The platforming mascots many of us grew up with are an undeniably odd bunch and Kirby might just be the weirdest of the lot. The bizarre stuff you'll encounter in the titular "Dream Land" makes even the Mushroom Kingdom seem sane by comparison. Maybe it's just that this is one of the later entries in a series I'm basically completely unfamiliar with, but so much of what I came across, while certainly not lacking in imagination, often left me questioning its purpose (i.e. the animal allies). Then there's the pink, pudgy protagonist to consider who's main method of self-defense is to devour or spit at whatever gets in his way. All of this certainly leads to a memorably unhinged experience, but unfortunately some gameplay deficiencies keep it from being the kind of eccentric craziness I can fully get behind despite appreciating quite a few aspects of it.
For a game so centered around eating your foes in order to inherit their abilities, you'd think there'd be more powers for you to gain access to. In fact, only a handful of enemy types will grant you anything at all, and of the small stock available a portion of them are useless outside of very specific puzzles anyways. They most often tend to tie into a unique feature where in each level there's a friend of Kirby's who you can help out by completing an optional task in the stage. Assisting all of them will unlock a secret final boss that upon defeat reveals the true ending. A cool idea, but I was very rarely able to actually find these other characters throughout my journey and even when I did the requirements for solving their problems were usually too vague to decipher. How gamers figured it out back in the day without a guide I can't say for sure. I, however, was not engaged enough to put in the necessary effort to do the same.
That's because the design constantly fluctuates between being either too easy or just plain tedious with never enough time spent in the comfortable middle ground at the center of those two extremes. Yet, I can't deny the creativity and resulting originality. It doesn't always shine through in the most consistent of ways. Something that can be seen in the graphics, which take on a hand-drawn, coloring book like art style that inadvertently gives the title a dated look that comes off as more NES than SNES. Playing through this cooperatively though I had quite a bit of fun as my sibling and I found ways to cheese the game while laughing at its numerous peculiarities. It's not something I personally view as worth seeking out, but Dream Land 3 is far from the worst time should you happen to have access to it.
7.5/10
For a game so centered around eating your foes in order to inherit their abilities, you'd think there'd be more powers for you to gain access to. In fact, only a handful of enemy types will grant you anything at all, and of the small stock available a portion of them are useless outside of very specific puzzles anyways. They most often tend to tie into a unique feature where in each level there's a friend of Kirby's who you can help out by completing an optional task in the stage. Assisting all of them will unlock a secret final boss that upon defeat reveals the true ending. A cool idea, but I was very rarely able to actually find these other characters throughout my journey and even when I did the requirements for solving their problems were usually too vague to decipher. How gamers figured it out back in the day without a guide I can't say for sure. I, however, was not engaged enough to put in the necessary effort to do the same.
That's because the design constantly fluctuates between being either too easy or just plain tedious with never enough time spent in the comfortable middle ground at the center of those two extremes. Yet, I can't deny the creativity and resulting originality. It doesn't always shine through in the most consistent of ways. Something that can be seen in the graphics, which take on a hand-drawn, coloring book like art style that inadvertently gives the title a dated look that comes off as more NES than SNES. Playing through this cooperatively though I had quite a bit of fun as my sibling and I found ways to cheese the game while laughing at its numerous peculiarities. It's not something I personally view as worth seeking out, but Dream Land 3 is far from the worst time should you happen to have access to it.
7.5/10