Kirby's Dream Land

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 on 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 Landers' 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 to come 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! - from the manual

Nintendo and HAL Laboratories introduced the now-famous Kirby in this game, his very first outing, in this classic Game Boy game released in 1992. While later in his career he would become a pink... something-or-other... here he's described as a white ghost with a killer appetite. Furthermore, while in later games Kirby would be able to eat and absorb his enemies' abilities (a la Mega Man), here Kirby merely swallows his enemies with no effects.

The game is a standard platformer consisting of five levels: Green Greens, Castle Lololo, Float Islands, Bubbly Clouds, and Mt. Dedede. Kirby walks, jumps, floats, and sucks up the bad guys during his travels while dodging typical threats such as spikes and cannons. The bosses in the game would go on to star in most all future Kirby games. There's Wispy Woods the tree, for example, and watch for cameos from Lolo and Lala from the old Adventures of Lolo games.

The game itself is difficult to find these days outside of eBay or used game shop, but it's worth a play if you can find it. For those who fear that the game lacks sufficient challenge, there's a hidden Hard Mode that can be accessed by pressing Up + Select + A at the title screen. Likewise, players can use the Options mode accessed by pressing Down + Select B at the title screen to tweak Kirby's lives and life meter.

Kirby's Dream Land would go on to spawn two sequels as well as a number of spinoffs starring Kirby himself as well as starring roles in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. KDL itself would be remade for the Super NES game Kirby Super Star where it appeared as one of several games on the cartridge under the name "Spring Breeze".