The first time I ever beat this game was back in 2022. After playing Forgotten Land when it launched, and really enjoying that, I was still in a Kirby mood and decided to beat one of the few mainline games I haven't already. While not bad overall, I found this notably weaker than Dreamland 1 for several reasons. I was a bit generous back then tho and gave it a 6 like I did Dreamland 1. Well coming back to it again, yeah It's still weaker than Dreamland 1 and I'm dropping it to a 5 now.

That's not to say there aren't some things this game improved on compared to 1. Overall, Kirby feels better to control in this one which is nice. While I'm nostalgic for the first game's ost, this game might have it beat overall. Sure it reuses a lot of tracks from Dreamland 1 and Adventure, however it's original tracks are actually really damn good. Coo's Theme is the real standout here, goddamn is that some good shit. Visually it also looks nicer than Dreamland 1 I'd say, though still doesn't look that great overall since it's still a Gameboy game.

The main thing this game added though were the animal friends. The aforementioned Koo the owl, Kine the fish and Rick the hamster are the three buddies in this game. They're a fun addition and change the gameplay up. Since copy abilities are back, each animal friend actually has their own version of each one. They greatly vary in usage though. Koo with parasol is amazing while Rick with needle is most of the time awful. It's a cool idea, that gets expanded on way more in Dreamland 3, however the execution here is very hit and miss.

Something you can use these animal friends abilities on are copy ability specific blocks. These usually block the main collectable in this game, the rainbow drops. To get 100% in this game, and fight the true final boss, you must get them all. Let me tell you, some of them are a huge pain to get. Not only are the later ones cryptic, the one where you have to use Kine + electric is just straight BS sometimes because of what you have to do to get it. If you know you know, but either way you most likely won't be getting these without a guide.

Other than that, the game just goes on for way too long I feel. To beat Dreamland 1, it takes around and hour or less (most likely a half hour) which is perfect for the type of game this is. Dreamland 2 might improve on 1's controls a bit, but it's still a Gameboy game and it's around 4 hours long to full complete everything. That's way longer and as such it just drags on near the end. That, plus the level design can be very hit or miss. Most of the levels are passable I'd say, however the game really loves its auto scrolling levels and these can be a bitch sometimes with it being a Gameboy game. And of course there's the infamous auto-scroller with the instakill dead ends that is pure trial and error and yeah that one is pure dogshit.

Along with the rainbow drops, to get 100% you have to also do these star collecting minigames and also find the female Gooey once. Gooey is this blobby guy that replaces an animal buddy if it gives you the one you already have. He just gives you some health back if you collect him. However there's a 1/8 chance it'll be a female Gooey instead and finding her actually contributes to 100% which is weird but easy to do in a certain level luckily. The star minigames you can do after going into the boss door again after you've beaten them. You have to collect every star and get a perfect in every world because this contributes to 100%. The minigames themselves are fine enough, however if you get hit or miss a star, you can't play it again until you go and beat a stage. I get why they do this as it's easy to grind lives if this wasn't in place, however the fact you have to do this for 100% just means it wastes time if you lose which isn't fun.

This is the first in the Dark Matter trilogy and so after we defeat Dedede at the end, we get to fight Dark Matter for the first time. Get used to doing that as he's a regular throughout the trilogy ofc. I remember the fight being more frustrating back in 2022, but here it wasn't too bad. Decent introduction to them as a main antagonist of the trilogy.

While I quite like Dreamland 1 and 3, I don't have much of a connection to 2 at all and I personally think it's a lot more flawed compared to those two games. It improves on some things from 1 but is also way longer and drags on because of that. Not to mention it's annoying to 100%. It's not a terrible sequel but I personally think it's a downgrade compared to 1 even if the animal friends and copy abilities being here are nice. I'll take 1 any day of the week over this.

HBO’s Gossip Girl sequel series is an interesting beast. Keenly self-aware that what worked for its parent show in 2007 won’t work today, both content-wise in terms of character relationships and particularly the way male characters treat the female leads, and presentationally in terms of modern youth’s perception of and relationships to wealth, the wealthy, and how those things interact structurally with the public.

There’s a very obvious and conscious effort to avoid all of the easy criticisms of the first show; characters are aware of their privilege but not above it and not so aware that they’re not believably terrible enough to necessitate the resuscitation of a Gossip Girl to hold them accountable. Gossip Girl’s identity is revealed immediately in the first episode rather than being teased as an impossible and unsatisfying mystery. The social issues covered feel a lot more grounded and on-the-pulse, and unlike the vast majority of shows about teens that try to tackle online or “woke” culture, they MOSTLY feel pretty lived in and true to how shit head rich assholes would want to perform social justice, and how they might be challenged by normal people around them if, in real life, any normal people had that chance and any rich shit head was obligated to listen. The cast was touted before premiere as “majority queer and POC” and this miraculously carries through with only one guy in the entire thing who is both straight and white, and multiple male-identified characters who kiss and fuck other dudes on screen in a very normal way? Penises out on this show? It’s really nice?

And yet, somehow, despite seeming to try to be the anti-Gossip Girl Gossip Girl, GG 2021’s first six episodes (half of the first season, all that’s been released so far) manage to fall into nearly all of the same dramatic traps that the original did, made all the more glaring by the illusion of HBO Prestige and obviously outrageous budget that combined with its newfound “down to earth” subject matter lends it a superficial degree of ostensible respectability over it’s often comically underfunded, proudly juvenile, stupendously tacky mid-aughts CW forebear.

Here we are, still forcing the show to contort itself around an exceptionally unnatural feud between its two central women who don’t really have a real reason to be feuding and who are more interesting (separately and apart) when their relationship is a conspiratorial one rather than adversarial; still finding ourselves halfway interested in having our characters interact with touchy real life current events and then making those events into tasteless window dressing for emotionally charged break ups and hook ups that could really have been instigated anywhere and by anything probably; still doing deeply misguided teacher/student hook up storylines???? Making them both dudes doesn’t help! It’s very interesting to see all the ways that this is very much Still Just Gossip Girl, even as it’s Gossip Girl with seemingly more genuine heart and possibly more genuine brains.

So as you can see, there’s a lot to chew on here. If Gossip Girl 07 was a show that I couldn’t ignore when it was on in the room because it was so loud and obnoxious and on one all the time, Gossip Girl 21 is a genuinely fascinating look at the ways a concept does and doesn’t change with the times. I can’t get enough of it.

Which makes KIRBY’S DREAM LAND 2 THAT MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE because as long as this shit was in my hands and my single earbud was connecting my 3DS to my left ear I didn’t give a SHIT about Julien and Zoya and all their stupid fucking friends KIRBY HAS COPY ABILITIES NOW

THEY CAN RIDE IN A FISH’S MOUTH

THE FISH HOPS AROUND IT LOOKS FUCKING STUPID

IT’S SO CUTE

IT’S SO CUTE

IT’S KIRBY

FIVE OUTTA FIVE BRO

That level with dead ends is quite the unexpected surprise! Keep it expected next time 🗣️ 🗣️ that fish mad chill tho I didn't know he was chill like that damn 🚬 and there's Coo who... honestly he cheesed the game for me, him and the cutter ability? Damn we are witnessing a genocide my friends. Then, we have Rick... yeah big hamster, pet hamsters can die if you fart too loud so this one was doomed from the beginning. Still that makes 28 unique moves for Kirby, we are truly gaming. I still know how to count, too. Is it really the "power" of friendship if you're limiting your movements ? No, no... think of waiting with your friends at the bus stop to keep them company. I am flabbergasted by this star shit though wtf is this shit? They're still here until Kirby 64? It feels like Mandela effect that I never knew about Kirby thinking he's Mario without shame.

This is more fitting as baby's first platformer compared to Dream Land and Adventure, you're not an useless pack of meat when you float for starters! And yeah it's a spring breeze. Get your acquaintances hooked on Kirby with this one simple trick (they won't)! Playing the DL2 DX pack, this is as beautiful as it gets! But do not forget my brother in christ, the fog is coming. When you get the ending and the game would rather credit its critters before its developers, thats the typa shit that tells you something malicious is brewing. That Dark Matter fella is sweet stuff compared to DL3 and 64, still you'll have to "avada kedavra!!" his ass like your star rod is a semi-auto.

With all this commotion, did you notice this game lacked the invincibility candy? I want to complain even if I didnt notice it. Grrrrrrr!! Well I tried. Why complain about things that actually need complaining? Give that man a [TRUE...]! Will the homies hop on Dream Land 2 if they knew it was peak and had soul? This makes excellent bait for the average Backloggdian. Unfortunately, the level design seems to have suffered from having to compete with Dream Land. It's in the dictionary next to the definition of "short term memory loss". But it doesn't mean they're not fun! (except the aforementioned dead ends segment) because, see, it's got a good rating here. My stamp of approval should tell you enough, too bad I'm mentally unwell and cannot be trusted as such.

Have you ever been on a ride in a theme park that, at first, seems like a really fun time and you are having quite a wonderful time with it, but then you find it is suddenly over after what feels like a couple of seconds? That is pretty much how I would summarize what it is like playing the original Kirby’s Dream Land: it is fun enough for the time it lasts, but it is over before it really offers you anything majorly exciting or substantial, even if we are ignoring how dated it is compared to every other Kirby game that comes afterwards. Thankfully though, this series was able to bounce back with Kirby’s Adventure, which not only took the basics of what Kirby’s Dream Land had and expanded upon them, but also added new series staples like copy abilities, fun little minigames to play on the side, LOTS to do, and some wonderful visuals and music that makes it one of the best games that you could play on the NES. So, now that they had a proper formula on their hands that was also pretty successful, HAL Laboratory knew exactly where they needed to go from here, which you can see start to blossom with the release of Kirby’s Dream Land 2.

I don’t remember exactly when I played this particular installment of the series, but I do know it was after I had already played a good amount of the other games in the series. I was bored one day, was browsing around the Kirby’s Dream Collection, saw this as one of the games on there, so I figured I would try it out, and based on what I played, I thought it was pretty good at the time. Coming back to it after all this time, I would say that I still hold that opinion to this day, as it is a pretty solid entry in the series, and a great follow-up to the original Kirby’s Dream Land. It isn’t perfect by any means, having its own issues that do make some parts of the game unpreferable to me, but it manages to still be good ol’ classic Kirby fun all the way through, and that’s all I really care about.

The story is about what you would expect from a Kirby game, where in the magical world of Dream Land, King Dedede, seemingly being controlled by an unknown, supernatural force, steals all of the rainbow bridges that connect all of the Rainbow Islands to each other, all as part of his plan to take over the world, so it is up to Kirby to once again set out on a journey to stop King Dedede and find out what is really going on here, which is a simple enough premise that fans of the series could easily get behind, especially with what it all leads to towards the end of the game. The graphics are Game Boy graphics, looking almost identical to that of the original Kirby’s Dream Land, but there are plenty of additional pieces of animation, much more detailed characters and baddies, and personality to be seen here, so it does look better as a whole, the music is pretty good, with there being plenty of tracks, old and new, for fans to appreciate and enjoy, despite some issues with some themes that I will get into later, and the gameplay/control is pretty much exactly what you would expect, with the game taking both Kirby’s Dream Land and the best aspects of Kirby’s Adventure and mashing them together, making for a game that works pretty well in almost all areas, and one that both fans old and new would be able to have a great time with.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Kirby once again, go through seven different worlds throughout your journey, each containing their own set of levels for you to play through, run, jump, float, swallow, and spit your way through plenty of different obstacles and adorable foes, gather plenty of food items to heal yourself and/or give you temporary invincibility, along with plenty of copy abilities from enemies that you can wield throughout the stages, such as Cutter, Spark, Stone and Parasol, and take on plenty of bosses, both old and new, that can range from being extremely easy to pretty damn difficult……. ok, well, I would only say one of these bosses falls under that difficult banner, but still, it's there. Most could just view this game as a typical Kirby adventure with no bells and whistles, nothing more and nothing less, but it does still make for a solid adventure that you can easily enjoy from start to finish, especially for big Kirby fans like me, and there are several new additions to the game that do make it more interesting to play……. for better or worse.

Obviously, the biggest change that this game introduces, as can be seen by the cover of the game, is with the introduction of three animal buddies that Kirby can find throughout the entire game, consisting of Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, and Kine the Sunfish. Each one of them acts as a supporting unit for Kirby, allowing them to assist not just in progressing through levels and taking out enemies, but also as a means of getting through specific terrain, such as with Coo working really well in the air, and Kine doing wonders for underwater sections, as to be expected. Not only that, but they can also use copy abilities like Kirby can, making them even more versatile than ever before, and better to use in some cases. For example, when you are playing as Kirby and you are using the Cutter ability, he just throws the one standard blade, which does get the job done, but doesn’t allow for much range other than for what is directly in front of you. However, whenever you use Coo the Owl with the cutter ability, you are able to throw three sharp feathers at once, allowing you to take out plenty more enemies at a time, making them the much more preferable option.

So yeah, using these animal buddies can be very helpful, and they definitely make plenty of the sections in the game much more of a spring breeze than others………….. but, I don’t typically go out of my way to use them that much. That’s not because I think any of them are bad to use, not at all, but there is one thing that does irritate me about them, and that is the music. Each animal buddy has their own specific theme made for them, and whenever you are on one of these animal buddies, that theme will be playing CONSTANTLY while you remain attached to them, which does really suck, especially for someone who loves hearing the different kinds of music in these Kirby games. Thankfully though, that is only a very minor issue, and I can still rely on them for help on plenty of occasions, despite their themes getting drilled into my head every time.

Other than that though, the game pretty much just plays like your typical Kirby adventure. You run around, ya jump, you suck up enemies, you do a little dance at the end of levels, it’s all the basic shit you have seen before, with there not being too many grievances to get in the way of you having fun, aside from maybe an annoying level here or there. This could, again, make the game seem generic to those from an outside perspective, as well as those who are more used to later games in the series, but, for me at least, I think the reason this game works is that it is the best of both worlds for Kirby at this point. I imagine plenty of people back in the day would play the original Kirby’s Dream Land while on a road trip with family, in the back seat of the car with nothing else going on, but would probably be disappointed by how quickly it goes by, and how it doesn’t offer that much of a reason to revisit it. Thankfully though, with all of the different additions from Kirby’s Adventure, this makes the second game much more fun and meaty, giving plenty for the player to do on said long car trips, as well as plenty to experiment with in terms of the copy abilities and how they can be used, along with the secrets that you can find throughout the levels.

However, with all that being said, this game not only takes some of the best elements of Kirby’s Adventure as influence, but also some of its worst ones as well, as this game also has a problem when it comes to its length. While I wouldn’t say this game is as long as Kirby’s Adventure, it can still last for quite a while, way longer than what you would hope for from a Kirby title on the Game Boy, and while a lot of it is still pretty fun, you can definitely feel it start to drag at some point, and you are just waiting for it to be over. Not to mention, despite the fact that this game brings back the copy abilities from the last game, not only are several staple abilities missing from this game, like Sword and Beam, but they don’t introduce any new abilities in the game whatsoever, with the exception of the Rainbow Sword, but that can only be used for the final boss. I can kinda understand why these were left out, considering that some of the abilities we have here function almost in exactly the same way, but it does suck nontheless to see them ignored, as well as having no new ones to mess around with as well.

And finally, there is the aspect of getting 100% in this game… or at least, to get the best ending, because I didn’t bother going for all that other meaningless shit. In order to do this, you need to collect the Rainbow Drops, these mystical items that serve as the collectibles in this game, with there being only seven of them, one for each world. That in itself doesn’t sound too bad, and for getting some of these, it really isn’t, but MY GOD, getting some of these things requires you to do some of the mosts tedious and annoying shit I have ever seen from one of these early Kirby titles, and it does become a pain in the ass at these points.

For example, there is one Rainbow Drop that requires you to play through the level with Kine while having the Fire ability, while having you do very specific things in order to reach the room that the Rainbow Drop is in, including at one point losing the powerup to take care of one obstacle, and then immediately getting that powerup back before it disappears. Trust me, this is all easier said than done, especially with some ways you can accidently screw yourself over out of getting the shiny droplet in the first place. Thankfully though, this does all lead to the true final boss of the game, who is definitely the hardest of the bunch to fight. I remember struggling quite a bit with this guy, which did cause some frustrations, but hey, I can’t give anything but praise to a boss fight in a Kirby game that is actually challenging. Those are rare to come by.

Overall, despite some issues carrying over from Kirby’s Adventure, as well as how annoying the Rainbow Drops can be, this is a pretty solid sequel to Kirby’s Dream Land all around, and a really good game all on its own, with plenty of levels to go through, plenty of abilities to try out, lots of simple, yet fun challenges to overcome, and several bonus collectibles to go for for those that wanna go that extra mile. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of the Kirby series, as well as those who were wanting even more out of the original Kirby’s Dream Land, because this game will manage to give you exactly what you needed, while still being a fun journey all the way through. Just, you know, try to hold back on the annoying-ass collectibles next time, alright?............. or at least, enough to where I won’t need to get all pissy about it.

Game #593

Cheio de fase interessante mas.. longo demais e com bosses muito frustrante

Iniciei esse aqui com uma certa empolgação e saí um tanto decepcionado, sei la acabei não curtindo muito sua gameplay e seu estilo cheio de puzzle pra passar das fases, achei sua dificuldade um tanto exagerada e uma quantia um tanto repetitiva de boss entre as fases.

Não é la um jogo ruim, é divertido como qualquer outro Kirby, mas deixa a desejar se for comparar com o Adventure e o primeiro da franquia

I'm stunned at the amount of troll game design going on with this game.

Between the unkillable helicopter-droplet enemy that homes in on you when using an animal friend and the auto-scroll levels in world 7 where you have to take wild guesses which paths to take or else you'll die, I don't know which caused more psychic damage to me.

As a complete experience though, Kirby's Dream Land 2 is good. If I'm being honest with myself I think it's the weakest Kirby game. But it's still good.

So I'm gonna be honest, I didn't care for Kirby's Dream Land 2. I don't like how it's way longer than the original Kirby's Dream Land and it lacks the magic that Kirby's Adventure had.

The animal friends are a neat idea on paper, but the execution leaves something to be desired. There's less copy abilities in this game overall because each animal friend has their own variation of every copy ability. The variations aren't really unique or interesting enough to justify the smaller amount of copy abilities in this game.

Now the thing about this game is that there's 7 Rainbow Drops, 1 in each world. You'll need all of them if you want to fight the true final boss and get the ending. I thought about doing this, but decided against it when I looked up how to get them. They really make you go out of your way, huh. Well, there's no way I'm doing that so I just watched the final boss and ending on YouTube.

Also I heard that people don't like the final world, but I liked it. It was the right amount of difficulty and it was funny how many japes were in those levels.

For a while, I've been meaning to check out the Dark Matter Trilogy of the Kirby games. This weird little corner of the franchise has always stood out to me, and I need a break from Megaman, anyway.

Kirby's Dreamland 2 genuinely surprises me, because while I was expecting a game that was ever-so-slightly better than its predecessor, but I'll be damned; Dreamland 2 is very fun and doesn't waste your time (usually) doing what it sets out to do and doing it pretty well for the most part. DL2 feels more similar in scope to Kirby's Adventure than it does DL1, with more levels, copy abilities, bolder presentation, and the introduction of Rick, Kine, and Coo.

The animal friends are a very welcome addition to Kirby. Although they make for some unneeded backtracking when going for the Rainbow Shards, most of the abilities you can use with them are fun to use; Kine is a fucking beast in this regard, almost all of his copy abilities are busted as hell.

Level design also manages to step it up from Kirby's previous adventure on the console. The addition of copy abilities and the animal friends helps to keep things interesting and levels don't waste your time with solid platforming, although DL2 falls off quite a bit at the end; Dark Castle is lame because the second half is just a mirrored version of the first, and you have to avoid insta-death paths completely blind in an autoscroller segment which is not fun. I also ate shit to Dark Matter although the blame is partially on me for that one, but it's still not a very good fight.

Kirby's Dreamland 2 is such a cute time that it wouldn't hurt for you to check this one out if you're in need of a Kirby fix! And even if you're not, do it anyway to see the naked woman room.

I really don't like being negative with my reviews, especially to a Kirby game, but I'm sad to say that I've come to feel very blase about Dreamland 2.

Dreamland 2 is a very railroaded experience that uses it's copy abilities as bite-sized gameplay variations through each level. There's very little reason to try and use different copy abilities, besides finding the rainbow shards. This makes experimentation not really worth it. It doesn't help too that copy abilities can often hinder your movement. A handful of these abilities like to stop Kirby dead in his tracks so that he can perform a move. They tend to not compliment the level design of the game, and end up making you want specific variations.

By the last two worlds, I sort of had my fill with Dreamland 2. I managed to squeak past the finish line, since the final world is more or less a boss rush, but I'll be damned if I want to go and get all of the rainbow shards. If that last level was full of more complicated levels, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to finish it.

Despite all these negatives though, I think there's still enjoyment to be had with the game. There's some decent level design all throughout and for a Gameboy game, it has fair amount of content. The music and art is fairly cute, and all the animal buddies are just the cutest! But compared to the rest of the Dreamland games, heck, compared to almost any Kirby game I've played, this one has probably been the weakest. I'm really glad Dreamland 3 improves the concepts found within this game by a wide margin.

Jogo facinho até chegar no final boss, que te destrói com um peido (foi insano), mas no final fui eu quem saiu peidando.

As bolas de futebol americano (ou sei lá o que são aquilo) são bem mamilas de pegar, e por mais que eu tenha conseguido todas sem colar na internet, recomendo o uso de um guia pra pegar elas.

Não teve extras que nem no primeiro jogo, 🤮. KAW REJS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOMS

Kirby vence do Kratos (Kirby > Kratos). O que mais eu posso falar? Kirby vence do… sla, sasquatch do Mecanimais.

Mf thinks life is all sunshine and rainbows

Despite my fondness for the Kirby series and the pink ball’s equally adorable friends, it’s kind of surprising how I haven’t played many of this cute eldritch horror’s older adventures. Case and point, it was only relatively recently that I finally played Kirby’s Dream Land,  and while it was certainly a simple and fun enough adventure —and a necessary stepping stone all things considered—, it didn’t quite click with me the same it does for others. It has its moments and highlights, like the shoot ‘em up boss fight, and as a short, easy-to-access platformer, it does a good job, but I find it reaaaaally hard to get invested in its not-so great levels, and Adventure’s existence and how fun and complete that game feels while also accomplishing everything Dream Land does doesn’t exactly help things.

All this to say I had no  clue what to expect from the sequel; I knew I had to play this, this is the first outing in Shinichi Shimomura’s less action oriented take on Kirby compared with what Sakurai would end up pursuing in Super Star and that fact alone made it far more interesting, and I also knew some other things here and there, like the fact it features copy abilities and what-not, but overall… Yeah, I didn’t know much about aside from ‘’this is the direct continuation to Dream Land’’. I wasn’t expecting anything bad, hell, I don’t even consider the original game a bad work at all, but I would lie if I said I had high expectations going in…

… so what if I told you I kinda really jammed with this game?

I… Wow, if we see this and the two previous games and some sort of original trilogy, then the evolution is clear as day; as I said, I knew this game lifted some elements from Adventure like the copy abilities, but I never expected to see so many translated so well to the charming brick that is the Game Boy. Levels once again have the adorable introductory cutscenes, but instead of being limited to one-stage run-throughs, there are actual defined hub-worlds, and while there’s less optional stuff than in Adventure (by less, I mean none), the hub areas themselves feel much more compacted and representative of the world they are set in, and it’s hard to describe how, but these areas and the game as a whole manage to feel very lively despite normally featuring no color at all.

And on the levels themselves… You can play as a hamster, so I think that says more than enough. The original Dream Land attempted things such as vertical challenges and annoying mazes, and while those are very much present here, they are accompanied by far more interesting overall lay-outs; the game is still easy, but beating the stages feel like an accomplishment either way thanks to the more varied and fitting challenges, mini-bosses that are actually super fun,  and a but more of a puzzle-like feeling thanks to the collectables and the varying paths.

There are still 1ups here and there, but the existence of star bits and being rewarded with a life after collecting enough is a incredibly simple change that goes a long way in encouraging you to approach the stages in a slower-paced, different way, and that’s not even getting into the main collectables that give you the real ending.

Most of the stuff in or added to Dream Land 2 seems like the most basic shit imaginable, and maybe it is, but it’s all done with such care and intent that it’s hard to not be profoundly enthralled by simply getting a new power-up or uncovering a secret. The design, the animations, so reminiscent of both games that came before yet even more adorable, and charming, even the music for crying out loud! Most are rather short loops, sure, but what they lack in length, they deliver in quality, have you even heard Coo’s theme? You know this bird is the real deal when this starts playing.

Oh, that reminds me of the friend animals, actually… Nah, just kidding, I could never forget Rick and his incredibly silly dance, I smiled so much when I saw the lil’ guy go… Rick, Coo, and Kine are so much more than what they seem at first; they aren’t only  funny fellas that give new ways to move around, they are also broken as hell in every sense of the word! Each power-up acts different depending if you are accompanied by them or not, and they are pretty much the key to finding the game’s more hidden secrets, and… I don’t know man, they are just so much fun to play as and make you view levels in a completely different way.

Out of the bunch, Kine is probably the least useful: his land movement is ass and pretty frustrating, and it’s not like it makes swimming easier than it already is, and getting him without the possibility of getting rid of it can make certain sections into a nightmare. Other than that, they are genius additions that not only seem like an inspiration for the sections in Kirby 64 alongside other friends of Kirby and even the ability combination mechanic, but also feel like a sort of preview for the far more complex move-sets Super Star would give us.

It's a super charming and fun experience that only has two big problems, those being The Iceberg and the Dark Castle; the former is an ice world, and even tho that alone doesn’t have to mean anything negative, it sadly has some of the most annoying, stressful, and frustrating levels in the entire game, with a vertical sections that is either the easiest thing ever or the most bullshit platformer challenge I’ve ever tried depending on if you have an animal pal or not. And the latter is relying solely in drawn out sections that aren’t that fun to begin with and content to see in other worlds, which is a huge shame considering how cool the whole setting is. Two whole worlds that drag down what’s otherwise a fun and wonderfully simple platformer, it's still Kirby after all, but what intrigues me is how it manages to be Kirby, if that makes sense.

It's clear to me now how much this game not only would highly influence both Dream Land 3 and 64, but after also the Kirby series in general: other playable characters aside of the main puffball, puzzle-like elements  and collectables that would return at full force in the modern 2D games, the long running tradition of Dedede getting possessed, and the beginning of the whole Kirby background story as we know it. What surprises me is not so much that it introduces these elements, but just how well they work right here, right now.

It's true that it has two worlds that feel like a bit of a chore, it’s true that most of the puzzle can be summarized as ‘’you need x ability to break x block’’, it’s true that it borrows a ton from Adventure, and all of that matters, but it also matters just how much of a fun and well-thought out adventure this is. I’ve used the word ‘’charm’’ a couple of times, but it’s the word that defines it best….

Also, if the three animal fellas don’t appear in the next 3D Kirby game (If there is one) I will RIOT, I NEED MORE OF THESE ADORABLE MACHINES OF DESTRUCTION AND THEIR SILLY DANCES, DAMMIT!

It’s always going to be weird to me that this is the game that acted as the lynchpin for so many experiences in my life, both essential and easily avoidable. For all intents, its fine, right? It’s Kirby, still coming into his own, but identifiable as the super tuff pink puff that everyone with an ounce of good taste adores. Discussing the actual advancements of any Kirby game is a fool’s errand for all but the most studious of scholars in Dream Land, a topic already worn weary by a thousand writers before me. Plain and simple, this game matters less in the physical reality of what it is and isn’t, and more by where it resides, as this near-constant companion through my memories.

Dream Land 2 settled as permanent iconography, fragmented moments sculpted in grey-matter marble, pristinely preserved and gravely decayed. It was a series of monochromatic rainbows illuminating otherwise melancholic recollections, an eternal love that, even in its greyscale trappings, glowed in vibrant light. It was the life-or-death duel against the celestial duo, Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright, outside of a Wal-Mart in South Colorado, the endless attempts to dethrone the Dede-despot after school… It was lackadaisical searches for Rainbow Drops, late into the night, while talking to loved ones. I don’t want to pretend it’s more than it is, a story of a rose-tinted little guy and his Adorable Animal Friends™ (and Gooey), but perhaps it’s that same simplicity that ensures a presence in my mind.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 feels like an alternate universe of what Kirby's Adventure is, taking a direction of a more crayon/drawing inspired world rather than the cartoon/anime inspired world of Kirby's Adventure.

Coming back to the gameboy, KDL2 takes the idea of copy abilities from it's console counterpart KA but gives it it's own unique spin. In the wake of having much less abilities than KA, we have the introduction of Kirby's animal buddies which kind of act like a Super Mario powerup. The key difference here is that that copy abilities Kirby gets are now modified with the animal buddy you have equipped. e.g. if you have the hamster buddy and the spark ability, it turns the ability into a fusion of spark and beam from KA. This is a really cool idea, and mixing and matching powers with animal buddies to see what you get is fun. But at the end of the day, I still prefer to pick and choose exactly what copy ability I want, rather than having to find the right animal buddy to get it.

The game is still so much fun just like it's previous counterparts, however I felt somehow the level design wasn't as strong. Like it was designed by a more inexperienced team (maybe this is the case). Especially towards the end where there were some buillshit sections. Even some of the bosses are the weakest in the series so far. To be fair though, for a Kirby game it was pretty challenging, but not for the best reasons.

Cool ideas held back by some questionable level design decisions and bossfights. I feel like this is the only Kirby game I've played so far that I've still enjoyed, but don't feel the need to ever replay it.

Level design takes a serious hit here compared to Adventure and even the first game honestly. Around Red Canyon onwards many of the levels comprise of autoscrollers and windy segments. Rainbow Drop puzzles are immensely unfun in the later levels as well, Cloudy Park in particular just has an insanely ridiculous one. I don't know, 3 retains a lot of things this one does but it's just such a better game to me. I dont know where such a big difference comes in for me, but this one is really kind of a letdown in comparison to its surroundings in the mainline series. Those are pretty high bars for sure though, and even still this is not particularly close to being a bad game. Maybe one of the best for the Game Boy, actually.

as surprising as it sounds this game released for the same console as the original kirby and somehow they cant be more different from one another

for starters the gameplay got so much more detailed adding not only the signature copy abilities (theres 8 which is a pretty solid number for how short it is) but also 3 companions that can be used to go through different types of levels and can also utilize the different abilities so thats like on another complete fucking level from the first game

these ones are cute (i prefer the cat in kirby's dream land 3 but lets say that my fav one in this is the hamster)

not much left to say about this apart from the fact that the levels are cool the bosses are cool and the final boss is amazing damn i enjoy dark matter as a hostile entity a bit too much

this game is just so cute honestly i love kirby

food for thought: is kirby a ball gag in the fish symbiotic transformation

Replaying the first Dream Land game got me in the mood to replay the sequel as well. And gosh darnit, it's actually quite a bit better than I remember. You actually get more than 5 stages this time! Like, a lot more. Already that's a big plus one over the original, which was a decent game but was severely held back by its lack of content. Dream Land 2 is still a short game, but it's about on par with what you would expect from a Game Boy platformer.

The copy ability which was absent in the first game is now here to stay, which is nice and all, but it's not as cool as the animal buddies that were introduced here. These are the reason the game is sometimes a real blast. If you can hold onto Rick (the hamster) or Coo (the owl), you will be golden. Kine is a nice fish, but he's only really useful underwater. Once you're out of water, get rid of him, because he will most certainly get you killed.

Initially, I was dead set on giving this game a 7. I was enjoying my time with it quite a bit. Nice, simple fun. But that changed once I got to Level 5. Some of the stages here and in the next 2 levels have some really annoying level design that is sure to screw you over not once, or even twice, but possibly multiple times. I distinctly remember 5-2 and 5-5 having a horrible auto-scrolling portion that ate through my lives. But not all of the stages in the latter half are terrible, and most have some merit to them. There are just more difficult sections sprinkled throughout them. If it wasn't for this erratic tedium I encountered, the game would have been even better. But as it stands, it's definitely an improvement over DL1, and certainly better than any of the Mario Land games on Gameboy.

By the way, while not exactly a trend, I hate how this game initiated the concept of locking the true final boss behind 100% collectibles for Kirby games. Like, can you not? Thankfully, there's only 7 thinga-majigs here. Gee, I sure hope Dream Land 3 doesn't have as many, either... oh...

alright, I know I'm a big funny Kirby fan and all, but I gotta be honest. this Kirby game is….how do I put it….ehhhhhh?

to be fair, it has been years since I've last played this one, but even after all that time, I've never really had interest in going back to this specific game, and I’ve always wondered why people critique Dream Land 3 and Squeak Squad when this one isn’t included with them since it has a couple of flaws of its own. anyway, this is the first Kirby game to not be directed by Masahiro Sakurai. instead Shinichi Shimomura takes his place as director this time. Shimomura is most well known for his work on the "Dark Matter Trilogy", aka Dream Land 3 and 64. oh yeah this game too.

uh let's move over to the story. surprise surprise, King Dedede is being a nuisance again, only this time he's half asleep for some reason. something's definitely up so Kirby goes off to figure out what's going on. he is joined this time by Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, and Kine the Fish. nothing much going on with the story from a first glance, but let me say if you’re willing to put the effort into this game, you’re in for an interesting plot twist.

so the game plays just how you expect it to play as: a Kirby game. Kirby can inhale, fly, and spit stars at innocent Waddle Dees trying to live their lives. Copy Abilities are in this game too, so now you can electrocute, freeze, and slice up anyone who looks at you funny in monochrome glory. on top of that, you'll have your trusty animal buddies to help you out during the game as well. all you have to do is defeat a miniboss to free up one of three animal buddies. Rick will help you out on the land. he can't fly but he can easily walk over dangerous terrain as well as not get slippery on ice. Coo is able to fly around easier and faster than Kirby can just make sure you be careful when you get in tight spaces with enemies and obstacles. Kine makes underwater segments much easier to traverse, but he can be pretty stinky outside of the water. each of the three have their own advantages and disadvantages, which means that one of them won't outshine the others (except for maybe Coo.)

we're back at the Game Boy so we’ve returned to monochrome, that said, the Super Game Boy does give you some colors to look at, but heck even then the game still looks great without it. The music is once again an enjoyment. Coo’s Theme, Cloudy Park, and Dark Castle are just a few I enjoy. I feel like Dream Land and Adventure still has stronger tracks, but the ones here are still neat, especially Dark Castle.

this game doesn't really feel like a sequel to Kirby's Adventure, instead it's more of a sequel to the original Dream Land (even though Adventure was already a sequel to Dream Land but you get the idea.)

so let’s get to the negatives, and unfortunately the game has two BIG negatives that have been responsible for knocking down this score. firstly, the level design is unmemorable and uninteresting. I can easily remember any level from Dream Land and Adventure, but when I have to think of a Dream Land 2 level, I just can’t (except for the obvious one, you know which one I’m talking about). for most of the game the levels just aren’t that interesting until near the end when they decide that they want to be dumb. okay nevermind I remembered a level, there’s this auto scroller during one of the last levels where you have to choose the right pathways or else you'll get into a dead end and get squished. that wouldn’t be as big of a problem if your field of view wasn’t so tiny in this game. not gonna lie, that’s not good level design. a lot of Copy Abilities from Adventure are missing from this game too, so unfortunately there’s not as much variety to go through these levels. animal buddies kinda help out with their variations of the Copy Abilities, but not by too much in my honest opinion. hey at least the bosses are fun, right?

the second negative I have is obtaining the Rainbow Drops. while they are optional, you’re locked out from the true final boss and ending if you do not go out of your way to obtain them. there’s only seven Rainbow Drops to find, but man do they get annoying to obtain. the first three are pretty easy, just have the right animal buddy with the right Copy Ability, but the other four make you do some dumb and convulted stuff to get them. good luck getting that sixth one! you’ll need a specific animal buddy from another level, go into a secret passage with the animal buddy to face a miniboss, defeat them to get the Copy Ability, ditch the animal buddy, destroy a set of blocks to get a different animal buddy, use them to get to a room with ANOTHER miniboss, get ANOTHER Copy Ability, carefully traverse back while avoiding enemies that can easily make you lose your Copy Ability (meaning you’ll have to do some of this all over again), get to the last room, use your Copy Ability, and FINALLY get the Rainbow Drop. they’re definitely no Big Switches that’s for sure.

I know half of this review has just been me bashing the game, but there’s still love and care in this game, even if it’s not as polished as the ones from before and after. I think a good way to go through it is do a casual playthrough, then have your second one being your 100% playthrough. just a word of advice: don’t go into this game with the mindset that it’s a Kirby’s Adventure sequel. Sakurai and Shimomura definitely had different views when it came to Kirby. if those darn Rainbow Drops weren’t in the picture, then I would be more motivated to give this game a second chance, but hey, I’m just one guy. try the game out, maybe you’ll enjoy Dream Land 2 more than I did, who knows?

Imagine Kirby’s Dream Land 3, but it sucks ass.

Okay, maybe that’s a little too harsh. This game has that good old fashioned Kirby charm, with very cute enemy design and ally design! The addition of animal buddies was great in my opinion... or, well, a great foundation, anyway. The enemy names are also very good, and I wish I had encountered “Floaty the Drifter” at a time when I was young enough to be deciding upon user handles.

Unfortunately there’s where my praise kind of ends, as this game is bogged down in a ton of early installment jank that makes a lot of its then-new game mechanics feel more irritating than fun. The fact that you lose your abilities after one hit makes it feel like you have to babysit them if you want to use them to solve the puzzles that let you 100% the game, and they’re so nerfed in boss fights that they feel kind of useless to bring along. I think it’s a case of balance but it just doesn’t feel good!

The animal buddies are in roughly the same boat. The screen real estate is bad enough as Kirby, much less the buddies who have way bigger hitboxes. They give you an extra life bar, but aside from Coo they make platforming kind of rough and some of the ability combinations are really bad at actually hitting enemies... not to mention the enemy that outright one-shots the animal buddies??? Honestly, the game feels kind of mean in places compared to a lot of the series, with pits that only Kirby can escape on account of being too deep for Kine or Rick to escape (and also there are spikes). And man, don’t get me started on the endgame autoscrollers.

Anyway, I probably would be easier on this if I actually played it back in the day outside of renting it once or twice, but I keep comparing it mentally to Kirby’s Dream Land 3, which I did play back in the day and basically takes every concept here and makes it better, aside from perhaps being even more obtuse in some of its objectives. I think I would rather play that game again instead of trying to get the true end of this game.

Pretty cool how you have animal friends which seems to suggest that they have certain strengths and are suited for specific environments, only to find that no, your bird friend is just as good a swimmer as your fish friend, your hamster friend can break through the gusts of wind just as easily as the bird, and if you really wanted to you could go through all the land stages with the fish flopping around. Birds swimming in water, hamsters in midair, fish that can jump up and down on dry land and not die?! It’s almost as if we’re in some kind of... dream land

I won't reiterate every design flaw that others have mentioned time and time again surrounding this game's mechanics and level design. I found it mildly annoying and is the weakest Kirby game in my opinion. I feel like it suffers from the same early Nintendo sequel jank like Mario Bros 2 and Zelda II; they were a little too far out with some ideas coming off of Adventure's success. I prefer Adventure over this, but at least they found a way to bring copy abilities to the GB. Overall, it's an okay game and it's easy to see Dreamland 2's future influence with the animal buddies mechanic.