Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition (2012)

In 2012 Hal Laboratory celebrated Kirby's Dream Land 20th anniversary releasing Kirby’s Dream Collection Special Edition, a compilation of old Kirby games with some interesting information about the franchise and new content.

It's worth noting that the complete version in America includes a soundtrack CD with 45 tracks and a 45-page book with trivia and artwork from the franchise, so if you consider yourself a big Kirby fan it's definitely worth buying a physical copy, especially if it's the Japanese version, which has more content and a book over 200 pages long with artwork and information about the anime and multiple mangas, something totally absent in the American version.

Images taken from Wikirby.

Now, talking about the videogame itself, there are three modes available: Classic Titles, Kirby's History and New Challenges Stages.

Classic Titles is where you can access the six entries included: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Sadly, there aren't any spin-offs, which are a huge part of the franchise, but this is still a more accesible and cheaper way to get old Kirby games than buying them separately in sites like eBay.

Kirby's History is a virtual museum where you can read about relevant events related to Kirby and the real world from 1992 to 2012. The most interesting part is watching 3D models of the boxes, along a short video that works both as a trailer and a explanation of the games. You can also watch three episodes from the anime, although it is the 4Kids version, so it is the same censored experience as watching them from TV.

However, the American version only includes entries released in the USA and is missing a lot of content present in the Japanese version, like information about Kirby's Super Star Stacker (1999), arcade games and multiple mangas with some pages that you can read. On the upside, the Kirby's Avalanche (1995) section is exclusive to America, and none of the regions has any information about Kirby's Toy Box (1996), so neither of them are perfect.

Finally, the last mode is New Challenge Stages, which name is pretty self-explanatory. If you liked the challenges from Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) then you'll love these, which are harder and have "bosses" stages where you race against Magalor. It's nice having some playable content aside from the classic games, although you'll finish all the challenges in less than two hours unless you decide to get platinum medal in all of them, a task that needs a lot of time, patient and practice.

And that's all you can do in Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition. It was obviously created for Kirby fans, but the inclusion of six games made this the perfect place to start with the franchise back in the day… Sadly, nowadays it's hard to find a complete copy that isn't ridiculously expensive, and it's very unlikely that Nintendo releases it again for the Nintendo Switch, so this is one of these cases where the game is only worth it if you are a big fan of the franchise or like collecting videogames.