HAL Room

A HAL Room is a secret area in any given Kirby title, where elements of the stage spell out the letters H, A, and L. This is a direct reference to HAL Laboratory, the primary developer for the Kirby series.

An official wallpaper showing various HAL Rooms in the series.
The famous creators of Kirby’s Adventure Wii, HAL Laboratory, have left their mark on the game in more ways than one. Only the most acute observers and meticulous explorers would happen upon them, but there are actually two secret locations where you’ll find the word “HAL” spelled out in blocks. Not only that, these areas also contain Copy Abilities that can come in very handy indeed!
— Kirby's Return to Dream Land Nintendo UK Support site

Typically, to reach a HAL Room, a specific path and/or series of doorways must be taken in a specific stage. These paths are usually hidden and require a discerning eye, specific movement, or just plain patience to reveal. The room itself usually features its own music, and often contains late-game Copy Essences, and plenty of food and other collectibles. HAL Rooms are usually intended to be areas of respite, where there is little to no danger, but the player character can still potentially be defeated if they get in the way of the rooms' gimmicks or fall down a bottomless pit.

Though these rooms are typically secret, their locations are usually telegraphed to the player through cryptic screenshots showcased in the credits. Finding these rooms is seldom required for 100% completion in the games they appear.

OverviewEdit

The tradition of adding a HAL Room or other HAL-related Easter egg to a Kirby game was first established in Kirby's Adventure, and has since reoccurred in numerous games, though the formula would not be formalized and made a regular occurrence until Kirby Super Star Ultra. Generally speaking, the HAL Room is a separate room or zone within any given level or stage which requires a bit of searching and/or patience to discover, and is often hidden behind an invisible doorway. Other HAL-related secrets may be found within regular areas; hidden in background elements such as clouds, constellations, or other objects. HAL Rooms often contain extra Copy Essences and items, including randomly-obtained collectibles, but only in one case (that case being the Normal Challenge in New Challenge Stages) is visiting a HAL Room required to obtain 100% completion. The letters that make up "HAL" are also typically made up of Star Blocks, with a Broom Hatter or other lone enemy placed upon the horizontal stretch of the "L".

There are three most common ways to discover a HAL Room, as follows:

HAL Room LocationsEdit

Kirby's Adventure / Kirby: Nightmare in Dream LandEdit

In Kirby's Adventure, the series' first HAL Room can be found in Vegetable Valley - Stage 2. When the Warp Star is reached, Kirby has to walk past it, run up against the right end of the screen for a little while, then fly back for a moment. Once the Warp Star platform is out of view, Kirby then needs to go back toward it. If done correctly, the star will be gone, and Kirby will be able to proceed further right to reach the formation of Star Blocks that spell out 'HAL', with a Broom Hatter sweeping on the L-letter blocks, a trend that appears in future games. Once Kirby returns to the left, the Warp Star will be there again.

The HAL Room is retained in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. However, while it is still present in the stage data, it is not actually accessible; the game loads objects in a different manner, so it is no longer possible to make the Warp Star disappear. If this HAL Room is accessed by modifying the game data, it can be seen that the Broom Hatter is no longer there.

In the 3D Classics version of Kirby's Adventure, it is still possible to access the HAL Room, but Kirby needs to venture a little bit further left toward the Shotzo firing at him before turning back.

Kirby: Canvas CurseEdit

While not technically a "true" HAL Room, there is a related secret in Level 3, Stage 11 of Block Attack. By heading to the right from the goal and defeating a Topper, the player can continue to find more blocks, including indestructible blue blocks that spell out the HAL letters. Additional breakable blocks and Maxim Tomatoes can be found here.

Kirby Super Star UltraEdit

In the Illusion Islands stage of Revenge of the King, there is a stake that can be pounded along the route to the castle; this requires inhaling a Rocky found earlier in the stage. Doing so uncovers a food item and a hidden entrance to another area. In this area, Kirby has to battle Mr. Tick Tock. After defeating him, Kirby can progress to the right, over a wall, and find the HAL logo in Star Blocks. Near the exit door, Kirby can get an Invincible Candy.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land / Kirby's Return to Dream Land DeluxeEdit

There are two HAL Rooms in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, with two additional ones added to the remake, making a grand total of four HAL Rooms. Three of these can be accessed in Story Mode and Extra Mode, while the last one is accessible only in Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler. They are as follows:

HAL Room locations in Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Deluxe)  
Level Stage Image How to reach Notes Copy Essence
Both versions:
Cookie Country Stage 4   After reaching the end of the first area, Kirby needs to walk all the way to the end of the screen, wait there a short moment, then head back the other way to find a pillar of land has moved downward to reveal a new doorway. Through this door is a walk to the HAL Room, which contains the Wing, Hammer, Fighter and Ninja abilities in both versions, as well as Mecha and Sand in the remake.
  • The Item Challenge version of the Green Greens theme plays in this room in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
    • In the remake, a medley of tunes from Kirby's Dream Buffet plays instead: "Green Greens", "Kirby's Dream Buffet", and "Love, Love, Alivel". It is titled "Secret Area: HAL Room (Kirby's Dream Buffet 1)" in the Jukebox.
  • Breaking the Star Blocks that spell HAL also reveal items.
  • The demo for Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe features a slightly different version of this room, which is also located in the demo's second stage due to the way the demo reorganizes parts of levels from the full version. In particular, Sword, Sand, Water, and Fire are the only abilities that appear.
Egg Engines Stage 5   A series of conveyor belts at the end of the hall drop a number of Halcandle Dees in front of Kirby and the normal door forward. However, if Kirby bypasses the door and heads up the conveyor belts, he can enter an obscure hole at the back of it to reach a series of cannon firings, and the HAL Room, again made of Star Blocks.
  • The Item Challenge version of the Green Greens theme plays in this room in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
    • In the remake, the title theme from Scope Shot plays instead.
  • The four Copy Essences are all abilities which were introduced in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
  • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, two Don Puffles are present on both sides of the room, which grant Festival when swallowed.
Exclusive to Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe:
Dangerous Dinner Stage 2   At the end of the hallway in the fifth area, if Kirby waits for 86 seconds after reaching the door, all the other ceilings will open slightly. An Invincible Candy is present, allowing Kirby to run backwards, plow through enemies, and access the secret room. The HAL Room this time is made of an outline of Ice Blocks, and a Super Hot Head is present in the initial elevator ride, which allows Kirby to melt the blocks with Monster Flame to get Point Stars and a 1-Up.
  • Mecha Kawasaki's theme from Scope Shot plays in this room.
  • This HAL Room makes Stage 2 of Dangerous Dinner the only stage (excluding boss stages) in Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe to have more than one Super Ability.
    • This is also the only HAL Room to contain a Super Ability, that being Monster Flame.

None

Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler Secret Stage in Pyred Dimension   The entrance is located in the Pyred Dimension portion of the hub, but it initially appears blocked off. The final stage of Locandra Dimension must be cleared first, then Magolor must hover to the top-left portion of the Locandra Dimension area. A new thin floor will appear in the bottom-right of the Pyred Dimension area, and Magolor can drop through to find a new door, which will put him through a small Cannon challenge with Crushers and Key Dees carrying Magic Points, before arriving at the HAL Room. The letters are now made of blocks which can only be disposed of with Magolor's Black Hole attack.
  • Another medley of tunes from Kirby's Dream Buffet plays in this HAL Room: "Ultra-Super Boss Battle," "City Trial: City (Backside)" and "Working Up an Appetite". It is titled "Secret Area: HAL Room (Kirby's Dream Buffet 2)" in the Jukebox.
  • A Magic Energy potion is located to the left of the room. It constantly regenerates, allowing Magolor to use Black Hole as many times as he wants to clear the HAL Room's blocks.
  • This HAL Room still counts as a stage, so any Magic Points collected will be saved upon completion.
  • If Magolor hits every Key Dee on the way to the HAL Room and then destroys all the blocks and defeats the Broom Hatter with a single Black Hole, he will have 860 Magic Points at the end of the stage. Finishing the stage for the first time will also give Magolor an 860 point bonus.

None

Kirby's Dream Collection Special EditionEdit

 
The HAL Room in the Normal Challenge in New Challenge Stages.

In the New Challenge Stages, a hidden doorway in the Normal Challenge leads to a room where the platforms unfold themselves slowly to spell out HAL (the red platform forms the H, the yellow platform forms the A, and the blue platform forms the L), and generate some Score Coins. This room plays the original version of "Green Greens", but may rarely play the Kirby's Epic Yarn version instead.

Kirby: Triple DeluxeEdit

The first HAL Room can be found in Fine Fields - Stage 3. To unlock it, Kirby must first walk all the way to the right end of the area, in the background, wait there a short moment, then return to the spot where Kirby first entered the area to find a new 3D Warp Star. Taking this star places Kirby in an area he couldn't get to before, where he must then walk to the left to find the HAL Room. This room contains the Wing, Leaf, Fighter and Wheel Copy Essences. If the Star Blocks are broken, they reveal a Keychain and food. This HAL Room plays the title theme from Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition, a remix of "Welcome to Dream Land".

The second HAL Room is found in Royal Road - Stage 1. Following the fight against Gigant Edge, Kirby can find a secret area at the very right of the screen that contains some Point Stars and a Maxim Tomato. If Kirby goes directly up from where the Maxim Tomato was and presses up in front of the moon, he enters an invisible door. The door will lead to a HAL Room where the HAL blocks are split across the foreground and background in perspective, with the blocks in the background being larger than the ones in the foreground. There are also Copy Essences for the new abilities in this game: Circus, Beetle, Archer, and Bell. It also contains a Keychain, another Maxim Tomato, and several 1-Ups. This room plays "Spring Breeze: Title" from Kirby Super Star Ultra. When playing Dededetour!, this room contains a Warp Hole, so it is ideal for King Dedede to enter it for a faster time.

The third and final HAL Room can be found in Royal Road - Stage 5, in a special area where Kirby must contend with 3D Securitron Blocks that will box him in. In the third of the rooms, once the blocks stop extending, Kirby must wait next to the door for 86 seconds, which will cause the blocks to retract followed by three more sets of blocks extending, in the shape of the letters H A and L. If Kirby survives this, another door will appear leading to the room. No special music plays in this room.

Kirby Fighters DeluxeEdit

Though not a true HAL Room, when fighting Kracko on Very Hard difficulty, the tiles on Bubbly Clouds' floor read "HAL". This secret was compared to a HAL Room by the developers on Miiverse.

Dedede's Drum Dash DeluxeEdit

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe also features a HAL-related secret, but has no true HAL Room. At the end of C-R-O-W-N-E-D (reprise), there are musical coins that spell out "HAL" instead of "DDD" in the normal version of the level.

Kirby: Planet RobobotEdit

The first HAL Room can be found in Patched Plains - Stage 3. At the very front of the train, Kirby must activate the Warp Star, but instead of riding it, he must then backtrack and find an area where he collected a Code Cube. There a new 3D Warp Star will have appeared to take him into the background, where he will then find a door to another room. This room has a chute with some 1-Ups in it, which is reward enough, but yet another secret passage can be found in this room, which will lead to the HAL Room in question. This room contains Jet, Hammer, Mirror, and Mix Copy Essences, as well as a Maxim Tomato. This room plays "Spring Breeze: Title" from Kirby Super Star Ultra.

The second HAL Room can be found in Access Ark - Stage 1. After defeating the second Security Force, a nook can be found on the wall beside the door to the next room. The nook leads to a big room containing two portraits of President Haltmann. The right portrait has a tear in the top right corner, which Kirby can enter to reach the HAL Room. This particular HAL Room has very large Star Blocks and Copy Essences of the three new Copy Abilities introduced in Planet Robobot (Doctor, ESP and Poison) as well as the elusive Smash Bros. ability. This means this HAL Room also doubles as one of the 5 Smash Bros. rooms, and is the only HAL Room to double as such. This HAL Room plays the title theme from Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe.

The third and final HAL Room can be discovered in Access Ark - Stage 4. At the very end, some extending walls will box Kirby in with the goal door. Instead of using this door, Kirby has to wait in this room for 86 seconds. After that time passes, another door will appear which will take Kirby to a room where more extending walls will spell out HAL. The music that plays here is the title theme for Kirby 3D Rumble, a remix of "Welcome to Dream Land".

Team Kirby Clash DeluxeEdit

Though not an actual HAL Room, in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, the letters HAL can appear on the crates that appear besides Magolor's Shoppe once all weapons and armor have been purchased.

Kirby's Blowout BlastEdit

Similarly, Kirby's Blowout Blast has no true HAL Room, but still has a HAL-related secret. As Kirby defeats each boss in Secret Path, Score Coins appear that spell out the letters "H", "A", and "L", after defeating Masher, Kracko, and Mega Masher respectively.

Kirby Star AlliesEdit

There are three HAL rooms in Kirby Star Allies. They are as follows:

HAL Room locations in Kirby Star Allies Story Mode  
Level Stage Image How to reach Notes Copy Essence
World of Peace - Dream Land Fruity Forest   First, Kirby and his allies must walk all the way up to where Whispy Woods is, but Kirby must not initiate the battle (walk up to where his canopy can be seen and the background music fades out). Then, Kirby must backtrack all the way to the beginning of the stage. A door will appear leading to the HAL room.
Fortress of Shadows - Jambastion Heavenly Hall   In the very last part of the escape, where large chunks of rock are falling down from the sky, Kirby and his friends will need to wait for 86 seconds. A door will then appear leading to the HAL Room. The HAL letters are formed using Electro Saw guide wires. None
Far-Flung Starlight Heroes Jambandra Base  
 
At the very end of the stage, Kirby and his friends can find a hidden door to this room above the stage exit by 'entering' Popstar as it appears in the background.

Additionally, Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! features special "Pseudo HAL Rooms" that appear when playing as certain Dream Friends. These rooms feature the respective characters' English names written with Star Blocks, are often found by solving a difficult puzzle, and play a personalized theme song for each character.

Super Kirby ClashEdit

Similarly to the Kirby Fighters Deluxe example, Super Kirby Clash does not contain a true HAL Room, but still has a HAL-related secret. After purchasing all of Magolor's gear at the Shoppe, there is a random chance that the HAL letters will appear as clouds in the sky in either the Castle Village or Port Village. The secret was revealed in a Super Kirby Clash Channel post on July 31st, 2020.

Kirby Fighters 2Edit

The HAL letters twinkling in the sky of the Stage of the Partners.

As per with previous spinoffs, Kirby Fighters 2 once again does not contain a true HAL Room. However, during the battle against Waning Crescent Masked Dedede & Waxing Crescent Masked Meta Knight in the Final Chapter of Story Mode: The Destined Rivals, stars forming the HAL letters may briefly twinkle in the sky of the Stage of the Partners. This secret was confirmed in a Kirby JP Twitter post on May 3, 2021.

There also exists a musical secret involving the music that plays on the Options menu. After waiting on that menu for 86 seconds, the music changes from an arrangement of the Select theme from Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land to an arrangement of the Start Stage and Forest/Nature Area themes from Kirby & The Amazing Mirror. This particular secret was shown off on a Kirby JP Twitter post from April 15, 2021.

Kirby and the Forgotten LandEdit

There are three known HAL Rooms in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, as follows:

HAL Room locations in Kirby and the Forgotten Land  
Level Stage Image How to reach Notes Copy Essence
Natural Plains Rocky Rollin' Road   From the very end of the stage, instead of touching the cage, Kirby should jump up to the tree on the right side with the help of the metal blocks. Touching the glowing point will cause a Target Switch to appear in the distant background in front of the large white building, as well as the Copy Essence of Ranger near the left bench of the plaza. Shooting the Target Switch with Ranger creates a block pathway into the distance, which Kirby will need to follow up to reach the HAL Room. It contains Copy Essences for Ice, Hammer, Needle, and Tornado.
  • The room itself features a sleeping Awoofy atop the "L", since Broom Hatter is not in this game.
  • Notably, the position of the bridging block in the "A" has been shifted one space upward.
Wondaria Remains The Wondaria Dream Parade   In the room featuring a Car Mouth race track (which requires 05.555 seconds to get the gold medal), instead of driving as fast as possible, Kirby should cross the finish line when the timer is at 86 seconds. Doing so will make a platform rise from the hole in the track, with the HAL letters formed by bushes and Star Coins.
  • The car has the number 86, possibly a hint for how to access the HAL Room.
None
Redgar Forbidden Lands Burning, Churning Power Plant   In the first area with the horizontal crushers, Kirby must get to the end of the room, break the boxes in the crusher wall on the right, and climb up to enter the hidden "control room". From there, he must backtrack to the beginning of the stage, but should watch out for the crushers because their speed is increased now. If done correctly, a new path will appear on the right in the form of a ramp and line of Star Coins leading to a long ladder. Taking this path leads to the HAL Room, with the letters in the center of a large round room made of metal blocks. When Kirby breaks all of the surrounding blocks to reveal these letters, a vending machine appears (which has 860 cans in it) so that Kirby can bust the letters themselves.
  • The letters on the floor read "H-86 HALLAB1980", the year when HAL Laboratory was founded.

In all three HAL Rooms, a medley plays based on the main menu themes for Kirby Star Allies, Kirby Fighters 2, and Super Kirby Clash, the three previous Nintendo Switch Kirby games. The third HAL Room features a chiptune version of this medley.

Kirby's Dream BuffetEdit

While not a HAL Room, in Kirby's Dream Buffet, HAL cookies can be found in the Free Rolling mode and in every race. The HAL cookies in Free Rolling can be found scattered around the board, unlike the cookies found in the race courses. The H cookie can be found on the left side near the syrup wall. The A cookie can be found behind the Strawberry Mountain under a crate, and the L cookie can be found behind a wall of whipped cream on the right side of the board, where the Kirby Star Allies cookie is.

In addition, HAL cookies can be found in each of the Race tracks, though only on specific variants. The HAL cookies on the race levels are listed in the following table:

HAL cookies on Race courses in Kirby's Dream Buffet  
Course and Variant Demonstration Where is it?
Green variant of Baumkuchen
  At the part just before the final tube of Baumkuchen, there is a Baumkuchen ring that allows Kirbys to cross through the middle of it with a small bridge. When crossing this part, the player can spot HAL cookies spread out on the inner ring of the Baumkuchen.
Red variant of Cake Rolls
  Late into the race, Kirby will encounter a yellow roll with two puddles of pudding on it. There are two paths he can take, but the left one has the HAL cookies. When Kirby reaches the red roll, he must jump off the left part of it to see behind the smaller rolls. Here the player can see three cookies on the top of the rolls that spell out "HAL". The other side of these cookies have arrows pointing forward instead.
Blue variant of Chocolate Fountain
  At the very beginning of the race, Kirby must go behind the cut pancake on the left side of the first chocolate pool. Here he can find the HAL letters on the back of the pancake.
Blue variant of Doughnuts
  In the first section with the rolling wafer logs on the yellow doughnuts, some doughnuts can be found on the side of the second doughnut. The side doughnut on the right will have three vertical cookies spelling out "HAL".
Red variant of Hamburgers
  After the large section with the sandwiches and a crumbling cookie wall Kirby can skip with a cannon, there is a section with slowly-spinning burgers. On the side of the first burger, the HAL letters spelt in cookies can be found. This is better seen on the left side of the burger.
Yellow variant of Ice Cream
  In the area with the blue and pink popsicles, a green large moving one can be found. By jumping off the course to the right of it, it is possible to spot some HAL cookies lining the bottom of the popsicle.
Red variant of Pancakes
  After the part with the stacks of waffles with strawberries on them, and shortly before the cannon area, Kirby will cross a bridge of wafers and will find a pancake with a knife in it at the bend. Jumping on this pancake will reveal some HAL cookies stuck to the back of it.
  Directly after the previous HAL cookies, Kirby must travel past the spinning pancake and ignore the cannon. At the first pancake that acts similar to a saw going across the ground, Kirby must jump off the left side of where that pancake goes across. There he will find the HAL cookies lined across the filling of an ice cream sandwich.
Yellow variant of Shortcake
  In the area after the second crumbling cookie wall, there is a bridge of cake with an outlet leading to five strawberries. By jumping off the stage from the opposite end of the outlet, it is possible to see some HAL cookies along with some crackers lining the bottom of the left wall.

Additionally, like in Kirby Fighters 2, there is a musical secret involving the "Kirby's Ultra-Gourmet Memories" track. By waiting for 86 seconds, it will change from a remix of the "Alternate Corkboard" theme to an 8-bit medley of "Kirby's Dream Buffet" and "Gourmet Race".

Other appearancesEdit

Kirby 30th Anniversary official websiteEdit

On the now-closed Kirby 30th Anniversary official website, the viewer could collect the letters H, A and L by interacting with specific parts of the website:

  • H: The viewer had to choose all 30 Kirbys. Once done, a popup message acknowledging having chosen every Kirby would appear. Afterwards, the viewer could then scroll to the bottom of the page, and a new link would appear.
  • A: The viewer had to scroll to the bottom of the page, then back to the top, and then back to the bottom again, which would cause a secret door to appear.
  • L: The viewer had to wait without clicking or scrolling away for 86 seconds until the Moon map from Kirby's Dream Land appeared, and then click on the moon in the image.

When obtaining any of the three letters, the viewer would be sent to a page displaying which letters they had collected, featuring screenshots from many HAL Rooms through the series and showing how many people had visited said page. After collecting all three letters, the viewer would be sent to the same page with the new option of downloading a secret wallpaper featuring HAL Rooms throughout the series.

TriviaEdit

The first known HAL Rooms in any game, not just the Kirby series:
Stage 22 of Mode 3 of Keisan Game Sansuu 4-nen, the first known HAL Room of any kind.
Field 17 of Mode 3 of Keisan Game Sansuu 5~6-nen, the first known HAL Room featuring a lone enemy character.
  • The first known HAL Room is not in any Kirby game, but is instead found in an educational game made for the Famicom, けいさんゲーム算数4年 (Keisan Game Sansuu 4-nen, or Calculation Game: Year 4 Arithmetic), published by Tokyo Shoseki but developed by HAL Laboratory, as indicated in a hidden credits screen.[1] Unlike the HAL Rooms found in the Kirby series, this room is simply found by getting far enough in Mode 3 (the fraction arithmetic mode).
    • The second known HAL Room in turn is in another game in the same series, けいさんゲーム算数5・6年 (Keisan Game Sansuu 5~6-nen, or Calculation Game: Years 5-6 Arithmetic), from the same publisher. This room is accessed in the same way, in the fraction arithmetic mode as a normal stage of the game, but the HAL letters are upside down. Notably, this is the first HAL Room to feature a lone enemy character in the room (like the Broom Hatter in Kirby HAL Rooms), in this case a giant cricket.
  • Outside of the Kirby series and Famicom educational games, HAL Rooms are also found throughout the BOXBOY! series, including in three BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! stages.[2]
  • Since Kirby: Triple Deluxe, HAL Rooms often play a variation of "Welcome to Dream Land". Perhaps in reference to this, the Kirby's Dream Collection arrangement of the theme is unlocked upon reaching Gourmet Rank 86 in Kirby's Dream Buffet.

Names in other languagesEdit

Language Name Meaning
Japanese HAL部屋べや
haru heya
HAL Room
Traditional Chinese HAL房間
HAL fáng jiān
HAL Room
Simplified Chinese HAL房间
HAL fáng jiān
Dutch HAL-ruimte HAL room
French salle HAL HAL Room
German HAL-Raum HAL Room
Italian stanza HAL HAL Room
Korean HAL 방
HAL bang
HAL Room
Portuguese sala HAL HAL Room
Spanish sala HAL HAL Room


References