in 3D, but using traditional 2D side-scrolling gameplay. The game would also support multiplayer with up to four players. This build was demonstrated at E3 in 2005, and was set for release later that year. However, difficulty with programming multiplayer led to this version being scrapped, though its concept would later resurface as Kirby Star Allies for the Nintendo Switch. The second build placed Kirby in a 3D environment with open world-style gameplay, and the third build returned to side-scrolling gameplay, but had the graphical style of a pop-up book similar to Yoshi's Story for the Nintendo 64 in the late 1990s. Although the second build was cancelled because it didn't achieve HAL Laboratory's quality standards, its concept would eventually resurface as Kirby and the Forgotten Land for the Nintendo Switch with elements from 2D platform games. The development team realized that the failure of the first three attempts were caused by too much focus on multiplayer, so focus was shifted to the single-player experience. Development of the final version accelerated in October 2010, when the game began to take form. Kirbys long development caused the game to frequently appear and then disappear from Nintendo's upcoming game lists. On September 14, 2006, the Kirby game appeared on a list of upcoming Wii games, named , set for release in Japan. The December 2006 issue of Nintendo Power removed Kirby from its list of GameCube releases, but did not place it on its list of Wii releases. Matt Casamassina of IGN, posting on his blog, furthered the idea of a Wii release by stating that it would indeed be released for the Wii in 2007. He compared it to Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, another game that was originally announced as a GameCube title, but eventually released on Wii. While the game did not appear at E3 2007, Beth Llewelyn of Nintendo of America confirmed the game "had not been abandoned." The December 2007 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine claimed that a Kirby game for Wii was not in development. On May 7, 2010, Nintendo confirmed that a Kirby Wii title was still in the making. Nintendo announced the game Kirby's Epic Yarn at E3 2010, a separate title that was in development by Good-Feel. The 2005 Kirby game was presumed to have been canceled until a Financial Results Briefing on January 28, 2011 re-announced the game with a release date set