It’s never a good signal when a short game, and I’m talking like FOUR HOURS short, feels overly long. Kirby 3 is a fun and often clever game, particularly when it’s showing you new abilities or new ways to use them with your animal pals, but just never differentiates from the rest of the series in a way that feels exciting, and if you’ve played these games recently it really starts to feel redundant. It is the best looking game in the series up until this point, and it is in my mind better than the almost unplayably slowness of the 64 Kirby, but just doesn’t cut it.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 is a game I wish I could love more, but unfortunately, while it's not bad or anything, it doesn't live up to the expectations I had for it. I was hoping this would be my favourite of the three Dream Land games, but in all honesty, I think 2 was the one that gave me the best time. I didn't 100% either 2 or 3 but I found that you get more out of trying to 100% this game rather than actually just going through the levels, since the true final boss is behind it and every level has a side quest to do to unlock it. Now I wouldn't have an issue with this, if side quests were obscure in objective for most and the game didn't feel awkward to play. I found that the movement just felt off, most likely since it feels a lot slower than every other Kirby game I've played so far. The Animal Friends also felt like a downgrade this time around, with a lot of them being a lot slower or having very close range attacks with the Copy Abilities. The old ones were fine, but the new ones, specifically ChuChu I didn't really like, though I do really like Nago and Coo felt slower this time around. I mainly stuck with Nago + Fire but I still felt like a lot of the combos killed your movement and just didn't feel as smooth to use as something like Sword in Kirby Super Star for instance. There's still some great things about this game, it has a lot of charm, mainly due to the art style and cute OST, and the final boss is pretty fun too. I played this on Nintendo Switch Online so there was the special mode that had a full save file, so I opted to do that over the side missions because I got tired of them after Level 2. The true final boss is pretty fun to fight and probably my favourite part of the game because it isn't plagued by any issues that I mentioned earlier like movement, but it's a hassle to get to for only four minutes of gameplay. I don't know, I wouldn't say this game is anywhere near bad but I would say I was a bit disappointed that this didn't live up to my expectations. Overall, the game has a lot of charm and personality, but it doesn't quite live up to the expectations I had for it.

This is a game I owned as a kid but never ended up beating. There are a bunch of missions to complete to get the real ending, and I could never figure out all of them to be able to actually beat it. I sat down with a wiki open on my computer and finally beat this game after so many years. I have Bone to thank for me finally getting off of my butt and completing this after I read his review of Dream Land 2 a week or so ago ^^;. It's not my favorite Kirby game on the SNES, but it does have a lot of nostalgia for me, so I'm really happy that I was finally able to conquer this mountain of my childhood (even if it ultimately wasn't that difficult ^^;). It took me around 4 hours to beat the game on my Switch's Super Famicom Online service.

The story is another fairly light Kirby affair as is so standard for their games. Kirby is chilling on Pop Star (or as it's called in Japanese: "Pupupu Land") when those weird, shadowy eyeball fellas land on it and start wreaking havoc again. Kirby needs to go to all five sections of Pop Star and complete the six levels in each and then fight a boss at the end. And, if they complete the special mission in each of the six levels in a world and then beats the boss there, they'll purify that area of the shadows. Purify all five worlds and you unlock a true final boss to fight to kick those shadowy jerks back into space. It's a simple, cute story that sets up the gameplay nicely, as is so often the case with Kirby.

The gameplay is very much Kirby and an evolution on what Dream Land 2 brought to the table. Like in Dream Land 2, there are a scaled back number of powers compared to just how many there are in Kirby's Adventure or Kirby Super Star Deluxe, but they're modified by the inclusion of Kirby's animal friends. Pair up with an animal friend and the power you have gets turned into something totally new that also happens to have that power. It's a neat gimmick that is also pretty clearly what led to the power combining mechanic that we'd see a couple years later in Kirby 64.

The main issue I found is that a lot of the animals just aren't that fun/quick to go around as, and a lot of their power combos suck. A fair few of the animals feel like power-downs as compared to how you usually get around (let alone compared to other animals), and several missions require the use of certain animals. Kirby themself controls alright, despite a bit of a heavier walk than I'm used to in Super Star, but a few of the animals are paiiiinfully slow and it feels like you're trudging through levels for no real benefit other than the novelty of the animal companion. Gooey, your co-op partner, is also a really cool idea, but Gooey (as far as I can tell) can't ride animals, which is a bit of a stinker (and Gooey is nowhere near as cool as the partner system in Super Star). It's certainly a change from the normal just-Kirby stuff, but it's got a flawed enough execution that it's not surprising to me that they were dropped from future Kirby games (though my personal favorites are Rick and Kine <3 ).

The level design and overall difficulty are quite good, and lend to a game that's not dead-easy but also isn't brutally hard. I actually did die at a few points, and the game hits a nice sweet spot between not really hard enough to make you feel like you're on edge, but also not easy enough that you just stop caring. There are a few parts that require the animals' respective unique platforming abilities to complete the mission in that stage, and those are usually really good fun (if above-average in their challenge), but there are only a few of them. The mission design on the whole varies a lot in quality from a good challenge to nearly unknowable nonsense (like the one in level 2 that had me stumped for literal decades), and while their overall construction is a big improvement on how they're done in Dream Land 2 (you can always find everything you'll need to complete a mission in that level, so you don't gotta go get animals/powers and bring them to a different level to complete that mission), but they're still a fairly flawed idea.

The presentation is very strong, as is normal for a Kirby game, but has some ups and downs. The music is overall very good, and I'll leave it at that. Kirby music is something HAL has always excelled at, and this game is no exception to that. The bigger sticking point for me is the graphics. Now, for a very late SFC game, the picture-book style of the game looks really cool. The way things look drawn with crayon or pencil gives the game a really unique style that I adore. The main thing I don't like about it is the fact that Kirby doesn't change depending on the power he has like with the hats they'd get in Super Star and such. I realize this is no doubt a compromise for needing to ride on all the animals, but it's still an aesthetic of those games that I love that I missed having here.

Verdict: Recommended. It's got some issues as far as Kirby games go, but it's still a really solid game. It's gotten to be quite the rare physical release, so it's pretty darn hard to recommend it that way, but if you already have Switch Online, I'd say there's no reason not to give this a go if you're in the mood to kill an afternoon with a fun platformer. There's certainly better Kirby to be found on the SNES, but this is definitely not a choice either.

it's fine, it's kinda on the same level as super star for me, it would seem the SNES wasn't great for kirby games in my opinion... a step back from kirby's adventure for sure.

the levels weren't as fun, the overall pacing of the game was much, much slower. and i feel like unless you really epxlored every nook and cranny to try and help out all the little dudes of each level, there isn't much point? idk, it just felt like there was no incentive to me. the little animal buddy dudes changing up your abilities was super cool however, i liked that aspect a lot.

maybe if the game's level were better this would've been more fun to play through but i felt done with the game after the 2nd world personally.

music and visuals were as fun and bouncy as always for a kirby entry. the visuals were especially unique for a SNES title, sorta reminiscent of yoshi's island.

overall not a terrible package, just not terribly fun to me. would recommend to more hardcore kirby fans rather than... well, me. someone who isn't particularly into kirby.

i was actually a little worried going into this game cuz i thought it was just gonna be more dream land 2, and in a way it is, but (pardon my poor explanation) that's not really a bad thing? specifically, i was worried about 100% with the heart stars in EVERY SINGLE LEVEL being required. thankfully, the amount of pain to collect the macguffins has been significantly reduced compared to DL2. every level, with the exception of one, (6-5 in case you were curious) gives you the tools to collect the heart star within the stage itself. this might sound like the lowest of low bars, but this is an absolute godsend compared to DL2. i genuinely wake up in a cold sweat sometimes remembering the cloudy park crystal drop. anyways yeah the game is pretty good and you should play it. if you liked DL2 this should be a no-brainer

Nunca pensei que daria nota 2 pra um Kirby

É.. assim, eu gostei do DL 1 e do Adventure mas o Dream land 2 e 3 realmente foram minhas maiores decepções, até cheguei a achar que o 3 melhoraria um pouco mas pra mim só piorou, o Kirby ficou muito lento e o jogo cheio de puzzle e quests chatas de se fazer pra saber o final verdadeiro (que obviamente, não fiz), as fases dele achei legal e sua trilha sonora também me encantou, mas isso não foi o suficiente pra fazer eu curtir o jogo por inteiro e me divertir pra caramba com ele

Muita gente elogia o Dream Land 3 e alguns consideram ele como masterpiece e tudo, mas pra mim ele é totalmente o contrário e espero nunca mais encostar nesse jogo novamente

This is literally one of the most charming games I have ever played, it's peak silliness. The aesthetic is also absolutely lovely and makes this one of the most gorgeous games on the snes. Unfortunately, I feel that it's charm kind of carries the actual gameplay, and many of the heart stars feel a little confusing, making me have to consult walkthroughs more times than I'd like to admit. However, this game still makes me really happy and I think you should play it if you like silly and cute games, although keep in mind that you probably won't get anywhere near as much out of this game without going for 100%

What happened?
I thought the "kirby is for babies" was a joke but this game makes me question it. The level design is non existent with this one, they are stale and boring with nothing going on on them.
The controls are so stiff, it feels like I'm moving a rock during the levels. And the copy abilities are insultyingly underwhelming, they try to make up for them with the buddy mechanic, but they are also like the abilities. I wish the animals where in a better game.
I really don't like the artstyle that much but it's managable. The music is good but that's a given for kirby games.
This game is fine, but it's not worth your time at all.

Low 3/10

This game is....boring.

Level design is uninspired. The abilities are basic. And there's.....a snoozy vibe idk how to explain it.

Its technically pretty SNES standards. But Superstar had so much more energy I just can't bother.

Its nothing offensive by any means but I'm sure there's better uses of your time

Not a good game.
The worst thing about this game is the controls. Kirby and his animal friends control extremely clunky and slow. Oftentimes when I stopped pressing a direction, Kirby kept going for a short while which is annoying. Moving a very short distance is also hard to do because of this. The momentum in this game is just weird and hard to get used to. Like, losing all momentum when spitting after hovering is annoying and so is all the sand that makes you jump very low and slows you down. The camera is pretty annoying too. It just does not catch up to Kirby sometimes, especially when turning around.

The powers aren’t great either. There’s only eight copy abilities but combined with all the animal friends the number of unique attacks is like 56. However, the grand majority of them are either bad and/or extremely niche. As a result, most power/animal combinations aren’t a lot of fun to use. Aesthetically, they do have a lot of charm though with a lot of silly attacks like Coo turning into a feather duster or Chuchu turning into a hot air balloon. My favorite of the animal partners is probably the little green bird (Pitch). He had some cool attacks. Rick is a cool guy too. Overall, the animal partners are adorable and have a lot of charm.

I wasn’t a big fan of the stages either. The stages were bland and uninspired in my opinion. It also didn’t help that I didn’t really like the overall aesthetic of this game. While I understood what they were going for with the crayon drawing art style, I found it looked washed out.
I didn’t care for the Heart Stars either. Many of them were just some dumb minigames, while others were: “I hope you brought the correct power bro”. Needless to say, I did not get all of the Heart Stars and as a result I didn’t beat the true final boss. I was just so done with this game after beating Dedede.

The music is pretty catchy though.

I played it. I loved it.

Kirby games aren't really the kinds of games that you overanalyze and meticulously pick apart. Not because there isn't anything of substance, or that they are perfect, but because the focus of the games tends to veer away from mechanical depth, and into aesthetics.

In that regard, KDL3 is easily the game that sticks out the most on the entire SNES. The visuals are genuinely impressive by today's standards, not necessarily in fidelity, but in art direction. Kirby always has striking character designs, but they are amplified here by the pseudo-hand drawn art mimicked by the pixel art. As someone who literally just played KDL3 for the first time, I don't have to consider the context of when the game was made when determining a lot of the aesthetics, which is something I can't say for many titles on the SNES. Genuinely great stuff here, which really amplifies the whole vibe of the game.

I've tried playing other Kirby games, but have only really enjoyed my time with this and Kirby 64. I hope that I can like the other games at some point too, but I think I can directly credit my disinterest in the other games to their lack of focus. Kirby doesn't really compete with other games in the same genre when it comes to raw gameplay, so the focus shouldn’t be on the gameplay, at least in my opinion.

This isn’t to say that Kirby has bad gameplay, but it's far from the most interesting thing the games offer, mostly due to Kirby being a franchise aimed for less experienced players. The other titles I’ve played seem to get right into the action and neglect building atmosphere. You can see the shift in focus directly in the power-ups as well, which have far more moves in the other games. Kirby controls tighter, the general speed of gameplay is increased, the list goes on and on of other small changes. In other 2D platformers, I would welcome those changes, but from what I’ve played of these other titles, they don’t have as engaging second to second gameplay, or as varied level design. Once again, Kirby is aimed at kids, so it makes sense that they can’t ramp up the difficulty, but this is precisely why I’ve found myself falling head over heels for KDL3 and K64.

Genuinely great games that don’t overstay their welcome, have enough interesting ideas to fill out the whole run time, and leave a lasting impression on me are few and far between. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is able to achieve this with a much shorter run time, the unique gameplay gimmick inherent to all Kirby games (his copy ability), and the incredible atmosphere the game builds. I’m glad KDL3 turned out so great, and I look forward to playing the third and final game directed by Shinichi Shimomura in the future.