''Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition'' is a 2012 video game developed by

HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...

and published by Nintendo for the Wii system. It is an anthology disc celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ''Kirby'' series, which took place on April 27, 2012. The game was released in Japan on July 19, 2012, and in North America on September 16, 2012. It was not released in PAL regions, and was the final first-party Wii game released in North America.

Content

''Kirby's Dream Collection'' includes six playable ''Kirby'' titles originally released between 1992 and 2000 on the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same te ...

, NES, SNES and

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

. In addition to the GameCube Controller and

Classic Controller The is a game controller produced by Nintendo for the Wii home video game console. While it later featured some compatibility with the Wii U console, the controller was ultimately succeeded by the Wii U Pro Controller. In April 2014, Ninten ...

, all six games have been calibrated for use with the

Wii Remote The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact ...

turned horizontally. The game supports up to four players depending on which game is chosen. Like the other four games in the collection, the Game Boy games (''Kirby's Dream Land'' and ''Kirby's Dream Land 2'') are

emulated In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

via the Wii's "

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Un ...

" interface, complete with the "suspending play" and manual features, despite Game Boy titles never being released on the service via the Wii Shop Channel. All six games had previously been released separately on the Virtual Console via the

Wii Shop Channel The Wii Shop Channel is a former digital distribution service for the Wii video game console. The service allowed users to purchase and play additional software for the Wii (called Channels), including exclusive games (branded WiiWare), and ga ...

and 3DS eShop. ''Kirby's Dream Collection'' also features 13 new challenge stages based on those found in 2011's '' Kirby's Return to Dream Land''. An additional museum section features box art and video spotlights for every game in the ''Kirby'' series released through 2012, along with three viewable episodes from the anime television series '' Kirby: Right Back at Ya!'' ("Kirby Comes to Cappy Town", "Crusade for the Blade", and "Waddle While You Work"). In addition to the game disc, the package includes a booklet that highlights Kirby's history and provides behind-the-scenes trivia about the series, as well as a soundtrack CD containing 42 music tracks from past ''Kirby'' games and three new arrangements by the HAL Laboratory sound team.

Reception and sales

''Kirby's Dream Collection'' sold over 100,000 copies in Japan during its first week of release. The collection was positively received, holding an aggregate score of 81.29% on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and 82/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Critics praised the quality of the games and the amount of content included in the collection, though some criticized the awkward use of the Virtual Console interface when switching games. Others lamented the absence of more obscure spinoff games like '' Kirby's Pinball Land'' and '' Kirby's Dream Course'', which they felt would have added more variety and appeal.

Notes

References

{{Kirby series 2012 video games HAL Laboratory games Kirby (series) video games Nintendo video game compilations Video games developed in Japan Wii games Wii-only games Video games scored by Jun Ishikawa Video games scored by Hirokazu Ando Video games scored by Shogo Sakai Video games produced by Kensuke Tanabe