I think my main problem with Dreamland 3 is the physics. Kirby feels SO SLOW to start, but after you start running, he's SUPER fast. The difference between the two speeds is very different, and they have a stuttering effect that trips me up when transitioning from walking to running. You also don't seem to have as much precision in Dreamland 2 and 3 compared to the games that Sakurai or Shinya Kumazaki directed. The movement in 64 (from what I remember) feels much more in line with Super Star, Nightmare in Dreamland, etc. I guess Shimomura ironed out most of the weirdness with 64 lmao. 64's puzzles were also way more intuitive thanks to the color-coding.KobaBeach wrote: ↑2 years ago I think a big thing wrt KDL3 feeling a bit clunky is that it follows KDL2 and its slower pace in terms of inspiration, being by the forever elusive Shinichi Shimomura. In contrast, Kirby Super Star came out roughly a year before in 1996, by Masahiro Sakurai, and it generally felt more fluid and faster paced. However I think Shimomura felt too nervous about aping Sakurai, be it pride or mutual respect that caused the avoidance in smashing the styles together.
Gooey might kind of inspired by the helper system, though, similar to how the ability mixing in Kirby 64 feels inspired by the animal helpers and how they alter Copy Abilities. Either way, Kirby 64 came out a few years later and it's also by Shimomura, so maybe it's something I'm missing that you feel a lot.
I will add this, Kirby's Dream Land 2 is legit one of the harder non-spinoff Kirby games, with some of the Rainbow Drops being completely bonkers, the convoluted Coo one in like Big Forest or Cloudy Park being one, the Rick one where you have to traverse a Red Canyon full of pits being another...
Gooey's a weird case because he often feels much more of a hindrance than a helper. Then again, that was largely the case with Super Star too, but still. He often gets in the way of puzzles or kills a necessary enemy, so I never used him. Honestly, Dreamland 3's puzzles were pretty intuitive for the most part; the only one I had to look up was the one where you use Rick/Coo's cleaning ability on the flowers (why normal Broom Kirby isn't enough, I'll never understand). You're right about Dreamland 2 feeling tougher, though! Part of it's the physics and screen crunch, but there's some seriously tricky solutions to some of the Rainbow Drops. I had to look up the last three (though I'm REALLY proud of myself for figuring out the one where you have to use Kine with fire, temporarily drop your ability to suck up a block, then re-pick up your ability on my own). Definitely fun games to look back on, but I'm glad the series is where it is now!!