In this game sleep ability is not useful!!!!!
Pensé que me iba a gustar más. El diseño de niveles es algo meh. Pero la estética y la música son memorables
Lovely little game that can feel a little too repetitive. Feels like the modern Kirby games took Dream Land 3 as inspiration for their core collectible loop without really understanding what made them enjoyable.
Gorgeous art and music. The guesswork behind some of the puzzles was mostly frustrating, and I found the action in this Kirby game to be a little repetitive to want to play beyond the first few worlds.
👌60%
I kept hearing that this is the best Dream Land game, but I think the opposite. This is easily my least favorite of the Dream Land games. It's okay, but it doesn't try anything new. What this game had going for it was that it was continuing the GameBoy franchise for SNES. The SNES obviously has technological advancements so there could've been more to this. For example, Super Mario World took the SNES to it's advantage and made the NES franchise fresh and even better than all of it's predecessors. Dream Land 3 on the other hand doesn't really do much. It is definitely better with graphics and sound, and the OST is beautiful, but the feel of the game is hardly different. The gameplay is the same, the worlds feel the same, and it just feels too generic. Dream Land 2 was the same with that, but at least I found it fun to play and it went by pretty quickly. This game felt a bit slow and the half hour it took for me to beat each world felt like an hour. I didn't get all of the heart stars so Dedede was the final boss for me, and I found that anticlimactic. I know he technically isn't the final boss, but for players who didn't get all of the heart stars, they could've tried to make a better ending. What the game succeeded with though was the charm this series has and it still has it's moments to be really fun. The animal friends are fun to use as well. The abilities are the same but they still are enjoyable. While this isn't my favorite Kirby game, it's still okay. I'd recommend it only to die hard Kirby fans.
I kept hearing that this is the best Dream Land game, but I think the opposite. This is easily my least favorite of the Dream Land games. It's okay, but it doesn't try anything new. What this game had going for it was that it was continuing the GameBoy franchise for SNES. The SNES obviously has technological advancements so there could've been more to this. For example, Super Mario World took the SNES to it's advantage and made the NES franchise fresh and even better than all of it's predecessors. Dream Land 3 on the other hand doesn't really do much. It is definitely better with graphics and sound, and the OST is beautiful, but the feel of the game is hardly different. The gameplay is the same, the worlds feel the same, and it just feels too generic. Dream Land 2 was the same with that, but at least I found it fun to play and it went by pretty quickly. This game felt a bit slow and the half hour it took for me to beat each world felt like an hour. I didn't get all of the heart stars so Dedede was the final boss for me, and I found that anticlimactic. I know he technically isn't the final boss, but for players who didn't get all of the heart stars, they could've tried to make a better ending. What the game succeeded with though was the charm this series has and it still has it's moments to be really fun. The animal friends are fun to use as well. The abilities are the same but they still are enjoyable. While this isn't my favorite Kirby game, it's still okay. I'd recommend it only to die hard Kirby fans.
kirby is kind of boring. cute as hell though.
This game is truly fantastic
I'm honestly kinda sad this game got forgotten. It makes sense, being an SNES title that released after the N64. However, I personally love it.
A big part of it for me is how stupidly cozy this game is for a Kirby game. The art direction has a childish charm to it while staying professional in look. The music is good, by no means amazing, but fits the mood to a T, and Kirby alongside the game's animal helpers and side characters are all very expressive, even if there's little shown of them (i.e. The heart star characters in each stage).
I never cared about the limited copy ability variety. I liked the animal helper system, and it brings both movement variety and ability variety. Going from 30 or so copy abilities in Superstar and most other games to just 8 never bothered me.
Heart stars are pretty cool. Some requests were better than others. I hated the memory games for example, but loved having to play through stages with a certain animal helper, especially for Sand Canyon 5 and Cloud Park 5, where those levels seemed designed for Chu Chu and Rick's respective abilities.
The levels were nowhere near as bland as I had heard people say they were. A lot of them have long, flat sections that you can float over, but the same goes for most Kirby games. Maybe it's the fact that level-specific gimmicks are really subdued, which I can completely understand. However, the level design outside of a couple levels was way better than I expected.
The bosses were actually really fun and put up quite the fight (outside of Whispy Woods of course). They weren't particularly hard, but they were engaging.
If I have one complaint about this game, it's that it moves slowly. You have a dash that goes pretty quickly, but I used it repeatedly and learned the hard way to not rush this game.
9/10 - A cozy and fun experience that made me smile. However, you move a bit too slow.
A big part of it for me is how stupidly cozy this game is for a Kirby game. The art direction has a childish charm to it while staying professional in look. The music is good, by no means amazing, but fits the mood to a T, and Kirby alongside the game's animal helpers and side characters are all very expressive, even if there's little shown of them (i.e. The heart star characters in each stage).
I never cared about the limited copy ability variety. I liked the animal helper system, and it brings both movement variety and ability variety. Going from 30 or so copy abilities in Superstar and most other games to just 8 never bothered me.
Heart stars are pretty cool. Some requests were better than others. I hated the memory games for example, but loved having to play through stages with a certain animal helper, especially for Sand Canyon 5 and Cloud Park 5, where those levels seemed designed for Chu Chu and Rick's respective abilities.
The levels were nowhere near as bland as I had heard people say they were. A lot of them have long, flat sections that you can float over, but the same goes for most Kirby games. Maybe it's the fact that level-specific gimmicks are really subdued, which I can completely understand. However, the level design outside of a couple levels was way better than I expected.
The bosses were actually really fun and put up quite the fight (outside of Whispy Woods of course). They weren't particularly hard, but they were engaging.
If I have one complaint about this game, it's that it moves slowly. You have a dash that goes pretty quickly, but I used it repeatedly and learned the hard way to not rush this game.
9/10 - A cozy and fun experience that made me smile. However, you move a bit too slow.
This is the world's cutest video game.
Not too much to say. The copy ability count is really light in this game but it makes it up with friends changing both movement and having their own copy abilities, some of them really cool and some of them really bad. Heart stars are my biggest complaint with this game, bonus objectives needed to be completed if you want the true end. Some of them are really obtuse, and a lot of them are victims of requiring particular friends/powers from X screens agos, so now you gotta restart the stage. There's cool stages in there, like stages that are easy if you're just going through it, but the stage requires you to end it with a particular friend that makes the stage easier. But not enough. As a random guy on backlogged who happens to like Kirby games, the highest authority in the world, you have my permission to google what you need for heartstones before. The level.
I really do stress that I think this game is one of the best looking games on the SNES. An art style full of soul that hasn't aged a day. It's even got some body horror to close it out.
Fun cute little game, heart stars are kinda annoying. It's on switch snes thing if you got that.
Also, did you know that the guy who directed this game, Shinchi Shimouri (also directed DL2/64/nightmare in dreamland), is a fucking mystery? Seriously, no one knows who he is. All we know about him is he directed the aforementioned games and worked on a few other games as a smaller role, and just vanished. It's kinda crazy.
Not too much to say. The copy ability count is really light in this game but it makes it up with friends changing both movement and having their own copy abilities, some of them really cool and some of them really bad. Heart stars are my biggest complaint with this game, bonus objectives needed to be completed if you want the true end. Some of them are really obtuse, and a lot of them are victims of requiring particular friends/powers from X screens agos, so now you gotta restart the stage. There's cool stages in there, like stages that are easy if you're just going through it, but the stage requires you to end it with a particular friend that makes the stage easier. But not enough. As a random guy on backlogged who happens to like Kirby games, the highest authority in the world, you have my permission to google what you need for heartstones before. The level.
I really do stress that I think this game is one of the best looking games on the SNES. An art style full of soul that hasn't aged a day. It's even got some body horror to close it out.
Fun cute little game, heart stars are kinda annoying. It's on switch snes thing if you got that.
Also, did you know that the guy who directed this game, Shinchi Shimouri (also directed DL2/64/nightmare in dreamland), is a fucking mystery? Seriously, no one knows who he is. All we know about him is he directed the aforementioned games and worked on a few other games as a smaller role, and just vanished. It's kinda crazy.
KIRBY MARATHON GAME #6
This game is highly underrated and one of the best Kirby games ever. Only complaint I have is a lack of abilities and it’s a tad slow at times. Co-op is fun, from the world I played with my boyfriend, and the rest of the game is great. I loved it
This game is highly underrated and one of the best Kirby games ever. Only complaint I have is a lack of abilities and it’s a tad slow at times. Co-op is fun, from the world I played with my boyfriend, and the rest of the game is great. I loved it
i hate this game
Did not have a good time with this like at all, even playing with a friend this game was just not fun. the controls feel like ass, the abilities are not fun even with the animal friends, and the design is just there I just really didn't have a good time with this game.
Not a fan of kirbys stretch marks on the pause screen but otherwise pretty great
Colorful, cute, and creative platformer. Solving each levels objective is the main fun of this game, as rushing through it doesn't provide too much fun. Also the game feels a bit simple even compared to some other Kirby games. Still had a relaxing time with this.
comparado com o superstar esse e bem sem graça mas da pra se divertir jogando ele,resumindo ele e um bom jogo mas dos antigos e o piorzinho
te haces bolita y pasas por arriba
Isso é jogo pra gente transuda
i played this for a bit and thought it sucked ass. i tried playing it again with my girlfriend and it still sucked ass
Kids deserve good art. I enjoy experiencing kids media even as an adult. Kirby 64 was my favorite game as a kid. In 2022, Kirby's Dream Land 3 is kind of insulting.
As an art project, Kirby's Dream Land 3 is technically impressive for its time. There's extreme dedication to its crayon aesthetic, with every environment and texture filled with craftsmanship, and special effects like layered semi-transparent parallaxing. However, this is one of many elements that suggest poor prioritization of how to make this project playable and fun as a video game for kids.
With such high uniformity in its aesthetic, there is a notable lack of contrast between characters, foreground, and background. All that detail to the environmental elements comes with a cost, which is fewer unique elements per level. The result is multiple nondescript, impossible to remember level layouts with textures repeated so often per section as to render the richness of their detail meaningless.
Make no mistake, separate from visuals, the level design is bad. But the level design is bad as a compromise to two fatal flaws at the heart of this game - the game's movement options and the animal friend system.
First, Kirby's movement is awful. Kirby has slow flight speed, running that can outspeed the camera's ability to track him, and zero conservation of momentum when doing any attack animation. Every attack is slow with a small hurtbox, and every copy ability only has one or two attacks.
The reason why the game has so few (8) copy abilities - Kirby can ride on any of 6 animal friends, which all have their own animations for Kirby using a copy ability while riding them. Together, this brings the total number of unique attacks closer to 50. Although interesting in concept, this presents multiple problems in execution.
For one, you can only ride one animal friend at a time, and only get the chance to change animal friends once, maybe twice per level. If you lose a life, your animal friend is gone. In practice, you will not see a majority of the game's moveset most of the time. Worse, each individual move has limited utility because of the effort spent creating the full set. So for a majority of the player experience, you will see a fraction of the total on repeat.
Even discounting moveset variety, the animal friend system is broken in that they change Kirby's movement systems, and they are all worse. (And remember, Kirby does not feel great in this game.) Without a friend, Kirby can fly infinitely, attack underwater, and run consistently. Some animal friends control worse in the air, or cannot jump infinitely, or otherwise direct his attacks in unintuitive, non-forward facing directions.
All this is a problem because the animal friend system is 100% completely optional, meaning no level is designed to take advantage of their unique mechanics without it also being possible to play as Kirby. It is also possible to take animal friends between levels, which means every level is not designed to be impossible to beat with any animal friend, either. In essence, there is no reason to use them, and their inclusion tanked the variety in level design to a series of bland hallways that try to discourage the player from playing as Kirby and just flying over everything.
So the whole gimmick of the game is balanced around making it less fun to play... as Kirby.
Bland, slow, devoid of personality, you'd think I'm being overly critical on an old game, until you remember it was the last SNES title to release in the United States. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island had already done a coloring book aesthetic with sharp contrast that made it easy to read character placement and level design. Fire up Kirby Super Star, and it feels like it was made yesterday - fast and fluid animations that are punchy and funny, and a helper / co-op play system lightyears ahead of whatever Gooey is in Dream Land 3. With levels that, while kind of eyebleeding in their relentless color, are bursting with personality and designed around Kirby's incredible moveset (multiple attacks for every copy ability!), encouraging experimentation to find secrets and shortcuts.
In my rating system, 2 stars represent an average, C grade game. I award Kirby's Dream Land 3 a single star as a D rank game. Its not unplayable, but there's no reason to do so after the release of Kirby 64. The director of both releases, Shinichi Shimomura, reused character designs, enemy designs, and level concepts, resulting in a game that sits at the pinnacle of the franchise. Instead of the animal friend system, he adapted the concept into the power combo system, letting the player access that game's 35 powers with much more regularity. Every level is handcrafted and unique in theme, while also encouraging gathering powers in one level to find secrets in another. It elegantly solves every problem in Dream Land 3 with a Kirby that is satisfying to control in a game that is engaging to play. I could only recommend Dream Land 3 as a curio for seeing how this series' misstep influenced other games going forward.
As an art project, Kirby's Dream Land 3 is technically impressive for its time. There's extreme dedication to its crayon aesthetic, with every environment and texture filled with craftsmanship, and special effects like layered semi-transparent parallaxing. However, this is one of many elements that suggest poor prioritization of how to make this project playable and fun as a video game for kids.
With such high uniformity in its aesthetic, there is a notable lack of contrast between characters, foreground, and background. All that detail to the environmental elements comes with a cost, which is fewer unique elements per level. The result is multiple nondescript, impossible to remember level layouts with textures repeated so often per section as to render the richness of their detail meaningless.
Make no mistake, separate from visuals, the level design is bad. But the level design is bad as a compromise to two fatal flaws at the heart of this game - the game's movement options and the animal friend system.
First, Kirby's movement is awful. Kirby has slow flight speed, running that can outspeed the camera's ability to track him, and zero conservation of momentum when doing any attack animation. Every attack is slow with a small hurtbox, and every copy ability only has one or two attacks.
The reason why the game has so few (8) copy abilities - Kirby can ride on any of 6 animal friends, which all have their own animations for Kirby using a copy ability while riding them. Together, this brings the total number of unique attacks closer to 50. Although interesting in concept, this presents multiple problems in execution.
For one, you can only ride one animal friend at a time, and only get the chance to change animal friends once, maybe twice per level. If you lose a life, your animal friend is gone. In practice, you will not see a majority of the game's moveset most of the time. Worse, each individual move has limited utility because of the effort spent creating the full set. So for a majority of the player experience, you will see a fraction of the total on repeat.
Even discounting moveset variety, the animal friend system is broken in that they change Kirby's movement systems, and they are all worse. (And remember, Kirby does not feel great in this game.) Without a friend, Kirby can fly infinitely, attack underwater, and run consistently. Some animal friends control worse in the air, or cannot jump infinitely, or otherwise direct his attacks in unintuitive, non-forward facing directions.
All this is a problem because the animal friend system is 100% completely optional, meaning no level is designed to take advantage of their unique mechanics without it also being possible to play as Kirby. It is also possible to take animal friends between levels, which means every level is not designed to be impossible to beat with any animal friend, either. In essence, there is no reason to use them, and their inclusion tanked the variety in level design to a series of bland hallways that try to discourage the player from playing as Kirby and just flying over everything.
So the whole gimmick of the game is balanced around making it less fun to play... as Kirby.
Bland, slow, devoid of personality, you'd think I'm being overly critical on an old game, until you remember it was the last SNES title to release in the United States. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island had already done a coloring book aesthetic with sharp contrast that made it easy to read character placement and level design. Fire up Kirby Super Star, and it feels like it was made yesterday - fast and fluid animations that are punchy and funny, and a helper / co-op play system lightyears ahead of whatever Gooey is in Dream Land 3. With levels that, while kind of eyebleeding in their relentless color, are bursting with personality and designed around Kirby's incredible moveset (multiple attacks for every copy ability!), encouraging experimentation to find secrets and shortcuts.
In my rating system, 2 stars represent an average, C grade game. I award Kirby's Dream Land 3 a single star as a D rank game. Its not unplayable, but there's no reason to do so after the release of Kirby 64. The director of both releases, Shinichi Shimomura, reused character designs, enemy designs, and level concepts, resulting in a game that sits at the pinnacle of the franchise. Instead of the animal friend system, he adapted the concept into the power combo system, letting the player access that game's 35 powers with much more regularity. Every level is handcrafted and unique in theme, while also encouraging gathering powers in one level to find secrets in another. It elegantly solves every problem in Dream Land 3 with a Kirby that is satisfying to control in a game that is engaging to play. I could only recommend Dream Land 3 as a curio for seeing how this series' misstep influenced other games going forward.
I played it with my brother. Fun but also DAMN hard. (probably just me being a baby)
I played Kirby's Dream Land 3 for the first time about two years ago, and honestly I barely remember it. It exists as (ironically) some hazy dream. Maybe I've just played too much since then, but I think the problem with Dream Land 3 is just that it's a bit unremarkable.
For such a late SNES game, Dream Land 3 feels like something that could have very well launched in the early 90s. The design is simple, straight-forward almost to the fault, but nevertheless making for a relaxing afternoon game that you can easily complete in one sitting. Kirby's for the kids, but that doesn't mean a grown man like myself can't find some charm. The levels have wonderful pastel colors, the art style is evocative of a child's sketch book, and the music (while rife with series classics) always puts a smile on my face. It's just that despite all of this, Dream Land 3 feels like a pastiche of all that Kirby is, encapsulating the innocence and ease of play that the series is known for without doing anything in particular to really make it stand out. It's just... good.
Overall I think I like the look and gameplay of Super Star more, and Kirby 64 is easily my favorite in the series. Dream Land 3 never really hits those heights, but if I had nothing better to do but waste the afternoon away playing it, I wouldn't really complain.
For such a late SNES game, Dream Land 3 feels like something that could have very well launched in the early 90s. The design is simple, straight-forward almost to the fault, but nevertheless making for a relaxing afternoon game that you can easily complete in one sitting. Kirby's for the kids, but that doesn't mean a grown man like myself can't find some charm. The levels have wonderful pastel colors, the art style is evocative of a child's sketch book, and the music (while rife with series classics) always puts a smile on my face. It's just that despite all of this, Dream Land 3 feels like a pastiche of all that Kirby is, encapsulating the innocence and ease of play that the series is known for without doing anything in particular to really make it stand out. It's just... good.
Overall I think I like the look and gameplay of Super Star more, and Kirby 64 is easily my favorite in the series. Dream Land 3 never really hits those heights, but if I had nothing better to do but waste the afternoon away playing it, I wouldn't really complain.
The art direction in this game is fantastic. The graphics style is fenomenal and the sountrack slaps. On the gameplay side, the game is pretty fun. The levels are creative and the boss battles are very good!
Such a charming and fun little game. My only serious complaint is the abstract nature of the level "quests". In the later levels it can be almost impossible to figure out how to earn the heart star and you go through the same level multiple times trying to figure it out, only to end up looking to a guide for help because there is no discernable way to figure it out yourself. Other than that, it's a fun Kirby game with a great art style.
chcuhu
Very pretty game, level design is a little too simple. Coo is overpowered and the best one. It's the best of the more simplified Kirby games but definitely doesn't hold a candle to Super Star
chill fun time, love the artstyle, boss kicked my ass
The best of the Dream Land games (excluding RtDL). The stages are really fun, the expanded buddy system is great, the art style is amazing and probably the best looking SNES game, and I even enjoyed the heart stars to an extent. The boss butch was also great, but by god was it hard.
My biggest complaint is that the bosses were kind of a let down, especially the final boss. They're all great fights but compared to Dream Land 2 they're just not as good. Also I feel like the amount of copy abilites was noticeably lacking, but at the same time every buddy has a unique version of every copy ability, so I can accept it.
ALSO GOD WHY DID THEY CHANGE THE CONTROLS AND WHY IS GOOEY SUMMONED WITH THE A BUTTON??? FOR HALF THE GAME I WAS PRESSING A TO JUMP LIKE IN EVERY SINGLE EARLIER ENTRY ONLY TO BE TREATED TO GOOEY'S DUMB ASS
My biggest complaint is that the bosses were kind of a let down, especially the final boss. They're all great fights but compared to Dream Land 2 they're just not as good. Also I feel like the amount of copy abilites was noticeably lacking, but at the same time every buddy has a unique version of every copy ability, so I can accept it.
ALSO GOD WHY DID THEY CHANGE THE CONTROLS AND WHY IS GOOEY SUMMONED WITH THE A BUTTON??? FOR HALF THE GAME I WAS PRESSING A TO JUMP LIKE IN EVERY SINGLE EARLIER ENTRY ONLY TO BE TREATED TO GOOEY'S DUMB ASS
SAMUS ARAN? FROM METROID?
I like this game :^)
this is the next Kirby game directed by the mysterious Shinichi Shimomura and the second game in the Dark Matter Trilogy. he already put out an alright game with Dream Land 2 but then he decided one day “okay but if what we did that again, but Kirby’s friends with the Dragon Quest slime now?” long story short, Dream Land 3 is excellent but I can’t just end it here
let's begin with that story. Kirby is spending his time fishing with his good friend Gooey, that random blob you may or may not have seen in Dream Land 2. all of a sudden, a giant much more horrifying blob appears in Planet Popstar and begins taking control of the planet's inhabitants like George Orwell’s 1984, or End of Evangelion for all the younger readers. surprise surprise Dark Matter has made a comeback and they are PISSED. knowing the Dark Matter means bad news, Kirby and Gooey, along with animal buddies old and new, go across Planet Popstar to free everyone from their clutches.
you remember Kirby's Dream Land 2? well the game kinda plays like that, but better. you got the same Copy Abilities from before, the same "collect special items to get the true ending", and the same animal buddies that change up your moves, though now you have another three of them to help out. Rick, Coo, and Kine are joined by Nago the Cat, Pitch the Bird, and Chuchu the Octopus. Nago has a really cool and fun double jump as well as some cute animations with Kirby, Pitch's flying is slower than Coo's but he can run on the ground to make up for it, and Chuchu does weird things to Kirby's head, guess which is my favorite of the three. that said, you'll need to use all the animal buddies if you want to get all the collectibles for this game. instead of finding a singular Rainbow Drop in each world, you'll instead have to obtain a Heart Star in each level of the game. while this does mean more work, the Heart Stars are nowhere near as difficult to obtain as the hardest Rainbow Drops in Dream Land 2. if you complete the objective for each level, you're given the Heart Star from someone at the end. this can range from new Kirby characters that get Thanos-snapped after this game, rejected Mario powerups, and even special Nintendo guest stars that’ll make you go “oh I remember them!” or “the heck are you supposed to be” anyway when you get all the Heart Stars, you get access to the true final boss at the end, just like Dream Land 2. trust me you want to get all of them to see the final boss, it’s a very fun and kid friendly final boss just believe me guys I am 100% honest :^))))
this is probably the best looking game on the console, the only game that I'd say is on par with it is Trials of Mana. this game's crayon aesthetic is very dreamlike, which fits considering what franchise this is right here. I wish that we got to see more of this art style in other Kirby games, but it does help give this game its unique identity so I guess I'm cool with that. while Super Star has bombastic music, Dream Land 3's soundtrack goes the opposite direction by focusing on more relaxing and chill tunes. compare both of the intro tracks from Super Star and Dream Land 3 and you'll see that both games are going for different vibes. though I must be honest, I think I may prefer this game's soundtrack more. it just has that really comfy vibe that makes you feel good, you're sure to get a smile on your face when you start listening to these music tracks. I like every track from this game, but I guess my favorites would have to be Grass Land 2, Grass Land 4, Ripple Field 1, Ripple Field 2, Sand Canyon 1, and The Last Iceberg. oh yeah that Staff Roll theme is absolutely amazing, it’s right up there with Super Star’s staff roll theme and that’s a huge compliment since the latter is one of my favorite Kirby tracks in general.
so what is this game lacking? well, if you've already played Kirby Super Star before this, you are not getting that same experience. while this game does have sliding and running, Dream Land 3 is focusing on improving on Dream Land 2 rather than improving on Super Star. unfortunately this means that Abilities are very limited in their movepool outside of animal buddies. while that sounds bad, the big thing you should be worrying about is that Kirby doesn't wear funny hats in this game. that should have been enough to drop this game down to zero stars but I'm a merciful person so I will let this slide. Kirby's momentum is also a little bit off here, his speed kinda goes to a halt right when you stop floating or get hit by an attack. there's a fan patch to fix this but it's weird that this decision was deliberately made. basically this game's biggest problem is that it isn't Super Star. personally though I'm fine with that even though a majority would have preferred this game to play like that one.
so judging from the high score I gave it, you can probably tell I have a little bit of bias for this game. do I have bad taste? maybe, I don't really mind though. I've 100% this game a couple of times before and I always enjoy the ride.
anyway great game, play it now, it has Gooey in it you have no excuse
this is the next Kirby game directed by the mysterious Shinichi Shimomura and the second game in the Dark Matter Trilogy. he already put out an alright game with Dream Land 2 but then he decided one day “okay but if what we did that again, but Kirby’s friends with the Dragon Quest slime now?” long story short, Dream Land 3 is excellent but I can’t just end it here
let's begin with that story. Kirby is spending his time fishing with his good friend Gooey, that random blob you may or may not have seen in Dream Land 2. all of a sudden, a giant much more horrifying blob appears in Planet Popstar and begins taking control of the planet's inhabitants like George Orwell’s 1984, or End of Evangelion for all the younger readers. surprise surprise Dark Matter has made a comeback and they are PISSED. knowing the Dark Matter means bad news, Kirby and Gooey, along with animal buddies old and new, go across Planet Popstar to free everyone from their clutches.
you remember Kirby's Dream Land 2? well the game kinda plays like that, but better. you got the same Copy Abilities from before, the same "collect special items to get the true ending", and the same animal buddies that change up your moves, though now you have another three of them to help out. Rick, Coo, and Kine are joined by Nago the Cat, Pitch the Bird, and Chuchu the Octopus. Nago has a really cool and fun double jump as well as some cute animations with Kirby, Pitch's flying is slower than Coo's but he can run on the ground to make up for it, and Chuchu does weird things to Kirby's head, guess which is my favorite of the three. that said, you'll need to use all the animal buddies if you want to get all the collectibles for this game. instead of finding a singular Rainbow Drop in each world, you'll instead have to obtain a Heart Star in each level of the game. while this does mean more work, the Heart Stars are nowhere near as difficult to obtain as the hardest Rainbow Drops in Dream Land 2. if you complete the objective for each level, you're given the Heart Star from someone at the end. this can range from new Kirby characters that get Thanos-snapped after this game, rejected Mario powerups, and even special Nintendo guest stars that’ll make you go “oh I remember them!” or “the heck are you supposed to be” anyway when you get all the Heart Stars, you get access to the true final boss at the end, just like Dream Land 2. trust me you want to get all of them to see the final boss, it’s a very fun and kid friendly final boss just believe me guys I am 100% honest :^))))
this is probably the best looking game on the console, the only game that I'd say is on par with it is Trials of Mana. this game's crayon aesthetic is very dreamlike, which fits considering what franchise this is right here. I wish that we got to see more of this art style in other Kirby games, but it does help give this game its unique identity so I guess I'm cool with that. while Super Star has bombastic music, Dream Land 3's soundtrack goes the opposite direction by focusing on more relaxing and chill tunes. compare both of the intro tracks from Super Star and Dream Land 3 and you'll see that both games are going for different vibes. though I must be honest, I think I may prefer this game's soundtrack more. it just has that really comfy vibe that makes you feel good, you're sure to get a smile on your face when you start listening to these music tracks. I like every track from this game, but I guess my favorites would have to be Grass Land 2, Grass Land 4, Ripple Field 1, Ripple Field 2, Sand Canyon 1, and The Last Iceberg. oh yeah that Staff Roll theme is absolutely amazing, it’s right up there with Super Star’s staff roll theme and that’s a huge compliment since the latter is one of my favorite Kirby tracks in general.
so what is this game lacking? well, if you've already played Kirby Super Star before this, you are not getting that same experience. while this game does have sliding and running, Dream Land 3 is focusing on improving on Dream Land 2 rather than improving on Super Star. unfortunately this means that Abilities are very limited in their movepool outside of animal buddies. while that sounds bad, the big thing you should be worrying about is that Kirby doesn't wear funny hats in this game. that should have been enough to drop this game down to zero stars but I'm a merciful person so I will let this slide. Kirby's momentum is also a little bit off here, his speed kinda goes to a halt right when you stop floating or get hit by an attack. there's a fan patch to fix this but it's weird that this decision was deliberately made. basically this game's biggest problem is that it isn't Super Star. personally though I'm fine with that even though a majority would have preferred this game to play like that one.
so judging from the high score I gave it, you can probably tell I have a little bit of bias for this game. do I have bad taste? maybe, I don't really mind though. I've 100% this game a couple of times before and I always enjoy the ride.
anyway great game, play it now, it has Gooey in it you have no excuse
Gooey is my soulmate and I love him very much.