With Kirby's 32nd anniversary being right around the corner, I have decided to return to this sweet trip of a game! Kirby's original debut on the Gameboy! How has it held up after all these years?

Starting off with the controls of the game, Kirby's Dream Land's controls hold up rather well! Although unlike future entries in the series it lacks a run button, therefore Kirby is a little slower than he usually is nowadays, however in a way it helps this game! As it's already rather short, the game likely beaten in under half an hour if you know it well enough. Since this is the first game in the series it's roots stem from here, unlike every other mainline game in the series, Kirby's Dream Land lacks copy abilities! Which have been a major part of the series ever since their debut in Kirby's Adventure. However Kirby inhaling enemies and objects before spitting them out works just as well back here as it does now, which is good since you'll be using that to your advantage for most of the game. Lastly about the controls are the items! Such as the mint leaf changing up the gameplay to a shoot 'em up style of game within Kabula's boss fight in the skies. The spicy curry which lets you spit out flames to attack enemies with a blaze. Alongside food items to regenerate Kirby's health, allowing Kirby to take just a few more hits once more. Plus a few extras like the bomb. They all together spice up the gameplay just a bit more, making the general experience a bit more varied. With all of this in mind, the controls of this game are pretty decent!

Before we even tackle the levels themselves, there is also the intro cards! They all together give the game some extra packed-in personality. For example in Green Greens, Kirby chases after a butterfly before suddenly being chased off by multiple at once. Or in Float Islands where Kirby fishes up a fish, only to inhale it and get the fishing rod stuck in his mouth! Things like this make the game much more charming! And for such a small package on the Gameboy it really fits in a lot of charm.

As for the levels themselves, they're all rather unique from each-other! From the classic Green Greens to Mt. Dedede, something I appreciate about these levels are their backgrounds, which all end up standing out from eachother with their fun pixel-filled fun. Sometimes they even change mid level! Take this example in Green Greens, the first level in the game. One moment Kirby is standing in a grassy, hill filled landscape, before taking a trip on a warpstar to a nearby forest! It feels like you've genuinely made progress! Moving onto the level designs themselves, they're alright. They work for a first game but they're nothing too ground breaking, it's a Gameboy platformer alright!

The last main thing to mention is the end-game, Mt. Dedede! Which has a banger soundtrack, just like this game does in general! Each theme memorable, fitting their theming well. The final level's intro starting with Kirby crashing into the king's castle, as a short retour of all previous levels are replayed! Among all four bosses brought with them, Whispy Woods is first and is short and simple overall, avoid getting hit by the apples and spit them back out, working well for the first boss of the game. Next up is Lololo and Lalala who push boxes around a more enclosed environment, making it a little harder for Kirby to attack, this expanding more on Whispy's fight and generally teaching the player to be more precise with their movement. This is followed by Kabula within the sky! Definitely being the most unique fight in the game, which is appreciated! Kracko then being the last one fought before the end-game, yet is cleared if you're careful enough, they're personally the one I typically struggle myself with most out of all the bosses in the game! Once all four original bosses are fought, it's time for the king himself!

King Dedede! With a total of ten health points total, ends up being the longest and most gruelling fight in the game, fitting for the final boss you'll fight here. Once you recognise his patterns his fight ends up being short yet sweet as for the first time of many, the king falls to the pink puffball as he is blown out of his castle. The credits then beginning to roll, kick-starting the two's rivalry in future games as my favourite music track in the game plays. As Kirby carries the castle, bringing back all the stolen food to the residents of Dream Land as he flies off in the sunset, before one final bye-bye. Closing off the main game and unlocking extra mode! Which is an extra challenge for real veterans, I myself didn't really check it out but if you want one final tough challenge, there's your cue.

Overall even though the Kirby series has massively expanded in quality since, this game is very charming! While very short and quickly beaten. It's an experience well-played. With five levels total with fun and chirpy music alongside them, it's a solid foundation that brought the pink puff to fruition. Certainly one of the best experiences of the Gameboy library!

Kirby's Dream Land is a pretty alright experience. I'm surprised that it's the first Kirby game and not the second, given that it feels like a simplified spin-off, sort of like Super Mario Land.

You control Kirby, who can Inhale enemies to spit them back out, and Float endlessly over terrain, but not much else. Kirby didn't debut with his iconic Copy ability, so the controls are quite simple. Added to that, there are only 5 levels, so the whole experience takes less than an hour to finish the first time around.

With all that said, there's not much to complain about here. It's a simple game, and it does well for what it is. But it doesn't light my world on fire, and I wouldn't have been asking for a sequel if I didn't know what other plans they had for Kirby in the future.

You know, for a first entry it's pretty neato.

I feel like the short length would've been a pretty big detracting factor back in the day when you actually had to like, PAY to play this crud, but nowadays it's kind just neato being able to get through this whole shindig in like 20 minutes and say that you've experienced Kirby history.

The game is obviously simple but still pretty fun, I like how it really feels like you're on a quest to Dedede's castle rather then just going through a bunch of random levels just because, enemies and bosses are creative, music is iconic, and extra mode gives some fun replay value.

Not much inherently wrong with this one, but also not much that will make you shit your pants from excitement.

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.

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

6.5/10