Kirby's Dream Land 2 Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 3/8/2025)

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Kirby's Dream Land 2

Developer: HAL Laboratory

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: Gameboy

Release Date: March 21, 1995

It’s puzzling how Kirby’s Dream Land received two sequels after the release of Kirby’s Adventure. Actually, my statement should probably read off as feeling perplexed as to why Nintendo bothered producing another Kirby title on the muted, minimal original Gameboy. The console colors of the NES allowed Kirby and his cosmic wonderland to flourish with pixelated radiance. Kirby’s candy-coated aesthetic is an integral asset to the general appeal of his series, for it sure isn’t its challenge and level design driving the franchise’s continued relevance in Nintendo’s catalog of IPs. When we’ve been introduced to Dream Land through hardware that could feasibly render it in all its vivid glory, what makes them think anyone would want to return to the blank minimalism of its introduction? Are the Dream Land games now running concurrent to Kirby’s Adventure as the inferior handheld counterparts like the “Land” series of Mario titles on the original Gameboy? This indeed appears to be the case. Although it might seem disenfranchising that there are more Kirby games on the original Gameboy than the grand total of one on the NES, the handheld Dream Land titles could still incorporate fresh and interesting features and ideas into the Kirby foundation if Super Mario Land serves as an example. Instead of proving and plodding along the first Dream Land’s obsolescence, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 changes up the Kirby formula to help it stand apart from Kirby’s Adventure, but to questionable degrees of quality.


Still, HAL Laboratory transferred plenty of properties from Kirby’s Adventure into the second Dream Land titles as pronounced quality-of-life changes that could never be reversed. One reason why the first Dream Land felt like a morsel of a game was that there were only five main levels that passed by the player quicker than a shooting star. Adventure elongated the Kirby experience by taking a note from Mario and dividing each thematic world into a handful of sub-levels that all culminate into fighting a boss. Kirby will travel around the cosmos on his warp star in a stage select menu and soar down to that world’s hub where a selection of doors will lead Kirby through the various levels in their sequential order. Naturally, this extends the total runtime of the second Dream Land game more than quadruple the length of its predecessor, so that unsatiated hunger I left with the first Dream Land is sufficiently quenched here in its sequel. Still, while I feel that criticizing each level’s visuals is belaboring the point that the Gameboy’s visuals are compressed as hell, I can still prod at the uninspired names of these worlds. “Grass Land”, “Big Forest”, and “Iceberg”, guys? These names aren’t exactly evocative of a wondrous ethereal realm that exceeds the bounds of our reality, are they? Another Kirby attribute that debuted in Kirby’s Adventure whose absence in the first Dream Land arguably provides the most substantial reason for its antiquity is the ability to copy the physical properties of Dream Land’s denizens. Rest assured, Dream Land 2 has carried over Kirby’s greatest idiosyncrasy, so he’ll be blasting his frost breath, rolling around like a rock, and puffing himself up with spikes like an alert hedgehog (etc.) like always.


From what I’ve stated so far, Dream Land 2 does indeed sound like the handheld version of Kirby’s Adventure that compromises presentational performance for the sake of mobility. However, one unique attribute featured in Dream Land 2 sure to pique the interest of those unsatisfied by the inherent convenience of the Gameboy are Kirby’s animal buddies. Whenever Kirby faces off against a miniboss in a level, a sack dangling from the ceiling will fall upon its defeat and reveal one of three cuddly creatures with their distinctive traversal strengths. Hopping on the backside of Rick the Hamster is like a cuter version of Donkey Kong riding on Rambi from Donkey Kong Country. While Rick excels on the ground, Coo the Owl commands the air while Kine the Fish naturally swims underwater with the grace of…well, a fish. Besides their enhanced traversal capabilities per their respective physicalities, the coolest aspect of the animal buddies is how they repurpose Kirby’s copy abilities whenever he’s partnered with them. For example, the scattered spark that emits with the lightning ability is reconfigured as a beam with far greater of an attack radius while riding on Rick’s backside. Bringing an umbrella while flying around with Coo can allow the fluffy bird of prey to spin violently like a tornado, and the added heat of fire will cause Kine to spew projectile fireballs–as paradoxical as that sounds. If expanding Kirby’s copy abilities from Adventure comes in the shape of collaborating with these adorable creatures, then I welcome the change wholeheartedly.


No one can be so cold as to completely write off the adorable animal buddies as a welcome addition that gives Dream Land 2 an individual appeal compared to Kirby’s Adventure. Still, my time rescuing them from their crude confinements and using them on the field makes me wonder if they really enhance Kirby’s gameplay as intended. One shockingly subtle aspect of Kirby as a character that rarely resonates in the minds of the gaming community is how disturbingly powerful the wad of space gum is behind his inoffensive exterior. Sure, some of the powers Kirby can impersonate are stronger and or have a bigger attack range with the aid of the animal buddies, but the fact that their traversal aid only accounts for one particular terrain makes them feel sluggish and awkward in any other instance, ie. Kine and Coo on land and Rick with most obstacles. The animal buddies handicap Kirby’s movement equally as they enhance it, and Kirby already had an astronomical physical aptitude. Perhaps the animal buddies’ abilities would be better assets to the game if they were mandatory for certain progression points, but that would be incredibly obnoxious and unintuitive.


And suggesting these impediments was really just a segway into discussing the instances where the game does require the presence of a specific animal buddy to unlock a portion of the game’s content. The “rainbow drops” are the one collectible hidden in one obscured corner per world, and obtaining them is crucial in unlocking the game’s true final boss. Yes, this is the Kirby game that begins this kind of end game charade to the full completion route, and it’s arguably the most vexing to accomplish out of all Kirby titles that do this. The method of gaining these would-be colorful droplets are all incredibly circuitous and are likely never to be naturally found by the player without the auxiliary reference of a guide. The path to one particular rainbow drop involves a long swath of time using Kine on land. Must I elaborate further on why this process is a complete hassle? Upon attempting to conquer this arduous quest, I also found myself getting stuck in places with the animal buddies that wouldn’t have been a problem with Kirby on his lonesome. Normally, I’d commend a Kirby game for providing a challenge in its otherwise easygoing atmosphere, but the rainbow drop collecting process turns Dream Land into Nightmare Land (this sounded clever in my head). Just treat the black, ominous phantom expelled from King Dedede’s body upon his defeat as a cliffhanger for the following few Kirby games where the “dark matter” is a relevant plot point. The boss fight that engages afterward if the player successfully collects all of the rainbow drops isn’t all that thrilling anyway.


Alas, the unfortunate dynamic between a console Nintendo title and the handheld entry from the same series holds true with Kirby’s Adventure and the second Kirby’s Dream Land title. However, I can definitively say that Dream Land 2’s inferiority to Kirby’s Adventure isn’t simply due to its heavily restricted visuals. Once you play Dream Land 2 and see all of the properties that it borrowed from Kirby’s Adventure like its world progression and bosses and waters them down ever-so-slightly to the point where it's either noticeably worse or underwhelmingly identical. The animal buddies feature that Dream Land 2 implements to provide evidence of its own merits is fun initially, but is soon revealed to be bogged down by so many clashing moments in the level design even if the player isn’t compelled to go the distance with the rainbow drops. All the same, at least Kirby’s Dream Land 2 updates the Kirby formula to the content and length of a suitable Kirby experience far past the appetizer that was its Gameboy predecessor. Still, compared to Kirby’s Adventure that directly precedes it, know that buying Kirby on-the-go will short change the player nevertheless.