With Kirby and the Forgotten Land being a major success, it’s always fun to go back to the franchise’s roots. Kirby has a long history of mostly handheld games, but there are some great console games from way back when! After perusing some Virtual Console games, I found that Kirby’s Dream Land 3 was available on the SNES Virtual Console. I decided to give it a try to get my Kirby fix.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3, which was released in 1997, feels like the real deal. You don’t need to have played the other two Dream Land games to enjoy this one. Planet Popstar is in danger of being overtaken by Dark Matter that can possess any bystanders. You set off as Kirby, but there is also a two-player mode. This allows the second player to join in as Gooey, who is a piece of Dark Matter that is actually friendly. Friendship is an essential theme to Kirby games, so having someone to play with just ups the fun factor.
Not only do you get Gooey as a friend to help you, but there are also additional friends that you can bring along like Coo, Kine, and Rick. If you need to swim, fly, or jump extra high, then you can choose a friend to hook onto for help. Depending on the ability that you have, such as fire, your friends’ abilities will change, too. The possibilities and combos are endless! There are plenty of puzzles to solve with these friends, too. Though the puzzles can be pretty tricky, this is why creating save points is a saving grace of Virtual Console games. Thank you, Nintendo.
Overall, if you’re looking for an impressive and retro game in the Kirby franchise, then this game will more than satisfy. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 really paves the way for future Kirby games, too. It reminded me quite a bit of Kirby: Star Allies, which came out in 2018, and is one of my favorites. There are similar elements of teamwork that you can perform, as well as so many combinations of abilities between players. It’s quite impressive that a game that’s about 20 years old can provide some of the same dynamic gameplay of a future installment. I’m glad I found this game and gave it a chance, and I’m sure you’ll be glad to play it, too!
Guest Author: Gabrielle Muniz
