As I have made perfectly clear throughout past reviews, I absolutely love the Mega Man franchise, and I have considered it my absolute favorite video game series for a very long time. However… it wasn’t always my favorite series of video games. Before I had my undying love for the blue bomber, I had an undying love for the Kirby franchise as well, a love that I still hold onto to this very day. Ever since I first experienced Kirby Squeak Squad on the DS as a young lad, I have had nothing but pure adoration for this series, playing almost all of the games at this point, and having almost nothing but good things to say for every single one. To this day, I still consider Kirby to be my second favorite video game franchise of all time, right behind Mega Man, and I doubt anything could ever come along to change that. So, I figured for my 300th review on this website (jesus christ, I have wasted my life away), I figured I would finally give this series the love it deserves with its very first entry, Kirby’s Dream Land.
I don’t quite remember when exactly I first played this entry in the Kirby series, but I know for sure that it was after I played plenty of the later (and significantly better) games in the series, so going back to where it all began originally was kind of rough, especially with what had been established in later games. However, I was able to look past that for the most part, and judge it on its own merits, as well as how it works as the first in the series. So, as a whole, I think Kirby’s Dream Land is still a decent game, and a nice little introduction for this character into the world of video games. Sure, it does have its issues, and it doesn’t even come close to the quality of later titles in the series, but for what it does, it does its job well enough, and I still consider a fun little breather title.
The story is NOT about saving any specific individual, but instead saving all of the food for an entire world, so you know, I’d say that is probably a more important thing to fight for at the end of the day, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but for as simple as the sprites are, they still look pretty good, having that distinct look you wouldn’t see from too many other titles at the time, the music holds up incredibly well to this day, even if later games would take these tracks and improve on them significantly, the control is simple and basic, but that is all that the game really needs, and the gameplay is quick, simple, and lacking any kind of complexity, but it still manages to be sufficient all the same.
The game is a simple 2D platformer, where you take control of the pink-living-blob monstrosity known as Kirby, go through several small, yet enjoyable levels, suck up and swallow or spit out any enemy that just so happens to walk in your path, gather plenty of health items, powerups, and extra lives along the way, and defeat a set of bosses filled with plenty of faces that will be recurring threats throughout the series. It is about as basic as basic gets when compared to other platformers at the time, with the only real differences to make the game stand out being the art style, characters, and Kirby’s main method of attack (which isn’t even original either). Despite how simplistic it is though, again, as the first game in the series, there is something charming about it, and it makes it memorable even after over 30 years.
That being said though, alluding to what I mentioned earlier, this game could be a little hard for new players or fans of the other Kirby games to get into it. Not because the game is bad or hard, but because of how basic it really is. This was back before the copy ability became a staple in the Kirby series, and while there are some powerups in this game that could be seen as precursors to copy abilities, such as with The Curry and the Mint Leaf, they pale in comparison to future copy abilities, and you can only use them for a limited amount of time. Now, that’s not to say that a Kirby game couldn’t work without copy abilities, because as shown with games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Kirby Mass Attack, you can make a fun and memorable Kirby game without them as long as you have another interesting gimmick to tie it all together, which the original game does not have. This all isn’t necessarily the game’s fault, but still, it is noteworthy for those who want to try it out at some point later.
Now, in terms of actual problems that this game has, there are few, but the few that are there are pretty noteworthy to mention. First of all, and most importantly of all, the game is REALLY FUCKING SHORT. Seriously, you can beat it in under 20 minutes, it is that short. I guess it is somewhat understandable, as it was made to be more accessible to new gamers, and it was a Game Boy title, but at the same time, you could’ve put in plenty of other levels and elements to try to make it last for at least an hour, not 20 or less minutes. Thankfully, there is somewhat of a remedy to that issue, as there is an Extra Game included, which is basically the same game again, except much more challenging, but that is just playing through the game again, with little to no new content. But hey, at least you get a Sound Test from it!........ one that is completely irrelevant, due to things like the internet, but hey…….. it is nice to have.
The second, shorter problem that I have with the game is that it has a boss rush on the last stage, and as you can imagine, it is the worst part of the game, even if it doesn’t take that long to get through. It’s not as if this is the only time a Kirby game would have a boss rush, but at least with future games, they were either delegated to a separate mode like with The Arena, or if they were included in the main game, they only used mini bosses for it rather then main ones. But here, you gotta fight all of the bosses once again, with no changes made to them whatsoever, and it just seems like padding for the sake of padding……. which would be more appreciated for this game, but not like this.
Overall, despite having some length issues and an unnecessary boss rush, Kirby’s Dream Land is still a small, sweet, and enjoyable game that anyone can pick up and enjoy to a degree, whether they are a bonafide Kirby fan or not. I would definitely recommend it for both Kirby fans or ones who wanna get into the series, as it is, appropriately, one of the best places to start. And thankfully, the quality of the games only goes up from here (for the most part). Also, nice to see that HAL Laboratory remembered Lolo and Lala exist with this game. You know, before they threw them back in their closet of dead mascots until the next time they wanna use them as a boss.
Game #300
I don’t quite remember when exactly I first played this entry in the Kirby series, but I know for sure that it was after I played plenty of the later (and significantly better) games in the series, so going back to where it all began originally was kind of rough, especially with what had been established in later games. However, I was able to look past that for the most part, and judge it on its own merits, as well as how it works as the first in the series. So, as a whole, I think Kirby’s Dream Land is still a decent game, and a nice little introduction for this character into the world of video games. Sure, it does have its issues, and it doesn’t even come close to the quality of later titles in the series, but for what it does, it does its job well enough, and I still consider a fun little breather title.
The story is NOT about saving any specific individual, but instead saving all of the food for an entire world, so you know, I’d say that is probably a more important thing to fight for at the end of the day, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but for as simple as the sprites are, they still look pretty good, having that distinct look you wouldn’t see from too many other titles at the time, the music holds up incredibly well to this day, even if later games would take these tracks and improve on them significantly, the control is simple and basic, but that is all that the game really needs, and the gameplay is quick, simple, and lacking any kind of complexity, but it still manages to be sufficient all the same.
The game is a simple 2D platformer, where you take control of the pink-living-blob monstrosity known as Kirby, go through several small, yet enjoyable levels, suck up and swallow or spit out any enemy that just so happens to walk in your path, gather plenty of health items, powerups, and extra lives along the way, and defeat a set of bosses filled with plenty of faces that will be recurring threats throughout the series. It is about as basic as basic gets when compared to other platformers at the time, with the only real differences to make the game stand out being the art style, characters, and Kirby’s main method of attack (which isn’t even original either). Despite how simplistic it is though, again, as the first game in the series, there is something charming about it, and it makes it memorable even after over 30 years.
That being said though, alluding to what I mentioned earlier, this game could be a little hard for new players or fans of the other Kirby games to get into it. Not because the game is bad or hard, but because of how basic it really is. This was back before the copy ability became a staple in the Kirby series, and while there are some powerups in this game that could be seen as precursors to copy abilities, such as with The Curry and the Mint Leaf, they pale in comparison to future copy abilities, and you can only use them for a limited amount of time. Now, that’s not to say that a Kirby game couldn’t work without copy abilities, because as shown with games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Kirby Mass Attack, you can make a fun and memorable Kirby game without them as long as you have another interesting gimmick to tie it all together, which the original game does not have. This all isn’t necessarily the game’s fault, but still, it is noteworthy for those who want to try it out at some point later.
Now, in terms of actual problems that this game has, there are few, but the few that are there are pretty noteworthy to mention. First of all, and most importantly of all, the game is REALLY FUCKING SHORT. Seriously, you can beat it in under 20 minutes, it is that short. I guess it is somewhat understandable, as it was made to be more accessible to new gamers, and it was a Game Boy title, but at the same time, you could’ve put in plenty of other levels and elements to try to make it last for at least an hour, not 20 or less minutes. Thankfully, there is somewhat of a remedy to that issue, as there is an Extra Game included, which is basically the same game again, except much more challenging, but that is just playing through the game again, with little to no new content. But hey, at least you get a Sound Test from it!........ one that is completely irrelevant, due to things like the internet, but hey…….. it is nice to have.
The second, shorter problem that I have with the game is that it has a boss rush on the last stage, and as you can imagine, it is the worst part of the game, even if it doesn’t take that long to get through. It’s not as if this is the only time a Kirby game would have a boss rush, but at least with future games, they were either delegated to a separate mode like with The Arena, or if they were included in the main game, they only used mini bosses for it rather then main ones. But here, you gotta fight all of the bosses once again, with no changes made to them whatsoever, and it just seems like padding for the sake of padding……. which would be more appreciated for this game, but not like this.
Overall, despite having some length issues and an unnecessary boss rush, Kirby’s Dream Land is still a small, sweet, and enjoyable game that anyone can pick up and enjoy to a degree, whether they are a bonafide Kirby fan or not. I would definitely recommend it for both Kirby fans or ones who wanna get into the series, as it is, appropriately, one of the best places to start. And thankfully, the quality of the games only goes up from here (for the most part). Also, nice to see that HAL Laboratory remembered Lolo and Lala exist with this game. You know, before they threw them back in their closet of dead mascots until the next time they wanna use them as a boss.
Game #300
Pandsu
9 months ago
Though my mind was completely blown once I got access to Dream Land 2 and Adventure and how much those added with their bigger worlds and, especially, their copy abilities. Afterwards, it was somewhat hard to really see the first game in the same light still. But somehow, as a small child, even though I had played Mario 3, several Sonic games and many other bigger, longer games, something about the first Kirby game felt not nearly as compact as it really was.