Cgrundertow Kirby's Dream Collection for Nintendo Wii Video Game Review

Zelda gets its own symphony, Mario gets everything, Metroid gets...um...Mario gets everything! You know, for a company that has as many icons as Nintendo, they sure seem to have a tiny spotlight. And so...if only because it’s nice to see someone else get some time at center stage, I’m thrilled about Kirby’s Dream Collection. Go ahead, Kirby. Eat it up. I meant...I meant the spotlight. It’s a figure of speech, you hog. Of course, we shouldn’t have expected anything less from Nintendo’s gluttonous globule of gregarious gulletry. That means he’s a fatty who people like. Kirby’s been eating his way into people’s hearts for 20 years now, and to celebrate the occasion, Nintendo has compiled six of his earliest core platformers onto a single disc. Now, the key thing with any collection are the games themselves. And fortunately, the selection here is just stellar. There are some classic platformers in this group, and more importantly, they actually play great on the Wii. Playing with the Wii Remote on its side instantly feels natural, even for the N64 and Super Nintendo games. So what about the games individually? Well, the highlights are obviously that classic triad of Kirby’s Adventure, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and Kirby’s Super Star. Those three games are incredible to this day, particularly the first two in terms of what they were achieving given their hardware. Having them all together like this is an awesome reminder of just how good Kirby games have been over the years. And they’ve held up very well. In fact, they’ve held up so well, Nintendo didn’t even have to make any adjustments. Which...might be an issue for some people. These are meticulous emulations, which means no extras, no new content, no improved anything. Just the original games as they were and always have been. The purist in me likes that, but it would be nice if I could get to the main menu from individual games...rather than having to reset the system. Again...meticulous. Of course, the fun with a collection like this is the history and extras, and that’s where Nintendo did a really nice job. The package comes with a little history book on the Kirby series and a 45-song Kirby soundtrack...and on the disc itself, you can get information and video of every Kirby game ever and three episodes of the Kirby anime. Throw in a selection of new challenge levels, updated from the versions in Return To Dream Land, and you have a nice little package and a fun celebration of the series. Kirby doesn’t get as much credit as his peers, and to be honest, he’s not exactly the originator that Mario or Donkey Kong or Link were. But to their credit, the Kirby games have always been more taking a creative approach to existing ideas. Why not eat the enemies? Why not use their own weapons against them? Why not ride a hamster? Without Kirby, the world may never have known. It’s the fantastic and nostalgic Kirby’s Dream Collection. Happy birthday, fatso.