Topic: 2025/02: Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Super NES) - Jackster

[JonLeung]

Kirby's Dream Land 3

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Jackster's Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Super NES) maps.

Kirby and Gooey are enjoying a nice day of fishing when a dark, monstrous cloud appears in the sky.  It spreads its evil influence around the world, including possessing King Dedede and his minions.  Kirby and Gooey gather their friends - Rick, Kine, and Coo, along with new friends Nago, Chuchu, and Pitch - to again go on a platforming adventure and use Copy Abilities to save Dream Land and all of PopStar!

In this particular Kirby game, besides just making it to the end, every stage has a unique challenge where Kirby or Gooey can earn a Heart Star.  These include playing mini-games, solving puzzles, collecting items, or having a particular partner with you by the end of the stage.  The various challenges often take the opportunity to include some cameos of other Nintendo characters; in 3-4, you'll be reuniting Donbe and Hikari, in 3-6, you'll be looking for parts of R.O.B. and, in 5-2, you'll be eliminating Metroids to help Samus!

Because you'll need all the Heart Stars to be able to challenge Dark Matter, Jackster's been considerate and has explained the conditions for obtaining the Heart Star in each stage.  On top of cleanly mapping every stage of this cute and colourful platformer, this underrated late-release Super NES game has been given the love it deserves.

So to recognize the effort put into helping us collect all the Heart Stars, Jackster's Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for February 2025.

[G.E.R.]

Kirby's Dream Land 3 is actually quite 'voluminous', I played this in the last month (by coincidence).
This Jackster's map set was useful on some levels, where I don't understud what should I do and where should I go.

[TerraEsperZ]

I'm surprised it took this long for this game to be mapped out.

I was never a big fan of Kirby's Dream Land 3. Not because it's not good but it always felt too safe, too mellow to me and I don't think I can even explain why. It just *does*.
Mind you, I do love the graphical style and the music, especially the ending theme which always makes me sad near the end. There's a feeling of quiet finality to it, as if you're expected to go to sleep now that the story is over.

Anyway, great work by Jackster as usual  !

[JonLeung]

I was never a big fan of Kirby's Dream Land 3. Not because it's not good but it always felt too safe, too mellow to me and I don't think I can even explain why. It just *does*.
Mind you, I do love the graphical style and the music

I agree about the graphics and music.

I think as a game that came out late on the Super NES, more than a year after the release of the Nintendo 64, it might have seemed simple, when everyone was all in for the 3D games.  I think that's why, like Yoshi's Island, supposedly, a specific art style was chosen, so that it would at least have some unique visual appeal in a time when graphics just being 3D alone seemed cutting-edge.

Even without that comparison to the next generation, Kirby: Super Star came out a year earlier and had more variety.

Though I do really like the idea of the Heart Stars in Kirby's Dream Land 3.  Though it's not unusual to see extra objectives in games these days, back then, other than collecting things, you didn't really see that.  And the objectives are varied here, so it's neat that they have all that in this game.  And the cameos of other Nintendo characters is a nice touch.

[Raccoon Sam]

My first Kirby game! Love it so much. These maps would've helped me a lot as a kid hahaha.
Great job and congrats!!