If Nintendo is known for one thing, it’s the iconic characters. Some of those faces took a little while to settle, likeMario’s early days as Jumpman. The art depicting Nintendo’s mascot had to change styles and even colors multiple times beforeSuper Mario Bros. 3settled on his iconic design, andSuper Mario 64established the 3D equivalent. A lot of Nintendo’s oldest character iterations would look strange to today’s players, particularly the originalPokemonmonster designs inRed,Blue, andGreen, and Samus Aran’s original armor in the firstMetroid.
Some characters have gone through a surprisingly large number of revisions over the years. Link, andThe Legend of Zeldain general, have been constantly switching art styles ever since the NES. The biggest culprit of this in Nintendo’s catalog, however, comes from theKirbyfranchise. Kirby’s original off-white design and his penchant for swapping hats are well-known, but his core pink appearance solidified quickly. Rather, Kirby’s long-time rival King Dedede is more prone to changing up his look in subtle ways. While Dedede’s outfit selection will always pale next toKirby, the finer details of the royal penguin’s design have changed more than any other Nintendo character.
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King Dedede Can’t Settle On A Design
Kirby, Meta Knight, the Waddle Dees, and plenty ofKirby’s other iconic foes settled on iconic designs a long time ago, but the good king can’t keep his story straight. His first appearance is closer to his usual modern look than Kirby’s, but strikes a smaller, slimmer figure and lacks his tan undershirt and mittens. He also resembles a retro cartoon character, something that fluctuates as the series goes on.
Sometimes, Dedede is drawn with softer andcuter features like inKirby Super Star. Occasionally, however, Dedede will look much more serious. The first instance of this is hisKirby’s Dream Land 3design, which both lacks Dedede’s usual exaggerated expressions and sees him in his roundest design yet. This marks the first time Dedede’s head and body are drawn as a single continuous shape, and it’s far from the last.
This version of Dedede also brings up another constantly changing feature: his mouth. While in many games and theKirby: Right Back at Ya!anime, Dedede’s design is rendered like a set of large yellow lips, sometimes it looks like the duck bill it’s supposed to be. Adding to that, his mouth is rendered as a small black line that doesn’t open too much outside of his inhalation technique.
The epitome of this version of Dedede can be found inKirby 64: The Crystal Shards, which also contains the thinnest pupils Dedede has had. Future 3D games would tend to shrink Dedede down to around Kirby’s size to accommodate his regular appearances as a playable character, though there were still variations in his eyes, mouth, height, width, and even skin color.
Dedede’s Boss Appearances Change His Appearance Even More
Just looking at pictures of King Dedede from different games makes his lack of a hard model clear, but there’s more to his malleability than that. Kirby has been morphing and swapping outfits for years, and Dedede has been doing the same thing. Much of this is found in his boss appearances, though the occasional sub-game does show him in traditional shogun garb.
Dedede’s purple robes and armored mask are common sights when hefaces Kirby in a harder mode, and there are recolored clones and parallel versions of the king like almost everyone else. Where things get freaky is the Dark Matter saga when Dedede begins his habit of getting possessed. Starting fromKirby’s Dream Land 3, Dedede exhibits the ability to grow Dark Matter’s eye and even a fanged mouth on his stomach during involuntary fights.
It seems like Nintendo’s staff has become aware of how Dedede’s design lends itself to change, because they have begun instituting even more intense changes than usual in the most recentKirbygames.Star Alliesuses a design that is close to the king’sSmash Bros.iteration, butDedede’s latest “possessed” boss fighthas resulted in Dedede transforming into a muscular hulk.Kirby and the Forgotten Landsees Dedede ally with the Beast Pack under unknown terms, donning a new outfit more befitting of a tribal chieftain. This design has no distinction between Dedede’s neck and head, and marks a surprising return to a Dedede design approach not seen sinceKirby 64.
That said, the presence of small red pupils instead of large blue eyes and what appears to be blue dye on Dedede’s upper half may mark this king as an impostor. It speaks to Dedede’s enormous physical variance that such an outcome could still sneak up onhardenedKirbylore experts. Fans will have to enter theForgotten Landthemselves to see what is truly going on with King Dedede.
Kirby and the Forgotten Landreleases on June 10, 2025, for Nintendo Switch.
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