Kirby’s Dream Collection Review: Worth the Wait

For over twenty years, gamers have been enchanted by Kirby, While he’s not as big a character as Mario, he does have a loyal fanbase. Hence the reason why Nintendo’s loveable pink puffball has his own compilation collection, “Kirby’s Dream Collection” for the Wii. Hoping to bring in new fans and delight old ones, this collection brings back a myriad of old memories and inspires new ones for younger gamers who never experienced Kirby’s adventures the first time.

“Kirby’s Dream Collection” features six classic Kirby games: “Kirby’s Dream Land”, “Kirby’s Adventure”, “Kirby’s Dream Land 2”, “Kirby Super Star”, Kirby’s Dream Land 3” and “Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.” All six games have been preserved with their original graphics and content so there’s nothing new in each game.

As for the games themselves, “Kirby’s Dream Land” is a nice introduction to the series despite missing some of Kirby’s copy abilities featured in later games. The fact that the game can be beaten within an hour might put off some gamers.

“Kirby’s Adventure” is when the games start to get the classic Kirby feel with his copy ability, bonus stages and a much longer length. These things themselves make this a vast improvement over the first game.

“Kirby’s Dream Land 2 & 3” introduces helpers into the foray. These helpers offer Kirby some extra help in certain places where he can’t do it himself, like Kine the fish who can swim in places with very strong currents. These sidekicks can be helpful at most times although at times they are unnecessary. Also, “Kirby’s Dream Land 3” makes a graphical style change that looks like a children’s book. It does not look all that hot with Kirby’s usual style.

“Kirby Super Star” is a series of mini games with one of them being a speedrun of the first game with helpers, featuring Super NES graphics and completely revamped levels. It’s also much easier. It’s a worthwhile addition to the collection due to how addictive these mini games are. Beating King Dedede in a race is always fun as well.

“Kiby 64” on the other hand is the weakest in the collection. Nintendo tried to go a different route with Kirby by making a platform game where you need to collect different shards from a crystal in each level. It’s boring, the levels aren’t as inventive as the previous Kirby games and the fairy girl is a tad overkill- even for a Kirby game.

Nintendo has kindly put in new challenge stages and history of Kirby on the disk. The challenge stages are similar to those in “Kirby Super Star” and are nice because who doesn’t want some extra challenge stages? The “Kirby History” is a timeline showcasing “Kirby’s Dream Land” to now with some little bits of history thrown in. These show gameplay footage and box art of every Kirby game which makes this a great bonus for Kirby fans or for those interested in gaming history.

“Kirby’s Dream Collection” is a solid collection of some of Kirby’s best games to date despite the inclusion of “Kirby 64.” If you’ve never played a Kirby game or are a long time fan this collection is worth the price.