Kirby was never Nintendo’s main mascot, but he easily could have been. Heck, he was basically the poster child for the Game Boy and all other Nintendo handhelds for that matter. As far as quality and consistency are concerned he’s up there with the likes of Mario. After having several successful releases on the Game Boy, and one on the Super Nintendo it seemed clear where Kirby would go next. The newly released Nintendo 64, right? Wrong. HAL Laboratories instead released Kirby’s Dream Land 3 on the SNES despite Nintendo having a new console on the market. It seems like an odd move, right? Well, whatever. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t even know there was a Kirby’s Dream Land 3 until a few years ago. Today we’re taking a look at it. Does Dream Land 3 live up to the franchise’s lineage? Let’s dig in.
The setting here is Planet Popstar. Kirby and his friend Gooey are fishing one day when dark clouds cover the skies and the rings around this celestial body are destroyed. Kirby sets out to save the day. It’s pretty typical as far as Kirby plot goes, and honestly I don’t really care about it. What is interesting however is the fact that this is the first game in the franchise to feature multiple endings. There’s the first bad one, and another where you get a hidden boss fight. It’s the reward for collecting all of the stars (there’s one hidden in each stage). Personally I couldn’t really be bothered to do so (they’re actually concealed pretty well).
This game returns to the formula that was established in Kirby’s Dream Land 2. It’s interesting that the developers took this route considering Super Star had released on console just a few years earlier, and is still widely regarded as the best game in the series. Regardless this is a 2D platformer where you play as the lovable pink fluff ball. Kirby’s main ability is that he can suck up foes and eat them. Consuming specific foes grants Kirby their primary attack. Take too much damage and you lose this, but you can also toss it aside by pressing the select button. This is useful because he can only have one power at a time. Sometimes you’ll want to discard one skill for another.
So what kind of powers can Kirby gain from chowing down, you may ask? There are nine in all (with one being used just once). This spread includes the ability to throw boomerangs, turn into a burning ball, freeze enemies with his breath, sweep dust at foes, whack them with an umbrella, and more. As far as I can tell there’s nothing really new here in this regard. I was disappointed the sword didn’t return here. Some of these are a little useless while others are all around helpful. The design offers context to each special skill and sometimes you’ll need them to access locked away areas in stages. Thankfully you can ignore that should you have something you really want to hold on to.
Even without these powers Kirby isn’t exactly defenseless. The little guy has a massive five block life bar with most attacks taking away a half point. As I mentioned earlier he can eat enemies, but also has the ability to spit them out which damages other baddies. He can also slide, and by sucking in air and flapping his arms can float in the air. Even just using the little guy’s core abilities you’ll find he’s quite able. Even moreso than most platformer mascots. There’s a lot of variety in Kirby’s abilities which is the major strength of Dream Land 3.
The best part of the Dream Land sub-series is the animal helpers that were introduced in part 2. Not only do they return here, but the mechanic has been greatly expanded on as well. You’ll occasionally come across them in one of the various rooms in each level. Often times you’ll be given a choice of which one to use with two to three being present. Rick the hamster, Kine the fish, and Coo the owl all return from the past game. Part 3 introduces three new ones as well. The new animal pals are Nago the cat, Chuchu the octopus, and Pitch the bird. When you encounter one of these guys you can ride them by pressing the X button. Repeating this input will cause Kirby to dismount so you can always switch when the option presents itself.
These guys are significant for a few reasons. First of all they all have their own abilities. Rick can wall jump and climb walls, Kine swims effortlessly in water, and Coo easily flies and stays in constant flight. Nago can stomp foes and is armed with a triple jump, and Chuchu can flutter to the ground and suck up foes. The most unique is Pitch. He can hover in the air about as well as Kirby, but when using a monster ability he disconnects with the pink guy allowing for more diverse attacks. While disconnected Kirby can use his normal abilities until Pitch returns.
Speaking of that the animal helpers also gain new skills based on the power Kirby has absorbed. These are often very different in effect from the base ability. Essentially what this means is that the number of potential enemy skills you can absorb is multiplied by six. That’s an absolutely crazy amount of special abilities for this type of game, and is easily the best part of the animal helper mechanic. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different combinations to find which suited each gameplay scenario the best. While Nago was my favorite animal helper to use I can confidently say that none of them are bad. There are however some areas in specific stages where certain animal helpers cannot progress just due to how the level is set up. You’re never stuck though because you can always dismount and continue on as just Kirby.
Unfortunately the game does have some problems. The first and most major of these is how slow paced the game is. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 sometimes feels like a slog to play. Most of the time the stages are barren with few enemies or obstacles. There’s a lot of running through empty space. Wait, scratch that. There’s a lot of ‘walking’ through empty space. You see, Kirby is slow. Like, really slow. He moves at a snails pace. Even when running he’s moving about as fast as a normal platformer character does when they’re walking. While a little boring it also makes the gameplay feel a bit clumsy. The game is fun and well designed, but this is a glaring flaw. I’m not sure how the developers didn’t notice this.
The next issue is that Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is too easy. This is a common problem across the franchise, and while the developers did better here it’s still a cakewalk. Kirby has too big of a life bar, and enemy placement/patterns aren’t exactly ever daunting. Sure, the bosses put up a decent fight but the rest of the game was clearly designed with young children in mind. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is also extremely short. I was able to complete it on my first time through in just a few hours. For a game that was released as a full priced cartridge I cannot fathom the disappointment of this. While it does have some replay value thanks to the secret ending and hidden stars I couldn’t be bothered to find them all. The only hard part in this entire package is locating these secret rooms.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is simply one of the most beautiful SNES games of all time. It should be considering it released in 1997! HAL went with a really interesting look here that’s unlike anything else in the series. It’s all sprite based, but everything is made to look like it was colored with crayon. The end result is remarkable to say the least. The game also has a ton of dithering effects that almost look like something you’d expect on a 32-bit console. Pair all this with the abundance of really well done parallax scrolling and you have one pretty game. The soundtrack is also quite good. The franchise generally recycles all of its music but that’s not the case here. It all fits the typical Kirby style, but from an audio standpoint it’s amazing.
