Review: Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is a platform game for the Nintendo Wii. It was developed by HAL Laboratories.

Kirby using a fire attack.

One day on the planet Popstar, a spaceship crash lands, scattering its mast, wings, figurehead, and energy spheres all over the planet. The owner of the spaceship, Magalor, asks the witnesses of the crash: Kirby, Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Meta Knight, to help him find the pieces in exchange for a ride to Magalor’s home world. The heroes agree to help.

Return is made up of seven worlds, with three to five levels and one boss each. In each level Kirby and up to three other characters controlled by three other players make their way across the level to the goal while fighting or dodging enemies. Kirby’s main attack is to inhale enemies’ and spit them out in a star shaped projectile. The more enemies or other objects Kirby inhales the bigger the projectile is, which destroys more things in its path.

Kirby’s second ability, and arguably his more important ability, is to copy the powers of certain enemies he eats. Copying powers give Kirby several types of attacks. If Kirby eats a fire enemy he will be able to shoot flames or turn into a fireball, if Kirby eats a sword enemy he can attack with a sword. There are twenty-five different powers Kirby can copy. The shooting-back-enemy attack is stronger, but copying abilities is a lot more fun.

Hidden in each level are three to five energy spheres for the spaceship. These are found behind some obstacles or a hidden door. Several of spheres can only be reached by using a specific attack. The energy spheres do provide a fun distraction and extra challenge for players, but at the same time they can be annoying to collect. Some of the power spheres can only be reached once; otherwise the player has to go through the entire level again. Other time they can only be reached with a power from an enemy in a room that is no longer accessible, so the player has to do the whole level over again.

Every so often their will be a special enemy that Kirby can eat that will give him an overpowered version of that copied attack. Then the player can just tear through the levels and obliterate everything in Kirby’s path. Not that there is any challenge in these segments, but it is just fun from a destructive sense to smahs everything.

At the end of those segments are portals to another dimension, where Kirby has to outrun an advancing purple wall, and then fight a mini-boss for two energy spheres. These are the only really challenging parts of the main game.

Collecting energy spheres unlock parts of Magalor’s ship. One side of his ship has rooms where Kirby can get any power he wants.

The other side of Magalor’s ship has challenge rooms. In these rooms the player, using only one attack type, has to reach the goal before time runs out. The player gets points for taking out enemies and collecting coins, and each room has a high score to beat. There is no reward for beating the high score. These parts are not really fun; they are more about the sense of accomplishment from beating the high score.

In the ship’s basement are two mini games that can be played single or multiplayer. In the first game, you get one chance to hit a target as it flies by the screen by flicking the Wii remote. In the second game, you take apart giants robots piece by piece with a bazooka under a time limit. The first game is forgettable; the second one is so fun it could be made into its own game.

Levels are not really original. They take place in cliché settings like a desert level, a water level, and an ice level. The level design though is gorgeous. The graphics are crisp, and everything is bright and colorful. There are always beautiful vistas in background that make the levels interesting to go through.

There is no real story. The ending will not surprise anyone who has played a Kirby game before.

I did not play the multiplayer mode, but apparently you can either play as Meta Knight, King Dedede, or Waddle Dee, who only have one ability (sword, hammer, and spear), or you can play a differently colored Kirby. It is hard to imagine what another person could add to the game, it is simple enough with one person. It does give you someone to talk to, but you do not need a game for that.

Despite the mostly easy challenge of the Return, it is a fun game. It is nice to explore the levels, and smashing enemies with different attacks provides enough variety. If you are okay with a game that you will only play once in a while, or rent, it is definitely a good buy.