 Snats drunk. In 1992, Nintendo teamed up with Hal Laboratory to create Kirby's Dreamland, a brand new first-party franchise exclusively for... Game Boy? This is kind of an oddity at the time, as the Super Nintendo was in full swing, and the NES still had some life to it as well. But, here we are. The treacherous King Dedede, or is that pronounced Day Day Day? Anyway, he's stolen all the food from Dreamland, just because he can, and Resident Hero Kirby is after him to get it back, although it's not clear whether or not Kirby actually NEEDS food, per se, considering his primary ability is to inhale anything and everything in sight. I guess he does just spit them right back out as projectiles, so it's unclear how much of them he actually digests. Sorry, got off track there. The point is that Kirby's basic skill here is fun to use. For a side-scrolling platformer, it's nice to see another mechanic added to the usual projectile you see in games of this nature, so you're not just running around and shooting stuff and jumping on enemies like some cheat Mario or Contra clone. I also like that Kirby can inflate himself and fly around just by pressing up on the D-pad. My first instinct with games like this is to just say, well, I'm gonna fly over everything just because I can, but this game does a nice job filling up the screen with a variety of enemies, which brings me to the level design and layout here, which is not unlike Super Mario Brothers 2, where you search through various rooms in each level. Don't be fooled by the dull, straightforward first level. That's just designed to get your feet wet with the game mechanics. The second level is where the game really picks up steam. However, I do feel like Kirby is a little too overpowered at times, and the game got kind of tedious because of that. The trouble with the original Kirby's Dream Land is that it's been done much better later on, and that brings me to Kirby's Dream Land 2, which is a classic sequel in every sense, and that it improves on the original in just about every area. In this game, King Dedede is back, this time using Dark Matter to steal Rainbow Bridges. Sure, okay. There's two major improvements made in the core gameplay in Kirby's Dream Land 2. First and most obvious right away are Kirby's companions. There's Rick the Hamster, who you can ride. He's much faster than Kirby. There's Kine the Sunfish, who can swim underwater, and there's Kuu the Owl, who can fly and allow Kirby to do his normal attack in the air. The second mechanic is that Kirby can absorb certain enemies' abilities after inhaling them by simply pressing the down button. This mechanic was originally introduced in Kirby's Adventure for NES, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work fantastic in Kirby's Dream Land 2. I love how this is done here, and along with Kirby's new companions, these new features give this game a ton of variety, and the level design is up to the task as well, providing a bit more of a challenge than its predecessor. Don't get me wrong, the original Kirby's Dream Land is still fantastic. After all, it has probably the best Game Boy soundtrack ever. It's just that in this day and age, we've been spoiled because we're already so used to Kirby's unique abilities. They were seen as a novelty in the original game, so while it still has its charm, it's not going to age as well. Kirby's Dream Land 2 is a lot more polished with more variety. Anyway, you obviously can't go wrong with either of these two games. They're both available on the 3DS Virtual Console. Kirby's Dream Land is a classic that introduces some unique ideas into a 2D platformer, but Kirby's Dream Land 2 really stands out as something special, and as a result has got to be a top 5 original Game Boy game. It's absolutely worth going out of your way to play it.