Kirby's Dream Land 3

This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( November 2025 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Kirby's Dream Land 3 is a traditional platformer Kirby game; the player controls Kirby, whose objective is to get to the end of each stage.

Kirby is able to walk, swim, and fly throughout a variety of levels, using several of his Animal Friends and Copy Abilities to avoid and defeat obstacles and enemies that lie in his path. Kirby's moveset includes the inhale, Star Spit, Air Gun, and floating. Using inhale, Kirby can absorb a number of enemies, often gaining their abilities in turn. These abilities can be used as weapons then.

Additionally, some parts of the game world require a certain ability to be accessed, such as blocks that can only be destroyed by the ability displayed on them. Zero is the game's secret and true final boss; defeating him is key in achieving the best ending. He can be encountered by grabbing all the heart stars on each level. Zero takes the form of a giant eye with a red iris, and is responsible for leading the Dark Matter invasion of Dreamland.

Zero is famous for being a rare example of graphic violence in a first-party Nintendo game – Zero fights Kirby by opening cuts on his sclera and shooting blood out of the cuts at him, as well as summoning small Dark Matters to use as projectiles. When his health is drastically weakened, his iris would rip out from the rest of his body, with blood flying everywhere as it does so. The ruined body, complete with a vicious gash to its front from where the eye burst out trails away, and the final phase of the fight begins, which involves Zero ramming Kirby to injure him. Although he is eventually defeated, Zero reappears in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards as '0 2 ' (pronounced zero two), still retaining his ability to spit blood and his motif as a giant eye.

As a reference to his previous fight with Kirby, 0 2 wears two large plasters on the top of his 'head', covering the wound left from his iris bursting out of his body. Kirby's allies At any time during play, Kirby can summon Gooey—a blue, long-tongued blob first seen in Dream Land 2 . Doing so costs Kirby two hit points . When controlled by the computer or also a second human player, Gooey's abilities are similar to Kirby's: He can swallow enemies using his long tongue, then either spit them out or copy their abilities to a limited extent.

Gooey's tongue is also capable of obtaining items similar to Kirby's inhale, though it is also capable of grabbing stars, which Kirby would need to touch in order to obtain. Kirby can also inhale Gooey and swallow him, reclaiming his two hit points. In addition to Gooey, Kirby can team up with anyone of his six other Animal Friends , three of which were introduced in the previous game in the series . This friend mechanic allows Kirby to be ridden, carried, or rolled, enabling new team-based abilities, as well as variations of Kirby's copy abilities.

The friends Kirby can team up with are: Rick the Hamster , who can only jump once but can stomp on enemies, run faster, doesn't slide on ice and can scale walls. Coo the Owl , who can fly quickly (even against strong gusts of wind) and can let Kirby inhale in mid-air. Kine the Ocean sunfish , who can only jump once but can stomp on enemies, swim more efficiently in water (even against strong currents), and can let Kirby inhale underwater. Nago the Calico cat , who can stomp on enemies and triple-jump.

Pitch the Bird , who has more versatile copy ability variants than the other Animal Friends, but cannot fly against strong winds like Coo can and is much more limited in flying due to his small size, only being able to fly like how Kirby can float. ChuChu the Octopus , who can only float for a limited time before gradually descending, but is able to cling to and walk across ceilings and can grab items with her tentacles (identically to Gooey's tongue; in both cases, this function is only usable without ability as it replaces Kirby's inhale ability). Numerous puzzles in the game make use of the Animal Friends' different gameplay styles, and usually require the player to master them in order to be completed. For example, one mission that has Kirby escort Rick to the end of the level features numerous high walls to scale and large gaps bridged by enemies to stomp on, and another mission makes Kirby use the Clean ability with Pitch to water some flowers.

In many other cases, however, the Animal Friends serve as a supplement to the gameplay with the purpose of aiding the player. Additionally, each world features one Heart Star mission requiring that Kirby escort an Animal Friend to an acquaintance of theirs at the end of the level.