A Classic “Kirby” Video Trifecta!

Here’s the truth: the Kirby series is just one I never really got into.

Way back in 1992, though, I did get a copy of Kirby’s Dream Land for the original Game Boy when it was brand-new and, surprisingly, beat the game in one sitting of about 30 minutes. I recall really enjoying the game, but being disappointed at how it ended so quickly and so easily. I have to wonder if this is the reason that I never really did much else with the series?

Nonetheless, I plan to remedy this. I’ve been playing some of the games here recently, and this first video (above) is a live-stream of Kirby’s Dream Land where what was meant to be a very casual run ended up being a 20-minute (approximately!) no-death completion of the game!

After that, I graduated up to a game I had only maybe played for a few minutes one time in my life: Kirby’s Adventure. This 1993 sequel really ramped things up, taking the style and formula that worked great in the original greyscale game and bringing it to the NES. It took me a while to embrace the concept of swallowing enemies to gain their powers, but once I learned to do that more the depth of the game really hit me.

In this first half of the game, I tackle the first four worlds and bungle my way through the challenges. For me, this game has been tough, but it is a lot of fun when compared to the first title.

Things really heat up though in the second half of the game. Yogurt Yard, Orange Ocean, Rainbow Resort, and the Fountain of Dreams all end up being very challenging locations. It also was surprising to me to see that King Dedede wasn’t the true “bad guy” of the game, and I found the final battle against Nightmare to be very challenging and very interesting as well.

Definitely, Nightmare has this odd Dracula thing going on.

Anyway, so far, I’ve been having a lot of fun. Next up, I’ll take on Kirby’s Dream Land 2 to see where things go from here.

I hope you’re excited, because I sure am!

Jessica Brown

Retro Games and Technology Editor. She'll beat pretty much every Mega Man game without breaking a sweat.