 The game was developed by HAL Laboratory with Gunpei Yokoi 's Nintendo R & D1 , and published by Nintendo . At one point in development , HAL decided that the game did not feel like a Kirby game . The team spent six months completely revising the game under explicit instructions on how Kirby should move . Kirby games contain elements of unrestricted , creative movement as a general theme . Kirby 's Block Ball was released for the Game Boy first in Japan in 1995 and later in Europe ( 1995 ) and North America ( May 1996 ) . It was later emulated on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console , and released first in Japan ( October 2011 ) and later in Europe ( February 2012 ) and North America ( May 2012 ) . 
