‘What happens if Kirby swallows a hot man?’ His directors give answers

polygon.com:

Kirby contains so many mysteries inside that adorable pink belly. What happens to the creatures he eats? Does he have a skeleton? Could Kirby fall in love?

Dear reader, these are the questions I so often hear from you in our comments and on social media. Undeterred by the risk of humiliation, I took it upon myself to get some answers when given the rare opportunity to talk with the people who know Kirby best: the directors of his games.

HAL Laboratory’s executive director Shinya Kumazaki and expert director Tatsuya Kamiyama were in San Francisco to celebrate (one year late) the 30th anniversary of the iconic anthropomorphic orb. After giving a presentation to a massive, packed hall at the Game Developers Conference, Kuamazaki and Kamiyama sat down with me to talk Kirby lore.

We spoke at length about the creative process behind Kirby games, and I will be sharing more of that conversation soon. But since you’ve waited decades to know what happens when a Kirby swallows another Kirby, I didn’t want you to wait another day for an answer.

Polygon: Will or could Kirby ever fall in love?

Shinya Kumazaki: I feel like Kirby is a neutral character. It’s really the player’s emotion that gets displayed and realized on the other side of the screen. I think that’s what makes Kirby unique. Because of that, we try not to have Kirby express emotions that might not be felt by the player. Extreme emotions, like anger or crying.

With that said, if within the story there’s a sequence where the player might feel like they’re falling in love with someone — if that’s the experience we design — then I don’t think it’s impossible to have Kirby’s eyes turn into hearts. Or maybe Kirby is blushing. I don’t think that’s outside the realm of