The DeLorean: Kirby's Dreamland

It's not technically afternoon yet, but it will probably be by the time I'm finished with this post, so good afternoon. I'm starting a new series of blog posts today called The DeLorean. The premise is simple: Every Saturday, I take you on a guided tour of my early childhood by unearthing that era's pop culture relics. I'll usually start off with a breif history of whatever nostalgic thing I'm spotlighting, for all of you that don't know about it, and then reminisce about what made it unique or special to me. So, let's park the DeLorean around 2001, inside a doctor's office.

Now, most likely, it was either me or my brother sitting on that examining table (our mom usually brought us both along.) And, if you were the lucky brother that day, i.e. not getting your ears and such checked, you'd be sitting there with a Gamboy Color, prodding at it while the other of the pair was brought through a gamut of testing. For all of you playing along at home, the Game Boy Color looked like this:

Ahhh, the memories! (Ours was yellow, too.)

We had three games: Pokemon Blue, Dr. Mario, and Kirby's Dreamland. My brother, being older, automatically took to Pokemon (that was the craze back then!) with its complex statistical gameplay. I, on the other hand, always had Kirby in the cartridge slot.

Now, for those of you unaware of Kirby, he sucks. Literally. You see, your goal in Kirby is very Mario-esque: get to the end of the level, jumping platforms and defeating enemies, often with a "boss", a powerful foe that takes many hits to defeat, at the end of the level. Kirby's gimmick however, is that he could open his mouth and suck in enemies and other objects. From here, he could either spit them at other enemies or swallow them to gain thier powers. For example, if you have an enemy who attacks by breating fire, you can swallow him and be able to breathe fire yourself. If you have an enemy that can roll up into a ball and charge at you, you can swallow her and be able to do the same. There's one level I remember where you fight a giant evil tree (knock on wood!), There are no enemies to suck. Instead, the tree shakes down giant, bowling-ball sized apples that roll at you, damaging your health. To win, you've got to suck these apples in and spit them at the tree. (This is depicted on the game's box art above.)

What drew me to the Super Tough Pink Puff was a combination of original gameplay (eating enemies?!!) and the fact that it was challenging, but not pull-your-hair-out in frustration difficult. This made it perfect for my younger hand, who weren't at the time accostumed to games. This is a game that bridges gaps between young and old gamers, casual and seasoned gamers, male and female gamers, the list goes on. Nobody, and I mean nobody, will say no to a good Kirby game, making it a perfect gift for a son, daughter, niece, younger cousin, or nephew.

And I'm also happy to report that the Kirby games have stayed strong to this day, unlike other games that seem to have faltered (coughSonicTheHedgehogcough). Kirby has made many appearences on many other gaming systems, both handheld and console. These including the Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, and DS. (The DS game Kirby Superstar Ultra, a remake of the game Kirby Superstar for the Super Nintendo, is REALLY good. When we lost our original Gameboy Kirby cartridge, I quickly used some birthday money to snap that one up, and it doesn't dissapoint.)

I must add, however, that Kirby has not made a showing on the Wii, as of this writing. He does appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but he does that alongside a host of other characters that already have a game series, so it doesn't count. (PLEASE, Nintendo, give Kirby a Wii game, PLEASE!)

Overall, the Kirby series is proof that an original premise can sell a game, and because of that premise, it was a hallmark of childhood.

I'll see you tomorrow for a news post, and be back here next Saturday for another DeLorean.

There is no, life I know, to compare with pure imagination!

See you tomorrow!

Tomato

P.S. Check out this music from Kirby's Dreamland. Such an earworm, Green Greens!

EDIT; ARGGHH! Spacing issues. When I put a space with Enter, it just ignores it. Anyone know how to fix this?