The secret stuff has always been…weird, with Kirby. Call it a HAL Labs specialty. Usually they’re hidden well!
I am really really sure that Bronto Burt got exploded. I feel like I managed to suck him up as he exploded, leading to me consuming his nothingness.
So are all the enemies working for King Dedede or just hostile wildlife?
Depends! I imagine the birds and that house of Poppy bros are just like, people that Kirby runs into. The rest of them, especially the bosses and probably the minibosses, are Dedede’s friends.
The basic enemies are PROBABLY minions, though. Dedede is a stage boss, so he’s only friends with stage bosses and maaaybe minibosses, if they’re cool enough.
I couldn’t think of any Yogurt based jokes…
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR0cEIWwgFs”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [5] Yogurt Mountain Place[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 19:48[/B]
Starting us off: surprise I’m showing the turtle boss from the NES game now instead of later! Except it has come to my attention, due to looking at the footage while editing it, that hmm maybe this isn’t actually a turtle and it’s some kind of insect to fit the theme with Bugzzy. This is why LPs are important and cool, even in the most simple of ways they expand your mind to new horizons. Also, bosses that give you Throw or Suplex in this game can auto grab you instead of dealing contact damage and that’s a little rough, to be quite honest! Anyway, we beat him up and head off to the level proper.
So, the Yogurt Yard is where we really get our first jump in difficulty, I feel? It’s the first time the stages start like…really TRYING to put the harm on poor Kirby. It’s also when the puzzles and challenges that you need to solve and find the secret switches start actually becoming difficult. There aren’t any new powers this time around, so there’s nothing to talk about on that front, so let’s talk a bit about one of the powers we DO have. Specifically, Parasol/Umbrella. As you may of noticed (and I point out at one point during this) Kirby does contact damage and doesn’t take damage back if he’s falling so fast his head is facing downward. If you have Umbrella, you will never reach this state because you’re always drifting gently down with it. However…if you push down to close the umbrella, Kirby will immediately enter that state where he damages enemies on contact. So Umbrella’s actually quite useful for dealing damage in that sense too, and I think that’s just a really cool, unnoticed power of the ability. Also, we do find a new miniboss. The burning lion! This was my favorite miniboss as a kid because I mean it’s a cat that’s on fire and all cool and stuff what’s not to love? It gives the Burning power, obviously.
Some of the more complicated or sneaky tricks in these stages include that big “maze” of doors, where the secret is that one of the doors actually leads to a one up. This isn’t THAT big a deal, but it does test if you’re paying attention and notice Kirby always comes out of the door that he entered, if it is a two way door. So that’s a thing we might need to want to look out for in the future with other secret switches. The other really notable one in this world is the one with another of those cannons. You have to deftly avoid crushing the fire octopi with your face while eating the High Jump enemy to get that so you can clear the blocks in your path. Then you use fire to light the fuse and quickly get into the cannon so you can get fired onto the switch. It’s rather tricky to get down. And finally, in terms of compelling and interesting puzzles, we have the first instance ever in all of Kirby of needing to get a power from another stage and hold it until the end to hit a specific obstacle. In particular, metal blocks that many things can break, but only Hammer can break here since they’re under water. We must take Hammer with us from start to finish, avoiding the many many enemies they put in our path that will be more than willing than to bash the power star out of our hands. This is a classic (some would say overused…) type of challenge in Kirby, but I like it here.
Finally, we face off against the boss of the Yogurt Yard, Heavy Mole. This robotic digging machine follows a randomized path throughout the level, crunching his way through dirt that the hammer can also break, as an aside. He’s not the hardest boss, his only real main attack being to shoot a missile at you, but hitting him is pretty risky…especially when you’re like me and insist on using the Hammer because you have it and want to do it. Heavy Mole goes down fairly quickly, leaving us with the Yellow part of the Star Rod. It’s here, thanks to a friend (Pinkhaired August) that I realized that hey, each world in this game has started with the letter of one of the colours of the rainbow, and the cutscene that plays in the NES version has a border colour that matches that colour, and also the star rod piece itself looks that colour. It’s a pretty clever touch.
But yeah, that’s Kirby. Hope you all enjoyed, and I’ll see you guys next time for the Orange Ocean, which definitely has a chance of not fitting in one single video if things go really badly, I think. We’ll see.
Yogurt Yard has always been my least favorite world. 5-3’s first background is one of my least favorite because of how indistinct and weirdly-colored it is. And 5-6 is just mean. It doesn’t help that it’s the start on the game’s over-reliance on the Hammer ability.
I’m still a little sick, but how’s about a new Kirby.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8QDOoEIrSA”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [6] Pretty sure it’s orange cause it’s evening[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 17:31[/B]
It’s time to begin the Orange Ocean, the second last world of the game. The difficulty has ramped up for both the challenges and the puzzles, so it’s time to wrack our little Kirby brain as we explore the islands. Our first secret switch requires Hammer or Stone, and gives us neither, meaning the very first stage of this world requires a power from out of town. That kinda sucks, but we kept our hammer from last time for a reason! The second level ALSO requires Hammer or Stone, but does at least give you Stone…which I promptly lost. However, I found…a way around that, to be blunt. Then we have the rather elaborate puzzle on the good ship grapefruit, which requires Hammer or Burning to get down to the underside of the boat, smashing a block to reveal an entrance, and then getting Laser and intuiting that Laser can light fuses that are under water if it bounces towards them. This is always the hardest puzzle for me, I think, just given that’s rather clever and the fact that I’ve always kinda solved it using the NES method. At least in my head I have, because I have no memory of actually solving it correctly.
After dealing with the boat, we are then thrown into two random out of nowhere ice levels, which I find weird but given these levels have never really had any sense of connection I guess it’s fine? the first of them has a rather lengthy fuse chase which I think might be the hardest secret switch to get in the game, and the second requires you to find Burning, or still have Hammer, both out of level powers. Lame, but so it goes. The puzzles in this game always have this weird feel to them. The ones involving the steel blocks are out of place with the level, and often feel bad because it requires getting a power not from this level. The puzzles that require finding a secret door are either too obvious, or waaay to obtuse with regards to actually finding then, and are in fact like ten times worse on the NES since it often featured NO indication AT ALL those secret doors where there.
Given that this is Kirby’s second game, and specifically a remake that’s trying to capture the feel of the original while still updating it, I’m not surprised it ran into these problems. The NES version is a clear case of them just not knowing what it is they wanted to do, 100%, with Kirby. Which I think is GOOD, Kirby has this feeling of being a far vaster game then it really is because of it, and I’ve always held that Kirby is consistently and constantly the “best” designed Nintendo games just due to it’s desire to be easy to play and beat, as a sort of “baby’s first video game” but with full completion being quite difficult. Kirby’s Adventure wanted to have a cool hub world and levels with secrets in it that unlocked more of the hub world, and that’s pretty cool. Given it was a NES game, it was also PRETTY dang ambitious. I think it did it well, obtuseness of the hidden switches aside, but it’s still clearly got the jank and weirdness of being an early, experimental game. Later Kirb’s mesh the puzzles into the level design far better, while still making them not a pain to figure out, but that’ll be for another day. We’ve completed the Orange Ocean, and now it’s time to fight probably one of the best bosses in the game, and one of the most iconic moments in both Kirby, and in video games in general.
We enter the arena, and a sword falls from the ceiling. GET IT! It’s time to face our rival, Metaknight! Now, secretly, if you wait like 3 minutes, you don’t HAVE to use the sword…but why wouldn’t you? It’s an epic clash of sword vs sword. Metaknight is capable of doing basically everything with a sword you’d expect, and serves as a good example of how elaborate powers will get in the future cause Kirby eventually becomes able to do most of this stuff. Almost as if the mysterious masked man was training us. He can block, he can slice, he can sword plant, it’s all pretty fantastic. But in the end, Kirby’s able to beat him, slicing his mask in half to reveal…dun dun duuun, Metaknight is a kirby like Kirby! Embarrassed Metaknight teleports away using his magical cape, and we can move on to the Rainbow Resort…the final world of the game. Hope you guys are ready, I’ll see you all next time.
While it took me forever to find the secret the first time around, I do like the ship level in general. It’s a really cool tileset that only gets used the one time.
I believe that the UFO’s full charge is actually able to destroy metal blocks, so you don’t have to bring a powerup from outside of stage 6-6.
And so it ends…and yet, not.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5YvUOGROw”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [7] Rainbow Roundabout[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 25:34[/B]
We begin Rainbow Resort, the final level of the game. In terms of difficulty, this one actually steps back quite a bit. It’s still challenging, but the levels are a little shorter and a little easier than Orange Ocean’s. There’s also only two stages WITH secret switches, the first and last one. The first one is pretty obvious in how to get it, though the original NES version of that area is a total mess of the same type of block over and over again. The second secret switch is behind what is now a classic, iconic Kirby “thing”, going into the moon in the background. It’s pretty cool, I think, and the level it’s attached to (Kirby running through a bunch of Kirby’s Dream Land stuff) is also pretty dang cool. Other cool things we do in this world include the single hardest fuse race in the entire series, and a boss rush featuring almost every miniboss in the game…complete with a short cut that let’s you skip three of them. If you’re familiar with newer Kirby’s, you may notice that this layout of levels is actually quite familiar as well. That’s because Kirby’s always kinda doing this same kinda stuff for it’s final levels. A sort of exam on everything the game has put you through as the finale, plus a level bringing back feelings of the very first original Kirby for nostalgia reasons. It’s a formula they kind of perfected in the second game and have no reason to change, even now.
But, all good things must come to an end. Once we finish the final stage of the Rainbow Resort, it’s time for the final boss fight. Before is King Dedede, the massive penguin jerk that stole all the dreams of Dream Land. Umbrella in hand, it’s time to smack him around! King Dedede has all of the stuff he could do in the original Kirby’s Dream Land, just a little more advanced. He can do a super jump, he can hammer you a bunch, he can suck you in to shoot you at the wall, and he can float around. He’s not the most complicated of bosses, but his size plus the reduced screen size means it’s pretty hard to dodge him! But finally, we beat the penguin lord, and retrieve the final piece of the Star Rod, returning it to it’s red coloured glory. Kirby places it on the Fountain of Dreams, returning dreams to Dream Land.
And allowing the Nightmares to gush forth. As it turns out, King Dedede wasn’t the villain. He broke up the Star Rod to prevent this horrible eldritch being made of pure bad dreams from infecting Dream Land’s dreams with his nightmareish form. He was stuck inside the dried out fountain and oooops we just freed him. Dedede sucks up Kirby and the Star Rod and launches us into the air with a powerful blow! It’s time for the final bit of Kirby formula this game introduces: Kirby routinely and casually kills horrible elder gods that do NOT fit the aesthetic in terms of just how dark and horrifying they look…while still actually fitting the general aesthetic Kirby has going for it. It is fantastic, and part of why I do love Kirby as much as I do. They’re really fun games and great from a game design perspective, I just really love how from this point forward, every Kirby game ends with Kirby getting into a super charged fight with some Cthulhu esque hyper monster out of nowhere (though often heavily foreshadowed). It’s fantastic, and a good sign of how Kirby will basically just try WHATEVER and see if it works.
So, let’s discuss the Nightmare fight. Because ah…as you may recall from Dream Land, no Kirby game is complete without a shmup section, and this game is no different! The first phase is Kirby flying around with the Star Rod, vs Nightmare’s orb form. Nightmare shoots anti-stars at us in basic SHMUP bullet patterns, though he starts changing up how they react as he hits lower HP. We’re actually on a time limit on this one, since Kirby’s not ACTUALLY flying, just falling with style. We did get launched from Dedede, after all. If we run out of time Kirby will smash face first into Popstar at high speeds, exploding. It’s not pretty. Thankfully, we beat the Nightmare orb before this can happen, creating a warp star and flying off to the Moon for the final confrontation, wherein it is revealed Nightmare’s true form is that of a very rude wizard. In this form he’s only vulnerable in the twisty, spirit like body underneath his cloak. In this form he has more bullet curtain esque shooting patterns, but the game is no longer a SHMUP so you can just camp behind him to avoid literally everything he throws at you. This is not a hard boss and dying to it is shameful on my part. But yeah, we fight the evil space wizard, eventually destroying him utterly. The Moon tells us we unlocked Extra mode, a harder difficulty for Kirby’s basic game, and then explodes from how awesome that was, as Kirby flies off. We saved the day!..after ruining the already saved day. Oops. But hey, that’s Kirby.
And so ends Kirby’s Nightmare in Dream Land…but not the Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land LP (note the 's back there). You see, as you may of noticed, we unlocked Extra Mode back there. I won’t be going through that except on my own time. But once that’s beat, we’ll have unlocked Meta Knightmare, a harder version of the game without any saving where we play as Meta Knight himself! Which I WILL be going through, so stay tuned for that. But for now, it’s time to rest. Hope you all have a good day.
Excellent and well done, was worried we wouldn’t see Meta’s soft blue cuddly face.
Also just a note, you can totally record this at 60fps to fix weird gba flicker effects on youtube and it’ll totally be supported as of a couple years ago. I dunno what you’re using to record but I know the rerecording branch of visualboy advance works for recording at 60fps easily without desynching audio and video framerates like the base version used to - get the footage with a lossless codec, nearest-neighbor upscale it so youtube considers it 720p minimum (I do it 6x to 1440 by 960, 5x might also work not sure if YT reads that as 480p or 720p), and then when people view it at 720p or higher they’ll get the 60fps non-broken version. I imagine even if you’re using some other method of recording there’s an option somewhere to record at the source framerate.
I’m using OBS and to be honest just like turning the emulator’s sound up so I don’t have to up in it editing, I’m just a lazy derp and haven’t fixed it to 60 FPS. I’ll do it for Meta Knightmare, and will probably go beat up Nightmare again to show off the full 60fps death scream of the guy.
I hope you’ve all prepared your best faux spanish accents. It’s Meta Knightmare time.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj8WUjOxXFI”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [8] Vegan Sundae[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 14:30[/B]
First off, we show off the full Nightmare death sequence just for fun, then show off the little image we get for 100% clearing Extra Mode. Kirby says I’m amazing and I’m not one to argue with someone so cute. But yes, with Extra Mode beaten, we have unlocked Meta Knightmare, and with it the next half of this LP. Meta Knightmare is a mode exclusive to the GBA version, which has us playing as Meta Knight with an expanded sword moveset, that can solve any puzzle in the game. Like Extra Mode, you start with two lives and only have three health blips, and like the NES version’s Extra Mode, there is NO saving. So we’ve got to beat this all at once, which…is decidedly tricky!
Meta Knight is faster than Kirby, for better or worse. His move speed and jumping is faster, but his flight is strangely less agile than Kirby’s and far harder to control. Kirby’s got way better aerial control than him, and he’s a blimp, and that’s embarrassing to our bat winged friend over here. Regardless, what he lacks in flight he makes up for in power! Meta Knight is a master swordsmen, with a number of sword attacks to tackle any situation. He even has an unstated dash attack, though it’s just a slightly longer ranger, slower to recover from normal slash. It’s a good move set, and a good example of what Kirby powers will eventually become. Seems like someone’s been doing some training under the cool blue puff ball.
But yeah all that said, there really isn’t much to say about Meta Knightmare mode? It doesn’t change any of the actual enemies, they all act the same as in Extra Mode, which is to say they all act the same as the regular game. The energy drink sodas scattered around heal for one instead of two, and that’s really the only major mechanical change from the base mode. Other than the three health blips, of course. So yeah, not much in the way of commentary on this one folks, mostly just enjoying the music and Meta Knight’s sword play.
Metakinght has an appreciation for art because he is a noble warrior, not just a bloodthirsty killer.
I feel like I’m obligated to post the Kirby Cafe’s “Parfait that Metaknight secretly eats every night” image. I think I will.
I’m glad that “Meta Knight the Cool Swordsman is actually a huge dork” is basically canon, or is at least commonly accepted as such.
More of this.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1b4DrjtX6g”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [9] Buttery Wine[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 18:39[/B]
We take on the Butter Building and the Grape Garden, and discover that uh…dying in this mode doesn’t actually matter! Way to take then teeth out of your hardest challenge guys. Like, on the one handed, “clear this mode in one sitting and if you game over you have to restart entirely” is WAY too brutal for Kirby, and is a degree of difficult that might actually slip into being Bad. But on the other hand, it’s a really sudden anti-spike in difficulty. In a perfect world, game overing would probably just make you restart the current world. It’s basically how other Meta Knightmare modes in later games work, because those modes have save points. I guess game overing causes you to take a minor penalty on your time score but that’s really not that big a deal at all, to be honest.
That all said, the mode’s still fun. Slice and dice!
More thiiiiis! We’re almost done folks.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb7phaKHd_o&t=2s”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [10] Mandarin Parfait[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 20:58[/B]
In this episode, we fight our way through Heavy Mole, and Meta Knight himself! That’s it. That’s really all I have to say. This has been fun though, but I’ll be glad to finish it off next time.
The final Kirb appears.
[B][URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7O80cQ9FSw”]Zodi Plays: Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land [11] The Nightmare Ends[/URL][/B]
[B]Video Length: 11:41[/B]
And so we take on the Rainbow Resort, the final stage of the game, as Meta Knight. It’s not that tough. We slice and dice our way through things, climb the miniboss tower, so all the puzzles and get 100% clear even though you don’t actually get anything for it in this mode, and face off against the great King himself. We beat him up, and are rewarded with a nice little splash of Meta Knight standing on a mountain all badass posing. And that’s it. It’s a pretty anemic game mode, to be blunt, but it’s fun. And so ends the Kirb LP.
I’d like to thank you all for watching and posting. I realize the last few videos haven’t been the best due to it just being me finishing off the last little extra mode this game has to offer, but I like to think it was at least enjoyable. The actual LP was the good part of this anyway. Thank you all for joining me on this adventure.
Next up on the schedule is me picking a game to play from my Patrons, so coming this Friday is [B][URL=“https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/52/Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles_battle1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080928184934”]Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles[/URL][/B]. Get hyped.
Right, @moderators I keep on forgetting to do this. This thread is done, can be moved to the archive thread, keep it open if people wanna say stuff.
