YMMV / Kirby's Dream Land

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In each non-boss area of Mt. Dedede, you find a dancing Kirby clone, which destroys every enemy in the area (including the Gordo that blocks the doorway to the boss) when the player-controlled Kirby touches it. There's no explanation given to where the Kirby clones came from, why/how they clear the room of enemies, and no such concept has ever returned in a later game.
• First Installment Wins: Though later Kirby games are often regarded by fans and critics to be bigger and better, Dream Land remains the most iconic title in the series, with only Kirby Super Star coming close to matching it. At 5.13 million copies sold worldwide, it was the best-selling game in the series for three decades; Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the only game to have surpassed it.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: It's possible to beat this game in a total of approximately 30 minutes. This was a major criticism even when it was first released. While it has a deliberately brisk pace in response to the growing complexity of games in the early '90s, critics feel that it went too far in the other direction, with later Kirby games finding a better balance.
• Nintendo Hard: The Extra Game can be very punishing to unfamiliar players. All enemy damage is doubled, they move faster, some bosses have newer strategies, and the final boss moves much faster. New enemies have been added in place of some weaker enemies. Also, you can set the health and extra lives counter all the way down to one—one slip up, and it's all the way back to the title screen!
• That One Boss:
  • Kracko in Extra Game. He moves very fast, giving you next to no time to react. Instead of throwing Waddle Doos, he now throws bombs. This boss battle is more about luck than anything else. Well, unless you stand right in the corner and jump/float whenever Kracko charges you, and start sucking whenever he drops bombs. It makes the fight considerably easier, though if you move away from that corner even a bit, he'll be able to hit you with his beam attacks, and making sure you can suck up bombs after the charge is a matter of timing, so it's still tricky.
  • Kabula's shots spiral erratically, making it hard to dodge them, to the point that fights with her can easily just turn into a battle of attrition (especially in Extra Game).

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