4.5 KiB
| title | date | score | howlongtobeat_id | howlongtobeat_hrs | game_name | game_genre | game_release_year | game_developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirby's Dream Land: When The Pink Fluff Was Still White | 2023-03-30T09:00:00+02:00 | 4 | 5077 | 0.8 | Kirby's Dream Land | 2D Platformer | 1992 | HAL Laboratory |
Masahiro Sakurai, the now legendary game designer responsible for the Smash Bros series, debuted with a very simple platforming game for casual players---a cheery and happy game, starring a certain round fluff ball called Kirby. Kirby was still white in 1992's Game Boy cover, although that would change to the pink we are used to know in successive titles. The premise of the game is very simple: it's a pick up and play game consisting of just five stages and its lifespan is even shorter than Konami's Looney Tunes game, also released in '92.
What makes this game a bit more unique compared to the overabundance of Mario clones, however, is the fact that Kirby has to suck up enemies in order to defeat them. Sweet gluttonous glory! Tomatoes engraved with M restore all health, and what I presume to be sweet sugary paste restores one bar. Eating an entire plate---of what is aptly called Spicy Curry---even causes Kirby to temporarily spit out flames.
Yes, the game is very short---I finished in half an hour. Yes, the mechanics might be a bit bare-bones: there's not even a simple scoring mechanism. But those two complaints are about the only negative thing you can say about Kirby's Dream Land. Its level design is surprisingly good, it comes with an unlockable and much more difficult "plus mode" after finishing King Dedede the first time, its music is superb, all stages offer plenty of variety, and the sprite work is simply gorgeous.
It's interesting to replay this game in light of the newest Kirby releases. Here, we already get to know the enemies that in future games can be swallowed for their unique powers. Take the strange scallop enemy from the above screenshot, for example, that shoots a beam in an arc. Powerups, like the aforementioned dish, or a leaf that temporarily grants permanent flight mode, already hint at what may be coming in Kirby's Dream Land 2.
The whiteness of Kirby that evolved actually comes with a nice story I didn't know: according to Wikipedia, the Kirby sprite was just a placeholder---a Guybrush, if you will:
Kirby initially was a dummy character that the developers used until they could define a more sophisticated image. However the designers grew to like Kirby so much that they decided to keep him instead of using a more advanced character.
Some of the critique this game got is a bit unfair. Its lack of a basic challenge, partially because Kirby can fly, is a feature, not a bug! Sakurai designed it to be accessible for all proficiency levels, and in that way, it's a breath of fresh air compared to some of the artificially hard games that were in part made difficult to prolong its lifespan. In retrospect, it is indeed basic compared to its successors. But in 1992, I'd not hesitate to rate this 5 out of 5. Compared to the first Game Boy Mario, Super Mario Land, Kirby's Dream Land is still very much playable nowadays.
Jun Ishikawa's legendary soundtrack makes the game even more appealing: from the first tunes of Green Green to the end boss castle with Kind Dedede's theme.
Kirby's Dream Land is Retro Gamer's #6 Best Game Boy Game, Polygon's #8 (out of 30), and Retro Dodo's #10 (out of 50). In short, it's an iconic Game Boy entry that spawned an entire lovely series of gluttony and should not be missed, even though you can finish it faster than watching an episode of your favorite series. The inception of so many recurring Kirby themes all started here, from beating up a tree by spitting its own apples at it to Kirby's first true nemesis (Meta Knight appeared first as a nameless enemy in the 1993 NES entry).
