Although Nintendo has officially called time on Kirby's 30th anniversary, fans of the pink puff are seemingly still going with all sorts of creations. One, in particular, that's caught the attention of the wider Nintendo community is a new ROM hack for the 1995 release Kirby's Dream Land 2 - adding proper support for the Game Boy Color.
Creator 'kkzero' describes Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX as an "extensive hack" of Dream Land 2 - fully colourising every single visual asset of the game, while enhancing the overall experience. Here's a closer look:
And here's the full breakdown about how exactly this ROM hack enhances the game. It's not just a colour upgrade, either. It goes a step further with improved animation, the elimination of slowdown, new menu settings and much more. It also keeps Super Game Boy support intact:
Full Colorization - All backgrounds, tilesets, and sprites have been fully colorized, taking full advantage of the GBC’s graphics capabilities.
Extra Visual Snazz - Smoother fade effects, some color animation, and other little details to push the hardware just a bit more.
Slowdown Eliminated - The GBC’s double speed mode is enabled to diminish virtually any lag present in the original game.
All-new Settings Menu - Change the Status Bar Color, toggle color animation in the Status Bar, or toggle the Animal Friends’ BGMs interrupting the level music.
SGB Support Intact - Play with the SGB border enabled in emulators that support the unofficial “SGB+GBC” mode.
If you're looking for a more official way to experience the original Kirby's Dream Land 2 game without the assistance of Game Boy hardware, you can always check out Switch Online's retro library, which includes the second game as well as the first one.