It’s Kirby’s 20th Anniversary! In honor of the event, in this blog we’re going to look at all the cool things and games you get with the 20th Anniversary Kirby’s Dream Collection for Wii! It’s a fantastic collection that no Kirby fan will want to be without!

A lot of people may complain that Kirby’s anniversary collection was better than the one Mario got a couple of years ago. But I don’t mind because I like Kirby better than Mario so I’m glad to see that Kirby’s collection was better! Honestly I didn’t gripe too much about Mario’s collection because I rather like Super Mario All-Stars. The only thing I would’ve done differently about it was make it be the version that included Super Mario World also. But oh well.

History Book and CD Soundtrack

Included with the Kirby game is a really cool booklet showing the history and fun facts of the Kirby series! It’s like a mini-magazine and reminds me of a Nintendo Power feature or something. There are lots of neat pictures and facts that even I didn’t know about! The only problem I have with the book is that I wish it really were magazine size so it would be easier to read and see. But that would probably make the packaging harder to do. The game also comes with a CD soundtrack with songs from every Kirby game. I haven’t listened to it yet, though, but I will soon!

New Challenge Stages

OK now let’s look what you get IN the game. First off, in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, there was a selection of super tough timed challenge stages that you could try. Each stage featured one of Kirby’s copy abilities, and you had to use his advanced moves to get to the end of the stage as fast as you can! But not all of Kirby’s copy abilities were featured in that game. So for the leftovers, they ended up here in a short little side game. It’s still a neat little feature, and one of the challenges lets you use Kirby’s Smash Bros. moves!

Timeline

There is also an interactive time line where you can see when every Kirby game was created. Well, almost every Kirby game. They left out one, probably because it was only released in Japan. That game was Kirby Super Star Stacker, a SNES version of the GB puzzler. I think it ALMOST got released in the US, though. You see, at the very first E3 I went to, back in 1997 (I think), Nintendo still showed a few SNES games at their booth, and one of them was Super Star Stacker, but they only had the Japanese version on display to play. I can understand why they omitted it from the US timeline, but it would’ve still been cool to see.

Anyway, as you make Kirby walk down the timeline hallway, you can view snippets of history from each year. If a Kirby game was released in that year, Kirby can suck it up and you can view the box and a little video on each game. There are a few extras, too. You can also watch three full episodes of the Kirby anime Saturday morning cartoon! At first I thought it would be the first three episodes, but it’s actually the first one, and then episodes 60 and 72. There’s also a video of a live ensemble performance (3 violins, a cello, trombone, French horn, and clarinet), playing some classic Kirby tunes!

Kirby’s Dream Land

I’m a little surprised they put emulated black and white Game Boy games on here, but they did! I wasn’t really sold on the first Kirby game when it came out. First off, Kirby didn’t have his famous copy ability yet. He could just suck in and spit out foes. But you could really tell the gears were turning in the creators’ heads when they made this game that they wanted him to do that in subsequent titles. Even back then however, I did appreciate what they were trying to do with Kirby: make a 2-D platformer that even young kids could play and finish without getting too frustrated. I just didn’t get it because I was only in high school and couldn’t afford to buy every single game that came out. I’m kind of glad I didn’t buy it, though, because when I did finally get to play it, I beat it in less than an hour! After playing it on this collection, I can say that one other problem I have with it is the controls feel a little sluggish. I think it’s just because it’s the first Kirby game, though. Speaking of controls, the collection offers support for Wii remote, Classic, and GameCube controllers!

Kirby’s Adventure

Kirby’s second game was on the NES. This game didn’t sell me on Kirby yet either, because by then I had a Super Nintendo and was focused on just playing the 16-bit titles. But man, this game looks GREAT for an 8-bitter. Granted, it was one of the last NES games, but still. It’s also the first game where Kirby could use his copy ability, and most other main Kirby games follow the same formula established by this first foray, even today!

Kirby’s Dream Land 2

By the time this GB game came out, I was already sold on Kirby and was a fan, thanks to SNES games like Kirby’s Dream Course. But I still didn’t get this one right away because when it came out I was a poor college student and couldn’t afford a lot of games. But I finally got this one when it hit the Nintendo’s Player’s Choice line and was cheaper. It’s VASTLY improved over the first game, and you can use both Kirby’s copy abilities AND ride on animals.

Kirby Super Star

This is a special game to me because I have a lot of good memories playing this game with my little brother Jeff. He loves this game, too, and cites it as being one of his reasons why the SNES is his favorite game console (and since now he likes to play modern games like Call of Duty and Halo, that’s really surprising). In this game, two people can play at the same time, and it’s considered by many to be the best Kirby game ever made.

Kirby’s Dream Land 3

This was also on the Super Nintendo, but it’s really a better single player game than a multiplayer one. The graphics are all styled to look like crayon drawings, but they don’t look near as good as Yoshi’s Island. Kirby can ride even more animal friends in this one. There are lots of Nintendo cameos, too. In one stage, you have to help Professor Hector build R.O.B. the Robot. And in another stage, you have to help Samus defeat Metroids using Kirby’s ice power!

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby’s only N64 game let you combine copy powers for some crazy results. Electric and Ice made Kirby into a refrigerator and he could spit out food. But my favorite was when you mixed Electric and Fire. Kirby would rub his head to charge up static, but then his head would burst into flame and he’d run around on fire! It’s a really fun game, too, but I will say that the 3-D graphics are hideous. It made me long for the return of sprite based games so badly! I’ll also say that after you collect all the crystal shards and fight the final final boss; he’s actually pretty scary looking! Especially for a Kirby game! There’s even some animated blood!

Conclusions

And that’s all the games on this collection! Could they have put in more? Absolutely. I would’ve loved to have seen spin-off games like Kirby’s Dream Course, and wouldn’t it have been cool for them to finally release the SNES version of Super Star Stacker? You could also complain that most huge Kirby fans already have these games on Virtual Console. But you know what? I’m probably one of the biggest Kirby fans out there and the only one I already had on VC was Dream Land 3. And I don’t mind having them all on a disc anyway. It’s still a nice collection of the main games. And even though it got an E-10 rating (thanks to the animated blood in Kirby 64), this is a great game for kids and will keep them entertained for a long time. Kirby’s Dream Collection is probably going to be one of the last great Wii games.

Tags: Game Reviews