In January 2026, my brother and I decided to play Kirby’s Dream Land 2 on our retro handhelds as part of a Game of the Month competition over at RetroHandhelds.gg . I ended up finishing the game, but unfortunately forgot to submit my completion screenshot before the deadline, so I missed the reward. Still, we could see all our progress and unlocks on RetroAchievements.org, and honestly that was enough. Just finishing it felt good. It’s kind of crazy how good this game looks and feels on the original Game Boy. It came out in 1995, and the hardware only had four shades of gray or green and a tiny 160×144 screen. But somehow it still feels like a real world. The animations are smooth, the enemies have personality, and the different areas all feel distinct. I played on my broken screen Ambernic RGCUBEXX via HDMI. Kirby was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who was only 19 when he directed the first Kirby game. He later went on to create Super Smash Bros., but you can already see his...
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