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Version 1 - Kirby's Adventure (1993)

One of Kirby's most famous Copy Abilities, when Kirby swallows a Hot Head he gains the ability to breathe fire. It's Fire Kirby! Despite its fame, and it having perhaps the most straight-forward name for a fiery Kirby Copy Ability, Fire was passed up for a handful of games in favor of its sister flame ability, Burning. As a result, Fire Kirby only ever appeared without a hat the once, in the original Kirby's Adventure!

Version 2 - Kirby Super Star (1996) / Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008)

When Fire Kirby made its triumphant return in Kirby Super Star, it became quite a looker! Fire Kirby gained an iconic flaming headdress, with a cool golden crown composed of twin curved horns and a large green jewel in the center. Super Smash Bros. Melee declares that the hat comes from Burning Leo, the representative enemy for Fire in Super Star, but Burning Leo's crown is a simple band rather than Fire's intricate curves. Alongside the crown, Fire Kirby also turned a darker pink in Super Star and its remake.

Notably, Fire Kirby in Super Star also subsumed Burning Kirby as part of its moveset, adding Burning's signature attack of dashing forward surrounded by fire as a dash-attack fittingly called "Burn". This consolidation of abilities would continue into most games with Fire in it and even be included as an attack Fire Kirby can do in the anime. Nowadays, Fire and Burning are generally considered to be merged - but as we saw with Spark and Plasma, there is no telling what the future could hold!

Version 3 - Kirby: Right Back As Ya! (2001)

Featuring in the very first episode of the Kirby anime, Fire Kirby would go on to become one of Kirby's most common abilities in Right Back At Ya! The anime kept Super Star's dark pink coloration, but gave Fire a new crown - the circular gem was replaced with a hexagonal one, the golden circle it was embedded in became silver, and the twin curves were replaced with a simpler headband with some purple stripes. My theory is that this was done to make Fire Kirby easier to draw, since the animators didn't need to worry about what it looked like for fire to be spurting directly from Kirby's head as it does on the back of the crown in the games. Regardless, this hat would not reappear - though elements of it would gradually make their way to the games, as we'll soon see!

Version 4 - Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) / Kirby Air Ride (2003) / Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (2004) / Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006)

Meanwhile, though Nightmare in Dream Land shared a lot of promotional material and ability designs with Right Back At Ya!, for Fire Kirby it went back to the Super Star hat - though without the colored Kirby, which is notable since Nightmare in Dream Land did recolor Kirby for a number of other abilities. This would somewhat set in stone that the 'default' appearance for Fire Kirby, even in most merch which would sometimes recolor Kirby for certain abilities, was to remain Kirby's usual pink.

Version 4.5 - Kirby for Nintendo Gamecube (unreleased, 2004) / Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

What's this, a beta Kirb? Fire Kirby was one of several abilities shown off for the Gamecube Kirby game that was announced in 2004 but ultimately never released, though components of that cancelled game would make their way into Return to Dream Land and Star Allies. As for Fire Kirby, Kirby GCN was set to have an altered design for the crown which added the anime's silver circle with a hexagonal gem onto the usual game twisty-horns design. It also lightened the green gemstone into something more teal.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl also gives us a good look at this iteration of Fire Kirby - Brawl used models from Kirby GCN for a number of its Kirby trophies, including a handful of Copy Abilities, giving us a good glimpse as to what they may have looked like. Intriguingly, the Fire Kirby trophy in Brawl shows Kirby distinctly bright red, far more red than the dark pink from Super Star and completely different from the pink Fire Kirby seen in promotional screenshots for Kirby GCN years prior. It's impossible to tell if Kirby was intended to be red in Kirby GCN or if this was just a visual effect - the trophy does show Fire Kirby in a pose as if he were spitting fire, so perhaps he shone red just during attacks. Either way, it's pretty interesting!

Version 5 - Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) - Present

Finally, when Fire Kirby made its triumphant return on the Wii, it featured a spiffy little hat that looks like a combination of elements from previous ones. The curving horn design is retained, though made much more elaborate, with prominent ridges and an ornamental quality to it. The circle at the center of the crown is silver, as it was in Right Back At Ya! and Kirby GCN, but the gemstone is round as it was in Super Star. The gemstone is pushed more towards a teal than the forest green it was before, though, evoking the tealer green present on the Kirby GCN model.

And that's where we are today! As mentioned before, Fire Kirby's standard even across merchandise is to keep Kirby's usual pink, though the Japanese-only card game Kirby no Copy-toru features a bonus card that portrays this design with a dark pink body just like Super Star, so almost-red Fire Kirby lives! Sort of. It's more than Burning can say nowadays, at least.

Description

<- prev | next ->

Version 1 - Kirby's Adventure (1993)

One of Kirby's most famous Copy Abilities, when Kirby swallows a Hot Head he gains the ability to breathe fire. It's Fire Kirby! Despite its fame, and it having perhaps the most straight-forward name for a fiery Kirby Copy Ability, Fire was passed up for a handful of games in favor of its sister flame ability, Burning. As a result, Fire Kirby only ever appeared without a hat the once, in the original Kirby's Adventure!

Version 2 - Kirby Super Star (1996) / Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008)

When Fire Kirby made its triumphant return in Kirby Super Star, it became quite a looker! Fire Kirby gained an iconic flaming headdress, with a cool golden crown composed of twin curved horns and a large green jewel in the center. Super Smash Bros. Melee declares that the hat comes from Burning Leo, the representative enemy for Fire in Super Star, but Burning Leo's crown is a simple band rather than Fire's intricate curves. Alongside the crown, Fire Kirby also turned a darker pink in Super Star and its remake.

Notably, Fire Kirby in Super Star also subsumed Burning Kirby as part of its moveset, adding Burning's signature attack of dashing forward surrounded by fire as a dash-attack fittingly called "Burn". This consolidation of abilities would continue into most games with Fire in it and even be included as an attack Fire Kirby can do in the anime. Nowadays, Fire and Burning are generally considered to be merged - but as we saw with Spark and Plasma, there is no telling what the future could hold!

Version 3 - Kirby: Right Back As Ya! (2001)

Featuring in the very first episode of the Kirby anime, Fire Kirby would go on to become one of Kirby's most common abilities in Right Back At Ya! The anime kept Super Star's dark pink coloration, but gave Fire a new crown - the circular gem was replaced with a hexagonal one, the golden circle it was embedded in became silver, and the twin curves were replaced with a simpler headband with some purple stripes. My theory is that this was done to make Fire Kirby easier to draw, since the animators didn't need to worry about what it looked like for fire to be spurting directly from Kirby's head as it does on the back of the crown in the games. Regardless, this hat would not reappear - though elements of it would gradually make their way to the games, as we'll soon see!

Version 4 - Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) / Kirby Air Ride (2003) / Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (2004) / Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006)

Meanwhile, though Nightmare in Dream Land shared a lot of promotional material and ability designs with Right Back At Ya!, for Fire Kirby it went back to the Super Star hat - though without the colored Kirby, which is notable since Nightmare in Dream Land did recolor Kirby for a number of other abilities. This would somewhat set in stone that the 'default' appearance for Fire Kirby, even in most merch which would sometimes recolor Kirby for certain abilities, was to remain Kirby's usual pink.

Version 4.5 - Kirby for Nintendo Gamecube (unreleased, 2004) / Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

What's this, a beta Kirb? Fire Kirby was one of several abilities shown off for the Gamecube Kirby game that was announced in 2004 but ultimately never released, though components of that cancelled game would make their way into Return to Dream Land and Star Allies. As for Fire Kirby, Kirby GCN was set to have an altered design for the crown which added the anime's silver circle with a hexagonal gem onto the usual game twisty-horns design. It also lightened the green gemstone into something more teal.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl also gives us a good look at this iteration of Fire Kirby - Brawl used models from Kirby GCN for a number of its Kirby trophies, including a handful of Copy Abilities, giving us a good glimpse as to what they may have looked like. Intriguingly, the Fire Kirby trophy in Brawl shows Kirby distinctly bright red, far more red than the dark pink from Super Star and completely different from the pink Fire Kirby seen in promotional screenshots for Kirby GCN years prior. It's impossible to tell if Kirby was intended to be red in Kirby GCN or if this was just a visual effect - the trophy does show Fire Kirby in a pose as if he were spitting fire, so perhaps he shone red just during attacks. Either way, it's pretty interesting!

Version 5 - Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) - Present

Finally, when Fire Kirby made its triumphant return on the Wii, it featured a spiffy little hat that looks like a combination of elements from previous ones. The curving horn design is retained, though made much more elaborate, with prominent ridges and an ornamental quality to it. The circle at the center of the crown is silver, as it was in Right Back At Ya! and Kirby GCN, but the gemstone is round as it was in Super Star. The gemstone is pushed more towards a teal than the forest green it was before, though, evoking the tealer green present on the Kirby GCN model.

And that's where we are today! As mentioned before, Fire Kirby's standard even across merchandise is to keep Kirby's usual pink, though the Japanese-only card game Kirby no Copy-toru features a bonus card that portrays this design with a dark pink body just like Super Star, so almost-red Fire Kirby lives! Sort of. It's more than Burning can say nowadays, at least.