Kirby's Dream Land released for the original Game Boy in 1992 and introduced the world to our now favorite little, pink sucklord. Now of course, he wasn't pink yet on the Game Boy, as that somewhat primitive handheld famously couldn't display colored visuals. The following year, Kirby's Adventure released on the NES and gave Kirby his trademark hue. In fact, in Kirby's first outing, he couldn't perform his "Copy" ability yet either, and this was also introduced in Kirby's Adventure. So Kirby's Dream Land has this somewhat bizarre status as a proto-Kirby game, before the character's traits were fully set in stone. Regardless of all of that though, I had a lot of fun with this game, playing it with my son through our Super Nintendo's Super Game Boy attachment.
Kirby's Dream Land is an ideal first game for a kid or someone learning how to play video games. I found it to be very forgiving and straightforward in its gameplay. Without the "Copy" ability, Kirby is limited in his moveset, so this in turn streamlines the game's combat a great deal. Every fight boils down to just dodging attacks by jumping or floating, and inhaling items to spit them back to deal damage. The controls were generally tight enough to make whatever maneuvers that I needed, but I would occasionally run into instances where it felt like the game would slow down for just a beat, like there were too many things going on at once. Thankfully this isn't like a Mario game where you've got constant enemies coming at you, or incredibly precise platforming sequences that you have to navigate, so ultimately the occasional blip of some slow-down didn't feel like a major hindrance.
As you'd expect from a Kirby game, Dream Land has an adorable, charming aesthetic, which just confirms that they had this cute vision for Kirby and his universe from the franchise's very beginning. We see loads of franchise mainstays like Whispy Woods, Lololo & Lalala, Poppy Bros. Sr., Waddle Dees and my beloved Cappys. The stage designs are pretty neat and diverse too. Kirby travels through forests to a spooky castle and onward to an awesome tropical island-themed stage. Towards the end of the game, you'll go through a stage that's set high up in the clouds and then Kirby's Dream Land comes to a thunderous close by pitting our temporarily grey hero against King Dedede.
Kirby's Dream Land is a delightful, little game. You can fully beat it within forty minutes or so, and really shouldn't encounter anything challenging. Compared to the Kirby titles that come after this game, Dream Land might seem a bit underwhelming and too simple, but I think it's a charming game, and definitely worth checking out if you're playing classic Game Boy titles.
Available On: Game Boy
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