Late era Game Boy games were weird. There were attempts at creating franchises on the system (like Kirby), but most often, what we got were smaller, somewhat clumsier versions of NES games. Mario Land 2 was a clumsier Mario 3 and this is a clumsier Kirby's Adventure.

Kirby's Adventure on the NES introduced enemy abilities, so this one went one further and introduced animal friends, but the friends don't feel very well fleshed out. I get that the fish is supposed to make swimming easier, but there were very few swimming levels and I ended up getting the fish more often than the other animals, which leads me to believe that it's randomized, which is NOT helpful.

The level design was more innovative than the first game, but also more frustrating. Rooms stopped being area specific and instead began repeating themselves. Some rooms were fun little puzzle/reflex areas, where breakaway floors would blend with breakable floors and you had to navigate standing in one place long enough to fall, figuring out how to break what you were standing on fast enough, and avoid enemies chasing you from above. These sections were fun, but they didn't really compliment Kirby's skill set very well. If I hadn't entered that area with the rock power, I'm not sure how I would have navigated that, so your success is based on luck or knowing what was coming, which wasn't really fun even back then.

All this said, people were still learning how to make tight games, and this was one step in the right direction. I'm glad I played it, but I don't think I ever need to play it again, and I sure as hell don't need to figure out how to find and get all the weird spinny things in the quiet rooms.