Kirby's Dream Land 2

Kirby's Dream Land 2
Also known as: Hoshi no Kirby 2 (JP) Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: Nintendo Platforms: Game Boy, Super Game Boy Released in JP: March 21, 1995 Released in US: May 1995 Released in EU: June 1995 Released in AU: June 1995 Released in KR: April 20, 2016 (3DS VC) Released in BR: October 1995 Released in HK: March 15, 2023 (NSO) Released in TW: March 15, 2023 (NSO) This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article

Kirby's biggest adventure yet!^*

*Assuming "yet" means 1995

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics

Level Tiles

Raw Graphics (0x5E07E, +1 for compressed data)	Full Blockset (0x5E38B, +4 for compressed data)

These level tiles for some kind of tree environment do not get referenced by any room in the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Sprites

Blowing Bubbles With Kine

Just like with Rick and Coo, Kine's metasprite set for inhaling at 0x29FA7 uses frames 07 to 0A for blowing bubbles underwater. As Kine instead allows Kirby to inhale while underwater, these frames go unused.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Efreeti Lookalikes

Graphics at 0x30113 and metasprites at 0x32B91. A scrapped enemy design of a creature resembling Efreeti, the first midboss, riding a tank that could seemingly fire bullets. Tanks were initially considered for this game as a vehicle for Kirby to ride, but this is all that remains of that thinking in the final game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Graphics at 0x30E82 and metasprites at 0x331C9. Resembles Efreeti like the one above, and strikes poses similar to that of its used brethren. It also has hands instead of just feet.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Status Bar

You may be familiar with these smaller-sized HP units, as used for the health bar in boss battles. These can be seen used for Kirby's health in prerelease screenshots in Nintendo Power, as well as the ones on the back of the International versions' boxes, but not in the final game...

...but the half-full ones can still be loaded into Kirby's HP bar in-game! Since Kirby's health points are internally stored in increments of 2, odd values from 01 to 0B will place this tile in its respective location. With just Kirby, set 00:A04C in RAM to any of said values to watch this magic happen yourself.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Room

Room ID 6D is a tall unused room ordered between the last room of 6-3 and the first room of 6-4. Going down the platforms, the player will be met with multiple enemy types, some 1-Ups, and a tower of star collectibles above a tall upward vent.

In the International ROM, change 0x20DD6 from 7E to 6D to make this room accessible from the door to 6-6.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Music

One rather frantic track is unused. It can be accessed from within the game as FGM #94 in the Sound Test. Part of it saw use in the "Game Boy Bros." segment of this game's Japanese TV commercial, with some sound effects playing alongside it that suggest it was meant to play during levels.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japanese	International

In addition to a different, more colorful Super Game Boy palette, the international versions add a dancing Kirby to the screen.

Chao

Japanese	International

Occasionally, when a friend bag is opened, a different character appears instead of Gooey; collecting this character gives you both an extra life and 1% toward your completion percentage. In the Japanese version, this special character is Chao, a character from the 1989 Famicom Disk System adventure game Yūyūki. Since that game was never released overseas, the international versions replace her with a female version of Gooey (named "Girl blob" in an issue of Nintendo Power). Interestingly, ChuChu from Kirby's Dream Land 3 slightly resembles her.

Chao, along with her companion Goku, would later appear in all versions of Dream Land 3, as the character who gives you the Heart Star in Stage 4 of Grass Land.

Japanese	International	The original scene from Yūyūki

The sound test (another reference to Yūyūki) was changed as well. Besides the aforementioned character replacement, Gooey was added to the international version.

Japanese	International

The screens that appear upon completing the Boss Endurance and Bonus sub-games also have Chao replaced with the "Girl blob".

SGB Border

Japanese	International

In the Japanese version, the game's title appears at the top of the Super Game Boy border. Rather than replacing it with the international one, it was completely removed from the international border for some reason.

Oddities

Dark Castle

In the second part of Stage 6, Dark Castle, the screen moves to the left. At the end of the long hall, it is possible to see a strange little narrow room with a chain, spikes and a chick emerging from an egg. Neither the chain nor the spikes have any effect.

Stage 3 has a similar place, which is almost the same, but in reverse and it does not close this room off. Why did the level designers add this?

Super Game Boy Border

A corner tile (just to the left of Kine) has an incorrect tile that exists in both regional versions of the game, causing stray light green pixels to appear further downward than they should be (see SGB screenshots above). This can be fixed by changing ROM offset 7AEB0 (International) or 7AF17 (Japanese) from 03 to 07. Due to the error, tile 07 ends up unused in the SGB border tileset.

Incorrect	Corrected

Corrected border (Japanese)	Corrected border (International)