Green Greens

Lore & Background

The stage is set in Dream Land, a fictional country on a tiny star-shaped planet far, far away from Earth, named "Planet Popstar" in later games. The Dream Landers are a very peaceful and carefree people. This specific area is the first level of Kirby's Dream Land, where Kirby begins his quest to retrieve the Sparkling Stars and all the food of Dream Land from the gluttonous King Dedede. The stage's aesthetic reflects the game's opening: a peaceful, grassy field. In the source game, Kirby has six health points and can inhale enemies, spit them out as star-shaped projectiles, or fly by inflating himself. The stage's layout, with its flat ground and platforms, mirrors the simple, easy-to-pick-up design intended by creator Masahiro Sakurai for those unfamiliar with action games.

In Their Own Story

The sun rises over the rolling hills of Dream Land. A single flower sways in the gentle breeze. This is the world of Kirby, a spry little boy who flies in on the spring breeze to volunteer to defeat King Dedede and retrieve the stolen food and Sparkling Stars. The stage represents the starting point of that adventure, a place of peace before the conflict begins. The Dream Landers, who use their magical Sparkling Stars to play and work among the heavens, are unaware of the battles that will soon be fought on their serene landscape.

Reader's Guide

Green Greens is a side-scrolling action-platformer stage. Like many other platformers of the 8-bit and 16-bit era, the stage is played on a two-dimensional plane. The main ground is flat, with elevated platforms on either side, creating a classic three-tiered layout. The stage's design is simple, reflecting Sakurai's intention for Kirby's Dream Land to be a simple game that could be easy to pick up and play. Unlike the copy abilities of later Kirby games, the original game had more traditional power-ups, such as Spicy Curry that gives fire breath or a Mint Leaf that lets Kirby fire air puffs rapidly. The stage's music, "Green Greens," was composed by Jun Ishikawa, who wrote music with simple chords and melodies because he felt complex chords did not sound good on the Game Boy's limited sound hardware. The stage's layout encourages aerial combat and edge-guarding, with wide gaps between safe zones and the blast lines.

Did You Know?

• The stage is based on the first level of Kirby's Dream Land, which was the debut game of designer Masahiro Sakurai.
• The music for the stage was composed by Jun Ishikawa, who intentionally used simple chords because he felt complex chords didn't sound good on the Game Boy's sound hardware.
• In the original game, Kirby's main method of attack is to inhale enemies and spit them out as a star-shaped projectile, a mechanic not present in this stage.
• The game's setting, Dream Land, is located on a tiny star-shaped planet named 'Planet Popstar' in later games.
• Kirby's Dream Land was the highest grossing game in the Kirby series, with 5,130,000 copies sold, until being beaten 30 years later by Kirby and the Forgotten Land.