Yahoo Finance Kirby's Return to Dream Land review - a colourful essential for the younger gamer
In the grey days of February, it can be hard to keep cheerful. Even harder if you’re a gamer. At the moment the entire gaming world is glued to the likes of The Last Of Us, a grisly post-apocalyptic drama based on the acclaimed PlayStation game, or yakking on about God Of War, the grisly fantasy drama released before Christmas. Given how miserable February is anyway, I have decided to excuse myself from the world of grown-up gaming, and instead have been bouncing through the brightly coloured Dreamland as a jolly pink sphere with a predilection for swallowing bad guys whole.
That’s right, in his second adventure in as many years, Kirby is back.
Alright, so the ‘newest’ adventure of Nintendo’s roundest character is actually anything but. Kirby’s Return To Dream Land Deluxe is, in fact, an updated remaster of an older title, first announced in 2005 for the Gamecube console, before making an unexpected return six years later on the Nintendo Wii.
At the time, the four-player drop-in multiplayer was acclaimed as one of Kirby’s finest outings. You’d be forgiven for having missed it though - the Nintendo Wii was, at the time, in its twilight years, public attention had decisively shifted elsewhere. There was also the small matter of a certain mustachioed plumber who also had a side-scrolling multiplayer title out on the Wii concurrently.
Still, if you did miss it the first time, Kirby’s Return To Dream Land Deluxe is certainly worth a look. Visually it’s a delightful update with Kirby’s colourful Dream Land rendered in lovely HD and slightly adjusted to be a bit more cartoon-like than in the original. Admittedly none of this will be straining the Nintendo Switch’s ageing hardware, but it does look rather lovely, especially on the Switch OLED’s special, brighter screen.
The plot is exactly as dark and heavy as any given Kirby game. Which is to say, not at all. Kirby and his some-time enemies, Waddle Dee, Meta-Knight, and King Dedede are out for a walk together when a trans-dimensional rift opens above them, depositing an alien named Magolor and his broken spacecraft into Dream Land. With his characteristic child-like innocence, Kirby agrees to help recover the ship parts and send Magolor on his way.
All of this takes place within a sepia-toned storybook aesthetic which gives way to a cartoony shock of vibrancy. Between the story and these visuals, it should be clear that this title is squarely aimed at younger players and that is reflected in the gameplay.
To put it simply, Return To Dream Land Deluxe is incredibly easy. Though there are almost infinite combinations of ways to play through levels, thanks to your ability to switch up Kirby’s moveset by swallowing a variety of enemies, there’s no real strategy here. Simply move from left to right, squash some baddies with whatever powers you have at that moment, and find the (not very well) hidden orbs containing parts of Magolor’s ship.
While there are a couple of different routes to take through each level, and hidden passageways to unlock, it won’t provide much of a challenge to experienced players. I have absolutely no idea what the Game Over screen looks like - I didn’t lose a single life in my whole playthrough, actually.
Still, why not? There’s plenty of The Witcher or The Last Of Us grimdark games for grown-ups, and probably even more Mario and Pokémon titles for school-age players. Why shouldn’t pre-schoolers get to enjoy a game like Return To Dream Land Deluxe?
For that audience, the drop-in co-op will be a boon - perhaps a parent or older sibling can jump in to help out in one of the trickier boss battles? (Trickier for little ‘uns, that is.) Player one will always be Kirby, who has the widest range of powers and abilities, but there’s a certain amount of fun to be had in exploring Meta-Knight’s swordplay and King Dedede’s hammer.
Outside of the main game there’s a new Merry Magoland area where four players can duke it out in mini-games from across Kirby history and even string four of the diversions back-to-back to create a royal rumble of different mini-game rounds. This mode is pretty light-weight but those who’ve already had their fill of Super Mario Party should find something to enjoy.
The other new addition is a brand new postscript to the game. It’s got quite a nice storyline which I won’t spoil here, but sees players taking control of Magolor himself - depowered and on a quest to restore his magical abilities. Magolor plays similarly to Kirby and pals, but unlike the main hero, he can’t rely on the full extent of his powers from the start, so there’s a bit more of a challenge here.
All in all, Return To Dream Land Deluxe is a charming package, well-presented and winsomely wholesome. Though older gamers will probably be able to breeze through it in a matter of hours, they’re sure to leave you grinning. As for smaller players, this one feels as close to a must-play as tykes that age are likely to get.
Developer HAL Laboratory Publisher Nintendo Formats Switch Age rating PEGI 7 Released 24 Feb 2023 RRP £49.99
