With the deluxe addition, Kirby’s Return to the Land of Dreams might be Kirby’s best 2D.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is coming to the Switch at a very different time than when it debuted on the Wii. Her Wii release, which first came out in 2011, was Kirby’s first foray into the mainline in a decade without her home string on her console. Meanwhile, Return to Dream Land Deluxe follows his Kirby’s biggest hit yet with 2022’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land. As a level set, this isn’t quite the bold reinvention of Kirby’s formula in his 3D like Forgotten Land. Return to Dream Land Deluxe is just the pinnacle of Kirby’s side-scrolling 2D adventures, retaining the quality and charm of his original Wii adventures while adding improved co-op, fun partying his games, and an interesting epilogue. doing.
In the main game, Kirby and his friends come across a lost traveler named Magoror who has crash-landed in Dreamland. The driving force is to help Magorol repair the ship so he can go home. Along the way, you’ll come across both new and familiar Kirby enemies. In keeping with Kirby tradition, the story continues briskly to a wild finale. It’s not on the level of Forgotten Land or Planet Roboto’s endings, but it’s satisfying, making Magolor one of Kirby’s most memorable companions in his game. The newly added epilogue (only available after clearing the main game) stars Magoror and adds a bit to the story while also offering a slightly new way to play the new levels. Magolor is relatively helpless at first, but unlocks more abilities as she progresses. He ends up roughly controlling like Kirby, but is still a novel enough hook to make the epilogue worth playing. Elegant drop-in/drop-out, all playable in full co-op. .
I was impressed with how much the original game was tweaked when it was brought to Switch. adjustments are being made. Some copy abilities feature upgraded moves that first debuted in later games. The level layouts are largely the same, with slight adjustments to enemy and item placement. Best of all, unlike the original Wii, four players can work together as Kirby. This was disappointing in the original, as only Kirby can use his copy ability, and on the Wii his player can only be Meta Knight, King Dedede, or Bandana his Waddle Dee. . You can also play as Kirby’s friends, but having a full Kirby team is much more fulfilling. It will still exist, including two new main stages, Mecha and Sand.
Another big addition to the Switch release is Merry Magorand, an extradimensional theme park where 1-4 players can form parties and compete in 10 different sub-games. The list of games pulls in some new ones from across the series and may not be as deep as some of the subgames of past games, but the collection is fun and varied, especially for four players. It’s also consistently rewarding just for playing, and you can slowly unlock masks for other characters throughout the series, wearable in all modes. It was Blasters. This is a new game that is a fast and intense top-down combat game and a frenetic strategic Checkerboard Chase, a subgame of Kirby 64. The depth here isn’t great, but the whole mod is an excellent side dish to a delicious main course.
The visual upgrade is great and makes standard definition Wii games sing on the Switch. To be honest, if I didn’t know this was a Wii game, I would have thought it was a new Kirby game. The difficulty is the same as most of the series. It’s very easy at first and has the best challenges from the post-game mode. I’ve played most of this with his 4 year old and he consistently plays the absolute best throughout the game while hopping between main his games, subgames and challenges his levels. caused an explosion. It hasn’t all been easy for him, but the new addition is Helper Mode, which gives him double health and prevents Magorol from falling into the pit.
I played Kirby’s Return to Dream Land on the Wii at launch, and over the years it hasn’t been high on my personal list of Kirby games. After playing it on Switch, that changed, partly due to the smart updates and changes made in the new version. A 2D Kirby that combines the best elements of many side-scrolling entries into a total package that functions as both a single-player adventure and a fun co-op game. op journey.
