Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES, 1997)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-8* Challenge-6 Story-?
Level Design-6 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*Varies a bit depending on animal and ability
+
Similar art style to Yoshi's Island
Similar atmosphere to SMB3
Four different animals to 'ride' (see KDL2 GB) with different moves (flight, triple jump, swimming)
Pretty fast paced overall
Good bosses overall (two phases)
Mini-bosses
Decent mini-games
Hidden star collecting (different objectives like not destroying certain objects, collecting objects, mini-games, mini-bosses or carrying an item to the exit)
Some interesting mechanics (spawn a blue blob that follows you around, you can eat it once per level to regain health)
Nice cutscenes between levels, good animation
2-player coop
+/-
Very forgiving hit detection (both ways, one exception is lava platforms where it's much tighter)
Respawning enemies
Ability/animal system could've been more flexible if you could switch animals on the fly instead of changing in specific rooms
Borrows cannon shooting from Sonic/DKC
Thirty levels
Enemies die from you walking into them (can be annoying when you want to get a specific ability)
-
Points of no return force you to replay levels to get hidden stars even though you knew what to do
Some dead space
Pointless sidetracking
Many simple and straightforward parts where you just run from left to right with no vertical scrolling
Star collection is not very rewarding
Some mini-games should've had text explanations
Many redundant or inefficient abilities (only two animals are useful on a regular basis)
Some trial & error (sudden autoscrolling segments, boss patterns, points of no return)
Some tedious parts (underwater currents, green blob maze (backtracking), UFO maze, slow autoscrolling segments)
Pretty shallow use for the abilites (block crushing)
Minor scrolling issues (too loose when turning around or entering a new area)
Items/enemies sometimes blend into the background
The blue blob messes with the camera, making it almost useless in 1-player mode
Inconsistent length on the fire dash attack (leads to cheap hits)
Slow acceleration when starting to move (see Sonic)
Running is done by double tapping instead of pressing a button
Can't pause during boss fights
Somewhat repetitive (repeating music and enemies)
Uneven difficulty (depending on if you happen to use the right animal/ability combo some parts can become much easier, cat + fire combo is overpowered)
Some generic sprites (your slime buddy for example)
Comment:
Kinda disappointed in this. KDL3 is a game full of odd design choices and unbalanced levels with a lot of filler in them (non-challenging areas as well as plain dead space). One of the game's more interesting aspects - collecting 'heart stars' to unlock an alternate end boss and some mini-games - is made tedious by points of no return and a rigid system for switching animals (they're needed to fulfil the objective in most levels, unlocking the item at the end), forcing the player to replay a level even though he/she already knows what to do. Another unique feature, a blue blob which mimics Kirby's every move, messes up the camera too much to be useful in 1-player mode. On the other hand, boss fights are good and the game looks and sounds great so it's not exactly a complete waste. Just make sure to play KDL1-2 and Super Star beforehand.
Level Design-6 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*Varies a bit depending on animal and ability
+
Similar art style to Yoshi's Island
Similar atmosphere to SMB3
Four different animals to 'ride' (see KDL2 GB) with different moves (flight, triple jump, swimming)
Pretty fast paced overall
Good bosses overall (two phases)
Mini-bosses
Decent mini-games
Hidden star collecting (different objectives like not destroying certain objects, collecting objects, mini-games, mini-bosses or carrying an item to the exit)
Some interesting mechanics (spawn a blue blob that follows you around, you can eat it once per level to regain health)
Nice cutscenes between levels, good animation
2-player coop
+/-
Very forgiving hit detection (both ways, one exception is lava platforms where it's much tighter)
Respawning enemies
Ability/animal system could've been more flexible if you could switch animals on the fly instead of changing in specific rooms
Borrows cannon shooting from Sonic/DKC
Thirty levels
Enemies die from you walking into them (can be annoying when you want to get a specific ability)
-
Points of no return force you to replay levels to get hidden stars even though you knew what to do
Some dead space
Pointless sidetracking
Many simple and straightforward parts where you just run from left to right with no vertical scrolling
Star collection is not very rewarding
Some mini-games should've had text explanations
Many redundant or inefficient abilities (only two animals are useful on a regular basis)
Some trial & error (sudden autoscrolling segments, boss patterns, points of no return)
Some tedious parts (underwater currents, green blob maze (backtracking), UFO maze, slow autoscrolling segments)
Pretty shallow use for the abilites (block crushing)
Minor scrolling issues (too loose when turning around or entering a new area)
Items/enemies sometimes blend into the background
The blue blob messes with the camera, making it almost useless in 1-player mode
Inconsistent length on the fire dash attack (leads to cheap hits)
Slow acceleration when starting to move (see Sonic)
Running is done by double tapping instead of pressing a button
Can't pause during boss fights
Somewhat repetitive (repeating music and enemies)
Uneven difficulty (depending on if you happen to use the right animal/ability combo some parts can become much easier, cat + fire combo is overpowered)
Some generic sprites (your slime buddy for example)
Comment:
Kinda disappointed in this. KDL3 is a game full of odd design choices and unbalanced levels with a lot of filler in them (non-challenging areas as well as plain dead space). One of the game's more interesting aspects - collecting 'heart stars' to unlock an alternate end boss and some mini-games - is made tedious by points of no return and a rigid system for switching animals (they're needed to fulfil the objective in most levels, unlocking the item at the end), forcing the player to replay a level even though he/she already knows what to do. Another unique feature, a blue blob which mimics Kirby's every move, messes up the camera too much to be useful in 1-player mode. On the other hand, boss fights are good and the game looks and sounds great so it's not exactly a complete waste. Just make sure to play KDL1-2 and Super Star beforehand.