Month of Horrors: Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland

So, as I discussed a few days back, Kirby is one of the most terrifying video game characters in existence. So I figured, what better to close out the reviews this month than a Kirby game?

Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland is a 2002 remake of Kirby's first game, Kirby's Adventure. In it, you play as Kirby, who is trying to restore the Dream Rod, which has been shattered by King Dedede. He has to traverse across 7 different worlds in order to do so, beating Dedede's minions along the way.

When it comes to gameplay, I'd say this game is a little below-average, based off of my experience with later Kirby titles. In fairness, it is a remake of Adventure, but I don't feel like that means that HAL had to do a STRAIGHT adaptation of mechanics, which I get the impression is what they did. It's strange, I almost want to say that this game is both harder and easier than other Kirby titles. I felt like a died a lot more often while playing it, but it was also MUCH shorter. Like, maybe a couple hours. Honestly, I know their are extra modes, 100% completion, that kind of stuff that can lengthen gameplay, but the story itself only took me a couple hours to complete. The copy abilities are there as in any Kirby game, but they felt a little off to me. Abilities not doing things I remember them doing, doing things I don't remember, that kind of thing, and I'm sure that's just because I'm used to later games.

As you could tell from how short the synopsis was, this game does not have a lot in way of story. In fact, I didn't even realize what I was collecting until the last world. It kinda just throws you into the game and gives you the impression that you're supposed to go beat up a bunch of enemies on each level. And that's all their is to say there.

Now, I know that a lot of this can be defended by saying "Come on, it's a remake of an NES game, what do you expect?" To this, I say: Did you not see the thing I wrote on How I Review Games? I spelled out very clearly that, if you want to remake a game, that's fine, but make sure that it holds up to the standards of today. Or, 2002 in this case. And, honestly, I don't feel like it holds to those standards. Maybe Kirby's Adventure was a good game, I don't know, I never played it. But Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland? I'd give it a pass.