Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Here is the premise, straight from the manual: [i]"The peaceful world of Dream Land is in great danger. In Dream Land, dreams had always flowed out from the wonderful Fountain of Dreams, which the Fountain of Dreams collected the hopes and dreams of all living things. It also provided all the good dreams and rest that come from deep sleep. But one day, everyone in Dream Land lost the ability to dream! Apparently, King DeDeDe had been bathing in the Fountain of Dreams! Not only that, but DeDeDe had taken the Star Rod

 

We surveyed a 100 people and asked, 'What can a developer do to convince a horde of salivating gamers that their money should go towards what is fundamentally a gaming product that is nearly twenty years of age?' Well, for starters you can tart things up to the maximum...to which our survey replied 'DING!' Over 70% of people said 'snazzier graphics' would possibly entice them*, which is, thankfully, exactly what HAL Laboratory, Inc has done for the GameBoy Advance remake of Kirby's Adventure. All you need to really do for proof of this statement is to admire the gorgeous screenshots that are dotted around this here C3 Review. In terms of 2D prettiness nary a GBA game on the market can even come close to this title

 

Those that have played the title that this is based off of will be right at home with Nightmare in Dream Land, as this update remains extremely faithful to what should probably be deemed as its 'father'. Thankfully, though, the tunes here have been spruced-up to take advantage of the GBA's extra processing power and superior sound chip - so if you have the chance, either hook your system up to a pair of ear-phones or even plug in your computer speakers and sub-woofer for the ultimate experience! Kirby adventures have always been light-hearted in nature, and this is evidently reflected in the game's soundtrack. With bouncy tunes that have a nice speedy pace to them one second and lilting, atmospheric ones the next, players will find it hard to get too frustrated whilst playing as their spirits will be so high and their ears overjoyed! The only shame is that a few of the tracks in-game can be quite bland at times, but with the rest being so catchy, it is hard to be too harsh with any criticism. Also, the wealth of sound effects (all of which can be listened to along with the music tracks in the Sound Test option on the main screen) help to round off a pretty darn solid package in this field! Music-a-licious!

What needs to be remembered here is that whilst Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is essentially a graphically re-worked version of an ancient 8-bit NES game, many titles released back in those days relied on their solid gameplay to impress gamers. Therefore you should not shirk this update on the premise that it might feel old and stale because, to put it simply, that would be a rather foolish and na

 

Therefore, on top of the intelligently designed levels that make sure that the player gets the most out of the ability-changing aspect and the simplicity of the controls for a pick-up-and-play experience, there are some minor changes to the final product. For instance, certain hidden doors have now been made easier to find, four players can (if they all have copies of the game, hmm) take part in the main adventure and there is now the addition of extra sub-games to increase enjoyment in both one- and multi-player modes. There are three initial games, 'Quick Draw' (with the victor being the first person to hit 'A' when indicated), Bomb Rally (the aim being to swing your paddle and hit the bomb away from yourself as quickly as possible) and 'Kirby's Air Grind' (where combatants race along intertwining rails in the sky