Four Lost Kirby Games Discovered In Auction
To give a little background, the Super NES had a fancy satellite service that allowed players to download games from space during designated time periods. The service was never sold outside of Japan, and many of the games that appeared on the service were never sold again in any form. This included a remix of Link to the Past, a 16-bit remake of the original Zelda game, a second SNES F-Zero featuring new tracks, and “Radical Dreamers,” a text adventure from Square that would eventually turn into Chrono Cross.
All of those titles were uncovered and preserved years ago (or, in the case of the Zelda remake, a month ago). But there are still some Satelliview games that have never turned up, such as the one we’re discussing today, Kirby no Omocha Hako (Kirby’s Toy Box).
Kirby’s Toy Box was a collection of ten mini-games starring the pink puffball. They could only be downloaded one at a time and only one could be saved on the cartridge. Game preservationist Frank Cifaldi has been looking for the full contents of Kirby’s Toy Box for some time, but until now had only uncovered three of the ten games. “It’s basically impossible to preserve all of these games,” Cifaldi told Kotaku. “The only way they exist on their temporary cartridges is if they happen to be the last game someone played.”
But this week, four of the games were discovered for sale on a Japanese auction site. Cifaldi spotted the auction, alerted his supporters, and together they raised enough cash to buy the carts and preserve the Kirbies. ““Circular Ball,” “Cannon Ball,” “Arrange Ball” and “Pachinko” were the titles previously thought lost.
Cifaldi will be dumping the ROMs into the community soon. Only three games from Kirby’s Toy Box remain lost, but they may still be out there…