Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition (Wii - 1st completion)

[leathercubster]

So my last entry of the year is also the last game on my list of games I wanted to play in 2019. I hoped to go a little beyond and play a couple more games, but ah well, I didn't and it was a little naughty of me considering all the free time I had. The new list for 2020 will be forthcoming in my Christmas and New Years entry by this weekend (I hope). Anyways, Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition was released for the Wii in 2012 to celebrate one of Nintendo's most popular characters - the titular pink puff, Kirby. This 20th anniversary collection contains 6 main series games from his humble beginnings on the Game Boy to all the way to the Nintendo 64. It gives the player a perspective of Kirby's early evolution and I'd argue Nintendo did better with this collection than what was offered with the Super Mario All-Stars release in 2010 (my review here). Still, it is disappointing no side games were added like Kirby's Dream Course and even more disappointing, none of the games from the Game Boy Advance era were included. It's a shame as I would have liked to have played Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. And in my personal opinion, the Game Boy Advance would have been the perfect cut-off system for this collection. Ah well, we still got some 6 great classic games - two of them I've never played before. The collection also includes a museum of all Kirby games released up to that point with basic information, North American box scans you can rotate in 3D, gameplay videos, a few episodes of the cartoon series Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, and small historic tidbits (US Presidents, Olympic games, Nintendo console/handheld releases, etc.). There is also a separate challenge game included that you can tackle - requiring you to master each ability and plays similarly to 2011's Kirby's Return to Dream Land (my review here). As for the physical part of the collection, you get a collectible art book and CD soundtrack with some awesome selected Kirby series favourites. The games included and reviewed below are: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.




Kirby's Dream Land
Graphics/Art-9
Sound/Music-9
Control-7
Gameplay-8
Fun/Story/Misc-8



Music Samples:
Title Theme
Green Greens
Castle Lololo
Float Islands
Mint Breath
Bubbly Clouds
Mt. Dedede
Ending Theme

Total: 41/50 (Grade Level: B)



1992 saw the release of Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy, which is the official debut of Kirby in Nintendo's growing franchises. I remember the article in Nintendo Power magazine and thought the game looked interesting. My only memory of my first exposure to the game was from a Japanese guy in the same grade as me (either 5th or 6th) who was playing it around the gravel soccer field at school. I never got a chance to play it as the guy -Terry was his name- had a habit of having other friends play with his Game Boy a bit and I would patiently wait all lunch hour for my turn and by the time it was getting to my turn, lunch hour was over. The first time this happened to me was about a year or two earlier and they were playing Super Mario Land. The second time this happened was Kirby's Dream Land as he got it not long after its summer 1992 release. From what I noticed about it, the graphics had great sprites and the game looked like fun. I wouldn't play this particular game until about the late-90's or early 2000's via emulation. I don't remember if my best friends, Marc and Ian, had this game in their collection and I played it at their house. Being the first Kirby game ever, it's pretty basic. As for its story: one night, under the cover of darkness, the gluttonous King Dedede and his minions steal all the food in Dream Land as well as the Sparkling Stars used to obtain more food. The next morning as the residents are discussing what to do, Kirby, a young resident of Dream Land, steps forward and volunteers to retrieve the food and stars, and stop Dedede. Kirby can suck enemies in, spit them out to attack other enemies, or swallow them down. He can also inflate himself and fly. It's a very short game with 5 levels and not difficult at all. The graphics were very nice on the Game Boy and the music was awesome too - a number of tracks would be remixed in later Kirby titles. The controls are easy but Kirby's movements can be stiff at times, not allowing you to correct actions quickly. After beating the game, you're given a code to input at the title screen (I should point out that you need to reset the game by pressing -, +, 1, and 2 [select, start, B, and A] simultaneously as resetting it from the home menu will only you bring you back to the end) to try "Extra Mode". Good gravy - they kick up the difficulty A LOT! The enemies are fast and cheap, you take more damage, and the bosses are more vicious! Thankfully, you get unlimited continues. Beating both modes took about an hour. So while it would now be considered one of the weakest games in the series, it's still a Game Boy classic.

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby's Dream Land is here.





Kirby's Adventure
Graphics/Art-10
Sound/Music-10
Control-9
Gameplay-10
Fun/Story/Misc-9





Music Samples:
Title Screen
Vegetable Valley
Underground Area
Butter Building
Forest Area
Grape Garden
Yogurt Yard
Orange Ocean
Rainbow Resort
Green Greens
Nightmare Battle
Ending Theme

Total: 48/50 (Grade Level: A+)





As the Super NES was in its (in Japan at least) third year in 1993, the NES was dwindling down and less games were coming out. The second game in the Kirby franchise to come out was Kirby's Adventure and was one of the last best swan songs from Nintendo before the NES retired. This was the first Kirby game I ever got to play and own. A friend of mine at the time, Jeff, rented this game in the summer of 1995 and I fell in love with it. I noticed the game was being sold at Zellers at Scottsdale Mall plus Zoda's Revenge: Startropics II. They were both discounted so I asked my mom for both games for Christmas that year and she got them for me. I beat the game numerous times through the years and always have fun with it. The game centers around Kirby traveling across Dream Land to repair the Star Rod after King Dedede breaks it apart and gives the pieces to his minions. Besides giving Kirby his official pink colour (as the original Game Boy was obviously limited in the colour department), this was the first game to have Kirby's copy ability. When Kirby sucks in an enemy with an ability and swallows him, he copies that ability. So if an enemy breathes fire and Kirby swallows him, Kirby will then breathe fire. There are about 24 abilities you can try out. If you want to get rid of your current ability, you hit the select button and it becomes a bouncing star. Also, getting hit will force the ability out of Kirby too. If you want to get the ability back either way, you have about 5 seconds to re-swallow it or it's gone for good. The graphics and sprites are practically pushing the NES hardware beyond its limits. I just love the game's use of colour and level design. The music is also very catchy, one of my favourite NES soundtracks. Like the previous game, a lot of these tracks would be remixed in future Kirby titles. The controls are a definite improvement over the previous Dream Land and the game play much faster. Kirby can be a little stiff at times but still better than before - he can now dash and slide. The game has 7 levels with a combined 39 stages and 8 boss battles. There are also mini-games scattered about so you can earn extra lives. Beating the game and finding all secrets opens up "Extra Mode". Unlike the super difficulty spike in the previous game, this one halves Kirby's energy and you have to play the game all in one sitting - it won't save your progress. This can be a little tricky but easily manageable. I remember around the late-90s as I was playing Extra Mode and was well over halfway through the game when our cat, Nanook, just bolted for some reason across the floor, snagged the cord of my NES controller, which in turn caused the console to rattle and reset the game! My older sister laughed but felt bad for me. Even till this day, she remembers that incident. But it meant I had to start all over again. Still, I have fond memories of this game and is one of my favourite Kirby titles. It was even remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 called Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land and was very well done (I had the game but I think it was lost/stolen years ago).

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby's Adventure is here.





Kirby's Dream Land 2
Graphics/Art-9
Sound/Music-9
Control-8
Gameplay-8
Fun/Story/Misc-8





Music Samples:
Grass Land
Rick the Hamster
Big Forest
Coo the Owl
Ripple Field
Kine the Fish
Iceberg
Red Canyon
Cloudy Park
King Dedede
Wielder of the Rainbow Sword
Credits

Total: 42/50 (Grade Level: B)





Of this entire collection, Kirby's Dream Land 2 is one of two games I've never played before. It's quite similar to the original Dream Land and has some added elements from Adventure. You can steal abilities like the previous NES game, but there aren't as many. Instead, the abilities are based on a "type" like fire, ice, spark, cutter/boomerang, stone, needle/spike, etc. To compensate for this, Dream Land 2 introduces Kirby's animal friends: Rick the hamster; who runs fast on land, Coo the owl; who can fly and fight against heavy winds, and Kine the sunfish; who can swim fast and fight against currents. Kirby attaches himself to one of them and can continue to inhale enemies. But using an ability type while attached is different for each one. For example, if you have the spark ability with Coo, Kirby will fire lightning downward while with Kine, Kirby will shoot out light bulbs and can illuminate dark areas, and Rick can shoot a 180 degree beam in front of him. The plot is about the Rainbow Bridges, that connect the seven Rainbow Islands, have been stolen by an evil force called Dark Matter. It has possessed King Dedede, intent on conquering Dream Land. Kirby sets out to defeat Dark Matter, accompanied by his new animal friends. The game has 31 levels in 7 worlds but they aren't long. Each level ends with a boss fight but they are pretty easy. In terms of secrets and to get 100% completion, each world has a one hidden rainbow piece somewhere in a level. A couple of them can be tricky to get. If you get all 7 of them, you can fight the real final battle against Dark Matter (who shows up again in Dream Land 3) using a sword. The only extra thing to do is play a bonus game in each world where the bosses are. You only get one chance and failure means you have to reset the system to try again. This was totally unnecessary and repetitive! But beating each one adds to your completion. You don't get much for 100%, just to a boss rush, bonus stage rush, and playing music. In terms of production, the graphics are a step up from the first game and the game is overwhelmingly bigger too. The original cartridge was compatible with the Super Game Boy on the SNES and had coloured themes preset to certain worlds. Too bad there was no option for this in the collection. The music is pretty good and the animal friends have their own theme while Kirby is attached to them. The controls have improved too but not as good as Adventure on the NES. There is no dashing and no sliding. If they implemented Kirby's copy ability from the previous NES game, why not other basic abilities? It was an okay game, probably the second weakest game in the collection as the others have more to them.

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby's Dream Land 2 is here.





Kirby Super Star
Graphics/Art-10
Sound/Music-10
Control-10
Gameplay-10
Fun/Story/Misc-9





Music Samples:
Title Screen
Green Greens
Float Islands
Bubbly Clouds
Kirby Dance
King Dedede's Theme
Together with the Spring Breeze
White Wing Dynablade
Peanut Plain
Cocoa Cave
Candy Mountain
Choose Your Weapon
Dreaming of Food & Crash! Gourmet Racing
Gourmet Race
Hilltop Chase
The Great Cave Offensive
Save Hut
Mine Cart Riding
Crystal Field and Mystery Paradise
Meta Knight's Revenge
Grape Garden
Taking Over the Halberd
Meta Knight's Theme
Meta Knight Defeated
Heart of Nova
Marx's Theme
Kirby's Triumphant Return
Way of the Fighting King
Gladiator Kirby
Staff Roll

Total: 49/50 (Grade Level: A+)





One of my favourite games, Kirby Super Star was released just days before the Nintendo 64 in North America in September 1996. I don't remember when I first rented it, but I did soon purchase a used copy in 1997 or 1998. Like Kirby's Adventure, I beat this game numerous times as it is a lot of fun. Instead of being one big adventure, Super Star has up to 7 small adventures plus 2 versus games for two players. And speaking of two players, the game has a co-op feature that allows a second player to control a partner of Kirby of an ability he copied. First, Kirby copies an ability as usual, then by pressing the "A" button, Kirby sacrifices the ability but creates a partner that is either AI controlled or by a second controller. The AI can be kind of dumb at times, easily getting killed and not being strategic enough compared to human control. The gameplay is mostly the same across the games though some have twists. One of them, "Gourmet Race" for example, is a short game in which Kirby races King Dedede in 3 levels while collecting food. Another, "The Great Cave Offensive", plays like the other games but the whole point is to find 60 treasures hidden throughout 4 levels. Interestingly, "Spring Breeze" is mostly a remake of the original Kirby's Dream Land but doesn't have the restrictions of the original game so it's very easy and quick to get through. Completing the first tier of games opens up the others and the difficulty increases. The final game is "The Arena" in which you have to get through about 20 bosses one-by-one with breaks in between each battle and you can only fully refill your energy 5 times. Getting 100% completion is only possible if you complete all 7 main games and find every single secret. Graphically, the game looks amazing and brimming with colour and large, varied sprites. Given the success of Donkey Kong Country and other CG looking games of the time, Super Star used pre-rendered CG graphics for both the level back and foregrounds. If I remember correctly, the game was 32 Megabits (4 Megabytes) and uses the SA1 chip, which made the original cartridge expensive as it gives extra processing power to the SNES. Not many games used this chip in the late console life of the SNES (a number of Japan-only games did though) but the ones that did could show off what the SNES was capable of before the 16-bit era came to a close. The music is fantastic with great rearrangements of past songs and great new tracks too. The controls are improved and you can do more moves with your copy abilities depending on what Kirby is doing. For example, when using the beam ability, there are different attacks. Standing still does the vertical swipe but you can also charge your rod to unleash a powerful attack. Dashing does some wave attack, and dashing and jumping forward does a beam spray attack. This is a definite improvement over the previous games. The game itself is a lot of fun and while easy at times, can still pose some challenge. Kirby can be killed a little more quicker as there seems to be a shorter period of invulnerability depending on how he's hit. But the game autosaves your progress and there are unlimited continues. At this time, Kirby Super Star is probably my favourite in the Kirby franchise and one I recommend to anyone who wants to have a fun time. If you have a Nintendo DS or 3DS, there is Kirby Super Star Ultra which has extra content and more challenges. I reviewed that game in July 2009 and while it was before I had a scoring system in place, it was a great enhanced remake and highly recommended too.

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby Super Star is here.





Kirby's Dream Land 3
Graphics/Art-9
Sound/Music-9
Control-9
Gameplay-8
Fun/Story/Misc-8





Music Samples:
Title Screen
Grass Land Map
Grass Land 1
Grass Land 2
Grass Land 3
Grass Land 4
Ripple Field Map
Ripple Field 1
Ripple Field 2
Ripple Field 3
Sand Canyon Map
Sand Canyon 1
Sand Canyon 2
Sand Canyon 3
Cloudy Park Map
Cloudy Park
Iceberg
King Dedede
Hyper Zone 2
Cast Montage
Staff Roll

Total: 43/50 (Grade Level: B+)





After how impressive and fun Kirby Super Star was, I was pretty excited to find out that there would be one final SNES Kirby game to be released in late-1997 (surprisingly, it came out late-March of 1998 in Japan). I remember seeing the preview for Kirby's Dream Land 3 in Nintendo Power magazine and it was surprising given that the Nintendo 64 had been out for a year and the SNES was whittling down. I saw a used copy in 1998 at Willow Video Games around the Newton-area of Surrey. Sadly, that location has long closed down. I asked my folks to get that used copy as an early Christmas gift that year so I got to play it sometime in December. I noticed it was quite different and stripped down from Super Star. The graphics were more high-res but not done in the pre-rendered CG style as before. The levels look nice and colourful but in general, things just look more simplistic than Super Star. The music is certainly catchy but some tracks are more somber compared to Super Star's more upbeat and sheer number of tracks. Unlike the variety of what is offered in Super Star, Dream Land 3 goes back to the traditional stage-by-stage gameplay. Each of the 5 levels of the game has 6 stages and a boss. For every stage, you have to fulfill some criteria to gain a heart star at the end of the stage. It could be completing a mini-game, trying not to destroy flowers, finding parts for a robot, using one of your animal friends to meet with an opposite gender animal, etc. If you obtain every heart star in the game, you can engage the true final battle and get the best ending. Kirby's copy ability returns but the gameplay is based mostly on Dream Land 2. There aren't near as many abilities as Super Star but like Dream Land 2, they are "type" based and your animal friends do different things while using that ability type. Besides the return of Rick, Kine, and Coo, there are 3 new animal friends to help Kirby out and expand the amount of abilities: Chuchu the octopus, Pitch the bird, and Nago the Calico cat. There is also another companion that you can summon at the cost of energy: Gooey. Gooey is AI-controlled and can help Kirby if need be. He can also be controlled by a second player if you have another controller. But he isn't really needed to beat the game. The controls are good, playing like other Kirby games in which he can dash, fly, slide, etc. The main villain of Dream Land 2, Dark Matter, returns and needs to be exorcised of the evil he is spreading around the land. While it's the best of the first 3 Dream Land games, it's not as good as Super Star. It does seem sluggish and having to repeat some stages because you failed the criteria needed to get a heart star can irritate a bit. I got 97% completion as the final 3% require you to do all the mini-games at once without failure and even the Boss Rush mode too. No thanks!

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby's Dream Land 3 is here.





Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Graphics/Art-9
Sound/Music-9
Control-8
Gameplay-8
Fun/Story/Misc-8





Music Samples:
Training
Pop Star Select
Pop Star
Quiet Forest
Boss
Rock Star Select
Rock Star
Inside the Ruins
Aqua Star Select
Aqua Star
Mountain Stream
Neo Star Select
Neo Star
Shiver Star Select
Shiver Star
Above the Clouds
Ripple Star Select
Ripple Star
Gourmet Race
The End - Staff

Total: 42/50 (Grade Level: B)





The last of the classic games featured in this collection, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is the second game I never played. It came out near-late in the Nintendo 64's life cycle and while I was interested in playing it, it was too expensive to get (Nintendo 64 games usually were more expensive and would stay full price for quite awhile and Nintendo had a habit of keeping their games full price for a long time) and by the time any used copies were available, the Nintendo Gamecube was on the horizon. While the game takes advantage of the Nintendo 64's powerful 3D hardware -and at a time the games were looking better as developers had a better understanding of it- the game plays like other 2D Kirby games but is more accurately a 2.5D game. This includes scrolling and camera moving in various directions than just a flat left-to-right 2D look. I'll give it credit, it allowed the artists to be more creative in the level design department. While the game's levels are quite colourful, the enemies take a back seat to simplistic designs that seem ripped from Kirby's Dream Land 3 but were given a 3D coat of paint. The music is pretty good with some nice remixes and new tunes too. The controls (playing on a Wii Classic Controller) aren't intuitive as it reflects to the somewhat frustrating gameplay. Kirby can copy abilities again but this time, you can combine any two abilities called Power Combos. It's actually quite fun and creative to try these out. My problem is the gimmick in combining two abilities. After you copy an ability, you can use it by itself, or look for an enemy with the same or other ability and try to copy them too. You can't suck them in since your ability prevents you so to get around this, you crystalize the ability and have Kirby hold it. You then have to throw the crystal at an enemy where it'll combine into another crystal for you to swallow and gain the Power Combo ability. Say if you combine the needle and fire abilities, Kirby will shoot fire arrows. If you combine two spark abilities, Kirby will generate a bigger electric barrier than before. The problem with the whole crystalized abilities is that it can be very easy and frustrating to lose it. Holding onto the crystal means you can hit something by accident and lose it for good or even accidentally throw it away. Worse still, if you're trying to combine it with an enemy and you miss the throw or they block it, you don't get a second chance so you have to go find that ability again in the level or quit the level, go to a past level and get that same ability, and try again. It's frustrating as the game's completion requires you to search for 3 crystal shards every level. Some require having the right Power Combo to open obstacles to obtain a crystal shard so you can imagine the frustration of trying to get these abilities, especially those that aren't offered in the level and you have to backtrack and try to get them. As for the story, Dark Matter returns yet again and invades Ripple Star, a planet populated by fairies. The fairy Ribbon flees with a sacred crystal, but Dark Matter shatters it and spreads it across the galaxy. Ribbon lands on Pop Star and meets Kirby, who agrees to help retrieve the shards and defeat Dark Matter. Along the way, they enlist the help of artist Adeleine, King Dedede, and King Dedede's minion Waddle Dee. I'm glad I got to try this game out after so many years and that the Nintendo 64 got a decent Kirby title in its library.

To see the entire game, go here or below:

Click to view

The Wikipedia article for Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is here.



There is no website for Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition but the Wikipedia article is here.

Next Game: Ys Book I & II (Wii Virtual Console - TG-16 CD)

Currently playing: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (3DS Virtual Console - GBC)