Kirby's Pinball Land

Kirby's Pinball Land is a game for the Game Boy handheld system, by Nintendo.

Based off the very popular Kirby series of games, Kirby's Pinball Land is a simple game of, what else, pinball with touches from the Kirby games. Kirby himself is in the game, starring as the pinball itself.

Gameplay in KPL is non-linear. Instead of playing on one typical board, like in virtually every other pinball game, gameplay is broken up among three different boards. The player chooses which board to play at the start of the game and subsequently every time he completes a board (or otherwise escapes from it).

Each board is broken up into three levels, top, middle, and bottom. Each time the player enters a board, he always starts at the middle. The goal is to work his way up to the top where he can face the boss of the board. He wants to avoid falling to the bottom where he runs the risk of losing Kirby in the final sinkhole.

In each board, there are provisions in the lower and middle levels for getting to the level above. In the lower level, if the player falls down the sinkhole, Kirby falls onto a trampoline which can throw him back up into the stage (which level depends on how hard the trampoline flings him). If the player doesn't time the fling correctly, Kirby will not make it back into the stage and he will lose a life. The player has only one opportunity to fling him. Also, every time Kirby falls down the sinkhole, the trampoline gets smaller, making it harder and harder to throw him back up.

There is a warp star in every level of each board, but they take Kirby to different places. Warp stars in the lower level send Kirby back to the board selection screen. In the middle level, they take him to a bonus stage (and subsequently drop him off in the upper stage when he's done). The upper level sends Kirby to the boss fight.

The three boards are designed after three stages in the original Kirby's Dream Land game. The first one takes place in a wooded section and features a slot machine. The boss is Wispy Woods. The second one takes place in a place in the clouds and is generally regarded as the most difficult of the three. The boss there is the cloud-like monster Kracko. The third takes place in an ambiguous area and has the player face off against the bomb-wielding Poppy Bros.

After completing a board, the player is returned to the board selection screen. There, he can go for an extra life by shooting the ball at a bumper that has a shifting letter in it. The goal is to spell out the world EXTRA.

After all three boards are completed, the player goes to a final showdown against King DeDeDe. Beating him causes the game to start over, though the player's score is in tact.

There are several recurring objects that appear in the game. One of them is the Spiny bumper, which, no matter where it shows up, cannot be destroyed (unlike most other things in the game). In the fight against Wispy Woods, it's also used as a weapon against the player's paddles.

As safeguards for the player, there is a Maximum Tomato which is available on all three levels of each board. The Maximum Tomato acts as a bumper in the center sinkhole, preventing the ball from falling through. There are also two P-Drinks in each level that protect the ball from falling down the sides, provided they're activated.

The lower levels all follow a similar design. There are two basic targets the player can shoot for to accomplish two different goals: either the player can shoot for the way into the middle level or he can shoot for the warp star back to the board selection screen. Either way is accomplished by spelling out a word (always "WARP STAR" for the warp, and a character's name for the boost upwards). There are bonsues associated with accomplishing these tasks.

The middle levels vary greatly. One level has a slot machine, where the player tries to get three Kirby's to line up to move on to the next level. Another has a giant Kirby standing between two stationary clouds while a third cloud floats back and forth above them. The player has to hit the roaming cloud three times before it starts to rain on Kirby, causing him to open his umbrella, which can be used to get to the next level. The third level has two Kirby's standing on either side of a plate, and hitting the Kirby on the left causes him to spit out an object that is pictured in a thought balloon near his head. Hitting the right Kirby causes him to eat whatever's on the plate. Getting the left Kirby to spit out an octopus is how the player advances to the next level.

The upper levels also vary, and getting to the boss involves beating up on some mushrooms that pop up out of holes, destroying Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon, and hatching three eggs. The only similarity that they hold is that there's a chicken hopping around that can be struck three times for a Maximum Tomato.

Controls are extremely simple, as to be expected. There are two buttons for the paddles and two more that shake the table. The button for the right paddle also controls the trampoline.

There are two types of bonuses that appear in the game, each calculated after the player loses a ball. Simply, they are the Bonus (B) and the Bonus Multiplier (M). After losing the ball, the number of Bonuses a player racks up is multiplied by the Multiplier for the bonus score, which is added to the overall score. Then the B and M values are reset to 1. In general, the Bonuses are easier to get while the Multipliers tend to be more valuable (especially if one plays for a long period of time without losing a ball).