What is the name of the first game to introduce the copy ability?

The first game to introduce Kirby’s Copy Ability was Kirby’s Adventure. Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993, it expanded Kirby’s basic inhaling and spitting mechanics into the series’ signature ability system.

In Kirby’s Adventure, Kirby can swallow certain enemies and gain powers based on them, such as Fire, Sword, or Beam. This gave players new ways to defeat enemies, solve environmental puzzles, and approach levels. It also made the adventure more varied than Kirby’s Dream Land, the 1992 Game Boy game, which featured Kirby’s original abilities but no Copy Ability.

Masahiro Sakurai helped devise the system partly in response to criticism that the first game was too simple for experienced players. The NES’s stronger hardware allowed HAL Laboratory to support a broad range of transformations and attacks. Kirby Super Star later deepened the concept with more elaborate moves and Helpers, but it did not introduce the original mechanic.