Generally, when you see me writing one of these “Featured Game Soundtrack” articles, I have a long-standing history with the game in question. Maybe I played the game a lot in my early days as a tiny gamer, or maybe I picked the game up recently and was caught by the soundtrack. Honestly, having a connection to the game can be almost as important as the music itself—there are plenty of games that I’ve been told have good music, but I can’t force myself to care because I didn’t experience the associated emotions brought on through gameplay.
Except, that is, for Kirby’s Dream Land 3.
I’ve never been a huge Kirby fan. I remember playing the NES game a bit, and I played some Kirby’s Dream Course, but I was never really a “fan”. I didn’t even really play enough to form a decent opinion on the series. It was just kind of a series of games that I knew was there but never had a compelling reason to play.
I’ve talked a bit on the podcast about how much I love Japanese MAD videos. After listening to various “Gourmet Race“, “Sky High“, and “Sand Canyon” MADs for ages, I was convinced to find a little time to appreciate the music of Jun Ishikawa. And, appreciate it I did.
Out of all the Kirby games, Kirby’s Dream Land 3 has my favorite full soundtrack. While Super Star had arguably better instrumentation, Dream Land 3 just has so many tracks that are so easy to listen to that it’s tough to beat. The decision to mix and match old instruments from existing HAL games like Arcana and EarthBound has always confused me, especially after the great sound of the modern and full-sounding Super Star instrumentation, but the composition really comes shining through. I can listen to songs like Grass Lands 4 (at 12:47) and Cloudy Park (31:37) on repeat for hours while programming. There’s so much going on in each track that it only becomes repetitive if you really focus on it.
So, find a little time to listen to this one for yourself. There’s a lot in there to appreciate.
