Topic: Kirby's Dream Land

It will be available on NA's eShop today. I love this game, and it is one of my favorite platformers. It is short, but so much fun. Post your thoughts and impressions about said game here.

Shortest game ever. Its super fun, and the music is great but its to short and easy for me to be able to recommend, I beat it in 35 minuets according to my Activity log, and the "bonus game" is just the same levels with different enemies although that adds a very mild amount of challenge, still not that great, IMO 6/10

Yeah, I agree with Pogocoop on this one. It's too short and easy to recommend. It is fun, but not enough to make up for the short length.

Did you play through the "hard" mode? It does add a good bit to the overall package.

Also, this is one of those platformers worth replaying over and over again. It has easily 10x the level design and charm of Super Mario Land, and you could blaze through that one in a few minutes as well.

Anyhow, I don't feel that any subsequent Kirby game had as tight of level design and presentation as this one. Kirby's Adventure is close.

I actually felt the levels in Kirby's Dreamland were boring and empty, with no reason to go back to them. There's no exploration whatsoever, unlike Kirby's Adventure.

The design, however, is much better than Adventure, even though that is easily my second favorite Kirby game.

Design doesn't matter much when it's not very fun.

Its longer then Spring Breeze in KSSU, but I just Beat it

Does Up+A+Select work?

Sweet. How much does this game cost?

I've always loved Kirby's Dream land. Yeah it's short but oh so sweet. The music really sticks in your head. I was already humming the songs as I was downloading it.
I guess now it may seem too basic but the impression it left on me has remained. Great game when you just need a quick fix.

I didn't like this game. It was waay to short. After I beat it I really never felt like coming back to it.

You do have to transport yourself into the era just a bit and look at the game in terms of how it created new ideas or answered game design issues of the time. For instance, it showed just how much you can really do with character animations. Compare Kirby with the Mario platformers on Game Boy and you can the impressive attention to detail. Every bounce, turn, fall, and move has a different animation, and the game further showcases these as well as additional animations during the end-of-level dances. Even the enemies have far more attention to detail and animation than in the Mario Land games.

Kirby has the ability to float with just an up arrow, changing the nature of his plaforming to more of a hybrid, yet enemies in the air (as well as cannons, etc) keep this from allowing you to just skate by like you could with a cape in SM World. You can't jump on enemies, instead eating them in order to spit at others, with plenty of clever variations: one enemy will give chase if you attempt to inhale it, swallowing two enemies at once creates a star that will blow through multiple opponents, and you can even kill enemies in some surprising alternative ways (like falling far enough and landing head-first on them).

They took the shooter-level idea from Super Mario Land and made it into an infinitely more enjoyable boss battle. They created transitions between areas and levels that are fun and beautifully drawn for the limits of the GB. They designed a highly original final boss and boss-challenge castle (for that matter, all of the bosses are cleverly designed), and the animation of the ending sequence (and the post-ending in particular) is far above the endings of just about every GB game I can think of.

This is the kind of game that takes the limitations of its hardware and its era and finds ways to improve upon its competitors in every way, with a strong sense of visual design and creativity throughout. The sheer volume of gameplay and character inventions in this one game is more than in the bulk of the Kirby games that followed combined; the later games kept everything this one had done and then just added on top of it, but never felt as fresh.

wow, thats how I feel I personally have a TON of Wii VC games and will try to 100% them all.... someday, and thats all

Beautifully said, warioswoods. I've always felt that with limitations comes great, groundbreaking games. If you have all the technology you could ever want to create a game, you aren't being pressed to be creative or work creatively around your limits. Kirby's Dream Land is a perfect example of this, where a fantastic game was made by knowing the system's restraints and weaving around them.

I will definitely be picking this gem up again. On long car rides when I was about seven or so I would always challenge myself to see how many times I could go through this game before we got to our destination. This game has incredible replay value. If it didn't, I'm not sure a seven year old would have been content to replay it so many times in one day. And it wasn't due to a lack of games; I had plenty of others. This one just stuck to me.

I had this game when I was little, and then lost if for years (it was at my cousin's house) before finding it again! Still a great game.

Amen to that.

Extra Mode IS Hard Mode

I'd also add that my main problem with the later Kirby games that followed (from Dream Land 2 to the GBA titles) is that they are too long for the ideas that they bring to the table. Each time a new level or enemy idea comes up, they stretch it out across endless dull terrain with little sense of weight to anything. I don't want screen after screen of the same enemies and locations, I just want one well-designed scene for each idea.

Even though it's from HAL, Kirby's Dream Land is more like a quality (console) Mario game in that it comes up with ideas and then just as quickly discards them in favor of new ones, without padding the length by repeating with minor variation. Compare Kirby's Dream Land II, with all its levels that start blurring together very quickly. That's a much longer game, but I remember being disappointed with it as a child, because it just didn't feel very compelling with all the repetition and generic level designs.

I'm still debating on whether to download or just save my eShop money for other games I would want more. I think I'll pass for now, and wait for the review. They're are mixed feelings everywhere on it.

Too short, too fun.
No adventure, too short.
Don't like it, Don't wanna come back to it ever again.
Love it, perfect game so much fun!

So I guess I will wait for this one :]
Besides, I picked up Squigglepants today! Haha.

I suppose the question you need to answer is whether you are capable of appreciating games. To be honest, all of the people who are putting it down likely started their gaming careers with, at the earliest, something from the fifth generation.