HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory, Inc.

Native name	株式会社ハル研究所
Romanized name	Haru Kenkyūjo
Type	Kabushiki gaisha
Industry	Video games
Founded	Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan (February 21, 1980 (1980-02-21))
Headquarters	Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Number of locations	2
Key people	Masayoshi Tanimura (President)
Products	Kirby series Mother series Super Smash Bros. series Various video game titles
Number of employees	145 (as of June 2013)

HAL Laboratory, Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ハル研究所, Hepburn: Haru Kenkyūjo) is a Japanese video game developer that was founded on February 21, 1980. It is headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. HAL was named that way because "each letter put them one step ahead of IBM". The company is most famous for its character Kirby, the eponymous protagonist of the series of games, the Mother series (otherwise known as EarthBound), and the Super Smash Bros. series.

HAL Laboratory started off making games for the MSX system and the Commodore VIC-20.

In many of its games during the early to mid-1990s it used the name HALKEN (derived from their literal Japanese name "HAL KENkyūjo") as well as HAL Laboratory. Some of its early titles were also released as HAL America, a North American subsidiary of the company led by Yash Terakura.

List of games developed

Nintendo Systems

Home Console

Family Computer Disk System

• Eggerland
• Eggerland: Souzouhe no Tabidachi
• Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally
• Fire Bam
• Gall Force: Eternal Story

Nintendo Entertainment System

• Adventures of Lolo
• Adventures of Lolo 2
• Adventures of Lolo 3
• Air Fortress
• Day Dreamin' Davey
• Defender II
• Jumbo Ozaki no Hole in One Professional
• Kabuki Quantum Fighter
• Kirby's Adventure
• Joust
• Mother
• Metal Slader Glory
• Millipede
• New Ghostbusters II
• Othello
• Rollerball
• Satsui no Kaisou: Power Soft Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
• Skyscraper
• Tokoro-san no Mamoru mo Semeru mo
• Vegas Dreams
• Uchuu Keibitai SDF
• World Rally Championship
• Joy Radar (Hardware) (RF unit for wireless Audio/Video from the game unit to the monitor)

Super NES

• Alcahest
• Arcana
• EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan)
• Hal's Hole in One Golf
• Hyper Zone
• Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• Kirby's Dream Land 3
• NCAA Basketball aka Super Dunk Shot (in Japan) World League Basketball (in Europe) (may have been developed or translated by Sculptured Software. It is unclear which role each company had. The company has the Japanese version of the game listed in its website, however their role is unclear.)

NCAA Basketball was produced for HAL America by Tim Rooney and Adam Flick, and programmed by Sculptured Software in Salt Lake City. The completed game was sold to Nintendo of America, who released it in the US.

• SimCity
• Vegas Stakes
• Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut

Nintendo 64

• EarthBound 64 - cancelled (the project eventually became Mother 3)
• Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
• Pokémon Snap
• Pokémon Stadium
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Shigesato Itoi's No. 1 Bass Fishing
• Super Smash Bros.
• SimCity 64
• SimCopter 64

Nintendo GameCube

• Kirby Air Ride
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Kirby Tilt n Tumble 2 Cancelled
• Kirby Cancelled (see Wii release)

Wii

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Development Cooperation)
• Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land
• Kirby's Dream Collection

Wii U

• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Development Cooperation) - (2014) JP, NA, AUS, EU
• Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Handheld

Game Boy (1989 - 1997)

• Revenge of the 'Gator - (1989) JP, NA, EU
• Ghostbusters II - (1989) EU (1990) JP, NA
• Kirby's Dream Land - (1992) JP, NA, EU
• Kirby's Pinball Land - (1993) JP, NA, EU
• Adventures of Lolo - (1994) JP (1995) EU
• Vegas Stakes - (1995) NA
• Kirby's Dream Land 2 - (1995) JP, NA, EU
• Kirby's Block Ball - (1995) JP, NA, EU
• Kirby's Star Stacker - (1997) JP, NA, EU
• HAL Wrestling (publisher; developed by Human Entertainment)
• Shanghai
• Trax

Game Boy Color (2000 - 2001)

• Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble - (2000) JP (2001) NA

Game Boy Advance (2002 - 2006)

• Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land - (2002) JP, NA
• Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (co-developed with Flagship) - (2004) JP, NA, EU
• Mother 3 (Music; developed by Brownie Brown) - (2006) JP
• Battland Cancelled
• Luna Blaze Cancelled

Nintendo DS (2005 - 2011)

• Kirby Canvas Curse - (2005) JP, NA, EU (2006) AUS
• Common Sense Training - (2006) JP
• Kirby Squeak Squad (Co-developed with Flagship) - (2006) JP, NA (2007) EU, AUS
• Pokémon Ranger (Co-developed with Creatures Inc) - (2006) JP, NA, AUS (2007) EU
• Kirby Super Star Ultra - (2008) JP, NA, AUS (2009) EU
• Picross 3D - (2009) JP (2010) NA, EU
• Kirby Mass Attack (Co-developed with Engines) - (2011) JP, NA, AUS, EU
• Face Pilot (DSiWare)

Nintendo 3DS

• Face Raiders - (2011) JP, NA, AUS, EU
• Kirby: Triple Deluxe - (2014) JP, NA, EU
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Development Cooperation) - (2014) JP, NA, AUS, EU

Other Systems

Commodore VIC-20

• Jelly Monsters

Commodore MAX Machine/Commodore 64

• Pool
• Billiards
• Bowling
• Jupiter Lander
• Le Mans
• Mole Attack
• Money Wars
• Pinball Spectacular
• Road Race
• Slalom

Coleco Vision

• Mr. Chin

MSX

• Balance
• Butamaru Pants
• Cue Star
• Dragon Attack
• Dunk Shot
• Eggerland Mystery
• Eggerland 2
• Fruit Search
• Gall Force
• Heavy Boxing
• Hole in One
• Hole in One Professional
• Inside the Karamaru
• Inspecteur Z
• Mobile Planet Stillus/The Roving Planet Stillus
• Mr. Chin
• Pachipro Densetsu
• Picture Puzzle
• Rollerball
• Space Maze Attack
• Space Trouble
• Step Up
• Super Billiards
• Super Snake
• Swimming Tango
• Tetsuman
• The Roving Planet Styllus

MSX2

• Hole in One Special
• Zukkoke Yajikita Onmitsudoutyuu
• Mr. Ninja - Ashura's Chapter

Windows

• Eggerland Episode 0: Quest of Rara
• Egger Land for Windows 95
• Revival! Eggerland

Apple 2

• Tax Man (Pac Man Clone)

External links

• HAL Laboratory, Inc (Japanese)
  • Company English
• N-Sider page (HAL Laboratory company profile)