Kirby is a small, round and pink as a ball of chewing gum, with great manga-style eyes, two arms and two small feet with some sort of red shoes. He is naive, unconscious, gentle, courageous, honorable and cute.
Apart from his very welcoming appearance, the trait that represent him the most (and the one he is known for) is a huge appetite. Kirby is so voracious that he swallows (or more precisely inhales) its enemies to steal their powers or abilities.
At first, Kirby's name was supposed to be Popopo and he was created in an unconventional way. Its designer Masahiro Sakurai was working at HAL Laboratory and he wanted to make a easy platform game for beginners. At first he created the universe without concern for the main character, he made the sketch of a ball with two big eyes, small arms, two feet and superimposed it onto the scene to see the possible interactions. He was supposed to be more detailed but in the end, this first sketch became the character that we know nowadays (except that at the time he was white and only became pink later on).
Kirby's first game appearance took place in Kirby's Dreamland which was released on Game Boy in 1992.