Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

"Kirby: Back in Pink... With Hats!"

Hal Laboratory has and is one of my favorite companies for Nintendo. I love Kirby to pieces and my voice gets really high and fast whenever there is a new Kirby game coming out. When I heard that Nightmare was coming out, I did my voice bit, and tried to learn every single detail of the game. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed when I saw that it was not, in fact, a new Kirby game, but a remake with new features. I still was excited, because I love every Kirby game, and even though it was only a remastered version, it was still a great game. Now, let's get on with the review, shall we?

Idea 9/10: Take a great game, polish it up, give it a new title, and watch the money come rolling in. That is probably what Nintendo and Hal were thinking, but all the consumers out there were thinking, ''YAY! A new Kirby game! Kirby makes me happy! ^_^'' Yes. They really did say ^_^, because Kirby is the ultimate icon of happiness. Everything here is perfect: the graphics, the story, the physics... It is just plain great and makes me happy. You should be happy too. *glares* Be happy. *smiles* Good!

Story 8/10: Yes. There is a story. Kirby is happy. King Dedede is mean. King Dedede is swimming in the fountain of dreams! Oh no! King Dedede took the star rod! Even Bigger oh no! Kirby needs to retrieve the star rod and defeat the minions of King Dedede. Yay! Go Kirby! As cutesy as it is, I felt myself getting happier as I read along with the story. Yeah. It is that Happy.

Playability 10/10: Easy to learn, easy to use. The abilities are cool, and the physics are perfect. The easy controls from all the other Kirby titles are back, and you can float in the air for all eternity. The abilities range from useful (sword), to bizarre (sleep), to the bizarre and useful (mike). You never try and jump to a ledge, and find out that the game has a horrible physics algorithm and you die instead, No. This game is easy, and fun. Next topic!

Graphics 9/10: Kirby is colorful, and he needs a background just as vibrant to match himself. And of course you can't forget the plethora of enemies he fights throughout his quest. His enemies are the only thing that stopped me from giving this a perfect score. They are great and all, but I would've really appreciated some new enemies instead of the repeating sprites with different color schemes. None the less, It is visually breathtaking and offers a variety of things for your viewing pleasure. You will never think, ''Hey, Didn't they already use this background somewhere else?'' because they usually don't. and when they do, it is in a way so you can't tell. No repetitiveness = happy gamer.

Sound 10/10: Now, you have to understand that I am a very musical person. I got chills listening to the new King Dedede Boss battle music in SSBM. Yeah. I also went to the sound test mode in this game, sat down in a dark room, and just listened to the music ... for twenty minutes. I am a music freak. And Kirby is my medicine.

Replay Value 9/10: I had played the game through once, got 100%, played hard mode, got 100%, played meta-knight mode, finished it, opened up a new file, played easy mode... And that is if you are just playing the normal way. You can unlock the Boss Mode, play the mini-games, and (if you're one of the lucky people) if you have friends, you can play with them in the normal mode, or play against them in the mini-games. This is one of the few games where I have finished it more than once. And in this case, I finished it six times and am still going... and going... and going...

Worth the Money? Yes: Yes, God yes. I love this game, and would not waste a single second on buying a new copy if anything ever happened to the one I own. If the original was good enough to have Nintendo and Hal think of creating a newer version of it, then the game has to be good. Or else. I love Kirby, and this has made me very happy. Oh so very happy.

Overall Score 9/10: Oh man, Nintendo... If you had just made a new game instead of a remake, it would have been a perfect score... But, alas. You did make a solid release and made many, many gamers happy. Now Go! Make another game to soak up the hours of my life! Oh! and while you're at it, Make Meta-Knight a secret character! Hehe... Meta-Knight is awesome... *Makes sword motions in air*

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/04