Sweet dreams are made of these. Who am I to disagree?
The tough puff Kirby is back for a 4-player* platforming adventure. Copy enemies’ abilities and use their power to attack with a sword, wield a whip, and float with a parasol. You can also laser blast with the new Mecha Copy Ability that makes a series debut! The extra muscle will be handy in finding missing pieces for Magolor’s ship, which crash landed on Planet Popstar. Float and fight along with friends on the same system, where each player can control another Kirby or one of Kirby’s iconic friends like King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee. Take a break from the adventure and play subgames with friends Play attractions built around returning subgames like Samurai Kirby as well as some brand-new ones like Magolor’s Tome Trackers. Bring along up to 3 additional friends on a detour from the adventure as you compete on the same system* and share the fun together.
The original Kirby’s Return to Dream Land was a 2011 Wii title that was faithful to the pink puffball’s core gameplay from past mainline games. It had up to 4 player co-op with you and 3 others playing as Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Meta Knight respectively. The Switch version also maintains this and the original game restored in HD, but is there more to it than that for Kirby’s 30th?
Indeed so. The Switch version has a whole new story epilogue featuring Magolor as well as a mini-game theme park called Merry Magoland which has you go head-to-head with either AI or friends in some addictively fierce mini-games. The mini-games are nicely varied and while none of them can compete with the likes of say, Mario Party, they do provide a good distraction from the main game and are a welcome addition.
The gameplay is classic Kirby with his Copy abilities that let him wield different abilities like Beam, Ice, Leaf, Sand, Mecha and Parasol to name a few. The game does have an assist mode of sorts which sends Magolor to give you stamina potions and even rescue you if you are about to fall in a pit. I didn’t use it but it’s nice to have it included so younger gamers can play and not get completely frustrated.
The original game is preserved perfectly, but also improved both visually and in terms of performance. The HD visuals shine through and bring the game to a new generation that may have missed out on the original 2011 Wii title. I have to say, I would really like Nintendo to bring Kirby’s Epic Yarn to Switch next…I know it got a 3DS remake, but with the eShop shutting imminently, I do worry that a lot more people will miss out on that brilliant Kirby entry.
The Verdict
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a great remake of what was already an amazing entry in the Kirby series. It has improved visuals, new content in the form of mini-games and Magolor’s epilogue chapter. What more could you ask for? Happy Birthday Kirby!