Kirby's Dream Land 2 was a little... underwhelming, considering what had just come before it in Kirby's Adventure. Granted, it's back on the Game Boy, so I will cut it some slack there, but it just wasn't as enjoyable or finely tuned as either of the preceding Kirby games, to me.
In Dream Land 2, the amount of copy abilities has been cut down a bit from Kirby's Adventure. This is a bit disappointing, but not totally surprising. In their place are new Animal Buddies, each offering different forms of movement and altering your copy abilities in different ways. The idea of riding animals as Kirby never really appealed to me before, and I definitely stand by that opinion now that I've played with it. Some animal buddy combinations are so strong that they break the game (Owl + Parasol). It paints the rather monotonous level design as even more of a slog than it already was, forcing you to hear the same 1-3 animal tracks for most of the game instead of actual stage music.
Level design often only requires you to pay attention when it comes to auto-scrollers or Rainbow Drops. That said, I don't find the Rainbow Drops to be nearly as tedious of a collectible as others have suggested. It might take a couple guesses of the right ability and/or animal buddy, but I find that inoffensive at worst. World 6 was the only standout for me, requiring a guide after multiple failed attempts, but the rest felt fairly organic to solve. Auto-scrollers, by contrast, felt pretty indefensible. Especially the trial-and-error maze in 7-6. Most of World 7 felt pretty uninspired, truthfully.
All-in-all, Kirby's Dream Land 2 felt like it took an interesting concept (animal buddies), but utilized it in a series that wouldn't really take advantage of it. It didn't do short-and-sweet gameplay as well as Dream Land 1, and it could never handle the thoughtful stage design of Adventure. Certainly not a bad game, but not one I would ever recommend.
In Dream Land 2, the amount of copy abilities has been cut down a bit from Kirby's Adventure. This is a bit disappointing, but not totally surprising. In their place are new Animal Buddies, each offering different forms of movement and altering your copy abilities in different ways. The idea of riding animals as Kirby never really appealed to me before, and I definitely stand by that opinion now that I've played with it. Some animal buddy combinations are so strong that they break the game (Owl + Parasol). It paints the rather monotonous level design as even more of a slog than it already was, forcing you to hear the same 1-3 animal tracks for most of the game instead of actual stage music.
Level design often only requires you to pay attention when it comes to auto-scrollers or Rainbow Drops. That said, I don't find the Rainbow Drops to be nearly as tedious of a collectible as others have suggested. It might take a couple guesses of the right ability and/or animal buddy, but I find that inoffensive at worst. World 6 was the only standout for me, requiring a guide after multiple failed attempts, but the rest felt fairly organic to solve. Auto-scrollers, by contrast, felt pretty indefensible. Especially the trial-and-error maze in 7-6. Most of World 7 felt pretty uninspired, truthfully.
All-in-all, Kirby's Dream Land 2 felt like it took an interesting concept (animal buddies), but utilized it in a series that wouldn't really take advantage of it. It didn't do short-and-sweet gameplay as well as Dream Land 1, and it could never handle the thoughtful stage design of Adventure. Certainly not a bad game, but not one I would ever recommend.