Kirby's Dream Land (GB)

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, without the extra mode the game really is much, much too short and easy to be worth whatever price it commands (and I'm sure it's substantial). I think it's the only game of its era that I beat the same day I started playing it.

Substantial price? What? Isn't Kirby 1 a really cheap and common game? Cart only copies go for just a couple of dollars online...

With the extra mode, it's more acceptable, but sticking with Kirby's Adventure, Kirby Super Star, and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (and maybe even Kirby 64) is the way to go. (Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3 are pretty well done, but the slow, puzzle-based gameplay is a bit of a drag.)

Kirby 2 is still my favorite game in the series, it's got the best level designs and gameplay of the whole series... such an amazing game. Kirby 64, on the other hand, is the one I found the most disappointing, of the ones I've played; I really had high hopes for it, after Kirby 2 (I didn't have a NES or SNES then so I hadn't played those ones), but it was quite thoroughly underwhelming. Kirby feels really slow in that game, it's just glacially paced. It's also very easy, as expected, except the challenge -- going back to try to get the three crystal shards in every level -- is a complete pain. Some require getting a power in one level, not getting hit until you beat it, and then going to some other level and using the power at some point in that stage (again, without losing the power). Obviously, unless you use a guide to tell you what powers you need where, this is really annoying. I never finished getting all the shards, the game just wasn't fun enough.

I mean, I did like the power-combining aspect of the game, but in terms of gameplay, it was only okay. Oh, I disliked the dpad-only controls, too; other N64 2.5d platformers allow you to use the analog stick, which is what I always did. I found it pretty annoying that Kirby required you to use the dpad. However, the game is okay, and I did love the minigames; Hundred Yard Hop was a pretty addicting multiplayer minigame...

Oh, and I do have Kirby 3 for SNES now; in terms of gameplay, I'd say it's more like Kirby 64 than anything -- it's got that same very slow paced feel that the Game Boy games, or Kirby's Adventure, don't have. I haven't played that much of it though really... but the gameplay did make me think of 64. Playing Kirby 3, I can see where 64 came from. As for Adventure and Super Star, yes, they're great games, right up there with 2 for best in the series. But I would probably but Kirby 1 above 64 or 3. I do think it's kind of too bad that there wasn't a new Kirby handheld platformer between 1995's Kirby 2 and 2004's Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (the GBA remake of Kirby's Adventure excepted), the GB Kirby games had been amazing and it took HAL far too long to get Kirby back to handheld platformers.

A loose cart is worth around $5, I think it's worth that price. I've played through the game but haven't played through the hard mode yet, it is an enjoyable title for sure. The early Kirby games are all pretty good, I just didn't like that Tilt 'n' Tumble one for the GBC.

I liked Tilt 'n' Tumble, it was the first motion-sensor game I'd played much of (I had used the Microsoft Sidewinder pc gamepad with motion sensors in it once or twice, that handlebar one, but didn't actually own one myself), and I thought the concept was pretty cool. I would admit that it's a bit gimmicky -- the game is pretty easy on the face of it, and the main challenge just comes from how much harder it is to navigate with tilt sensors than it would be with the dpad -- but still, I liked the originality of the idea and the gameplay was fun. Obviously now the concept is much less original to say the least, but it's an okay early use of tilt technology, maybe the first tilt game on a console?

The best Kirby spinoff game, though, is Kirby Pinball. That game's just amazing, one of the best handheld pinball games ever. I spent so much time playing that game... the followup of sorts, Pokemon Pinball, is a pretty awful game in comparison with simplistic, boring tables, but Kirby Pinball is still amazing. Block Ball is great as well, and Star Stacker and Dream Course (the latter for SNES) as well... all three of those games are really good. There's a very late SNES version of Star Stacker that was only released in Japan, too, but the US GB version's pretty great. Air Ride's (GC) a bit more disappointing, I like the level designs but the lack of content (single player modes! There are none, really, apart from single race!) really is severe, and those controls only sort of were a good idea. It was quite a disappointing waste of some great track designs, for a game that I'd been looking forward to since like 1995...

Oh -- I would say that overall Dream Course is by far the hardest game in the whole Kirby franchise.