I don’t know what compelled me to do so, but I found myself noodling around the Switch 2’s main menu, and I poked my nose into the Game Boy emulator available with my Nintendo Switch Online subscription. And I said to myself, “I haven’t played all of the Kirby games despite the fact that I like a lot of them.”

So I just started playing “Kirby’s Dream Land,” and an hour later I finished it. Then I booted up “Kirby’s Dream Land 2,” and the next thing you know I’m charting an entirely new series in which I (attempt to) play every single Kirby game ever made. Because Kirby, as a long running major franchise in Nintendo’s stable of IP, sits in an interesting position. Its role as the ‘easier’ platformer leads to more kid friendly fare, but that’s unfairly reductive. Kirby has a lot going for him.

What makes Kirby so unique is its shifting aesthetic, the iconic soundtrack, and how you can easily tell that the developers had so much fun creating each title. It combines a fantasy whimsy with a love for food, animals, and super powers, and then wraps it in a kawaii blanket that’s warm and inviting.

I find myself being confounded by the way I feel playing each Kirby game. The original two “Dream Land” games and many more later installments have this vexing level design where there are plenty of doors available, almost like off-ramps, that could be shortcuts or actual exits to end the level. But it feels like Russian nesting dolls, where you enter one early and then you can’t go back, and it’s both stomach churning and confusing.

It makes me feel lost and distraught that I’m missing parts of the levels I can’t experience. “Super Mario Bros. 2” is the same way — it’s almost like the design is infinite in nature despite being so simple initially. Or maybe I’m just out of my mind, and since you can’t go back, it becomes anxiety inducing to me specifically.

The other thing I noticed playing these Game Boy games is just how much of the Kirby formula is established at the start. The catchy music, the adorable sound effects, the enemies they bring back, the tree boss battle, and even using the microphone to screen clear. Surprisingly, the first game had no absorbing enemies for powers. Thankfully, the second game has that mechanic, and it feels good for something made on such anciet hardware. At times, it almost like a modern platformer.

Halfway through “Dream Land,” it turns into a “Cuphead” style shoot ’em up where you fly through the sky, and pelt a ship while dodging attacks. Who knew Kirby started with some side scrolling bullet hell DNA?

I look forward to playing the console Kirby games for the next part of this series, and revisiting the games from my youth that included way too many mini-games in the package to fluff up the value. I think “Kirby’s Dream Land” and its sequel are excellent for what they were, and sort of make all of the other Nintendo platformers on Game Boy pale in comparison.

That Sakurai fella was onto something. If only they could make the game as colorful as it is in my mind, since OG Game Boy games were just ugly puke green.

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Image credit: “Kirby’s Dream Land,” HAL Laboratory