What is the name of the first Kirby video game?

Kirby’s Dream Land is the first video game in the Kirby series.

Developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo, Kirby’s Dream Land debuted in Japan for the Game Boy on April 27, 1992. It introduced Kirby as a cheerful, round hero who travels through five levels to recover Dream Land’s stolen food and Sparkling Stars from King Dedede.

The game was designed by Masahiro Sakurai as an approachable platformer for players who might be unfamiliar with action games. Kirby could inhale enemies, fly, and swallow objects, but he could not yet copy enemy abilities. That signature Copy Ability debuted in the later NES game Kirby’s Adventure, which is why some players mistakenly identify Adventure as the first Kirby title.

Kirby himself began as a simple placeholder graphic during development. The character was initially called Popopo, and the project went through working titles including Twinkle Popo before Nintendo and HAL settled on the Kirby name. The original Game Boy release established the series’ basic world, characters, and gentle platforming style.