Franchise: Kirby

A prequel to the Kirby series titled "Kid Kirby" was being developed for the SNES by DMA Design, now Rockstar North. The game was a platformer featuring a younger Kirby which would've utilized the SNES Mouse peripheral, however the game was canceled supposedly due to the mouse not selling well.

When Donkey Kong became popular, Nintendo was sued by Universal. Universal claimed Donkey Kong was a rip-off of King Kong. Lawyer John Kirby proved that Universal didn't even have trademark rights to "King Kong", and so they lost the case. Nintendo gave Kirby a boat named Donkey Kong and exclusive rights to the name Donkey Kong for sail-boats as a strange way of thanking him.

in a 2011 interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that "Kirby" was one of many candidates on a list of names that were proposed for the characters, and upon seeing it, he recalled John Kirby and felt that a connection between the two would be amusing. However, the name was picked not as a tribute to the lawyer, but rather because the harsh-sounding nature of the name was a comedic contrast to the character's soft, cute design.

The North American boxarts for Kirby games are edited to make Kirby look angry. It's thought this may be an attempt by Nintendo of America to make Kirby look cooler, and to lessen the notion that they cater to kids.

Series director Shinya Kumazaki maintains an art gallery on his personal website where he showcases paintings that he makes in his spare time. Several of these pieces depict dystopian surrealist versions of characters from the Kirby franchise, including Miracle Matter, Queen Sectonia, Taranza, and Drawcia.