Game:

Kirby's Dream Land (1992)

Duration: 3:21

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Wait. Stop. This is too much. Why on Dream Land's green Greens in the name of all that is edible would I possibly choose THIS to round out the rotation I've been building to distract from Lumines when not only do I already have Kirby's Avalanche going on, but my previous full-scale project to appear alongside it was Kirby Super Star?

...because I want to. I'm all fired up, and this is the one thing I feel I need to quell my insatiable hunger for inhaling enemies. (For now.)

This game holds a very big soft spot in times long past... unbelievable in that it was over twenty years ago by now... but I mentioned some time ago that the original brick of a green-screened Game Boy was my first ever personal gaming device... a stepping stone to console ownership years later, if you will. Kirby's Dream Land was the "first" game that was TRULY my own. (Tetris and the afore-covered Spot don't count!)

So, Kirby's Dream Land was "mine" and I devoured it with all the awe and whimsy of someone with an eye-opening epiphany that there existed such things. Thus I was led down the path of darkness and I never looked back from then on. And it was marvelous.

A far less auspicious "honor" afforded Kirby's Dream Land is that it was also my... most stolen game ever. That is, I used to own this game in its original cartridge form... TWICE, because I bought a used copy from a marvelous store called a "FunCoLand" before it was assimilated into the soulless machine that would become known to us today as GameStop.

The first copy disappeared when I was visiting with some cousins, and for reasons unknown, but still strongly suspected even now by my parents... it just never materialized before our visit was over and I had to return home, crestfallen. The second copy met a similar fate, but at the time I happened to have a friend whose only major failing was that he was a kleptomaniac... so I generally suggested that we not go to my house to play and made sure I didn't leave anything lying around when I wasn't able to keep both eyes on him. Perhaps in a sense of guilt, he didn't seem to particularly mind that I borrowed his copy of Gargoyle's Quest for a couple of years, although sadly I didn't have the conscience to "borrow" it indefinitely as a return gesture.

Although this didn't stop him from forgetting a copy of the Star Wars Game Boy game at my house before finally moving away across several state lines... the saddest part there is that Gargoyle's Quest is by far the better game and this particular Star Wars would later be reborn as the most excellent Super Star Wars with all the less engaging elements winnowed out. But that is a tale for an entirely different day. This is Kirby time!

Anyway, the creation of Kirby's Dream Collection was great for me, because I was still reeling as a result of the gaping Kirby-shaped hole torn from my heart and I'd never had the opportunity to own or even play Kirby's Dream Land 2. And, of course, excess copies of games that I absolutely love without battery-backed memories is never a bad thing.

This game is essentially the less-compressed (but still ultimately Game Boy-sized) version of what would be referred to from Kirby Super Star onwards as "Spring Breeze"... the major differences being that Kirby cannot copy abilities and he is entirely white; the box art had him white as a sheet, so his pink coloration had not been devised yet! He also couldn't run (but walked pretty fast, I must say) or slide, but the rest of his innate capabilities were introduced here.

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Stage 1: Green Greens

This game has... not quite the same innate teach-by-design elements as the legendary 1-1 of Super Mario Bros., but it comes pretty close. The only things that I, being completely unversed in how the game's functions might work, were the facts that you could fly by holding up and that stronger enemies would require projectiles inhaled and sent back at them in order to inflict damage.

Luckily, there's only so many things to try before you actually press up when you reach that first inexplicable towering rectangle of grass, so the flying came naturally after that... the inhalation and exhalation of enemies and projectiles as something that could damage things that air pellets could not... not so much.

Being a strange child, I actually cared to read the manual... because... well, I liked to read things, particularly those with small amounts of words to a page and pictures. The manual even had a special bubble pointing out that not all enemies could be damaged by air pellets, so I wasn't beset with seemingly insurmountable challenges for long.

The rest is natural game progression at work, and I'm sure anyone tuning in has likely seen at least one rendition of this stage before. Enjoy!

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I have a license to use Nintendo’s content in this video through the Nintendo Creators Program. This video is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, but any advertising revenue from this video will be shared with Nintendo.

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