Nintendo’s cutesy pink puffer, Kirby is back in action in his first Gameboy Advance unoriginal title called Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland. Longtime fans of Kirby will be disappointed as this game is nothing more than a graphically updated port of Kirby’s Adventure on the NES released close to a decade ago. While it is a rehash, it is a good introduction to newcomers who are just now starting to get into Kirby from the new cartoon series or who are just now getting into Nintendo’s little handheld.

As most fans know, King DeDe from the original Kirby game has stolen the Star Wand from Dream Land and broke it into five pieces and gave them to each of his five henchmen. Without the courage of Kirby, everyone in Dream Land will be without the ability to dream. Kirby can inflate and float infinitely, but he will be unable to attack if players float all the time. To attack, Kirby can suck up enemies and use their powers against them. See that Knight over there? Go suck it up and you will turn into a sword fighting Kirby. In all there are 24 different abilities Kirby can use to destroy the enemies in his path.

There are some replay additions to the game, that while may be fun for awhile, gets boring very easily, namely the three new mini-games that take advantage of the single cartridge link feature. Bomb Rally, a game where players play Hot Potato with bombs, Quick Draw, and Kirby’s Air Grind, where players grind their star on an almost linear path, are the three mini-games that players can compete in to gain extra lives throughout the game. The biggest addition however is the four player co-op mode. This almost screams “buy me!” Gather three other Kirby fans (who each own the game) and hook up to an exciting adventure with four Kirby’s.

While the game is very short and can be beaten in a sitting or two, the game as a whole is very satisfying. The clever level design still shines from the original that makes players put to use of each of Kirby’s power-ups. Hardcore fans of Kirby will want to explore every nook and cranny of this game, which is how it’s supposed to be played instead of just continuing through the level.

Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland is an excellent port of the original. The graphics and the sound effects have been redone to take advantage of the Gameboy Advance’s superior technology. The artists even went back and drew better animations of Kirby to make him more fluid and they even went back and drew all the motions he portrays while wearing each of the 24 power-ups. The backgrounds have also been updated that definitely shows the power of the Gameboy Advance.

Nintendo has done an excellent job on re-creating Kirby’s Adventure to the Gameboy Advance. I hope in future Nintendo ports for the Gameboy Advance that Nintendo will go back and make a good game even better as they did with Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland.