Although Nintendo has officially turned back the clock on Kirby’s 30th anniversary, fans of the pink leafy look are still going with a variety of creations. One in particular that has caught the attention of the wider Nintendo community is a new ROM hack for the 1995 release of Kirby’s Dream Land 2 – adding proper support for the Game Boy Color.
designer’kkzero‘ describes Kirby’s Dreamland 2 DX as an “extensive hack” of Dream Land 2 – fully coloring every single visual element of the game, while enhancing the overall experience. Here’s a closer look:
And here’s a full breakdown of how exactly this ROM hack improves the game. It’s not just a color upgrade either. It goes one step further with improved animation, removal of slowdown, new menu settings and more. It also keeps Super Game Boy support intact:
Full colorization – All backgrounds, tilesets and sprites are fully colored, taking full advantage of GBC’s graphics capabilities.
Additional visual impression – Smoother fade effects, a bit of color animation and other small details that push the hardware just a little bit more.
Slowdown eliminated – GBC’s double speed mode is enabled to reduce almost any lag present in the original game.
Brand new settings menu – Change the color of the status bar, turn on the color animation in the status bar, or turn on the Animal Friends BGMs that break the music level.
SGB support intact – Play with SGB limit enabled in emulators that support unofficial “SGB+GBC” mode.
If you are looking for more officially way to experience the original Kirby’s Dream Land 2 without the help of Game Boy hardware, you can always check out the Switch Online retro library, which includes the second game as well as the first.
