote the Virtual Console description must have skipped over Dream Land 2 and 3, as it claims this is Kirby's first time fighting Dark Matter.
  • The Virtual Console manual also states that there are 100 Crystal Shards. In reality, there are only 72 (74 if counting the two found in the opening).
  • Early NOA previews weren't much better, one web preview had a rather childish and unprofessional tone and kept calling Kirby an "it", leading to a downright cringeworthy line where they referred Kirby and Ribbon (who wasn't referred to by name anywhere in the article and was just called "the fairy") as "girlfriend and it-friend", a Nintendo Power article also called Adeleine a "him".
  • The writers of the Prima Guide apparently never got all the crystals, as Dark Star is left out entirely and the final boss's description in their enemy list is way, way off, though this could also be seen as a Red Herring.
  • The Bradygames guide is more competent, but still contains two obvious errors: in Shiver Star: HR-H is called HR-E, and HR-E is misnamed HR-V. More glaringly, it states the fairy queen died after the completed crystal pierced her to force Dark Matter out, despite the fact that the true ending shows her alive and well, personally congratulating and thanking the heroes.
• Moved to the Next Console: It started out as a game for the Nintendo 64DD. With the expansion pack in Development Hell at the time, it was moved to a standard cartridge and came out three years afterwards.
• Portrayed by Different Species: This is used as a joke in a commercial. A woman refers to Labrador puppy as a Lab/Husky mix to set up a joke about Kirby also being a mix.
• Role Reprise: Makiko Ohmoto reprises her role as Kirby from Super Smash Bros. 64.
• Same Content, Different Rating: The version of the game as released on Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition was rated Everyone 10+ for "Cartoon Violence and Animated Blood," when the original N64 version and the Wii/Wii U Virtual Console releases were previously given an E rating. This can likely be attributed to the game's True Final Boss, who bleeds when its eye is hit.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Miracle Matter's theme was composed at the last minute thanks to how late in development Jun Ishikawa learned about the boss's existence. Consequently, the theme cobbles together elements of "Boss" and "Studying the Factory" and features little to no melody, instead sounding more like a sequencer jam.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Rather than just being being playable in mini-games, Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Adeleine were all fully playable in actual levels as late as June 1999. This explains why they appear so often despite being bit characters. In the final game, Dedede is the only one who is directly playable in a scant few stages. It's known that they had special abilities, but the only one known is Waddle Dee. He was meant to lift and throw characters as well as hide in objects.
  • The game's Sound Check contains the classic "Kirby Dance" song, but it's not used in the game proper, nor does Kirby do his classic "Kirby Dance" animation. This is because said dance was replaced by the picnic-themed Bonus Game at the end of levels.
  • At the time of release, the HAL Laboratory website posted storyboards of the intro cutscene. There are several differences, such as a different design for the fairy queen, a sequence of Kirby's friends watching the stars, and dialogue (including Kirby himself). A later version of the intro seen in January 2000 shows realistic clouds in the skybox.
  • The Animal Friends were going to appear. Adeleine would draw Coo and the others. A remnant of this is one of the tracks in Sound Check being a remix of one of the themes from Dream Land 3 associated with the Animal Friends.
  • E3 1999 footage shows an early version of Aqua Star with different enemies (including a giant spider). The waterfall was originally two side-by-side waterfalls, there was sand everywhere instead of in sparse piles, and the water was purplish, not blue.
  • The game originally used the analog stick, not the + Control Pad.
  • A 1999 build shows a different HUD. Kirby's health is shown in half-circles and there was a star counter. The same build shows Stone Kirby had a slightly different palette and could jump, the Ice+Bomb ability had Kirby explode, and the Stone+Spark ability had Kirby turning into a computer chip. Screencaps show Rock Star Stage 2 with more grass and an intact wooden bridge.
  • Old screencaps of Aqua Star show star-shaped clouds and the cannons being farther away from the player.
  • A February 2000 screenshot shows Swiss Army Knife Kirby with a tuning fork instead of a cactus.
  • There is concept art for a scrapped rhythm mini-game.
  • Concept art for the picnic cutscene depicts a different intro, a different ending, characters eating different food, and Ribbon eating as well.
  • Dark Matter's eye originally looked closer to its appearance in previous games, as opposed to the yellow, bloodshot version in the final. The old texture remains in the cutscene where Waddle Dee is freed from possession, though it can't be seen in normal gameplay as the Dark Matter is facing away from the viewer.

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