Kirby's Dream Land

Kirby's Dream Land

Game Boy - USA - 1st edition.

Developer HAL Laboratory Publisher Nintendo Published 1992-04-27 Platforms Game Boy Genres Action, Platformer Themes Cartoon Series Kirby Distribution Commercial

Kirby's Dream Land is an action platformer developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo on the Game Boy on 1992-04-27. The Super Game Boy has extra support for this game. It is the first game in the Kirby series game and, since Kirby's ability to steal powers from the monsters he's eaten has not yet been established, the game plays more like a generic platformer.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2014‎-11-30.

I first played this game after already having played a couple later Kirby games, so I was very disappointed by the lack of stealing powers, and it was so short and easy, I beat it on my first attempt.

Review

4	4	6	4	4

Best Version: Game Boy with GBC

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The graphics are nice and cute and a lot of the characters seen in later games are introduced.
• The cuteness of the game, Kirby especially, is really wonderful. The animations made for Kirby are often hilarious.
• It was fun to see Lolo and Lala as a boss.
• The game has a pretty complete manual.
• The game has an unlockable "extra mode" which gives the game a little badly-needed extra content. When you beat the game, you see the code which is pressing select, up, and A at the title screen.

Bad

• Overall, the game is kind of dull.
• Since Kirby never becomes more powerful, the boss rush at the end is just tedious.
• The controls of sucking in air often interfere with turning and jumping, which is frustrating.

Ugly

• The game is too easy. Even younger kids won't have much difficulty beating it. The hard mode hould have been the default game. I beat it on my very first play attempt.
• At only five levels, and the fifth just being a rehash of the first four, the game is incredibly short.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The Japanese box features a reddish-pink Kirby standing in front of an attractive background collage of the game characters with a white grid superimposed over them. I like the rounded text, but the plain foreground clashes the painted background.

• 

  The American box has a white puffed-up Kirby in front of the boss of stage 1. The art is really good, and the lettering is simple, but effective. I prefer this box.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA - Rev 1.

• 

  Manual - Australia - Rev 6.

Maps

• 

  Stage 1: Green Greens.

• 

  Stage 2: Castle Lololo.

• 

  Stage 3: Float Islands.

• 

  Stage 4: Bubbly Clouds.

• 

  Stage 5: Mt. Dedede.

Font

See Video game font collection.

Videos

Commercial, USA.

Commercial, Japan.

Longplay.

Play Online

Game Boy (Japan), Game Boy (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are a few female enemies, but none are strong.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is no dialogue.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no humans.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Kirby's Dream Land
Japanese	星のカービ	Hoshi no Kabi	Kirby of the Stars

Links