Oh wait, I think I got this wrong. It was a nice day
in the Rainbow Islands… UNTIL THE NIGHTMARES CAME!
No, wait, not quite it yet. It was a nice day in the
Rainbow Islands… UNTIL KING DEDEDE SHOWED UP!
Um… No, that still doesn’t sound right. You know what?
I think I’ll be better off explaining the game. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is the
third overall platform game in the Kirby series. Released on the Game Boy like
Kirby’s Dream Land, this one pushes the limits of what could be achieved at the
time with the portable console. Not only does it feature Kirby’s copy abilities
from Kirby’s Adventure (a limited number of them, only seven), it’s also much
longer (a little over 30 levels) and features a new gameplay mechanic: the
Animal Friends.
Yep! Unhappy with giving us everything we wanted, the
folks at HAL Laboratory give us even more! You see, when he defeats a mid-boss,
Kirby frees from a bag one of four animal friends. There’s Rick the hamster,
who’s great on land; Coo the owl, for all you people who have a strong urge to
fly but nowhere to fly to; Kine, who sucks on land but is excellent underwater,
which shouldn’t be a surprise considering it’s a sunfish; and Gooey, who
appears only in a bag if you already have the animal friend who’s supposed to
be in that bag. The first three are equipped to Kirby when he goes to them
after freeing them; they have their own life bar, thus they provide six
additional health points should you use either of them. They also put their own
spin on Kirby’s seven abilities, resulting in no less than 28 different
possibilities. Gooey is a special case, he refills one point of Kirby’s health
when he appears in a bag. And he does it with a kiss. Oh yeah, Gooey’s a real
ball of concentrated love. He doesn’t look the part, but that’s what he is.
As for the plot? The Rainbow Islands are an
archipelago in Dream Land; its seven islands are connected by rainbow bridges,
hence the name. One day, a cloud of darkness descends and destroys the bridges.
Why? Nobody knows. Was it simply that it was not loved enough as a kid? Is it
just hateful? We can’t answer that. Oh, by the way, it also takes possession of
King Dedede, first in a long line of villains taking over the King. Kirby’s
Warp Star can fly him across the water, however, so he sets out to travel to
each island and bring the bridges back.
His trip takes him too the first island, Grass Land.
…Wrong one. This world is so easy it’s almost a
tutorial. The first level barely has any enemies that give abilities; the
animal friends – and the mid-bosses who captured them – start appearing in the
second level. In the third level, Kirby finds an odd shining item hidden in a
cave; it looks important. We better get it, but it’s blocked by rock-like
blocks, which have to be destroyed. These items are called Rainbow Drops,
undoubtedly related to the Rainbow Bridge… or maybe their name is coincidental and they're just a set of teacups. Who knows.
You could play a more colorful version of the game thanks to the Super Game Boy. Whispsano will see you soon. |
However, while World 1 had the Rainbow Drop easy to
find, starting on the second world you need to search around the level to find
the item; you might need either a particular ability that Kirby has… or an
ability of Kirby as he’s using one particular Animal Friend. Which means you
need to be able to go through the level with that animal friend AND that
ability, which is easier said than done, judging by the large number of enemies
in the way.
World 3 takes place on the Ripple Islands, home of
Kine the Fish. Thus, many underwater
levels are to be expected. The boss at the end of this one is an anglerfish,
Sweet Stuff, who is pretty simple to defeat… again, if you’ve got Kine. Even
without it, Kirby can just blow air at the enemies thrown his way. Sweet Stuff?
If he were harder, he’d make the player feel sour. Wold 4 is an iceberg, so you
can guess what kind of environment it is. The boss at the end of this one is
the Ice Dragon, who won the “worst name for a boss” trophy at the 1995 edition
of the Video Game Awards. It’s also simple to defeat. This is where
getting the Rainbow Drop gets a lot more difficult, since keeping the right
Animal friend and the right copy ability might prove challenging.
Frikkin' Kracko... |
…oh, did I mention that he has to leave his animal
friend behind? Yeah, it would be too easy with it I guess. Kirby climbs up and
faces King Dedede… who’s more dangerous than usual, throwing his hammer and
getting angry. He also seems more tired than usual. I mean, what a terrible
lack of class to fall asleep in the middle of a fight! He has a lot of hit
points, as par for the course for this penguin. When he's defeated, if you’ve collected all seven Rainbow
Drops, a mass of blackness comes out of King Dedede. The Drops appear on the screen, one by one, and assemble to
form the Rainbow Sword! Heh, I wasn’t very far when I suggested it would be a
set of teacups. The mass of blackness takes on the form of a mysterious
spiky-haired swordsman and takes flight, and Kirby follows.
The ensuing battle is difficult, but Kirby can simply
knock back the swordsman’s projectile weapons, which makes the fight a little
easier. When that thing is destroyed, it morphs into a sphere with small round
spikes all around its body, and a large eye. Eeyup, this is Dark Matter. As a
final boss, he’s really hard, though this has to do with coming right off the
heels of the tough fight with his previous form, and using attacks that can be
difficult to avoid. Thankfully, he, too, likes to use projectiles, and those
projectiles can hurt him badly as well, so a good strategy is to whack its
spikes back at it. The real problem against this boss is that as the fight
takes place, both characters descend to Dream Land, and hitting the planet’s
atmosphere will make Kirby lose all of his hit points VERY fast. Thus, be
quick to kill Dark Matter.
When Dark Matter is defeated, Kirby re-enters the
atmosphere, leaving a trail of rainbows behind him. The power of the Rainbow
Sword protected him! Kirby brings peace back to the land, confident that Dark
Matter is gone now… Or is he?
…the answer is no. For proof, I actually reviewed the
final chapter of the “Dark Matter Trilogy” before the first two. You can read my review of it here.
Rainbow Drop Get! |
Well, that covers everything. How’s the game? Well, I
liked it, there’s no doubt there. The difficulty for the levels was just fine,
rarely too difficult. There were a few sections I didn’t like, but otherwise
it’s all right. Getting the Rainbow Drops, on the other hand… This can be an
extremely annoying side-quest. Sure, the idea was to mix platforming and
puzzle, and Kirby’s copy abilities are perfect for such a combination, but that
doesn’t take away the fact that some Drops require the player to be on their
A-game. The fourth, fifth and sixth ones are pretty difficult, with the
sixth one being the worst of the bunch. To get it, you need not only to survive
with a certain Animal Friend and a certain ability for much of the level, but
you also need to defeat three mid-bosses and switch to other Animal Friends
(without losing the current copy ability). It’s very difficult, even with a
guide.
The final battle, with a pink shade to it. |
The graphics are excellent for a Game Boy game, very
detailed. The music is catchy and fun; what’s more, each Animal Friend has its
theme tune that overrides the current level’s song.
All in all, I recommend this game. In fact, get it
along with the other two chapters of the Dark Matter Trilogy, and three
additional Kirby games, in Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition. Not that
I’m one to make this kind of advertisement in general…
Next Friday will be… Ooh, April 1st… well
then, rest assured that the next review will not be a self-parody, a review of
something that isn’t a game or a movie, a “different author” that turns out to have been me all along, or anything else you’d expect from a site like mine on a day where
pranks abound. In fact, I plan for April to be a month where I’ll review a
bunch of games rated M and available on Nintendo consoles. Bring Kirby games to
your kids, keep them away from this site. In April, we’re dealing with stuff
that the young’uns must not see.
Goodbye!
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