Dream Land 3 is one of those games that appears lacking on the surface, but everything comes together in such a unique and beautiful way.

The animal friends are back along with three new ones, and it's tons of fun playing around with different ability/animal combinations. Cleaning was added as a new ability, it's really cute (especially with Nago) and many of its animal combinations are surprisingly effective against enemies. The sprites and animations are all super expressive.

The level designs are basic as with most Kirby games, though still quite memorable and fun. Each stage has its own puzzle you must solve to get a heart star, all of which are needed to face the final boss.

The visual and sound direction is some of the best in the entire Kirby series, only surpassed by Epic Yarn and Mass Attack.

You don't have as many techniques and moves as you do in Super Star or any other main game after 64. But, to me, Kirby isn't about that stuff anyway.

If it isn't obvious enough from the above, or from my Epic Yarn review, Kirby games are something I admire deeply not only on a gameplay level, but on an aesthetic one. If I wanted to play an action-platformer, there are many more challenging and engaging options out there for me besides Kirby. But Dream Land 3 offers something I can't get elsewhere, quite literally a land of dreams filled with incredible charm and atmosphere. It even has 2-player coop.

That I enjoyed this as much as I did I think is a testament to the fundamentals of great JRPG design. From the more restricted (compared to Bravely Default/Second/FF5) yet better-balanced job system, to the combat which branches off from the Bravely series with its own shield and weakness mechanics, to the beautiful town and dungeon designs, to the excellent soundtrack composed by Yasunori Nishiki, reminiscent of the Romancing Saga soundtracks.

Because if all that stuff wasn't as good as it is, I wouldn't have wanted to push through the forgettable story and bland world. The characters are well-written, but the 4-chapter setup makes their stories feel quite predictable and samey. The true final boss gauntlet is one of the biggest difficulty spikes I've seen in an RPG... not sure whether I'm impressed or annoyed by that.

This is the long-lost evolution of Dream Land 3. Long levels, slow movement, very easy, low stakes, but extremely strong visual design, soundtrack, and overall charm. It's a game that lives and dies by its presentation, so if you aren't immediately hooked it's safe to say you wouldn't care for the rest.

The gameplay is pretty fun, though. It's more similar to classic Castlevania, it even has those grapple things you can swing on from IV and Bloodlines. I appreciate how simple to pick up and understand it is, which makes it a great fit for co-op. Similar to NSMB Wii, you can pick up and throw your friend around, but it's much more useful here because the other player acts as a projectile you can use to defeat enemies or as a platform to reach higher areas. The vehicle transformations work similarly to those in Yoshi's Island, but most of them don't really mesh well with the game outside of the shmup sections. It feels mostly like an excuse to shove in those Wii motion features.

It's the little details that make the game special. The distinct visual identity of each of the 43 stages, how most of them have a unique music track (done by the legendary Tomoya Tomita, along with some excellent arrangements from Ishikawa/Ando/Ikegami), how the collectibles are furniture and decorations for your apartment, how Kirby's friends will visit that apartment. There's never been a more fitting studio name than Good-Feel.