“ | Rick the hamster, Kine the fish, and Coo the owl debuted in this game. These friends not only helped out by carrying Kirby. They also interacted with Copy Abilities in different ways, adding to Kirby's arsenal.” |
— Summary • Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition |
Kirby's Dream Land 2 is a platformer Kirby game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It was released in Japan on March 21, 1995, in North America on May 1, 1995, in Europe on July 31, 1995, and in Australia on November 22, 1995. The third main installment in the Kirby series (and second of the Dream Land saga), it continues the adventures of Kirby from Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Adventure, adding three Animal Friends to aid Kirby in battle against Dark matter and his forces.
Kirby's Dream Land 2 was also re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2012. It was re-released on Nintendo Switch Online on March 16th, 2023.
Story[]
“ | Kirby lives in the rainbow islands of Dream Land. The rainbows that connect the islands have been stolen by the evil Dark Matter! Dark Matter has taken control of King Dedede and wants to turn Dream Land into a dark world. With the help of three friends, Kirby sets out on his latest quest to save Dream Land.” |
— Story of the Rainbow Islands • Kirby's Dream Land 2 Instruction Booklet |
The plot follows Kirby, a resident of Dream Land. The rainbow bridge that connects the Rainbow Islands has been stolen by an evil being called Dark Matter, who, intent on conquering Dream Land, has possessed King Dedede. With his trusty Warp Star, Kirby sets out to defeat Dark Matter, accompanied by his new Animal Friends.
When Kirby confronts the possessed king and defeats him without having collected each level's Rainbow Drop, the player encounters the game's "bad ending"; an enemy roll-call is shown as Kirby and the Animal Friends traverse back home in the rain. At the end of the roll-call, a mysterious silhouette of a figure is shown, labeled "!?", and Kine will look up quizzically.
The game's "good ending" is obtained by collecting all Rainbow Drops. Once Dedede is defeated, the Rainbow Drops will combine above Kirby to form the Rainbow Sword, and Kirby will rise to space to face Dark Matter, first in his swordsman form and then in his standard form. After the defeat of Dark Matter, Kirby begins to fall from the sky. As the Animal Friends and King Dedede look on, Kirby grabs the Rainbow Sword and uses it to form a rainbow across the sky.
Gameplay[]
Kirby's Dream Land 2 is a platforming video game in which Kirby is able to walk, swim, and fly throughout a variety of levels, using several allies and enemy powers in order to reach the goal at the end of each level. However, a variety of obstacles lie in his path. These obstacles range from pits to enemies. If Kirby touches an enemy or is hit by an enemy's attack, Kirby will lose one bar of health (out of six total health points).
The game is also playable on the Super Game Boy, which gives slight changes to the game. These include a custom color scheme, a special game border, and a few new sampled sound effects, such as the sound of wind blowing. These are not included in the 3DS Virtual Console version.
Controls[]
For Wii Remote controls in Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition, refer to here.
Move | Controls | Description |
---|---|---|
Fly | Kirby inhales air, then flies upward. Kirby remains in this form until is pressed. | |
Enter door | Kirby enters a door. | |
Swallow → Copy special power | Kirby swallows the inhaled object. If the object in question grants a Copy Ability, Kirby gets said ability. | |
Sit down | Kirby crouches down. This allows him to swallow enemies he inhaled and avoid some enemy attacks. | |
Drop through thin floor | Kirby drops through thin floors. | |
Moves Kirby | Kirby walks in the intended direction. | |
Jump | Kirby jumps up into the air. | |
Inhale → Exhale | Kirby inhales in front of him to try to suck in nearby objects. If Kirby has something in his mouth already, he spits it out as a star projectile. | |
Use water gun in water | Kirby shoots a waterspout to attack enemies or destroy certain blocks. | |
Use air gun in the air | Kirby exhales the air that he inhaled, damaging enemies in the process. Kirby then falls to the ground shortly after. |
Move | Controls | Description |
---|---|---|
Fly | Kirby inhales air, then flies upward. Kirby remains in this form until is pressed. | |
Enter door | Kirby enters a door. | |
Swallow → Copy special power | Kirby swallows the inhaled object. If the object in question grants a Copy Ability, Kirby gets said ability. | |
Sit down | Kirby crouches down. This allows him to swallow enemies he inhaled and avoid some enemy attacks. | |
Drop through thin floor | Kirby drops through thin floors. | |
Moves Kirby | Kirby walks in the intended direction. | |
Jump | Kirby jumps up into the air. | |
Inhale → Exhale | Kirby inhales in front of him to try to suck in nearby objects. If Kirby has something in his mouth already, he spits it out as a star projectile. | |
Use water gun in water | Kirby shoots a waterspout to attack enemies or destroy certain blocks. | |
Use air gun in the air | Kirby exhales the air that he inhaled, damaging enemies in the process. Kirby then falls to the ground shortly after. |
Kirby's basic abilities include walking, jumping, floating, swimming, Air Gun, and inhaling. By continuously holding , Kirby can reach any height (unless something prevents him from reaching that height). At any time when Kirby has inhaled air, he can exhale by either landing on the ground or by pressing . When the air is released, Kirby will exhale a puff of air, which can be used to damage enemies or destroy blocks.
Inhaling objects, enemies, and food is Kirby's trademark ability. To inhale anything, the player must hold down . Kirby can then indefinitely inhale, and if an enemy, object, or food is in range, Kirby will inhale it into his mouth. When food is inhaled, it is automatically swallowed and will heal Kirby if he has any damage. When Kirby inhales an enemy or object, it remains in his mouth. At this point, Kirby can shoot them out as a star (causing damage to anything in its path), or simply swallow them. When certain enemies are swallowed, Kirby will gain their ability, such as ice breath or the ability to turn into a stone.
Animal Friends[]
Kirby's Dream Land 2 introduces three new allies to aide him in his adventure: Rick the hamster, who allows Kirby to ride on his back; he runs faster and doesn't slip on ice; Coo the owl, who can carry Kirby and fly through harsh winds and allows Kirby to inhale while flying; and Kine the ocean sunfish, who can carry Kirby in his mouth and swim through waters (even against currents) with ease (although he performs poorly on land), with him Kirby can inhale underwater. Whenever Kirby is aided by an Animal Friend, his current power is altered. For example, if Kirby has the Spark ability while he rides on Rick, he can use an attack very similar to the beam attack from Kirby's Adventure.
Animal Friends are always found in small rooms with enemies in it, they are hanging from the roof inside a sack. In order to free them, Kirby must defeat all enemies in the area, including mid-bosses. If Kirby beats a room in which he is supposed to get an animal friend he's already with, the sack will instead contain Gooey, a friendly blob who will heal the character partially; on rare occasions, a female version of Gooey will appear, who will grant Kirby a 1UP. Her appearance adds 1% to the completion of the game. (In the Japanese version, this female Gooey is instead Chao.)
Modes[]
Main Games[]
- Story Mode
Sub-games[]
Main article: Bonus Chance |
With the exception of King Dedede's stage, after defeating a boss, the player be able to re-enter the stage to play a star-catching mini-game. Depending on the boss level, Kirby must evade any harmful objects while catching all the stars; this is required to achieve 100% completion. If Kirby gets hit once, he will be taken out of the level immediately and the stage's entrance will be closed, only opening again when the player beats any other level.
After achieving 100% completion, three options are unlocked in the main menu: the music room, Boss Endurance, and a more practical version of Bonus Chance. In this iteration, the player goes through the bosses' respective courses one after another. After completing them, a screen shows the total amount of stars collected, along with a corresponding performance grade.
Goal Game[]
The goal game is similar to that in Kirby's Adventure. Both times, the player must launch Kirby with the right timing, but now to defeat foes and earn items. The Easter egg that grants Kirby 30 1UPs (achieved by landing on clouds 7-1 in order) is not present.
Characters[]
Playable Characters[]
Animal Friends[]
Allies[]
The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help) |
Enemies[]
Blade | Blipper | Bouncy Ty | Bronto Burt | Broom Hatter | Butch | Cappy | Co-Kracko | Crack-Tweet | Elieel | Explosive Coconut | Flamer | Floaty the Drifter | Glunk | Gordo | Kabu | Lord Kibble | Masher | Master Pengy | Mumbies | Poppy Bros. Jr. | Propeller Bomb | Rocky | Scarfy | Shotzo | Slippy | Sparky | Spikey | Squishy | Tincell | Waddle Dee
Mid-Bosses[]
Blocky | Captain Stitch | Efreeti | Jumper Shoot | Master Green | Mr. Frosty | Waiu
Bosses[]
Whispy Woods | Nruff and Nelly | Sweet Stuff | Ice Dragon | Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright | Kracko | King Dedede | Dark Matter
Copy Abilities[]
There are 8 Copy Abilities in Kirby's Dream Land 2, all of which return from Kirby's Adventure except Rainbow Sword.
Burning |
Cutter |
Ice |
Needle |
Parasol |
Rainbow Sword |
Spark |
Stone |
Items and Objects[]
The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help) |
Rainbow Drop • Rainbow Sword • Star Maxim Tomato Energy Drink
Levels[]
Grass Land | Big Forest | Ripple Field | Iceberg | ||||||||
Red Canyon | Cloudy Park | Dark Castle |
Music[]
Main article: Kirby's Dream Land 2/Music |
Unlike the original Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Dream Land 2’s soundtrack was composed by both Hirokazu Ando and Tadashi Ikegami, both regular composers for HAL Laboratory.
Glitches[]
Main article: Glitch#Kirby's Dream Land 2 |
Reception[]
Kirby's Dream Land 2 was a hit and became a bestseller for Game Boy, selling more than two million units worldwide. [2] It was also a critical success, holding a score of 81.70% on Game Rankings based on 4 reviews.[3]
Staff[]
Main article: List of Kirby's Dream Land 2 Staff |
Related Quotes[]
“ | While Kirby swallows enemies in order to copy their powers, Gooey wraps them up in his tongue to steal their abilities. In Kirby's Dream Land 2, he occasionally appeared inside of a bag, but by Kirby's Dream Land 3, he was a full-fledged partner. He could be controlled by setting him up as Player Two.” |
— Gooey trophy description • Super Smash Bros. Melee |
Trivia[]
- Only three of Kirby's Animal Friends are present in Kirby's Dream Land 2. These are Rick, Coo, and Kine. The rest make their debut in Kirby's Dream Land 3.
- This game has less Copy Abilities (excluding Final Weapons and including the Power Combos) than any other game in the main series, with only seven.
- Excluding Power Combos, however, this game is tied with Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for having the least amount of Copy Abilities.
- If the player gets the bad ending (by not collecting all seven Rainbow Drops), Kirby and his Animal Friends will walk in the rain, and the game's enemy cast will start. Seven enemies use a name that isn't used in any other game:
- Floaty the Drifter is referred to as "Drifter" in future appearances.
- Crack-Tweet is referred to as "Egg" and "Chick" in Kirby's Pinball Land and "Hatched Chick" in Kirby's Dream Buffet.
- Bouncy Ty is referred to as "Bouncy" in future appearances.
- Propeller Bomb is referred to as "Propeller" in future appearances.
- Lord Kibble (mistranslated as "Load Kibble") is referred to as "Sir Kibble" in all other appearances, excluding different spellings of the name, such as Sirkibble (with the only exceptions being the Japanese version of Kirby: Triple Deluxe, where its keychain from Kirby's Dream Land 2 is called ロードキブル, which is "Load Kibble"/"Lord Kibble"; and Kirby's Dream Buffet, where the Character Treat for the Kirby's Dream Land 2 appearance is "Lord Kibble").
- Sir Slippy is referred to as "Slippy" in all other appearances.
- Master Pengy is referred to as "Pengy" in all other appearances.
- Jumpershoot is referred to as "Jumper Shoot" in future appearances.
- This is the only game in which Dark Matter is the primary antagonist and final boss in the main series.
- If the player maxes out the game's point counter by earning 9,999,999 points, every point-granting object that Kirby touches grants him a 1UP. This is because 1UPs are awarded when Kirby amasses a certain number of points, and since his score cannot go any higher, every point-earning opportunity yields 1UPs.
- Issue 72 of Nintendo Power erroneously states that Kirby's Dream Land 2 offers the player limited continues. In reality, the game offers unlimited continues.
- Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby Star Allies, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe are the only games in the Kirby series to save the player's life count.
- In the Music Room in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby's Dream Land 2 is represented by an image of the number two on a checkered background. This is the same two used in Kirby's Dream Land 2’s logo. The checkered background is also featured.
- A rearrangement of Kirby's Dream Land 2’s title music was used as the music for one area in Great Cave Escape in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. This rearrangement is called "Go for the Giant Star."
- This is the first Kirby game where the box art of western releases features artwork that is similar to the artwork on the Japanese box art.
- This is the only mainline Kirby game that does not feature Invincible Candy.
- In North America, Kirby's Dream Land 2 was released exactly 2 years after Kirby's Adventure.
- This is the first entry in the Dark Matter trilogy, which would be followed up by Kirby's Dream Land 3 & Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.