Nightmare in Dreamland
Ok so went against my usual GBA stereotypes and tried playing some of Nightmare in Dreamland. I'd played some before, but only about the first stage.
It's the remake of the NES game Kirby's Adventure, so it was interesting to compare the two.
I'm quite impressed by the graphics (yeah, I know we have all 3D graphics now but considering I just played a Kirby game from the late 80s just an hour before, it's a pretty huge climb in graphics).
I like the layout very much and...
...well, I'm not sure what they've done with the bosses exactly.
Not the actual bosses (they look more or less the same), but the mini-bosses, you know, like that Clock guy (and he never used to look like a clock, but I don't mind really), and Bugsy (why the hell does he look like a dragon?? Isn't he supposed to be a giant insect wrestler or something?) and that Hammer guy who somehow's got bigger...
Actually, all the tougher enemies seem to have become HUGE in the remake.
It's like the designers decided to take a leaf out of Link To The Past and make tiny little Kirby fight against these gigantic bosses.
I just fought the Sun and Moon bosses and they were like...wow. They filled half the screen. Each. I mean, is this really necessary? :p
The game is of course a hell of a lot easier.
Here I just hammered the same button 20 times, and Sun and Moon just died one after the other before they'd even touched me.
In the original NES game...I had to redo that particular fight about 8 times because they went so fast.
Also, the Wheelie boss. Originally he used to come forward racing at Kirby at top speed so that you could barely get out of the way, which was quite frustrating.
In the GBA remake, he comes forward at an average pace, which makes him quite easy. I'm not used to him being like that, lol.
I noticed that the music for when you're fighting Meta Knight's cronies is different of course (is it the N64 music for mini-bosses?...It sounds like it.) Which is much better too.
There is something that I struggled with for a bit...controls. You know how older games often have clunkier controls? Well, not clunkier, but the game mechanics are often a bit like that.
The GBA ones were actually harder to control here for some reason. I don't know why.
Like Kirby took an age to actually float up in the air, and I'm used to Kirby being able to get up in the air really rapidly so as to get out of the way really quickly. Which you can't do here.
I also have a bit of a problem trying to jump and attack, because Kirby seems to have fallen halfway to the ground before you can even hit someone with its sword.
Otherwise I think it is a pretty good game. Good layout, awesome graphics for GBA, they've kept the music (they've even kept the secret passages as I remember, too) and they've even changed the mini-games which are much more fun than before. Especially the game which reminds me of Gormball from Neopets. :p
Still got the ridiculously huge bosses though.
I haven't checked the multiplayer option yet (I can't see how I can do much with that on an emulator with only keyboard input) but that's an interesting extra feature too.
It's the remake of the NES game Kirby's Adventure, so it was interesting to compare the two.
I'm quite impressed by the graphics (yeah, I know we have all 3D graphics now but considering I just played a Kirby game from the late 80s just an hour before, it's a pretty huge climb in graphics).
I like the layout very much and...
...well, I'm not sure what they've done with the bosses exactly.
Not the actual bosses (they look more or less the same), but the mini-bosses, you know, like that Clock guy (and he never used to look like a clock, but I don't mind really), and Bugsy (why the hell does he look like a dragon?? Isn't he supposed to be a giant insect wrestler or something?) and that Hammer guy who somehow's got bigger...
Actually, all the tougher enemies seem to have become HUGE in the remake.
It's like the designers decided to take a leaf out of Link To The Past and make tiny little Kirby fight against these gigantic bosses.
I just fought the Sun and Moon bosses and they were like...wow. They filled half the screen. Each. I mean, is this really necessary? :p
The game is of course a hell of a lot easier.
Here I just hammered the same button 20 times, and Sun and Moon just died one after the other before they'd even touched me.
In the original NES game...I had to redo that particular fight about 8 times because they went so fast.
Also, the Wheelie boss. Originally he used to come forward racing at Kirby at top speed so that you could barely get out of the way, which was quite frustrating.
In the GBA remake, he comes forward at an average pace, which makes him quite easy. I'm not used to him being like that, lol.
I noticed that the music for when you're fighting Meta Knight's cronies is different of course (is it the N64 music for mini-bosses?...It sounds like it.) Which is much better too.
There is something that I struggled with for a bit...controls. You know how older games often have clunkier controls? Well, not clunkier, but the game mechanics are often a bit like that.
The GBA ones were actually harder to control here for some reason. I don't know why.
Like Kirby took an age to actually float up in the air, and I'm used to Kirby being able to get up in the air really rapidly so as to get out of the way really quickly. Which you can't do here.
I also have a bit of a problem trying to jump and attack, because Kirby seems to have fallen halfway to the ground before you can even hit someone with its sword.
Otherwise I think it is a pretty good game. Good layout, awesome graphics for GBA, they've kept the music (they've even kept the secret passages as I remember, too) and they've even changed the mini-games which are much more fun than before. Especially the game which reminds me of Gormball from Neopets. :p
Still got the ridiculously huge bosses though.
I haven't checked the multiplayer option yet (I can't see how I can do much with that on an emulator with only keyboard input) but that's an interesting extra feature too.