Kirby's Dream Land, known in Japan as Kirby of the Stars, is a 1992 platform video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the first game in the Kirby series and marks the debut of Kirby. It introduced many conventions that would appear in later games in the series.

Kirby's Dream Land was designed by Masahiro Sakurai in his debut game, who intended it to be a simple game that could be easy to pick up and play by those unfamiliar with action games. For more advanced players, he offered additional optional challenges such as an unlockable hard mode and the ability to edit Kirby's maximum HP and starting number of lives.

Kirby's main method of attack is to inhale enemies and objects into his mouth, after which the player can choose to swallow or spit them out as a star-shaped projectile attack. In addition to running and jumping, Kirby can fly by inflating himself with a mouthful of air and flapping his arms. Flying can be done indefinitely; however, while flying, Kirby's only method of attack is to release the air puff held in his mouth which cancels his flight.

The game consists of a total of five levels. Levels are made up of a series of large "rooms" connected by doors that lead Kirby to different areas, rather than the single continuous corridors typical of platformers at the time. Some of these doors lead to hidden areas or alternate pathways through the level. The doors act as checkpoints returning the player to the beginning of a "room" should they die rather than starting the level over. The goal of the game is to clear the level by defeating the boss at the end. If Kirby touches an enemy or a dangerous object, he loses one or more of his health points, depending on the enemy or obstacle he touched. If all of his health is lost, or he falls into a bottomless pit, the player loses a life. Losing all lives results in a game over. Kirby can recover lost health by eating food, found across the stage.

Unlike the copy abilities of later games, Kirby's Dream Land has more traditional power-ups that offer Kirby temporary abilities when he picks them up, although they are not a big part of gameplay. These often appear in the form of food, such as Spicy Curry that gives Kirby fire breath or a Mint Leaf (Sweet Potato in the Japanese version) that lets Kirby fire air puffs rapidly without losing flight. At the end of each level is a boss Kirby must fight to obtain one of the Sparkling Stars. Most bosses are fought by sucking up small objects or projectiles created by the boss' attacks and spitting them back at the boss. The third boss, Kaboola, is fought using an unlimited version of the Mint Leaf item, incorporating shoot 'em up elements. The last level before the final boss consists of a boss rush, where Kirby must fight all of the game's bosses again going through a short area based on that boss's home level. There are also many mini-bosses during the levels.

Once the game has been completed, a code is offered to play an optional extra game, in which the difficulty is significantly increased. Completing the extra game offered a second code that lets the player adjust lives and vitality settings to play an easier or even harder game, and listen to music and sound effects freely.

Kirby's Dream Land is set in the fictional country of Dream Land, which is located 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 that use their magical Sparkling Stars to play and work among the heavens. One night, under the cover of darkness, the gluttonous King Dedede and his minions swoop down from his castle on Mt. Dedede and steal all the food in Dream Land, as well as the Sparkling Stars, which the King distributes among his minions. Without the Sparkling Stars, the Dream Landers can no longer harvest food, and begin to go hungry. As the residents are discussing what to do, a spry little boy named Kirby flies in on the spring breeze, and volunteers to defeat King Dedede and retrieve the food and Stars. Upon successfully doing so, he uses the magic of the Sparkling Stars to transform into a hot air balloon and return the King's stolen food back to the people of Dream Land.