Kirby and HAL have now been involed with two development hell projects. Kirby Air Ride started off as an N64 launch game and was not released until midway through the Gamecube's life. Now this Kirby game started as a Cube title and is only now being released (presumably) late into the Wii's life. How much money did both projects cost Nintendo? You figure HAL would be in hot water for something like this but then Iwata used to work for HAL so maybe he cuts them slack. Nintendo was apparently pissed at Rare for their inability to stay on schedule but they never had anything get delayed for six or seven years! Conker seemed to be in development forever but it didn't take nearly as long to develop as these two titles.
HAL has been a poorly managed mess ever since Iwata left. This is also one of the reason why Sakurai left HAL because he was pissed at how the management kept interfering with the development of Kirby Air Ride, resulting in the final game being nothing like how he wanted it to be. This is one of the reason why even though Iwata has gotten Sakurai to come back to work for Nintendo, Sakurai has said he has no interest in ever working with HAL again.
Here's the games HAL made while Iwata was the president between 1993-2000.
Kirby's Adventure
Kirby's Pinball Land
Kirby's Dream Course
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's Dream Land 3
Vegas Stakes
Kirby's Star Stacker
Kirby's Super Star Stacker
Pokémon Snap
Pokemon Stadium (Japan Only)
Pokémon Stadium 2 (American and Europe's first Pokemon Stadium)
Pokémon Stadium 3 (America and Europe's Pokemon Stadium 2)
SimCity 64
Shigesato Itoi's No. 1 Bass Fishing
Super Smash Bros.
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut
Here's the games HAL has made after Iwata was no longer president from 2001 - 2011.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
Kirby Air Ride
Kirby Canvas Curse
Pokémon Ranger
Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Picross 3D
Upcoming Kirby DS game
Kirby Wii
So yeah, it's become very clear that the reason HAL became such a huge success was because of Iwata's leadership. Without him, the studio has just fallen apart.