19th September 2012, 8:31 PM
It's a great collection for those who missed out on some or all of the older Kirby games. While it doesn't have the "spinoff" titles, it has every main platformer Kirby game up to the N64, so excluding the Gameboy Advance on up.
So, it's got:
Kirby's Dreamland 1, 2 & 3
Kirby's Adventure
Kirby Super Star
Kirby 64
It also has some new "challenge mode" stages built with the engine from Return to Dreamland, a "history" of the franchise, and a few episodes of the cartoon.
The games aren't enhanced in any real way aside from adding "suspend" functionality. The games aren't ported either, rather they are emulated. The emulation is done well though, with one glaring exception. Each game has it's own border and is put into the proper aspect ratio from the start, notably unlike virtual console games downloaded from Nintendo's store. During each game, the "home" button also pulls up an option for a different manual for each game.
Kirby's Dreamland 2 is that exception I alluded to above. The game was a Gameboy game with Super Gameboy support. It was one of the few SGB games that actually did a really good job with the coloring. Stages had appropriate color schemes and stationary scenes like the opening, the little cartoons, and some boss fights had very good use of color. It also had a unique border and more notably had additional SNES quality sound effects added throughout the game.
Unfortunately, Nintendo made no attempt at all to emulate the Super Gameboy. I'm still rather surprised at this myself. The vast "history" both within the game and in the booklet packaged with the game bears no mention of this at all when talking about Dreamland 2. Further, all images on the box and in the booklets of the box art for Dreamland 2 seem to have the Super Gameboy logo edited out. Well, all except one glaring exception. The game's box art in the collection itself, that is within the game, still has the Super Gameboy logo. That's sure to confuse, but it's the sort of thing that's known to happen when manual makers and late comers putting finishing touches in the game itself like altering the Japanese box art to the US versions don't communicate.
So as it stands, I really don't get it. They know how to emulate SNES games and Gameboy games, so emulating SGB functionality should be feasible if they decided to put the effort into it. Most homebrew Gameboy emulators have SGB support too. Heck, I know they WERE able to emulate some SGB functionality in the N64 days because Pokemon Stadium was able to play Pokemon Red and Blue with their SGB color palettes and borders intact.
The thing is, it really does take away from the game. If you recall the Donkey Kong Country Gameboy Color port, imagine if all subsequent releases of that game only used THAT version. Yes, the gameplay is intact, and yes, it was an impressive feat when all they had was the power of the Gameboy Color, but it would take away from the experience knowing exactly what the game looked and sounded like on the SNES. Granted, it's not as drastic a difference as that, but it's notable especially to someone who primarily played those SGB supported games ON a SGB. To rub salt in the wound, the game takes place in the "Rainbow Islands" so the story itself refers to the SGB functionality and more notably color.
I wouldn't be running on and on about this except for the sheer strangeness of how Nintendo intends to whitewash the Super Gameboy out of existance on so many emulated SGB games rather than just put in the time and effort to properly emulate SGB functionality and go forward from there.
They still CAN do that work mind you. Ports of Kirby Star Stacker, Kirby Block Ball, and Mega Man V (GB) onto the 3DS could actually get the work done. In fact they could even go back and patch in the support for Donkey Kong (GB) and a handful of others (once the emulator's done, all that's left is testing and fine tuning to be sure it is working on other games). However, the Anniversary collection is stuck. It's on a static disk on a system that doesn't support patching (at least not easily) and nothing short of a reissue will fix the release of Dreamland 2. It's a sore missed opportunity to really show off how the game was meant to be played.
I put a lot of time into the SGB issue, but aside from this issue the rest of the collection really shines as brightly as they did when they first came out. Note "when they first came out", as it doesn't include the remade versions of Kirby's Adventure (Nightmare in Dreamland) or Kirby Super Star (Ultra), but it still is a FAR more substantial offering than Super Mario All-Stars was. As I said before, that particular game had no additional menu interface, simply launching directly into the emulated ROM, and didn't even use the best version of that ROM at that (the SNES later had Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which added Super Mario World to the list of games), and counts as one of the laziest cash grabs Nintendo has done in recent memory to me. This one is much better and has far more than just one game. I recommend it to Kirby fans and those who missed out on a lot of these gems.
So, it's got:
Kirby's Dreamland 1, 2 & 3
Kirby's Adventure
Kirby Super Star
Kirby 64
It also has some new "challenge mode" stages built with the engine from Return to Dreamland, a "history" of the franchise, and a few episodes of the cartoon.
The games aren't enhanced in any real way aside from adding "suspend" functionality. The games aren't ported either, rather they are emulated. The emulation is done well though, with one glaring exception. Each game has it's own border and is put into the proper aspect ratio from the start, notably unlike virtual console games downloaded from Nintendo's store. During each game, the "home" button also pulls up an option for a different manual for each game.
Kirby's Dreamland 2 is that exception I alluded to above. The game was a Gameboy game with Super Gameboy support. It was one of the few SGB games that actually did a really good job with the coloring. Stages had appropriate color schemes and stationary scenes like the opening, the little cartoons, and some boss fights had very good use of color. It also had a unique border and more notably had additional SNES quality sound effects added throughout the game.
Unfortunately, Nintendo made no attempt at all to emulate the Super Gameboy. I'm still rather surprised at this myself. The vast "history" both within the game and in the booklet packaged with the game bears no mention of this at all when talking about Dreamland 2. Further, all images on the box and in the booklets of the box art for Dreamland 2 seem to have the Super Gameboy logo edited out. Well, all except one glaring exception. The game's box art in the collection itself, that is within the game, still has the Super Gameboy logo. That's sure to confuse, but it's the sort of thing that's known to happen when manual makers and late comers putting finishing touches in the game itself like altering the Japanese box art to the US versions don't communicate.
So as it stands, I really don't get it. They know how to emulate SNES games and Gameboy games, so emulating SGB functionality should be feasible if they decided to put the effort into it. Most homebrew Gameboy emulators have SGB support too. Heck, I know they WERE able to emulate some SGB functionality in the N64 days because Pokemon Stadium was able to play Pokemon Red and Blue with their SGB color palettes and borders intact.
The thing is, it really does take away from the game. If you recall the Donkey Kong Country Gameboy Color port, imagine if all subsequent releases of that game only used THAT version. Yes, the gameplay is intact, and yes, it was an impressive feat when all they had was the power of the Gameboy Color, but it would take away from the experience knowing exactly what the game looked and sounded like on the SNES. Granted, it's not as drastic a difference as that, but it's notable especially to someone who primarily played those SGB supported games ON a SGB. To rub salt in the wound, the game takes place in the "Rainbow Islands" so the story itself refers to the SGB functionality and more notably color.
I wouldn't be running on and on about this except for the sheer strangeness of how Nintendo intends to whitewash the Super Gameboy out of existance on so many emulated SGB games rather than just put in the time and effort to properly emulate SGB functionality and go forward from there.
They still CAN do that work mind you. Ports of Kirby Star Stacker, Kirby Block Ball, and Mega Man V (GB) onto the 3DS could actually get the work done. In fact they could even go back and patch in the support for Donkey Kong (GB) and a handful of others (once the emulator's done, all that's left is testing and fine tuning to be sure it is working on other games). However, the Anniversary collection is stuck. It's on a static disk on a system that doesn't support patching (at least not easily) and nothing short of a reissue will fix the release of Dreamland 2. It's a sore missed opportunity to really show off how the game was meant to be played.
I put a lot of time into the SGB issue, but aside from this issue the rest of the collection really shines as brightly as they did when they first came out. Note "when they first came out", as it doesn't include the remade versions of Kirby's Adventure (Nightmare in Dreamland) or Kirby Super Star (Ultra), but it still is a FAR more substantial offering than Super Mario All-Stars was. As I said before, that particular game had no additional menu interface, simply launching directly into the emulated ROM, and didn't even use the best version of that ROM at that (the SNES later had Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which added Super Mario World to the list of games), and counts as one of the laziest cash grabs Nintendo has done in recent memory to me. This one is much better and has far more than just one game. I recommend it to Kirby fans and those who missed out on a lot of these gems.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)