Kirby Blitz: Kirby’s Dream Land 2 (Game Boy)
After gaining his ability to swallow and steal the power of his enemies in Kirby’s Adventure, the little puffball went back to the Game Boy for his next adventure, one that quite appropriately combined the elements of his two previous titles. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 takes the copy powers of Adventure and mixes them together with the short and simple platforming level designs of the original Kirby’s Dream Land, but it makes sure to add a dash of originality to the affair as well with the introduction of Kirby’s Animal Friends.
By inhaling his enemies, Kirby is able to get a small selection of abilities this go round, those being Burning, Cutter, Ice, Needle, Parasol, Spark, and Stone. This is a much smaller batch than what Adventure gave us, but they do at least have pretty distinct identities and serve their purpose of enhancing how you attack enemies. Cutter involves Kirby throwing a damaging boomerang, Stone allows him to slam down on foes as a heavy rock, Parasol gives him an umbrella he can smack enemies with or drift around in the air with… perhaps the only two that don’t feel all that different from each other are Spark and Needle, which both involve Kirby hunkering down to either surround himself with spikes or electricity to do his damage. Save for Cutter, Kirby will often have to get in close to do damage with these attacks, offsetting some of the game’s low difficulty with the need to rush in an endanger yourself to hurt your opposition. You can always go for the safer but less interesting method of sucking in enemies and objects and spitting them back out at an enemy to hurt that one, but it is slower. Bosses take more damage from that method, but keeping a power around can make fights faster and more dynamic than the waiting game of dodging until something you can suck in appears.
The reduced amount of copy powers doesn’t mean the game has less variety than Kirby’s Adventure though, as when Kirby finds one of three animals he can ride, the powers are twisted in new and interesting ways. By beating all the enemies in a room with a wiggling sack, it will pop open to reveal either Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, or Kine the Fish. Each one of these three plays differently even without powers, Coo able to fly around with ease and push against strong air currents, Kine a bit floppy on land but strong and swift in the water, and Rick… well he’s a bit faster than Kirby and doesn’t slip on ice, but unlike Kirby he can’t inflate and fly around which usually would let the pink puffball avoid the traction troubles. All of them earn their use though when you happen to have a power while riding them. All seven of the powers can be used in tandem with an animal to gain new properties, some examples including Kirby riding on top of a giant rolling Rick when he’s got Stone, Kine spitting fireballs when he’s got Burning, and Coo firing lightning strikes downwards when he has Spark. Essentially, we move from having just 7 normal powers to having a total of 28, although the usefulness of these can vary. Rick’s Needle ability makes his back hairs spike up, making it a bit awkward to use, and Coo’s Parasol will make him spin around wildly, possibly leaving him vulnerable to damage as he spins down. There are some that are incredibly useful though. Coo’s Cutter fires three powerful feather shots forward, and Kine’s Spark not only creates a lightbulb that illuminates dark areas and secrets, but can be used both as a short range bludgeon and a long range shot. Experimenting with the many combinations makes swapping out your Animal Friends interesting, but you do lose your powers the moment you take a single hit, only having a short period to retrieve it after it pops out of your body.
Levels in Kirby’s Dream Land 2 offer plenty of chances to suck in enemies for powers, but the Animal Friends are a bit rarer, meaning you’ll have to be a bit careful if you want to hold onto them for a while. Oddly enough, Animal Friends have their own health bars, so the moment you pop into one, you have a bit of protection from death that can make things a lot less threatening. After the Animal Friend does die, you still have Kirby to fight with, unless you died to something like a fall down a pit. In general though, this does mean the stages are pretty easy, especially if you get one of the more powerful mixes of animal and ability, and since the stages are relatively short, they don’t really get the chance to leave much of an impression, especially since the Game Boy screen means the environments can’t be too detailed or expansive. The game does begin the series’s trend to add an extra layer for more experienced players, with novice players able to beat the adventure easily enough but the final boss only being open to those who complete the secondary objective, in this case that being collecting the Rainbow Drops.
The story goes that an evil force known as Dark Matter has possessed Kirby’s old enemy King Dedede and destroyed the Rainbow Bridges that connect the Rainbow Islands. Before Dark Matter can do more damage, Kirby sets out to stop him, but the only way to really complete this goal is to find the Rainbow Drops. Each of the seven islands has a Rainbow Drop hidden in one of its levels, the player usually finding them in rooms blocked off by special blocks that require a power to break. It’s not always easy to read what power will break these blocks since some don’t directly relate to the required power, a few just having symbols or weird shapes rather than obvious cues, but a bit of experimenting will allow you to figure out which block is broken by which power. The first few islands are just about getting the right power to that hidden room, but late in the game it does get a bit more complex but not really in an interesting way. These late game drops are hidden behind chains of needing to have the right animal or power at the right moment and then swapping out for the next right animal or power, making them a bit convoluted to figure out naturally. There aren’t enough Rainbow Drops for this to get too over the top, but it does feel like better telegraphing of what you need before finding the room or more interesting puzzles could have improved this small quest.
Outside the Rainbow Drop quest, the other major form of resistance you’ll face are the minibosses and bosses, although the right animal and ability combination can make these barely worth worrying about. Of course, a bad combination can make them tougher, but they always offer the option to go with no power suck-and-spit tactics. With extra lives easy to earn through end of the level bonus games and the stars scattered throughout levels you can gather up for even more lives, even if the boss can carve through your animal friend’s health bar and yours, you don’t have to worry about being able to jump back in to restart the battle. After beating a boss you can play a star-catching minigame for a different bit of fun, but most of the game is about moving through the the simply designed levels. The small screen size usually means you can’t just inflate to fly through them or flutter about with Coo, so you do have to face the enemies in your path most of the time. Still, most enemies are slow and only lightly aggressive, so Kirby’s Dream Land 2 can still be a mellow and accessible platforming experience.
THE VERDICT: In many ways, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is what the original Dream Land outing should have been. Kirby’s copy powers in this game are concise and useful and the Animal Friends enhance their usefulness and variety even if they do get a bit too powerful at times. The game is accessible and easy so that those drawn in by its cute visuals aren’t turned away, but more experienced players can go for the Rainbow Drop quest for a bit more difficulty even though it’s not too strong in design. Even though levels go by too quickly to leave an impression, the whole of the experience is breezy and fun due to the power variety and how it pushes the player to take on the level design and boss battles in different ways.
And so, I give Kirby’s Dream Land 2 for Game Boy…
A GOOD rating. The DNA from Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby’s Dream Land mix together well enough here, but shortening and simplifying stages means that it can’t quite come out better than the both of them. It’s definitely an improvement over the first Dream Land, with the power and animal mixtures a joy to experiment with, but they’re a bit too useful at times and the game doesn’t have the strength to push back hard enough against them. The Rainbow Drop quest is a step in the right direction for longevity and challenge even if it’s not implemented as well as it could be, and that’s perhaps the biggest thing holding this game back from greatness. It’s got plenty of great ideas, they just aren’t implemented in a way the complements the totality of the game. You still end up with a game that is quick and fun, but it’s potential wasn’t fully realized, partially because it put itself back on the Game Boy where it had to restrict itself a little due to technical concerns.
Kirby’s Dream Land 2 should have been Kirby’s Dream Land 1. Kirby has his power to absorb enemy powers, the level design is improved and its a meatier experience than the original with a more developed identity. Still, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is still finding its footing in how to integrate new ideas and design around them, making it feel like an early title in a still evolving series.