ā€œFood JPEGsā€ in Super Smash Bros. and Kirby Air Riders

by SethMLarsonon 1/6/2026, 6:57 PMwith 72 comments

by rmunnon 1/11/2026, 2:56 PM

> In the process I also learned that the cover of Kirby Air Ride changed between the Japanese and international releases. The Japanese cover art features a smiling happy Kirby where the international cover has Kirby with a furrowed brow and serious look.

This is not the first Kirby game to have its cover art changed to look more serious and "gritty" for the US release; in fact, TV Tropes named a page after this phenomenon, and Kirby Air Ride is currently the featured page art at https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmericanKirbyIsH... (caution, TV Tropes will consume your free time, only click when you have a few hours to spare).

P.S. Since the link chopped off half way through the name of the wiki page, I'll just mention that the page is titled "American Kirby is Hardcore".

by rmunnon 1/11/2026, 2:53 PM

> I paid $50 plus shipping on eBay for this PNG. This is the closest I'll get to NFTs.

Buying a cartridge of an old game just to preserve a non-blurry copy of the sprite. Now THAT's dedication.

by PLenzon 1/11/2026, 2:05 PM

This kinda of article is exactly what the internet was made for. More of this, less AI

by AJRFon 1/11/2026, 5:24 PM

The food in Mario Kart World is very scrumptious looking https://www.mariowiki.com/Dash_Food

by Cpollon 1/11/2026, 2:49 PM

The article misses the "Super-spicy curry" item that appeared in Brawl (and maybe Air Ride?). I think that's also a billboard.

by yregon 1/11/2026, 12:44 PM

As someone who has never played these games I would be interested in screenshots of how these assets look in context in-game.

by cheunsteon 1/11/2026, 5:37 PM

Relevant Sakurai https://youtu.be/_o29OOOarPY?si=vqvw9-nlrTKEFuKx

by mock-possumon 1/11/2026, 1:06 PM

Wow TIL about Mont Blanc and about Tempura Soba. Both are delicious prospects.

Also I’m very entertained by the ā€˜big bonus foods’ - that hamburger is ridiculous.

by ksymphon 1/11/2026, 8:52 PM

Small error: the "Large foods" image section has steak but no fruit basket, while the list includes fruit basket but no steak.

Great article though!

by citizenkeenon 1/11/2026, 4:21 PM

A few screen shots of the sprites in the game would be helpful. Did I miss any links in OP?

by bjt12345on 1/11/2026, 2:22 PM

I've always thought this was inspired by the depiction of food in earlier arcade games like Bubble Bobble.

by manytimesawayon 1/11/2026, 1:59 PM

This is the same for Tomodachi games, isn't it?

by Y_Yon 1/11/2026, 1:22 PM

That "cabbage" is clearly a lettuce.

by slmjkdbtlon 1/12/2026, 2:21 AM

article contains the best chart in the world

by Retr0idon 1/11/2026, 2:33 PM

> I've seen a few folks online remarking about the ā€œJPEGā€ or ā€œPNGā€-like quality of the images

What do they mean by this?

by MasterScraton 1/11/2026, 3:03 PM

> Have you ever noticed that the food graphics in Super Smash Bros. and Kirby Air Riders is flat ā€œbillboardedā€ stock images of food?

I have not... A video showing what it's talking about would have been a good addition to this article.

by vunderbaon 1/11/2026, 4:39 PM

As an avid Smash player since the N64 days, I love how specifically niche this piece is. Please write a follow-up article about the health benefits of eating nothing but a Super Smash Bros based diet broken down by version.