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Kirby's Dream Land is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 1992. Its story is very simple: the peaceful world of Dream Land gets shaken up when the nefarious King Dedede steals the Sparkling Stars (which are very important to their society) and all of their food. A little puffball named Kirby takes it upon himself to get them all back, battling several of the king's minions in the process.
As the inaugural installment in the Kirby series, it establishes many of the characters and game mechanics that would come to define the series. Kirby's core abilities (including flying as much as the player wants, inhaling enemies, and spitting them out as an attack) are all present here - with the exception of Copy Abilties. Since those wouldn't be introduced until Kirby's Adventure (NES), spitting enemies or objects at other enemies is his primary means of offense here.
The game was a financial success, selling over 5 million copies. For three decades, it remained the best-selling game in the series (eventually being beaten by Kirby and the Forgotten Land (SW) by the end of 2022).
Screenshots
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The title screen.
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Inhaling a Waddle Dee in Green Greens.
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Riding on a Warp Star.
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Nothing's stopping you from flying above enemies here.
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Fighting Whispy Woods, the first boss.
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These title cards appear before each level.
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Music
In general, the game's soundtrack mirrors its overall cheery, child-friendly aesthetic. Many of its songs would be remixed in later games, some becoming integral parts of the series in the process (such as Green Greens, which became the de facto theme of Kirby himself).
Composer Jun Ishikawa stated that he opted for simple rhythms and melodies to ensure that they could be heard properly when played through the Game Boy's less-than-ideal speakers. Upon making this decision (which ran counter to his contemporaries' tendency to push simple sound hardware to their limits), he noted that he was able to create the game's soundtrack incredibly quickly. Director Masahiro Sakurai also said that he was very particular about songs matching the context in which they played in-game. He went so far as to record music onto a Walkman and play it back in tandem with the game to ensure it synced up correctly (mentioning the Kirby Dance as a specific example).
Recording
Credits
- Ripper: Zophar's Domain
- Recorder: Theand
- Game Credits:
(Sources: Credits)
The credits are displayed after the game is beaten.
Game Rip
Ripping Game Boy music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.
Releases
Links
