Kirby Slide: an absolute enigma of a game. in the middle of December 2003, this Kirby game was mysteriously shadow dropped into the world for all the e-Reader users to play. an average person would normally use their e-Reader to gain access to special events to obtain unique Pokémon or unlock bonus levels to play through in Super Mario Advance 4. however, Kirby fans aren’t exactly “average”. sometimes they seek more, they would rather put in the work and effort to experience something that make a lasting impression for the rest of their lives, and Kirby Slide has the criteria to fill in that exact need.

before we can discuss what the game has to offer, I feel as if it’d be quite amiss if I didn't bring up some of the mysteries surrounding Kirby Slide that adds to its odd or surreal nature. the first thing I should mention is that we don’t know the exact date it came out on, as December 2003 is around the time it is commonly known to have been released. it’s rather strange how there’s no documentation on what day of the month Kirby Slide had officially been sent out to the public, and 2003 nonetheless! you would think that by this point in time all video games would have their full dates publicly available to the masses, yet Kirby Slide is not one of them. I feel like the common explanation I’d receive in response would be, “It’s only an accessory, it doesn’t have the same priority that an actual video game would have.” while I would agree that the likelihood of an e-Reader game would not share as much importance to the developers and audience as a mainstream title, to write off an e-Reader game as nothing more than an accessory is quite a shameful thing to say. while yes anything that comes from the e-Reader is not going to have the memory or capabilities to stand on the same ground as something like Final Fantasy VII with it’s three big discs out, at the end of the day this is still a video game as the advertising for it clearly states “This Card Contains A FREE Game!”, meaning not only are you playing an actual game, but a free one at that. In my sincere opinion, I believe Kirby Slide as well as any other e-Reader games should be respected for what they were able to accomplish, rather than what they aren’t.

our next mystery involves the developers of this game, or rather the lack of information on them. obviously Nintendo is going to be the one publishing this game, as they have for the rest of the Kirby franchise, but oddly enough HAL Laboratory were not the ones responsible for development on this game, marking this the first Kirby game not to be developed by HAL. Kid Kirby would have been the first to receive this honor, as well as being the first to be created by a non-Japanese studio, however that game would never see the light of day. returning to Kirby Slide, its developers are none other than 4Kids Entertainment, the company that was infamous for creating strange localized dubs for various anime at the time, with their most well known creation being….you guessed it: the “One Piece Pirate Rap”. so we know 4Kids were involved, but who were the exact people that made the game? unfortunately, we have no clue. Kirby Slide lacks any kind of staff roll, as completing the puzzle loops back to the beginning. why is there no ending credits? surely the 4Kids staff wouldn’t have prevented their names from appearing anywhere near this game. if I was given the chance to help bring about this game into existence, you can bet that I’d happily leave my name here for all the expert Kirby Slide players to see. if I had to guess why there’s no information on the people who worked on this, I believe the game had gone through a rocky development cycle, which Nintendo was not all too happy about. Nintendo perhaps forbade the members of 4Kids Entertainment from adding a staff roll out of their frustration with the final product, believing they don’t deserve any sort of credit or compensation for the game. while that’s just a theory, keep in mind a good amount of games back in the old days were not allowed to credit their developers due to a variety of reasons, one of the most famous examples being Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System, so it’s not far-fetched to believe that Nintendo would do the same for Kirby Slide, it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary for them.

and now for perhaps the most interesting thing to discuss with this game: what is its true name? while yes many people refer to this game as “Kirby Slide”, myself included, and even Backloggd itself does so as well, you’ll also notice that in the very description it mentions this important detail: “Kirby Slide (called Kirby Puzzle on the e-Reader menu)”. Kirby Puzzle. yet another mystery to add to this puzzle. philosophers have been asking the age-old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first, but I believe the more important question that we should really be asking ourselves is which came first: the Slide or the Puzzle? it’s no stranger for a game to receive more than one title, many of them get a title change when moved over to another region, however Kirby Slide or Kirby Puzzle, whichever one you prefer, had only released in America, with no signs pointing at plans for a release in multiple regions. besides the fact that no one outside of America ever got to experience the sheer joy of playing Kirby Slide, the name “Kirby Slide” is not mentioned anywhere in the actual game itself. it’s only on the back of the e-Reader card where it brings up the saying, “Do The Kirby Slide!” right before the “This Card Contains A FREE Game!” sentence is brought up. so what’s the big idea? if you were to ask my stance on this whole debacle, I believe Kirby Puzzle was the title that likely came first. the game was probably meant to be shipped as Kirby Puzzle before Nintendo saw the name themselves and ordered 4Kids to change the name to Kirby Slide for all its advertising. they probably assumed no kids would want to spend their time playing a game that has the word “puzzle” in its title, so they instead opted for the more exciting “slide” instead, which also fits the game as it features none other than a slide puzzle. as if why the game is still called Kirby Puzzle on the e-Reader menu, I’d assume the name change was a last minute decision, leaving them no time to update the title once it was shipped out to the public. with all this in mind, we now have a better understanding about Kirby Slide’s history and we can now delve into the game itself.

the objective of Kirby Slide is to set the eight-block sliding puzzle of Kirby into their correct order. pressing A to a block next to an empty space will make it slide over to the location of that space, which in turn makes an empty space at the former location of the block you chose. you repeat this process until all the pieces are put into their correct order, which will award you with a congratulatory message before giving you the option to reset the puzzle, which lets you start over to move the pieces once more. while many will shun the game for supposedly not giving out a true reward for finishing the puzzle, I would argue that a congratulatory message is possibly one of the best rewards you could ever want. many of my favorite games often add a “thank you for playing” message or another variation of that phrasing during their ending sequences, and Kirby Slide is no exception to this. the game saying “Congratulations” once you finish the puzzle is not there for show, it’s to let you know that the developers care about you. they’re proud that you were finally able to experience completing a slide puzzle for most likely the first time of your life, and one that features Kirby nonetheless! and at the end of the day, is that not all that really matters? some may also argue that there’s no point in playing a “miniscule” game such as this when they would rather spend their time playing anything else that could offer them a better use of their time. to that I say that playing Kirby Slide will give you no regrets whatsoever. at first you’ll most likely not care for it, as you’ll probably want to seek more from it, but over time you will grow to love the game and appreciate it for what it is. sure it may not have tons of depth from a first glance, but that’s not what Kirby Slide’s attempting to achieve. it’s not seeking to be the next triple AAA gaming masterpiece, Kirby Slide’s most important goal was to advertise the Kirby: Right Back at Ya anime that was airing around the time this game came out, and the game even uses humorous artwork from the anime depicting Kirby inhaling something. while Kirby Slide gives you the joy of completing a slide puzzle, it also serves to introduce you to the world of the Kirby anime. mayhaps once you have been satisfied with what Kirby Slide has to offer you, you’ll probably want to go through the Kirby anime and perhaps binge-watch it during your spare time. think about how many people out there got into Kirby: Right Back at Ya thanks to this very game. I don’t understand how anyone could bring themselves to dislike this game for that alone.

Kirby Slide is truly a misunderstood gem of the gaming industry. it is commonly known as the laughing stock of the Kirby fandom as well as any other gamers that are aware of its existence due to being a “simplistic and boring” slide puzzle game, but there’s nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. Kirby Slide was created to introduce people to slide puzzles, as well as get people into the Kirby: Right Back at Ya anime, that’s all it was aiming to achieve and I believe it does not deserve all this unwarranted hate for that. the next time you see people hating Kirby Slide online for some non-existent internet points, let them know that this game is much more than what it seems. the love and care put into Kirby Slide cannot be underestimated, and I share this message and review to all of those who are willing to give this game another chance to be appreciated. thank you for reading, and take care.