Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): February 24, 2023
- Release Date (EU): February 24, 2023
- Release Date (JP): February 24, 2023
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Developer: HAL Laboratory
- Genres: Kirby
Game Features:
Kirby games have always held a special place in my heart. They’re not known for their challenge so much as their charm and polish. To me, they’re comfort games. Joining the series back with Mouse Attack (or the better US title Squeak Squad) on the DS, I’ve seen Kirby through most of his modern adventures, and I’m yet to come out disappointed. Having missed the original Wii release of Return to Dream Land though, I’m excited to jump in now.
If you’ve managed to avoid my favourite pink blob all this time, let me fill you in on the basics. Kirby is a happy and somewhat carefree resident of Dream Land. If they had their way, they’d probably spend his adventuring days sat under a tree indulging in sweet treats; it never quite works out that way though. For one reason or another, Kirby’s peaceful afternoons are thrown into chaos, and they must set out on journey after journey to live the life they so desire. The stories behind an average Kirby game is never particularly complex, but they are endearing in just how far Kirby’s willing to go in search of this peace, or to make their friends happy. Often caught up in the grandeur and sense of adventure, it’s easy to forget how simple the motivations often are. Mouse Attack as a keen example starts by Kirby’s strawberry shortcake being stolen, and ends in a fight with a possessed mouse and an evil God or something. Kirby just wanted the shortcake, and I love that.
Return to Dream Land starts out in a similar way to most Kirby games. You see a peaceful and green world with a few familiar faces lounging around or running with food. All is well, at least until it isn’t. Kirby’s push in this case is a giant spaceship appearing in the sky, and falling apart as it crashes down. Going to investigate, we meet a now-stranded Magolor in the ruins of his ship. Seeing how sad he looks, Kirby’s naturally right there to offer support and gather the parts Magolor needs to get back into the sky. With that, we’re on our way.
Coming to this game after recently playing Star Allies, it is a change to see a more traditional level selection screen. Taking me back to some of the oldest titles in the series, worlds are laid out as a 2D map not too different from an actual level. On these maps, you can see a bunch of closed doors where each represents a level, and each world ending in a boss battle. It’s a simple formula that works well, giving you a decent idea of what to expect and how long each world is likely to be. Once you’ve unlocked a level, you can also see your stats in terms of collectables both available and found. It’s good to have this knowledge prior to entering since you don’t always keep to the three collectable per level rule you might have become accustom to in games like the New Super Mario Bros series.
The levels themselves are unquestionably and ashamedly Kirby levels. It might sound like a silly thing to point out, but if you’ve played one Kirby game before, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here. Not necessarily complex and rarely overly punishing, they’re a relaxed stroll where you’re encouraged to explore and engage with the level using the tools on offer. It’s common for the game to put something you want just out of reach as you run through a level. Close enough that it’ll catch your eye, but far enough away where you have to think about how to get it. It’s a good balance that doesn’t really strain you to play; it fits in with my general view of the Kirby series as comfort games to unwind to.
Unique to Return to Dream Land are the super abilities. As Magolor’s ship crashed down, strange and shadowy objects fell with it. While it isn’t immediately obvious what these are or do, you’re soon introduced to them in the form of a particularly large and glowing enemy. As a great player of Kirby games, the natural instinct is to ingest such an enemy, and you’re rewarded well for such an instinct. Comparable to the Mega Mushroom of New Super Mario Bros, you gain a very strong version of the enemy’s power up with the caveat that you only have it for a brief period of time. The first of these, and the one you’ll have likely seen in some form of promotional material, is the Ultra Sword. When you attack with the Ultra Sword, you’ll both clear enemies off the screen, breaking the fourth wall a tad and smashing them into your display, and clear otherwise-unbreakable objects from the map. By getting to the end of the section with the power up, you’re able to enter another dimension that starts with you being chased by a really intimidating wall of something, and ending in a boss battle for some of those sweet sweet collectables. These sections are entirely optional, but to me they were some of the most enjoyable parts of the game.
While I do consider Kirby games to be relaxing rides, it’s certainly not to say there’s no kind of difficulty scaling as you progress through the story. Though not something I noticed so much from level to level, it is noticeable as you move from world to world, especially at the start of the adventure. Cookie Country serves as your typical green training wheel world that, in typical Kirby fashion, ends in a fight with everybody’s favourite tree. Moving out of there though and onto Raisin Ruins and beyond, I noticed myself taking more random hits and even dying a few times. It was never particularly frustrating, and I think a lot of my deaths came from being impatient more than the difficulty spiking out of nowhere.
If you do find the game too difficult though, you do have a few options. The first is probably the obvious one: just skip the collectable. More often than not, the difficult areas of a Kirby game are the ones that are rewarding you for beating them, usually ending with an energy sphere or two. I managed to collect everything on my adventure, but if I were committed to collecting and found myself entirely against a brick wall, there was also another option. In Return to Dream Land Deluxe, you can call upon Magolor to assist you. He’ll throw you potions every so often, and also pick you up if you happened to fall down a hole and into the void. I’m never against optional helper features like this, especially in such an accessible game as Kirby. If you wanted to introduce a younger family member to the franchise or even gaming as a whole, something like could genuinely have a meaningful impact on their experience. I think that’s great.
On the other end of the spectrum though if you breezed through the main game, you might be happy to know there is an Extra Mode that takes the entirety of the base story and amps it up. Here, you’ll play with limited health against tweaked enemies and bosses. It is much the same game, don’t get me wrong, but only having 60% of your maximum health available was terrifying to me when I squeaked through a few of the later stages by a hit or two.
Though it might sound like a picky critique, I do think it’s a shame that no real malicious motivations are communicated throughout the game. To some extent, you’d ask why would there be? And that’s a reasonable question. But to ask something similar back, exactly why are the world bosses fighting you over these pieces of Magolor’s ship? Surely it’s just junk to them? There’s one exception to this that’s a brilliant fight, but the others feel like they could’ve been in any Kirby game. Compare this to a game like Planet Robobot where each boss fits the larger theme and serves a larger purpose, it all just feels a bit disjointed. It still makes for a fine Kirby game, but the series has shown it can be better than this.
Magolor Epilogue is a mode new to the Deluxe edition of Return to Dream Land. Set after the main story, it sees you control a now-powerless Magolor fight against enemies to collect magic points and restore his power. After each stage you return to the Ethereal Alter to allocate your magic points before heading out again. The core gameplay shares much of the Kirby charm and simplicity, but at least at the start puts a much heavier emphasis on traditional platforming with Magolor unable to fly. You’re also rewarded for building up combos of attacks with some decent magic point bonuses, this working towards an end of stage medal that ranges from bronze to platinum. I found from normal play a gold rank was easy enough to get. Platinum tended to take a bit more thinking to ensure I could both string together enough combos and not be hit out of them from being careless.
This epilogue is a really cool addition, and really rounds out your traditional game modes nicely, but there’s obviously one more major mode you’ll probably expect if you’re a series veteran: the arena. Much like Magolor Epilogue, this is unlocked after beating the main story, but unlike the epilogue, you know exactly what you’re getting here. After picking your favourite power up, you’re thrown into a 13 round timed brawl against each of the game’s bosses. As always it’s a great challenge and a greater challenge if you’re trying to best your previous high score. With me being the type of player to play carelessly in search of a quick win, this is one of the harder parts of the game for me, and one I come back to when I want to re-experience some of the best parts of the game.
Outside of your primary game modes, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe features a pretty lengthy assortment of subgames to enjoy, and they’re split between two areas of the game. The first of these is Merry Magoland, a charming theme park area run by Magolor. Here, you get ten games that are available to play pretty much out of the gate, each with a small assortment of missions to complete across three difficulty settings. There’s a fun gameplay loop to be found. You’ll play games and receive stamps. Getting enough stamps will reward you with items to help you on your main adventure, but also cosmetic masks to wear. Some missions will require you to play the games wearing these masks, bringing you back, getting more stamps, and so on. The majority of these games are fairly simple and you’ll be getting through them within a minute or so of play, but they are fun and they’ll feel familiar for fans of the series. I enjoy the cosmetic masks a lot too since they carry over to the main adventure to customise Kirby just a little, and the missions are fun for guiding you towards an objective as you play instead of them just being standalone games. It’s kind of like how I prefer Harvest Moon DS to Friends of Mineral Town for how collecting Sprites gives much of the other game a guiding purpose.
The other way you’ll be interacting with subgames is as a reward for gathering this game’s collectables: energy spheres. At the centre of the world map, you can visit Magolor’s ship for an update of what’s still missing, but also to see what you’ve unlocked along the way. For your troubles, you’ll get an assortment of bonus challenge levels focused on a particular power, rooms that’ll let you just gain a power you’re after, and subgames. What’s a little odd here is that these are the same subgames you’ll find in Merry Magoland, but here they’re locked behind up to 115 energy spheres. What’s more, playing the unlockable versions doesn’t actually count towards the missions you can find in Magoland. If I had to guess, this was the original way you’d be able to play them, and Magoland is a Deluxe addition. Even so, it’s weird they’d leave these in as a reward when you start with them. It’s just a bit odd. I like Merry Magoland’s aesthetic and inclusion, but I do wish they reworked the content that was already present to not diminish the sense of reward for collecting the spheres. I don’t think I’d have minded Magoland having the games be locked.
Can I recommend the Deluxe version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land? Of course I can. This is a great Kirby game on a more versatile platform, with the added bonus of new and meaningful content. If you’re a fan of Kirby games or just want something fun to play with a few people on the sofa, you’ll have a great time ahead of you.
Verdict
- A great and by the books Kirby outing
- Nice assortment of subgames to enjoy
- New mode added for Deluxe edition
- Genuinely challenging hard mode available upon completion of main story
- Some unlockable content is available elsewhere now and doesn't really feel like a reward
- Bosses don't seem to have any reason to be guarding the things you're fighting them for
