Kirby's Adventure is a 1993 platform game created by HAL Laboratory and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the second game in the Kirby series. The first game was Kirby's Dream Land, released in 1992 for the Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure is the first game in the series to include the Copy Ability, which lets the main character, Kirby, gain new powers by eating certain enemies. The game follows Kirby as he travels across Dream Land to fix the Star Rod after King Dedede breaks it into pieces and gives them to his followers.
Masahiro Sakurai returned as the game's director, a role he also held for Kirby's Dream Land. He introduced the Copy Ability to increase the game's difficulty and encourage repeated play, as the previous game was criticized for being too simple. The NES had more powerful hardware than the Game Boy, and programmers were experienced with this older technology, allowing HAL Laboratory to create detailed visuals. Kirby's Adventure was the first game to show Kirby in color. Sakurai had always intended for Kirby to be pink, which surprised other members of the development team.
Kirby's Adventure was praised for its responsive controls, diverse levels, and the Copy Ability. It was remade in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance with improved graphics and multiplayer features, titled Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. The original NES version was later released through Nintendo's Virtual Console, the Wii compilation disc Kirby's Dream Collection, the NES Classic Edition, the Nintendo Classics service, and with stereoscopic 3D support for the 3D Classics product line on the Nintendo 3DS. In later reviews, journalists have ranked it as one of the best games for the NES.
Gameplay
Kirby's Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling platform game, similar to its earlier version, Kirby's Dream Land (1992). In the game's story, a harmful character named Nightmare harms the Fountain of Dreams, which gives peaceful sleep to people in Dream Land. King Dedede takes the Star Rod that powers the fountain and gives parts of it to his friends to stop Nightmare. Kirby, the main character in the single-player game, mistakenly thinks Dedede stole the rod for bad reasons and tries to collect the pieces. After Kirby defeats Dedede and returns the rod to the fountain, Nightmare escapes into space to spread nightmares. Kirby follows him and uses the rod's power to defeat Nightmare.
Kirby keeps the same abilities from Kirby's Dream Land: he can move left or right, crouch, and jump. To attack, Kirby sucks in enemies or objects and throws them out as star-shaped bullets. He can also fly by inflating himself. While flying, Kirby cannot attack or use other abilities, but he can release a puff of air to stop flying, which can damage enemies or break blocks. New abilities include running quickly and performing a sliding kick. A key part of the game is Kirby's copy abilities. By sucking in and swallowing certain enemies, Kirby gains powers based on the enemy's special ability. These copy abilities help Kirby reach new areas and complete levels in different ways. Some copy abilities can only be used a limited number of times. Kirby can choose to stop using an ability or lose it when hit by an enemy. If he does not regain the ability quickly, it disappears.
The game has 41 levels spread across seven worlds. Each world includes a lobby with doors leading to four to six regular levels, a boss fight, and a Warp Star door that lets Kirby return to earlier worlds. Most worlds also have minigames where Kirby can earn extra lives, museums where he can easily gain certain powers, and arenas where he battles a miniboss to earn health and copy the boss's special ability. The game automatically saves progress after each level. The goal of each main level is to reach the end. If Kirby touches an enemy or a dangerous object, he loses part of his health. If all his health is lost or he falls off the screen, the player loses a life. Losing all lives ends the game. Kirby can eat food items to restore health or gain temporary protection from harm.
Development
Kirby's Adventure was created by HAL Laboratory in Kōfu as a follow-up to their 1992 Game Boy game, Kirby's Dream Land, for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Masahiro Sakurai was the director and designer, and Takashi Saitou helped with the design. Hiroaki Suga was the lead programmer, while Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takao Shimizu were the producers. Iwata also helped with programming. According to Sakurai, development began in 1992 after he was asked to move Kirby's Dream Land to the NES. Since the Game Boy game was made for new players and the NES audience had more experience, Sakurai decided to create a new game instead. As a result, Kirby's Adventure has few similarities to Kirby's Dream Land: "Even though we could use the same pixel art for Kirby, the NES allowed us to do much more."
HAL Laboratory wanted to add more moves to Kirby's abilities. Kirby's Dream Land was designed for new players, but experienced players wanted more challenges. Sakurai wanted to keep the game simple but improve it so skilled players would enjoy it. This led to the creation of Copy Abilities, which allowed players to try new moves and increase replay value. HAL Laboratory made over 40 Copy Abilities, then chose their favorites for the final game. They also added minigames to avoid making the game seem too hard. These minigames were simpler than the main game. Kirby could now run faster and perform a slide attack to make the game faster.
Programmers used the NES hardware, which was ten years old by 1993, to create powerful features. Kirby's spit attack became stronger when he inhaled multiple enemies or objects, a feature they had wanted to add to Kirby's Dream Land. Kirby's Adventure was the first game to show Kirby in color. Sakurai always imagined Kirby as pink, but the Game Boy's black-and-white screen made him look white in Kirby's Dream Land. Other staff were surprised to learn Kirby was pink. Kirby's sprite was also made larger after players said he was too small in his Game Boy debut. Usually, game backgrounds are designed by someone who maps games, but for Kirby's Adventure, an artist drew the background pictures, which were then used by the mapper. According to Saitou, the backgrounds were meant to be "pretty enough just to look at on their own." Kirby's Adventure also introduced Meta Knight, who appears as an unnamed boss in one level.
The game was published by Nintendo in Japan on March 23, 1993, in North America on May 1993, and in Europe on September 12, 1993. It was released near the end of the NES's lifespan, ten years after the system launched in Japan. By 1993, most gamers had moved to 16-bit systems. However, the game topped the Famitsu sales chart in Japan in May 1993.
Rereleases
In October 2002, Nintendo released Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, an improved version of Kirby's Adventure for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Most of the game’s original levels and gameplay remained the same, but some changes were made, such as making hidden entrances easier to find and making boss battles harder. All of the graphics and sound effects were completely redesigned to use the GBA’s stronger technology. The game added new features, including three new mini-games, a cooperative multiplayer mode for up to four players, and an unlockable mode called "Meta Knightmare," where players control Meta Knight. According to Next Generation, the game sold 970,000 copies, earning $29 million. It sold out within three weeks, as reported by 4Kids Entertainment.
A version of Kirby's Adventure was released as a downloadable game for the Nintendo 3DS eShop in the West on November 17, 2011, and in Japan on April 25, 2012. As part of the 3D Classics series, this version includes support for the 3DS’s 3D effects. No other changes were made to the game.
Kirby's Adventure is also available through the Virtual Console, a digital service. It was released on the Wii Virtual Console worldwide in February 2007 and on the Wii U Virtual Console in April 2013. The Game Boy Advance version appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014. The original NES version is included in Kirby's Dream Collection (2012), a compilation celebrating the Kirby series’ 20th anniversary, and on the NES Classic Edition (2016) console. It was added to the Nintendo Classics service on February 13, 2019.
Reception
Most parts of Kirby's Adventure were praised in reviews from the time it was released. Critics said it was better than Kirby's Dream Land. Reviewers often mentioned the game's creative "copy ability," which lets Kirby copy enemies' powers, and its unique enemy designs. They also liked the large and varied levels, the responsive controls, and the bright, cute graphics and animations. Nintendo Power noted the game was harder than its playful look might suggest. Joypad said the game was meant for younger players and gave two scores: one for players under 12 and one for older players, with the younger group scoring higher. They compared it to Tiny Toon Adventures (1991) by Konami, saying Tiny Toon Adventures had better graphics and sound, but Kirby's Adventure had smoother animations and more original ideas. Some reviewers said Kirby's character image was too small. GamePro named Kirby's Adventure the 1993 NES Game of the Year.
Later reviews of the game's release on the Wii Virtual Console were also positive. IGN called it one of the best NES games and one of the system's greatest achievements in visuals and sound. Eurogamer said it was one of the best Kirby games and agreed with IGN, noting that the game's parallax scrolling (background movement) and colorful characters showed how much developers could do with the NES near the end of its life. Racketboy praised the game's visuals, saying the bright colors made the 8-bit graphics look as beautiful as possible. Nintendo Life and GameSpot said the game pushed the NES's technical limits. Reviewers again praised the game's originality, cuteness, and variety of levels. GameSpot said the game remained enjoyable over time but noted it was short and easy. Some critics also said the game was too short and not challenging enough. For the 3D Classics version, the 3D effect was seen as less impressive than in games like Excitebike and TwinBee, which used parallax and depth effects better.
The graphics for the GBA remake were well received. GameSpot highlighted improvements like multiple layers of scrolling and transparency effects. However, they said the visuals were not as strong as other GBA games like Yoshi's Island and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. New minigames and multiplayer modes were praised for adding replay value. Since the main gameplay and level design were based on the original, they were generally praised but criticized again for being short and easy. GameSpy said the game was best suited for younger players watching the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! at the time. GameSpot agreed, saying the game was not as deep as Metroid Fusion or Yoshi's Island but was better for younger players or those who enjoy simple, fun games. Eurogamer said it was hard to recommend the game at full price because it was only a remake and not long enough.
Legacy
Game journalists have often named Kirby's Adventure one of the best games for the NES. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked it as the 69th best game on a Nintendo console. IGN also listed it as the 84th best "Nintendo game" in a similar list. In August 2006, Next Generation ranked Nightmare in Dream Land as the 17th best handheld video game of the 2000s.
The Copy Ability, introduced in Kirby's Adventure, became a common feature in Kirby's gameplay. This game was also the first Kirby game to include hidden items that players could find to unlock special rewards, a feature that later appeared in other Kirby games. Meta Knight became a character that players could control in the Super Smash Bros. series, beginning with Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008.
The multiplayer mode in the remake of Nightmare in Dream Land reused the yellow color used for a second-player Kirby in Kirby's Dream Course (1994). This yellow color was originally suggested by Shigeru Miyamoto for Kirby before the first Kirby's Adventure game was released. In later games, yellow became a common color for second-player Kirbys in the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series, often serving as the default color for the second player.