

The gluttonous King Dedede has stolen all of the food from the inhabitants of Dream Land for a midnight feast, so Kirby, a resident of Dream Land, goes to retrieve the food and stop Dedede. Kirby's Dream Land plays like other platformers of the 8-bit and 16-bit era of video games: Kirby must use various natural abilities and occasionally external abilities or items while heading toward the goal at the end of each level. Like many 1980s-era platformers, the player can accumulate points, with an extra life granted when the player has enough points. However, because Kirby lacks a save function, scores are not recorded. Also, there are no save files, so the player has to start over again when the Game Boy is turned off, if the player chooses to return to the title screen after a Game Over, or if the player resets the game. All levels are played on a two-dimensional plane, letting Kirby move only left, right, up, and down. Kirby can walk, jump, and fly. Kirby can also inhale objects and enemies, swallowing them or spitting them out as projectiles. On a tiny star somewhere far, far away from earth, there is a very special place known as Dream Land. The Dream Landers are very happy people who use their magical Sparkling Stars to play and work among the heavens. That is until one dark night when the gluttonous King Dedede and his rotten band of thieves swooped down from neighboring Mt. Dedede for a midnight snack in Dream Land. Not only did they steal all their food, but they stole the Dream Lander's treasured Sparkling Stars as well. Because the Dream Landers didn't have the Sparkling Stars to gather food anymore, they began to get very hungry. Suddenly a spry little boy named Kirby happened along and said, "Don't worry, I'll get your food and your Sparkling Stars back!" With these words, Kirby set off on his quest toward the dreaded Mt. Dedede. We wish him luck!
PlatformActionFantasyKidsmascotdeathblocksdancingdreamsboss fightexplosiondigital distributionprotagonist's name in the titlesuper game boy enhancementbreaking the fourth wallnon-humanoid protagonistNintendo 3DS, Game Boy
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Is this HAL Laboratory's best work?
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Is Kirby's Dream Land a masterpiece, not merely a very good game?
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Answered from what people have written, never made up: a verdict, how much when it's a matter of degree, and the sentences that say so, quoted with their names. Reviews here first, then TMDB's reviews and the title's Wikipedia plot and reception. If nothing settles it, you can put it to the curators.
Character
Plot-driven, resolved, classical in form and cool.
- character-ledplot-driven
- resolvedopen-ended
- classical in formformally daring
- cooloverwhelming
- unpretentiousprestige
Who loves it, who doesn't
No profiled raters yet.
Reviews
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About the game
- Platforms
- Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy
- Developer
- HAL Laboratory
- Publisher
- Nintendo, Playtronic
- Released
- April 27, 1992
- Modes
- Single player
- Perspective
- Side view
- Time to beat
- 44 min rushed · 45 min main story · 1.5 h completionist
IGDB rating 7.8/10 from 190 ratings.
Screenshots






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Often played with
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