This was my first Kirby game and I liked it a lot!

It feels right at home on the original Gameboy. The 30min playtime is perfect for a bus ride or a quick playthrough right before falling asleep. I truly believe the Gameboy was meant for short-form, miniature experiences like this.

Although I know it lacks a lot of the series staples (namely Kirby’s copy ability), it’s still really fun to shoot enemies as projectiles. The bosses are short and sweet and easy to read. The final boss rush feels like an appropriate challenge without going overboard.

The Extra Game is kinda ridiculous though!! I only played up until the midpoint of the fourth level and gave up. I Game Overed twice. It’s nice that it only makes you replay the level if you lose all your lives though. Maybe one day I’ll beat the Extra Game but it’s just kinda too crazy for me right now. A lot of onscreen projectile spam, evil enemy patterns, and you take twice as much damage – it’s a lot to handle.

Still, I don’t think you can go wrong with the main game. Very fun.

Masahiro Sakurai literally said one day "yeah I'm just gonna casually make a game about a pink circle and have it become one of the greatest franchises of all time"

Kirby's Dream Land is a very simplistic game, but there's nothing wrong with that. you can beat the game in about a half hour so it never overstays it's welcome. on top of that, it's very easy to pick up and go through so you'll have a pretty chill time playing it.

the story's pretty simple: King Dedede, AKA one of the greatest fictional characters in existence, decides to steal all the food from Dream Land as if he was a hoarder from one of those tv documentaries that bore me to death. Kirby does not approve of this however and sets out to confront King Dedede and return all the food back to the residents of Dream Land. very simple story, but it's the first game so nothing wrong with that.

the gameplay is pretty simple too. you move from point A to point B until you reach the end of the level where a boss awaits you. what makes Kirby interesting however is that you don't jump on your enemies to defeat them, rather you inhale your enemies to get them out of your way. if you're a normal (and boring) person, you can hold down to swallow and completely get rid of your enemy, but if you're an absolute chad and epic gamer, you can press the inhale button again to spit them out at another enemy, killing two birds with one stone. another thing that makes Kirby cool is that you can fly over obstacles indefinitely, meaning if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to fly over the enemies instead of confronting them on the ground (I'd be seriously concerned if you found yourself in that situation), you can do that and not put up with your enemies' business. Dream Land doesn't really go much beyond that outside of one-time use power ups that would be reworked into something else in later games, but it's fun and that's what matters. if you find yourself finding the game too easy, then there's an secret extra difficulty that makes the game a genuine challenge to go through! how do you unlock it? you'll have to play to game to find out ;^)

the graphics and spritework look pretty colorful for a game that's only in monochrome. on top of that you got a soundtrack composed by Jun Ishikawa, the unsung hero of video game soundtracks. the man started here, and since then he is still composing Kirby music 30 years later (technically 29 years later as I'm typing this but 30 years sounds cooler). Kirby soundtracks wouldn't become legendary until around Super Star and Block Ball, but that doesn't mean this game's soundtrack isn't lame. every single track here is very pleasant to listen to, from the iconic Green Greens to the catchy Float Islands to the epicness of King Dedede's theme, you can't go wrong with any of these tracks.

I suppose the only problems with this game is that it's a little too short then it should be and that there's not too much replayability compared to the later games. once you've finished the extra difficulty, there's really not much other reason to play this game unless you get into the Dream Land mood again.

but yeah Dream Land is still a fun game despite that. it's definitely not an epic triple AAA studio cinematic masterpiece like the ones you see nowadays, but you got a funny puffball that inhales and shoots his enemies out like stars, I'd say that's pretty close :^)

This is one of those games I have wonderful memories with. I first played this one on the 3DS virtual console and I've replayed it so many times that I even use to speedrun it. I sadly don't remember my best practice run. Think it was like somewhere in the 13 minute mark which is not impressive for the record. Regardless of all that though I should stay objective here.

This game was a great landmark for HAL as the year before HAL was going bankrupt due to the failure of Metal Slader Glory and HyperZone in terms of sales. Though it wasn't total gloom as they were saved by Nintendo from going out completely. One of the first few games they made after this was this game and it would be such a hit, it was the best selling game in the series until Forgotten Land surpassed it.

Kirby's Dream Land is a simple game as it was designed to be fun for any casual or veteran gamers. You can inhale enemies to swallow or spit out enemies at other ones. You can even fly which can be pretty OP but it'll seem pretty boring if you just do it the whole game.

This game has a great flow to it that can really show how good the pacing is. There's never a dull moment with this one. It introduces some powers like the Sweet Potato that can let you do an endless supply of fast air puffs until the timer runs out and even superspicy curry to breath fire at enemies or blocks. There's also invincibility candy but it's sadly only used in Level 2.

This game also has bosses and they are weird in terms of difficulty as the progression of difficulty isn't really there for these. There's even a couple of mini bosses but they're all very easy. The final boss King Dedede not only has 10 hit points but makes for an engaging fight outside of when he doesn't want to stop inhaling.

Once you beat the game you unlock the extra game where enemies are tougher and can do more damage and bosses are tougher. Though some bosses are still too easy like the 2 in Bubbly Clouds. I'm not too big on the speed of some enemies because sadly Kirby can be a little inconsistent on reading your input at times. I swear sometimes he just doesn't do what I want at times though maybe it's a problem on my end. It's still not too challenging so don't worry about being frustrated. You'll unlock a config mode so you can impress no one for doing a one health and one life challenge.

The game looks pretty good for a Game Boy game. With some really good backgrounds and honestly creative level ideas. All the sprites express the personalities of each one pretty well and Kirby is well animated. Sadly the game does have slowdown at times. If you like fan stuff then you'll be happy to hear there's a hack that gives the game full color as there has never been a good substitute otherwise. Even the color mode on NSO is pretty flawed. The music is phenominal with some iconic arrangements. Who could forget stuff like Green Greens? Even for his first outing Kirby's developers knew how to do good stuff for the franchise.

Kirby's Dream Land while not perfect is an enjoyable romp through the whole game and is one that anyone should try out if the genre interests them. Sure many people would argue this game isn't worth playing due to stuff like copy abilities not existing yet but I say nay and go with my thoughts and recommend it to people. Certainly one of the highlights of the handheld and a nice welcome to a beloved Nintendo franchise.

A very short and sweet introduction to the Kirby series. Kirby's Dream Land is nothing mind-blowing, but it's a simple and enjoyable way to kill a lunch break's worth of time nonetheless. The sprite work and animation give the game a hearty dose of charm and character, and the moment-to-moment gameplay, while very simplistic, is generally satisfying enough to carry the experience despite the very low difficulty. And while it may be incredibly short (you're looking at half an hour, tops), it at the very least does a good job at not overstaying its welcome. A very pleasant time all around.

It is so weird that Kirby's copy ability wasn't something in the franchise from day 1. I mean, it came into existence pretty soon after Kirby's Dream Land, but the fact that it wasn't something they had in mind from day 1 would feel as surreal as if Mega Man's first game didn't have weapon stealing or you couldn't catch Pokemon in Pokemon Red. The actual game kinda suffers for this in certain respects but also holds up and plays way better than I'd expected as well considering my usual experience with Game Boy games has been less than ideal. Everything here feels very cohesive and understated, a lot of well designed elements at play, all wrapped up with some genuinely fantastic art for the era and system. Despite not having copy abilities yet, it's still pretty fun to control Kirby thanks to his uniquely floaty control scheme and the ability to fly, with a lot of neat little ways to optimise your movement speed and the like, as to never feel sluggish.

I was quite surprised about how easy and short this game was, where in an era where games usually were designed with difficulty conventions from arcade machines, this one was just a quick, comfy and easy completion, only taking about 40 minutes or so. While I definitely think that's on the short side it's kinda made up for by the way that the game is absolutely brimming with personality and creativity, with each individual stage bringing something unique to the table and really pushing the envelope, especially notable for the way that this even goes that extra step and changes genres for a bit, with a section playing out more like a 2D shoot 'em up rather than a platformer. The visuals are also lovely, painting a beautiful, vibrant and quirky world where even these messes of pixels have such distinct personality, making each stage have its own appeal for this alone.

The encounter design is also pretty awesome in a lot of respects, with the variety of enemies making the most of Kirby's limited moveset and requiring a lot of different approaches to actually take out, which is neat. The boss fights are also a ton of fun for the most part and definitely the highlight of the game, going and testing some simple pattern recognition very effectively and always feeling satisfying once you've got it all down and can then flawlessly take them down. The final boss, King Dedede is especially great in this regard and the way he forces you to play more dangerously and aggressively to take him down, always putting you in range of being hit without ever feeling too punishing or unfair, and is just in general, a really neat little boss. The way the hard mode not only makes things do more damage, but alters patterns of certain enemies and bosses also changes up the content enough to warrant that extra playthrough to experience some genuinely nasty moments that still never feel anywhere near as brutal or annoying as you'd expect either.

My main complaint with this is that the level design itself really does nothing for the most part, level often consisting of flat areas with a bunch of enemies and sometimes some more vertical obstacles. It's perfectly serviceable but it feels so lacklustre and makes each stage feel more akin to being a leadup to a boss rather than having much appeal in its own right. Even so, Kirby's Dream Land is a neat little game that manages to get a lot right even without the most iconic part of Kirby, with solid enemies, great bosses and admittedly lame level design that all culminates in a fun time that sets the stage for how cool some of these games would get in the future. Definitely worth a play

Kirby's Dream Land is REALLY cute. Frankly, it's adorable.

It's genuinely surprising to me that from a pure game feel, the original Kirby still feels great to play. Kirby feels so easy to move around and maneuver, floaty but also just the right amount of weight. It's also surprising to me just how despite not having the copy ability that this game still works. There's still power ups and they bring about engaging ways of attacking. It really goes to show how much Sakurai rocks at games, even at an early stage of his career.

It doesn't take too long to beat, so there's not a lot to sink your teeth into, much like with the last game I played, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. But once again, it's just a result of being a Game Boy game. But for what it is, it's a quaint, cozy little game, and the start of a legendary developer's career.

Replaying Kirby's Dream Land made me realize just how ambitious the original release of Kirby's Adventure actually was. If you don't already know, I wrote a very negative review of that game. It was a miserable experience that mainly stemmed from its annoyingly frequent slowdown which made the game a lot harder than it was actually meant to be.

Dream Land is Kirby's actual first adventure, and despite only featuring 5 levels and being able to complete it in around 20 minutes, it's still a fun game. It's incredibly simple, with Kirby's now standard copy ability being absent here. This simplicity and almost non-existant difficulty, along with its short length, is the reason I don't rate it any higher. But still, let it be known that I enjoy it. If this game had the severe level of slowdown that Kirby's Adventure had, I have no doubt I would despise it. But it's made me very curious to give the 3D Classics version of Adventure a shot, since it apparently fixed the slowdown. Yes folks, there is hope yet for my sinful hot take on Kirby's NES outing.

But really, this was a nice game to wind down with before bed. Goodnight Kirby. I shall now enter my own dream land.

It's pretty fun to look back on the very first Kirby game and see how much of the series lay within its genesis, in particular the game having Game Boy shmup levels that are a clear starting point to the multitude of later shooter levels Kirby will have in his games. There's the real cute animations between every level which a multitude of games like Kirby's Adventure and Kirby 64 would use, plus the fact it has a lively and vibrant soundtrack that's quite nice for an early Game Boy game.

None of this really saves Kirby's Dream Land from feeling like a boring game. The problem isn't just that it is easy, plenty of easy games are fun, but the methods in which Dream Land is easy often make it actively unengaging. There isn't enough consideration to Kirby's great flight abilities (which are stronger here than most), so a lot of levels can be beaten by mashing the jump button and ocassionally stopping to slightly descend for a flying enemy that tracks you. And even when you can't do that, the game's platforming is a bit overly simplistic for Kirby's already very simple moveset. While obviously he lacks the copy abilities, the inability to even slide is disappointing as that'd add a very casual option to allow more for the player to do. Simple can work, I enjoyed Super Mario Bros. 1 again recently, but it really needs something to challenge the most basic stuff for me because otherwise it's not doing enough. It's telling the most deaths I had were something I'd also complain about, is the background of Level 4 blends into the stage to me and so I died multiple times thinking I was landning on level but actually went through a bottomless pit. I do understand this was meant to be an extremely beginner friendly platformer and I can see it working as a kid's first game well enough, but I've always preferred platformers more engaging than this.

The bosses are also pretty lackluster, Kracko was my favorite and felt like the one with the most gameplay to it, King Dedede is shockingly boring here due to how casual he is to avoid yet how long it can take to get hits in if you are playing safely. I do appreciate the game having a second playthrough hard mode option and the vast array of difficulty options for the time is great, but the fact I need to get through the game twice before getting the difficulty adjustments is a bummer, and the actual playthrough I had gave me little desire to go through it a second time. An interesting start for the Kirby franchise, but Kirby's Avalanche feels like the truest start of the series.

“Poochy, aren’t you being really hard on an original Game Boy game?”

Yea.

I was hoping to say something about how interesting it is to go back to the first game in the series but, wait… the interesting thing about the game is how uninteresting it is! You travel through five stages mostly just moving forward and sucking up enemies sometimes, fight a few bosses, fight them again, fight Dedede, then you’re done. It feels difficult to call the game “chill” when it feels moreso like a nothing game. The movement just isn’t really fun at all, and the floating feels just finnicky enough to be a little annoying (particularly during the Lololo/Lalala boss fight).

The mid-level and before-level cutscenes are pretty cute, and clearly where most of Kirby’s appeal originates from. The game still felt like a waste of time though, ultimately. But such is life.

A fascinatingly quaint start to what would eventually become one of the most iconic mascots in gaming history. Even as early as the Game Boy, the series' trademark charm and attention-to-detail is on full display between the world-transition cutscenes, reaction sprites and generally high unique frame counts on character animation (particularly on Dedede; even on a black and white (or puke green) screen, that lad is larger than LIFE). This, coupled with wonderful character/enemy designs and a legitimately fantastic and instantly memorable soundtrack (with special mention going to Green Greens, Mint Breath and Mt. Dedede in particular) and Dream Land certainly leaves a lasting impression on you in the visual and auditory department.

However, for as much as it does well in those areas, Dream Land has got issues APLENTY. Its gameplay, while not bad by any means, is almost mind-numbingly simple compared to literally every other entry in the series for one simple yet ever-so-crucial reason: the complete absence of Copy Abilities. What made the series into its signature infinitely-customisable action platformer identity is strikingly missing in the beginning, leaving DL as a game lacking the punch of later titles, particularly in the boss fights which end up as ‘wait for this attack’ a heck of a lot more than stuff like Super Star or even Adventure. Another aspect which is perhaps more notorious is Dream Land’s exceptionally tiny length, with a full playthrough taking at most half an hour to accomplish. Sure, Extra Mode is certainly a nice first-time completion bonus that extends play-time to a serviceable degree (even if bosses like Kracko make me want to tear my heart out), but having such a short length makes an already repetitive adventure feel even less impactful by the time the credits roll.


Overall, Kirby’s Dream Land is very much a case of style over substance: what’s here is undoubtedly decent and would lay the groundwork for almost every entry going forward. However, between the excessively simple gameplay and nowadays criminal amount of run-time, there’s little to no reason to play this one when dozens of better alternatives have existed for so many years at this point. Still, for Kirby superfans such as myself, it’s definitely a charming novelty to run through every once in a while to see where the pink puffball got his initial start before blossoming into the adorable destroyer of gods we know him as today.

I played this first when I was 4. It seemed to me to be an immense world of huge levels and limitless possibilities, with incredible depth and range.

It’s 45 minutes long.

Kirby is really cute tho

The first Kirby game and honestly a great first entry to the series, which not only is very accessible for all ages but is great to navigate. The boss fights are charming however some feel quite repetitive from how slow they are later on in the game. It also feels like the fly ability, which allows Kirby to skip over platforming sections is very overpowered in this title because you can just fly over the entire level and hit one or two enemies that may cross your path without taking damage in most areas. I also find it interesting that the Mike ability has found itself in this title way before copy abilities which shows the potential was known from the very beginning