Kirby's Dream Land 2

"Yuk!"

Yuk... What can I say? I'm a huge fan of Kirby, I enjoyed many of his exploits in Dream Land... Foiling MetaKnight's takeover plan, fighting the evil King DeDeDe, it was all very cool. But this Kirby game isn't that good.

Story (ZERO out of ten)

What a load of garbage. The manual mentions some stuff about Rainbow Islands and Rainbow Drops and a Rainbow Sword (see a pattern?), I can't even remember what the plot was supposed to be about. The game isn't even set in Dream Land! Anyways, in the end, Kirby fights some kind of Dark Matter thing that comes out of DeDeDe. This Dark Matter storyline spawned a whole lot of stupid sequels (such as Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64). Oh, and there are idiotic backup characters like Rick the Hamster and Kine the Messed-Up Fish. First of all, this is supposed to be Kirby's game, so they shouldn't even be there. And if the NEEDED to add new characters, why not choose something cool like a hyena or wolf? Sheesh!

Music and Sound (eight out of ten)

Most of the music is pretty good, close to Kirby standards. The tunes aren't as catchy as in other games, but there is a nice theme that comes straight out of Kirby's Adventure (the best of 'em all!). I have some MAJOR gripes about the music though. The theme changes whenever Kirby picks up a secondary character. Kine's theme is awful, and Rick's sucks too. Coo (the owl) has a decent theme, for some reason.

The sound effects are pretty much like those in other 8-bit Kirby games (meaning good, but not outstanding). No comment here.

Graphics (four out of ten)

Yuk. I have to say that the graphics are blurry and unclear. The backgrounds are decent, but not up to the standards of other Kirby games. Kirby's Adventure had BEAUTIFUL backgrounds, with celestial skies, flowing fountains, waterfalls, etc. Kirby Super Star had the 3D effects and beams of light shining through the forest canopy and... WHOAH! I'm getting off topic. All I should say is that the graphics in this game SUCK! They are simplistic and Kirby got messed up! And it's so darn hard to see!

Gameplay (eight out of ten)

Yes, it's Kirby. And Kirby is automatically cool and fun. But this game is BELOW standard. Kirby's Dream Land offered innovative features like the vaccuum ability and unlimited flight (which prevented acute frustration). Kirby's Adventure added the ability to copy enemy powers (of which there were a lot), the slide kick, the crane game, the quick-draw game, the arena, the museum, and a lot more. Kirby's Dream Land 2 is just a watered-down, primitive version of Kirby's Adventure. There are only a few abilities to copy, the slide-kick is gone, the overworld maps have shrunk, and there are no museums, arenas, cranes or quick-draws. The only minigame is a cheap star-grabbing game based on recycled boss battlefields. And the overworld maps are TINY!

Rent or Buy?

If you are a hardcore Kirby game collector or a major Kirby fan and MUST have every game, then go and buy it. If you want a good game that's lots of fun, find another Kirby game, like Kirby's Adventure.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/08/02, Updated 10/08/02