This game is full of little guys and the E N T I T Y it's great!
My biggest compliment to this game off the bat is that Kirby has not controlled this nicely and certainly won't be feeling that way for a long time. But for a classic era Kirby game, the fact he controls so smoothly here should be recognized!
But as the first entry to the Dark Matter Trilogy, I believe this game has some good and bad things about them... And unfortunately I know these problems only get worse as the trilogy goes on-
For the good, the animal buddies are such a delightful addition into the series. I know we live in a world where Kirby's abilities can do all of the Buddy Abilities in a single ability, but as someone who does not enjoy abilities like "Fire" and "Burning" being separate, the way it's all contextualized with the Animal Buddies just works for me. It's very cool to see how all of Kirby's abilities (for as few as there are here) change when using one of the three buddies. And the fact they carry over to other stages like Yoshi in Super Mario World is even cooler, it makes finding them all the more rewarding and wanting to keep them all the more engaging!
However, the bad of this game are issues that I want to ignore, but the fact they get worse as the trilogy goes on makes it hard to. The first issue (and definitely the least offensive thing here) is just as a Kirby game, it's nothing o write home about. Could I blame the Game Boy's limited hardware on giving unmemorable locales? Maybe? I remember a forest world and the Dedede Arena, but everything else just kinda blends together. Outside of a few annoying instances (which I will get to in a minute), there isn't anything memorable about this game's locales. Everything just sorta blends in together after a certain point.
This last issue isn't so bad here but it should still be stated. This game locks off the ending behind finding all the main collectables, and though there is only one collectable per world, the latter half of this game likes to hide them in very cryptic ways that are such an awkward stain on an otherwise pretty decent game. Again, it's not the end of the world trying to find these collectables, but there's some in the latter half of the game that make you scratch your head and go "whose idea was this???". But again, there's only one per world hidden in the game so it's not the end of the world. It's not like future games add a collectable to every single level and still lock off the game's ending behind finding every single one or anything :)
Also Gooey debut, this is important!
My biggest compliment to this game off the bat is that Kirby has not controlled this nicely and certainly won't be feeling that way for a long time. But for a classic era Kirby game, the fact he controls so smoothly here should be recognized!
But as the first entry to the Dark Matter Trilogy, I believe this game has some good and bad things about them... And unfortunately I know these problems only get worse as the trilogy goes on-
For the good, the animal buddies are such a delightful addition into the series. I know we live in a world where Kirby's abilities can do all of the Buddy Abilities in a single ability, but as someone who does not enjoy abilities like "Fire" and "Burning" being separate, the way it's all contextualized with the Animal Buddies just works for me. It's very cool to see how all of Kirby's abilities (for as few as there are here) change when using one of the three buddies. And the fact they carry over to other stages like Yoshi in Super Mario World is even cooler, it makes finding them all the more rewarding and wanting to keep them all the more engaging!
However, the bad of this game are issues that I want to ignore, but the fact they get worse as the trilogy goes on makes it hard to. The first issue (and definitely the least offensive thing here) is just as a Kirby game, it's nothing o write home about. Could I blame the Game Boy's limited hardware on giving unmemorable locales? Maybe? I remember a forest world and the Dedede Arena, but everything else just kinda blends together. Outside of a few annoying instances (which I will get to in a minute), there isn't anything memorable about this game's locales. Everything just sorta blends in together after a certain point.
This last issue isn't so bad here but it should still be stated. This game locks off the ending behind finding all the main collectables, and though there is only one collectable per world, the latter half of this game likes to hide them in very cryptic ways that are such an awkward stain on an otherwise pretty decent game. Again, it's not the end of the world trying to find these collectables, but there's some in the latter half of the game that make you scratch your head and go "whose idea was this???". But again, there's only one per world hidden in the game so it's not the end of the world. It's not like future games add a collectable to every single level and still lock off the game's ending behind finding every single one or anything :)
Also Gooey debut, this is important!
Honestly, I thought going from DL3 to DL2 would make a huge difference, but I was able to temper my mind into not comparing it to 3, thankfully. I started off playing the Super Game Boy version til I discovered a DX patch that adds color and fixes some of the issues I had with the game. The only thing I missed was the border. The audio "enhancements" the SGB version added did not rly mesh well with the game IMO.
I really don't know how to feel about this game. On one hand, I think at times it's a great Game Boy game, one that completely exceeds Dream Land 1. Other times it's frustrating and kind of a slog to get through.
The friends you can unlock are a neat idea on paper. I think they CAN add a lot to the level and especially with this game originating the copy ability + animal friend combo it can be really interesting. However, I noticed pretty quickly how much I didn't really care for it here. Kine really sucks to use if you're not on a water level, and spoiler alert, you'll need him multiple times to unlock some of the Rainbow Drops. Coo with the right combination just completely breaks most levels with almost no effort. Rick was the only one that felt realized here, and sadly, he ended up being the one I used the least because of the game's nature. Switching off from friends was a complete hassle too. The levels also started to blend together towards the last few worlds, and it really felt like it started to overstay its welcome by the end.
Bringing over the copy ability mechanic from Adventure was a smart move and I'm glad it became a series staple from then on. However, there's only 7 copy abilities in this game. That's not necessarily bad, but some of the copy abilities here were less than desirable. That's not to say the abilities themselves were bad, but I don't really think the level designed meshed well with some of these.
Graphically, this game is about on par with the first game but with some added flair here to spice things up. The game's score was something I found myself a little disappointed in. Some tracks in this game are great, but others I found to be pretty forgettable. The friends music was cute at first but got old REALLY fast (Thank god for the DX port making the music optional).
As mentioned before, I found myself mixed on the level design. It's amplified even further with how pretty bad the screen crunch gets. It was a minor annoyance with the first game but it really annoyed me here. It's even worse when once again you lose your copy ability after 1 hit. It was already annoying here, but I'm genuinely shocked they did not think to just remove that mechanic considering the screen crunch. There were plenty of times I got hit by something I did not see and I lose my copy ability, brownie points if it happened in the water too. Maybe the games constant slow down would've fixed this but the DX part utilizes the GBC hardware so slowdown is way less of an issue, but maybe you shouldn't use slowdown to artificially fix something? The screen crunch really did add a huge chunk of artificial difficulty to an otherwise easy game. I ended my save off with 31 lives dying only once or twice. Speaking of losing copy abilities in 1 hit, the fact that certain enemy hitboxes would linger for a bit in that little explosion effect got really old really fast.
Probably my biggest issue with the game was how it handled getting the good ending. Each world has 1 Rainbow Drop you can find in a certain level. Some of these require a certain copy ability or a certain animal friend. Fair enough, that's not a bad idea. It gets REALLY annoying once the game asks for certain animal friends that aren't even in the level you get the drop from, especially if it was Kine who moves super fucking slow on dry land. Once you add on all of the other issues like the screen crunch, losing copy abilities in 1 hit, it just all falls apart IMO. I get what they were going for with encouraging experimentation, but this was just a very poor way of handling it, and I'm glad 3 improved on it in almost every way. Next time I go through this game, I'll probably just ignore the rainbow drops, because good lord I did not like that final boss. Probably THE worst final boss I've played so far in the series. The stiff controls with added momentum really started to piss me off and Dark Matter's 2nd phase feeling like it had no consistent pattern started to frustrate me. Also, the fact that this fight has a TIME LIMIT too is really fucking stupid. Kirby moves so slow during the fight by the time I finally beat the stupid boss I was nearly dead.
Overall, I think it's still good overall, but I found it to be very flawed the further I got in. I still think it's a step up from Dream Land 1, but comparing it to Adventure I found it to be a step backwards in pretty much every way. I've yet to really compare it to 3, but comparing it to 3, I almost don't really see the need to go back to this one when 3 is just 2 but better in pretty much every way.
I really don't know how to feel about this game. On one hand, I think at times it's a great Game Boy game, one that completely exceeds Dream Land 1. Other times it's frustrating and kind of a slog to get through.
The friends you can unlock are a neat idea on paper. I think they CAN add a lot to the level and especially with this game originating the copy ability + animal friend combo it can be really interesting. However, I noticed pretty quickly how much I didn't really care for it here. Kine really sucks to use if you're not on a water level, and spoiler alert, you'll need him multiple times to unlock some of the Rainbow Drops. Coo with the right combination just completely breaks most levels with almost no effort. Rick was the only one that felt realized here, and sadly, he ended up being the one I used the least because of the game's nature. Switching off from friends was a complete hassle too. The levels also started to blend together towards the last few worlds, and it really felt like it started to overstay its welcome by the end.
Bringing over the copy ability mechanic from Adventure was a smart move and I'm glad it became a series staple from then on. However, there's only 7 copy abilities in this game. That's not necessarily bad, but some of the copy abilities here were less than desirable. That's not to say the abilities themselves were bad, but I don't really think the level designed meshed well with some of these.
Graphically, this game is about on par with the first game but with some added flair here to spice things up. The game's score was something I found myself a little disappointed in. Some tracks in this game are great, but others I found to be pretty forgettable. The friends music was cute at first but got old REALLY fast (Thank god for the DX port making the music optional).
As mentioned before, I found myself mixed on the level design. It's amplified even further with how pretty bad the screen crunch gets. It was a minor annoyance with the first game but it really annoyed me here. It's even worse when once again you lose your copy ability after 1 hit. It was already annoying here, but I'm genuinely shocked they did not think to just remove that mechanic considering the screen crunch. There were plenty of times I got hit by something I did not see and I lose my copy ability, brownie points if it happened in the water too. Maybe the games constant slow down would've fixed this but the DX part utilizes the GBC hardware so slowdown is way less of an issue, but maybe you shouldn't use slowdown to artificially fix something? The screen crunch really did add a huge chunk of artificial difficulty to an otherwise easy game. I ended my save off with 31 lives dying only once or twice. Speaking of losing copy abilities in 1 hit, the fact that certain enemy hitboxes would linger for a bit in that little explosion effect got really old really fast.
Probably my biggest issue with the game was how it handled getting the good ending. Each world has 1 Rainbow Drop you can find in a certain level. Some of these require a certain copy ability or a certain animal friend. Fair enough, that's not a bad idea. It gets REALLY annoying once the game asks for certain animal friends that aren't even in the level you get the drop from, especially if it was Kine who moves super fucking slow on dry land. Once you add on all of the other issues like the screen crunch, losing copy abilities in 1 hit, it just all falls apart IMO. I get what they were going for with encouraging experimentation, but this was just a very poor way of handling it, and I'm glad 3 improved on it in almost every way. Next time I go through this game, I'll probably just ignore the rainbow drops, because good lord I did not like that final boss. Probably THE worst final boss I've played so far in the series. The stiff controls with added momentum really started to piss me off and Dark Matter's 2nd phase feeling like it had no consistent pattern started to frustrate me. Also, the fact that this fight has a TIME LIMIT too is really fucking stupid. Kirby moves so slow during the fight by the time I finally beat the stupid boss I was nearly dead.
Overall, I think it's still good overall, but I found it to be very flawed the further I got in. I still think it's a step up from Dream Land 1, but comparing it to Adventure I found it to be a step backwards in pretty much every way. I've yet to really compare it to 3, but comparing it to 3, I almost don't really see the need to go back to this one when 3 is just 2 but better in pretty much every way.