3.5/5 ★ – Amogus's review of Kirby's Dream Land 3.

This is the game that made me write my first review here. Kirby's Dream Land 3 is an underrated mess of a game. First of all, the buttons are changed from past and even later games, so unless it's your first Kirby game, it doesn't matter when you're playing it—you'll need to figure out what button does what again since the game never tells you. And that's something this game has a lot of, which is miscommunication. For anyone interested in the "special" controls this game has in comparison with other Kirby games: Copy ability: B → Y Jump: A → B Goopey (second player/help): A Goopey could've easily been mapped to Y while the other controls stayed the same, but either way, you get used to it after a while. It depends on how familiar you are with Kirby. Second thing, this game is SO slow. I spent most of my time running in each level since, in this game, Kirby has the lowest base speed in the entire franchise, and for some reason, he also has the fastest running speed too. This makes the level design so frustrating when dealing with a lot of enemies or bosses, since you either get hit for not moving fast enough or go way too fast, to the point where the camera doesn't catch up and you hit an enemy off-screen. Animal Friends feel like a huge downgrade compared to Dream Land 2. In that game, they were part of the level design and sometimes even a little bit broken (Coo with Cutter). Here, they're just there. You don't need them to complete different parts of a level. You don't need to earn them either since you'll get them from a door in different sections of a level. There's no point aside from their special copy abilities or to get the hearts for the true ending and 100%, which leads to the worst aspect of the game. This is one of those games where you'll only beat it and have fun doing it with a guide on hand. You need to do some specific task on each level to get a heart from a character at the end. Sounds easy. The problem is that the game doesn't tell you what you need to do or how to do it. The only way it "explains" the challenge is through a little jingle that plays when you encounter the object you're looking for or something else that lets you complete the task. If you manage to do so, it'll let you know by playing another jingle. Even with a guide, some of the challenges are really confusing. There is one level where you literally need to connect a second controller so Gooey can ride an Animal Friend and teleport with you to a point you otherwise wouldn't reach in order to get a piece for that level's challenge. When playing Dream Land 2, I also used a guide to find the Rainbow Drops. The thing is that in Dream Land 2, you knew you had to find those. Here, each challenge varies from one another, and unlike Dream Land 2, where you needed six or seven collectibles, here you need one per level, which can get really boring after a while, especially considering how long each level is. Some things I find really good about this game are how well some Animal Friends control. My favorite one was the cat, and I believe the triple jump is way better than Kirby's infinite float—it's refreshing having some platforming like that. The visuals also look pretty good; they still hold up after many years, and when you take a second to look at the screen, you'll notice everything moves all the time. There's not a frame where some sprite stays still, aside from some platforms. The OST is pretty good too, with many iconic themes from the franchise and one or two remixes that sound much better with the new hardware they worked with. For my final thoughts, if you really want to enjoy this game: Open a guide for each level's challenge. Play it on Switch Online or an emulator with a rewind feature. Learn the controls beforehand. That's all for this game. I may have skipped something, but this is the most I can remember for now. Solid 8/10 with guides 6.5/10 by itself