Uses the adventure game genre as the framework for the craziest character interactions ever conceived. Most of the puzzles are stupid, but they're generally solvable (none of them would ever be done by any actual human in reality, though). The biggest issue is actually the pixel hunting, which can be annoying at times. The engine has some technical issues too, but as long as you stay in the application without tabbing out, it's survivable (even when it feels like it could crash at any second).
Looking forward to playing the more genuine House of Tales games.

The 3D Classics version of this was the first Kirby game I played, though since then Dream Land has become strongly my favourite.
Since Adventure introduced the copy mechanic, among many other changes, I'd thought of this as being the point where it all went downhill, and when I replayed parts of the 3D version, my mind didn't change.
But playing the original (on the Switch) has greatly changed my mind; this is a really, really good successor to Dream Land.
I really like the 3DS' 3D, but, if I'm remembering correctly, that version of it removed the slowdown, which adds a lot imo. Though at some points it really is too slow (especially during inhaling, which unfortunately serves as a reason to just use copy abilities, whereas in Dream Land it worked excellently for encouraging only inhaling when necessary, at the last second).
The bosses are all great, but all of the minibosses are more just annoying. I'm not really sure why that is but the divide seemed very clear. The minibosses don't ruin the game or anything, and the good bosses more than make up for them.
Almost all of the copy abilities are fun to use, which is not something I'd say of many later games. My favourites in particular were the parasol and sword. I think they all had annoying downsides though. Attacking with the sword while moving leads to walking into the enemy if it survives your attack, and it's the same with dropping downwards with the parasol. Neither of these are unfair but they are less fun than they could be as a result.
Being able to run and slide are good new additions. I think this had more powerful stars for when you inhale multiple enemies simultaneously? If so, that's really good also. While I don't like the copy ability much since it comes at the cost of the focus on inhaling and firing enemies, it's perhaps fitting that a major new mechanic like that was added, and it could've been far worse.
Still, the elements that are inferior to Dream Land stand out more to me:
-The field of view feels way too large, making the game feel much slower. I think it also made the level design less enjoyable, with a more open view leading to more space unutilised, though that may also be down to there just being more levels in general
-The increased length means this is nowhere near as replayable (at least not right the way through) as Dream Land is. If there was a truly improved successor to Dream Land of a similar length, it would probably lead to Dream Land being made obsolete, so I'm a little glad it isn't. No part in particular stood out to me as demanding a replay, besides maybe the final boss, so I probably won't be going back to replaying individual sections since I'd need to decide one.
-Water isn't fun.
-Dream Land's only flaw imo was those exploding enemies. They don't stand out anywhere near as much here, since everything else was already slowing you down already, but they're back.
Overall, I think it's about as good a sequel to Dream Land as possible, though it's still not quite as fun.


EDIT FROM A FEW DAYS LATER: I think I've changed my mind actually. For the actual engine, it does play very similarly to Dream Land, and it does have improvements, but the ideal sequel to Dream Land really could be the same length as the first, so long as the gameplay was changed sufficiently in a positive manner.
The copy system here is still the best version of it in the series, but it's still not really that fun. A lot of fluidity is lost in its usage. I'm not sure what kind of system would work, but maybe even the sprinting and kick sliding would make enough difference to differentiate a sequel. Either way, it's incomparable to Dream Land.

Incredibly fun. Moving around is fast and chaotic, and it can be easy to mistakenly go in the wrong direction, but it's like Jet Set Radio in how managing to control that motion makes for some very rewarding and seemingly elegant gameplay, at least until you accidentally fall and die or something. There are no checkpoints besides reaching a boss, although levels are short. It's not too boring (though it can be frustrating) replaying levels after dying, particularly because of how fast paced everything is. The level layout's fairly repetitive among each stage anyway, so playing the same part again isn't all that different from just continuing, besides being further from the goal. That being said, instant death pits can be particularly annoying, and at some points it is easy to accidentally fall into one.
I'm not very familiar with other games with its general gameplay from that era, so I don't know how original it all is, but there are a lot of simple mechanics that work really well together. After killing an enemy, its body remains for a short time, with all the bodies disappearing after a certain amount of time has passed with no new kills (or when every enemy present has been killed, in which case an immensely satisfying animation is played). The number of corpses remaining dramatically affects how much damage you do, which is particularly important for bosses (due to their larger health bar), and because of this, boss fights can go by very quickly with a particularly good combo. Killing enemies is also rushed along by a gauge which fills by killing enemies, but gradually depletes over time and damages you if it becomes empty.
At odds with the main melee combat, a limited stock of shurikens is available too. These mostly just stun enemies, and are very much a secondary weapon, though they can also be used to break targets from a distance, or bring down flying enemies. They add an enjoyable amount of variety to the gameplay, but their lower power means that it's not too punishing to run out (and likewise, they make for a nice low stake reward to try and pick up).
The other form of attack is the very limited magic, which works a lot like in other Shinobi games. It's never necessary to save it for a specific point, and you can sometimes get an opportunity to collect another, so they work as an even better collectable item than the shurikens, and as a bit of a safety net in combat.
Movement is particularly ninja-like, with double jumping, running on walls, and dashing through the air (or on ground) allowing for complex manoeuvres. There's normally quite a bit of room for error in terms of platforming, so there isn't too much precision required. Enemies can be locked onto, and like in other games where that's possible, you can easily lock onto an enemy other than the one you expected and then get disoriented. No real way around that though, but it can happen often when there's a lot of enemies present.
Between each stage is a pre-rendered cutscene telling a not-very-interesting story, but there's a very pure early 2000's look to the cutscenes, and the dub is entertainingly dub-ish, so they're pleasant enough to watch (and can be skipped).
But yeah, probably the best Shinobi game, and Shinobi's one of the best series. So it's very good.