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Kirby's DreamLand 3
Super Nintendo (SNES)
Kirby and Kancer
4/5 stars
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” is the first numbered, ‘main’ game in the ‘Kirby’ franchise to appear on a console instead of a handheld… it is also the LAST numbered, ‘main’ game in the ‘Kirby’ franchise. Released at the end of the SNES’ lifespan, “Kirby’s Dream Land 3” was a fairly difficult game to find on store shelves, at least in my experience. Thankfully, Nintendo deemed the entire series worthy of a nice compilation release in “Kirby’s Dream Collection” for the Wii, giving those of us who were never able to track down an original cartridge of the game an opportunity to finally play it.
Presentation
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” strays from the traditional presentation of the ‘Kirby’ franchise by adopting a hand-drawn-in-crayon art style (probably in emulation of the ‘Yoshi’s Island’ games that appeared on the SNES around the same timeframe). This art style, while a departure from the series’ normal style, looks really good and is complementary to the overall explosion of cuteness that is Kirby. The animations are well-done, and both characters and environments look incredibly nice.
The soundtrack is features several remixes, plus new music that, at this point in time, has already become cemented in the foundation of ‘Kirby’ lore (thanks to its appearance in the ‘Smash Bros.’ games).
Story
The title of this review refers to the fact that Kirby has a couple of disturbing new friends in “Kirby’s Dream Land 3” that never appear in any other game in the franchise. One, a sidekick named Gooey, is essentially a brain-damaged, blue tumor that lives in Kirby’s stomach. The other is a pink, female brain tumor that can crawl onto Kirby’s head. In addition to these two cancerous friends, Kirby also encounters his other friends from “Kirby’s Dream Land 2,” a hamster, owl, and fish, along with a new small, green bird friend and a surly-looking cat friend.
The story in this third Dream Land outing begins when Kirby and Gooey are out fishing. They see a strange, black comet with an eyeball in the middle hurtling toward their home planet, Pop Star. As the comet impacts, it spreads malignant tendrils all over the planet, infesting the minds of reformed villains from previous ‘Kirby’ games and causing them to return to their evil ways.
Only by traveling throughout the lands of Pop Star and instilling happy feelings in the populace can Kirby and his friends make their way to the comet’s impact site to clear away the infestation once and for all.
Gameplay
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” is a typical ‘Kirby’ game. The titular hero, a pink blob, can inhale enemies, swallow them (sometimes absorbing a special power) or regurgitate them, and fly by inhaling puffs of air. The game takes place in traditional 2D sidescrolling fashion, with Kirby typically moving from left to right as he makes his way through stages.
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” is somewhat disappointing in the small number of abilities Kirby can absorb from swallowed enemies. After games such as “Kirby’s Adventure” and “Kirby Super Star,” the bar was set pretty high, and this game doesn’t meet it. In lieu of a smorgasbord of absorbable powers, “Kirby’s Dream Land 3” instead places an enormous focus on Kirby’s animal (and tumor) friends, each of whom changes the way Kirby’s absorbed powers work in different ways. Unfortunately, most of Kirby’s friends are utterly worthless and frequently make the stages more difficult instead of easier (though, this being a ‘Kirby’ game, ‘more difficult’ still means ‘not challenging in any way’). I found that Pitch, the little green bird, is the best sidekick for Kirby, as he doesn’t hinder Kirby’s flying abilities in any way and adapts Kirby’s absorbed powers into useful projectile effects.
The biggest change to the gameplay from previous (and subsequent) ‘Kirby’ games is that Kirby must make some character happy in each stage in the game’s 5 worlds. Each happy character gives Kirby a heart, and defeating a world boss in a world in which everyone is happy provides Kirby with another heart. Collecting all of the hearts in the game is necessary to unlock the battle with the final boss at the comet’s core. The objectives for making characters happy vary wildly, ranging from not stomping on any flowers in a stage, to completing the stage with a specific sidekick, to finding a collectable item/person within the stage.
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” also supports 2-player simultaneous co-op, allowing Kirby to regurgitate Gooey, who can then be controlled by a second player or act as a moronic AI companion. Gooey can’t absorb any powers, and summoning him takes a chunk off Kirby’s life meter, but Kirby can re-swallow him to get that chunk of life back.
Overall
“Kirby’s Dream Land 3” is a solid entry in the franchise. The small amount of powers for Kirby to absorb is offset by the large amount of sidekicks for Kirby to choose from. The stage design and happiness gimmick add plenty of freshness to keep this game from feeling like a retread of “Kirby’s Dream Land” and “Kirby’s Dream Land 2.”
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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