Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe review: fresh paint, same canvas

in the third world Deluxe Return to Kirby’s Dreamland, crystal clear water and a sea filled with coral, I noticed an animation I had never seen before. Pressing B allowed Kirby to spit out bubbles that could break blocks or attack enemies. Ultimately, though, I realized that what seemed like new action was just tweaking underwater combat, which previously felt vulnerable, to match how Kirby behaved on land. At first it looked like an evolution, but it was nothing more than a rearrangement of set dressing.

Both functionally and aesthetically, this bubble is a good metaphor for the time I spent with Back to Dreamland Deluxe: Fascinating, fun at times, but ultimately a bit insubstantial.

Back to Dreamland Deluxe It’s a 2011 Nintendo Switch remaster. Return to Dreamland The game for the Wii with some new features, including a harder endgame mode and a theme park with a richer collection of minigames. After agreeing to help an interdimensional traveler who has crash-landed on your planet, you lead Kirby through side-scrolling levels absorbing enemies to copy their abilities: Swords and Beams are ubiquitous in the series. Now, there are also two new ones, sand. and a mecha (the latter transforms into a hovering his robot with orange safety goggles). deluxe It also highlights multiplayer, allowing 4 friends to jump over the Planet Popstar together.

The Kirby series tends to vacillate between classic and experimental. Kirby’s Epic Threada craft-themed Wii game that came out exactly one year before the original Return to Dreamland, an example of the latter.It may be unavoidable to have compared mentally deluxe to last year’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the first fully 3D entry in the main franchise, and another solid example of the series pushing things forward. I have a penchant for the game, especially human-made settings like shopping malls and carnivals, the rightfully hyped mouse-full mode, the abundance of collectibles, and the purely aesthetic (mini gacha machines, etc.) I was fascinated by things related to and story progression.

in contrast, deluxe Traditional, as the remaster is, but also dated in many ways. Yes, but with a slight difference. There are collectibles, but they don’t gate anything in the story. Instead, copy abilities unlock challenge levels and rooms to play with. , a giant blinking arrow will pop up pointing to the end of the level. .

Image: HAL Laboratory/Nintendo via Polygon

Kirby games have always been marketed to children and families. Complaining about their difficulty is like sitting at the children’s table and wondering why the chairs are so small. Unlike other major Nintendo franchises, where repeated mistakes teach us complexity, Kirby is always like wearing pillow armor to play with. deluxe From multiplayer with more skilled friends and family to “helper magolers” who give health potions and carry you across pits, there is a system on the system to lower the difficulty (I learned how It’s something I appreciated when I was) jumping into a platformer for the first time). All of these systems are great, and nothing detracts from the experience of learning how Kirby navigates the world.

However, young people appreciate novelty and creativity, and other games in the series have provided it in abundance. There is a difference between being iterative) and being iterative. and most of the time Back to Dreamland Deluxe Instead of trying new things, build on what has worked in the past.

Image: HAL Laboratory/Nintendo

the moment i enjoyed the most deluxe Usually when the game throws in new mechanics and needs to be re-tuned. Carrying a candle through a dark room or moving down instead of sideways to escape a gelatinous wall of death must broaden my understanding of what the game expects of me. It didn’t feel harder than it did fresh, like it shouldn’t.

I thought you’d feel the same way about the most notable addition of deluxe, Magorol Epilogue lets you control classic characters to travel through new areas. The premise is great — your character begins to run out of power and must collect energy spheres and build stats in an RPG-like progression not seen in Kirby’s mode. He has a different play style, but when he restores his powers, his moves gradually match up due to the pink puffball’s buoyancy and copying powers. No, Magorol cannot use copy abilities. Also shoots orbs instead of stars. But the differences really end there. Magalor ends up being a derivative of Kirby, while sharing assets and challenges and navigating stages that are generally less detailed and engaging, though different from Kirby’s levels. As exhilarating as it was, its thinness was quickly apparent. As the main selling point of this remaster, the Magalore epilogue has no lifespan.

Image: HAL Laboratory/Nintendo

Back to Dreamland Deluxe Although it is a remaster with a new paint job, there are few meaningful changes. Certainly sophisticated. The only thing that positively hampered my experience was the sprint input which was very hard to trigger and slowly staggered away from things like the aforementioned scroll wall. It remains — content to not only avoid advancing the original idea of ​​2011 (a criticism that may not be significant for those who prefer a more traditional Kirby), but to refrain from experimenting more with the brand. We are using new materials.

The best way to play this game is probably multiplayer, where the younger ones on the team can appreciate the novelty of decoration and combat and fight without getting stuck. Masu more content, they don’t really add much substance. For those who missed the game on Wii or want to give co-op a try, there are a number of ways to play co-op. But if you’ve experienced the original, deluxe is just an enlarged version of the same. A little flashier, a little longer, but nothing to miss.

Deluxe Return to Kirby’s Dreamland It will be released on Nintendo Switch on February 24th. This game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.