Dr. K's Waiting Room

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Created by Masahiro Sakurai, the disgustingly cute, ever-ravenous Kirby is one of Nintendo’s most popular characters. Accordingly, I’m dedicating most of July to celebrating the pink puff-ball.

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Quick Facts:
Founded in 1980, HAL Laboratory produced games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) before nineteen-year-old Masahiro Sakurai put them on the map in 1989 with this title. Originally known as “Popopo” during the laborious development, the rotund character sprite was initially a placeholder before the developers decided to keep it (and there was some confusion about what colour he was meant to be). Kirby’s Dream Land became HAL Laboratory’s most successful title at the time and received mostly positive reviews despite its short length. Kirby’s Dream Land began a cute, colourful franchise that became a Nintendo staple and Kirby is largely regarded as one of the company’s principal mascots.

The Review:
Those who’ve noted the short length of Kirby’s Dream Land aren’t wrong. Even for a Game Boy title, the game is incredibly short, hence this more truncated review, with players visiting four full worlds (or “Stages”) before battling the mischievous King Dedede to restore peace to Dream Land after the penguin king steals their food and magical “Sparkling Stars”. Naturally, the controls are super simple: A jumps while B or X sees Kirby inhale most enemies and objects. Unlike his later games, Kirby cannot copy enemy powers here. Instead, you can only spit your load as a star projectile with B or X to destroy blocks, defeat enemies, and damage bosses. While Kirby’s jump is pretty good thanks to him being essentially a balloon with limbs, you can inflate him by tapping up on the directional pad. While this makes him a bigger target, you can fly indefinitely by tapping A to bypass most enemies and bottomless pits. Though Kirby’s somewhat limited here, especially as he can’t defeat enemies by jumping on them, you can occasionally find items to add some flair to his repertoire. The Invincibility Candy makes Kirby temporarily invincible, the microphone destroys all nearby enemies with a loud screech, and bombs are sucked up and spat out to defeat multiple enemies at once. You can also eat super spicy curry to temporarily spit fireballs, gain extra lives with 1-ups or partially or fully restore Kirby’s health with Pep Brew and Maxim Tomatoes, or grab a Mint Leaf to auto inflate and continuously spit projectiles for as long as the item lasts. Finally, when visiting Mount Dedede in the finale, you can rescue fellow Kirbys to clear away all onscreen enemies, and defeating enemies awards points (though these appear to have no benefit to the player).

Kirby’s Dream Land is a very simple and whimsical title. While most Stages are quite basic, there’s a fittingly dream-like quality to them and they have different screens and sections, with many housing a mini boss and a Warp Star to transition between areas. While Kirby has no idle animation, he exudes a lot of character in his little trot and the way he falls and reacts to damage, and with his little victory dance after clearing each Stage. The music is also absolutely top tier; memorable tunes like “Green Greens”, the victory fanfare, and “Mt. Dedede” all make their debut and they’re very enjoyable to listen to. Each Stage is preceded by a cute little introductory animation and brief cutscenes serve as interludes, showing Kirby rocketing into King Dedede’s palace and such. The game also performs very well, wisely limiting how much action appears onscreen, though there is some slowdown when the screen gets clogged and enemies respawn once you shift the screen. The game starts in the now iconic “Green Greens”, with basic mountains looming in the background and a grassy flavour to the foreground, though it eventually transitions to a forest and you’re invited to enter some tree-trunk areas for a spot of platforming. Indeed, while most Stages are very horizontal, you’ll go all over when exploring “Castle Lololo”, which features a lot more vertical platforming and a bunch of doors to different areas. “Float Island” was easily the most interesting Stage as, while things start pretty simple with a tropical island aesthetic, you’re soon floating over water, exploring spike-filled caves, and rocketing up to the clouds. “Bubbly Clouds” also impressed with its heavenly aesthetic, cloud platforms and tunnels, and starry sky background as you progress higher into an ornate palace. Sadly, “Mt. Dedede” lets the game down a touch as it’s simply a staging area to revisit short obstacle courses of the previous Stages and battle the previous bosses before you take on King Dedede in a boxing ring.

While Kirby’s enemies are little more than nuisances, they’re all very bizarre and cartoony. Even the harmless Waddle Dees can be troublesome when their Waddle Doo variants drift down on parasols or fire eye beams, however. Poppy Bros. Jr.s toss bombs you must spit back, floating Mumbies are immune to your inhale, Sir Kibbles toss boomerang-like projectiles, and cannons regularly mess up your floating. Wizzers echo the Waddle Doos, however, the sentient mask Two Face chases when you come close, and Scarfy explode when defeated! Three mini bosses appear here, with two being preludes to their Stage’s main boss. The imp-like Poppy Bros. Sr.’s bombs must be spat back at him, Lololo emerges from a different tunnel each time pushing a block you must spit at him, and Kracko Jr. floats about firing projectiles and only being damaged when you suck up Waddle Dees and spit them at it. “Green Greens” ends with a battle against the giant sentient tree Whispy Woods, who puffs projectiles and drops apples which you can use to damage him. Lololo and Lalala emerge from tunnels, forcing you to strategically think about which blocks to inhale and when to hop between platforms to strike each one. Kabula was easily the most unique main boss as this anthropomorphic dirigible is fought in an autoscroller, with you permanently inflated and flying and firing projectiles as you dodge its rocket charge and cannonballs. Kracko reforms in “Bubbly Clouds”, becoming a monstrous cloud that swoops down, fires a beam spread, and is again only vulnerable to the Waddle Doos you use for ammo. After battling all four of these bosses again in “Mt. Dedede”, you battle the penguin king himself, with him swinging a giant mallet, diving across the ring, performing a butt stomp, and even inhaling you spit you out! The only way to deal damage to King Dedede is to lure him in and inhale the stars that appear when he misses his mallet or butt stomp. Fire these back at him enough times and he’s toast, though he (and every other enemy and boss) becomes much more formidable if you hold up, A, and – on the title screen and challenge the much tougher “Extra Game”.

Final Thoughts:  
I try to keep my expectations low for Game Boy titles, though it can’t be denied that Kirby’s Dream Land is an extremely brief and simplistic experience, even for the handheld. And this excuse doesn’t hold much weight when you consider some of the titles produced for the system. On the plus side, it is a very cute and fun little platformer. Kirby is a very unique and quirky character and his trademark suck and blow gameplay is very fun, though obviously made far more interesting in subsequent games where he assumes new forms by copying enemy abilities. While he is noticeably limited here, I enjoyed inflating and flapping about and the power-ups you can consume, even if they were few and far between. The autoscrolling sections were also a nice change of pace and I liked how much visual variety was on show, even considering the Game Boy’s limitations. The music, especially, was a joy, as were the fun little interludes that served as cutscenes. I also had fun with the bosses, which required a surprising amount of strategy to best, and while it was disappointing to face them all again in the end, I appreciated the tougher, truncated versions of the previous Stages prior to them. King Dedede was a great final boss, too, forcing you to think outside the box a bit. I almost wish he’d popped up between one or two Stages as a recurring boss to test you, or in some kind of mini game to earn you extra points or something. Ultimately, as fun and visually appealing as it is, Kirby’s Dream Land isn’t good for much more than an hour of gameplay, at best. It’s a great introduction to the character and the franchise, but easily surpassed by subsequent games, any of which would make for a suitable first time experience with Kirby.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Was Kirby’s Dream Land a treasured entry in your Game Boy library back in the day? Did you enjoy his suck and float gameplay? Were you disappointed by how short the game was? Did you ever beat the harder “Extra Game” mode? Which of the Kirby videogames is your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on Kirby, leave a comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and and check out my other Kirby reviews.