Kirby's Dream Land (1992)

I had a good time playing through Kirby’s Dream Land. It isn’t much, just a simple platformer, but it does the platforming really well! Kirby has a really interesting move set and I enjoyed controlling him. He can do the standard running + jumping; but his true value comes when he eats enemies and his ability to fly! Kirby can eat enemies and shoot them back out to kill others. It is his main form of combat since he cannot jump on enemies safely.

Kirby can also fly and it is done pretty well for a Gameboy game. There are many places that force Kirby to fly across gaps or reach the top of a long tower and these provide diversity in levels. He cannot eat enemies while flying, but you can attack them by letting out Kirby’s breath, which is another attack. The boss of the 3rd stage also plays like a space shooter and lets Kirby shoot bullets while flying. Its my favorite part of the whole game… Mario Land also did this I don’t know why these Gameboy games threw in gratuitous shooter sequences, but I love it!

One of the big drawbacks of Kirby’s Dream Land is that it is only 4 levels and a boss rush. The game can be beaten in half an hour; however, that is the perfect amount of time if all you want to do is have a quick platforming adventure. The game is also very easy and most gamers should have no difficulty beating it. It does have a secret hard mode that the player can either use a passcode to enable or play through after beating it on normal. The hard mode and the sheer quality of Kirby’s Dream Land give it solid replayability.

I would recommend that anyone who is interested in retro games play Kirby’s Dream Land. Seriously, it's not a huge commitment and it is great fun. Everyone can enjoy this.

Preliminary: Omg I love this so far! Straightforward platforming fun, something that is slowly going aside into the 90s for more complex Metroidvania and action-adventure elements. Everything was immediately intuitive, tho I believe it helps that I played some other Kirby game at some point I believe? But I was picturing NES? Hm. Maybe a false memory. But I knew I was to suck up the enemies and shoot em out. I didn't expect to fly. I also didn't expect to suck multiple up at once.

The controls are very responsive and fast-paced so far. So ironic playing this right after Tiny Toon Adventures Babs' Something-or-other came out for GB.That moved like it was in slow motion, this moves very quickly and I was done with the first level in no time, flying off on a star which was also very familiar. Hm I wonder what Kirby game I watched someone play or played briefly as a kid. I know I had the GB pinball game which I loved and loved that there were bosses in a pinball game. Anyway, this will definitely be worth a full playthrough! And to imagine this in my pocket anywhere I went, I would've loved that as a kid I had very few platformers for GB, instead puzzles like Qix and action-adventures like Link's Awakening. Weeeee

Day 1

Wait... I definitely recognize this boss too what is happening. I haven't read that this was re-released? I did just read that there was an NES game in 93, so that must've been what I saw as a youngun. Odd that they released it on NES instead of SNES at that time. Also I suppose odd that they had the first game in a series on GB.

Lol the movement when you pause the game is cuet and a nice touch. It shows that thing I sometimes bring it up when it's clear a game is loved, i.e. the programmers enjoyed making it and added little touches because it was something they loved.

Oh gosh well the straightforward platforming is already done in the 2nd area. Hopefully I can just wing it figuring out the right path without resorting to a guide.

I think I'm figuring it out cuz I've been through a few boss/minibosses so far? The controls are still quite tight, esp for a GB game, but turning around quickly gets a bit sloppy. The music is really nice though. And I'm still having lots of fun even with some clunkiness. Oh nice, that was the boss of that area, this is moving quickly.

Yesss the music of Float Island is so good. And I'm noticing a lot of sprites similar to Doki Doki Panic and Mario.

Yessss to stumbling upon bonus areas a la the Marios like this

This would be a lot of fun to speedrun. Also to just have owned as a kid and explore like I did with Link's Awakening. In this case there are multiple paths but you can also just fly through it for fun. The best of both worlds imo.

It's nice when you can say you laughed and smiled throughout a game. When I made a mistake, or stumbled upon a cute touch to the graphic or Kirby's antics etc, I'd smile instead of rage. And that's what I game for (in addition to the addiction and grind mindset >.< )

Lol the boss of the Floating Island part was basically a shmup segment :-p And omg the next boss was in the Pinball game!

I could've beat this in one sitting but today is a "calm day" where I can only actively game for 45 minute intervals then must rest/relax for at least 15 mins. I'll definitely be returning to this after dinner tho!

Welp I'm back at it and loving it. I love the cutscenes, I love the cute touches, I love that I don't have to abuse savestates to enjoy it.

I'm never a huge fan of boss rushes, but this is relatively fun since a) it was so short and to the point and b) I found the boss mechanics intuitive and fun. The final boss was managemable (even with only 3 hits left for me), and the mechanics felt like it was ripe for speedrun tactics. I like bosses where you have to use theri attack against them as long as you can force-trigger said attack or they are frequently used attacks. I hate high HP bosses and long waits for such mechanics. Point being, this game did a good job of allowing you to get to know the mechanics and I am sure there are people out there who know the patterns/force-triggers to make these bosses quick as all get out. And there's even an Extra Game version a la Castlevania! Tho I only played through part of the Level 1 of the Extra Game it was still a nice touch. I feel like I'm handing out Favorites too often lately but I dunno. Is what it is.

Cute ending music, cute antics for the ending (I kept trying to get a screenshot of the giant inflated Kirby taking away the castle but all I could get is the silly aftermath below lol), and every good ending/game needs a sunset/sunrise, and they didn't fail in that! Lol it moved too fast for me to get a good screenshot of the giant Kirby :-p

Look: 9/10 Super cute, playful and fun, and well detailed for GB

Sound: 9/10 Consistently great

Play: 9/10 Only slight clunkiness that I got used to real quick, and she's slippery but it's a mechanics you grow to love.

Feel: 9/10 This will likely grow over time, esp if Kirby series becomes as beloved as this made me think it will!

Attachment: 9/10 I know I will replay this, plus the series is special to me even if I didn't play many of them, that Pinball game was one of my go-to GB games!

Overall: 9/10

Completion: Main Story

Playtime: ~1h 15m

P.S. I love this

Kirby's Dream Land was the debut game of designer Masahiro Sakurai. He intended it to be a simple game that could be easy to pick up and play by those unfamiliar with action games. For more advanced players, he offered additional optional challenges such as a hard mode and the ability to edit Kirby's maximum HP and starting number of lives.

That is how I believe difficulty should be in games. Pick up and play; repeatedly play for extras and bonuses; be an expert to have optional higher difficulty and tweaks to the HP/enemies/etc

The only other Kirby game I beat was Forbidden Lands so it's very interesting to see how far the franchise progressed!

Pros: The control's smooth, gameplay's fun and the tracks are a banger.

Cons: Kirby's Dream Land would be much better if it wasn't so short and easy. I also miss his copy ability, the game feels kinda lacking without it (and it makes the combat's too simple).

I look foward to checking out the other titles in the series.

Played this for the first time, and it was a nice little short romp. Kirby feels a bit "off" without the copy ability, which I think is really what makes Kirby games feel distinct from other similar platformers. It makes this game feel even more simplistic than Kirby usually is. That said, I'm surprised to see how many elements were established this early, from the music, enemies and environments.

It's super short, which is not unusual for this era of Game Boy games. Sometimes you just want a quick and short filler game, and this fit the bill nicely.

Like most games that were released in Gameboy in its first years, the length is pretty short, as it only has 5 levels and the last one is a boss rush, so you can complete it under 2 hours, but there is a extra mode with harder difficulty to add replayability.

However, what makes this game special is the fact that it's the first game in the Kirby series, and you can see many of its staples already: Green greens, King Dedede, Whispy Woods, many recurrent enemies, and so on.

The only thing missing is copying abilities, but that actually makes this game special in the franchise, as there isn't some godlike final boss that you have to defeat or puzzles that require a specific ability, just Kirby and its three main abilities: Floating, sucking enemies and spitting stars. It's a pretty simple formula, but it works wonderfully, and it makes the game perfect for replaying when you don't want to spend a lot of time on something, just killing time.

In conclusion, this is far from a complex game even by Kirby standards, but its simplicity and short duration are perfect for a handheld game, and nowadays it's still pretty fun and has aged pretty well, especially for a Gameboy game.