The Wii may not have been the console on which Kirby lived his heyday, but no one can deny that the pink ball has had some of his most original adventures. There’s Epic Yarn to back up my point, and it was a game that worked really well. It was around this time that Kirby’s Adventure Wii went on sale, a very accessible platform game that offered us to overcome numerous levels full of enemies of all kinds against which we could use endless copying abilities. It may not have innovated as much as the other installments, but it has perfected the Kirby 2D formula.
Although we know it in Europe as Kirby’s Adventure Wii, in reality its original title was nothing more or less than Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, and its Deluxe version which is now coming to Nintendo Switch has incorporated several improvements that anyone who goes to play it will love. Anyone who played its original version as a child and enjoyed it again as an adult tells you that. Let’s get to the analysis!
Gameplay still as fun as on Wii
The first is the first, ¿What is Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe about? Well, the argument is quite simple, as in most episodes of the saga. Maglor, an interdimensional traveler, crashes his ship on Planet Pop, leading him to ask Kirby and his friends to help him repair his ship and return home. This is the narrative excuse that the game offers us to go through different levels spread over the seven areas that the game has.
These phases will be thematic depending on the area of the map in which we are, and in each of them there will be between three and five spheres that work as a collectible and as a key to unlock all kinds of challenges and mini-games, but we’ll talk about that a bit later. . By this I mean that the level design manages many times to hide these spheres quite well and invites the player who wants to complete the game 100% to pay close attention to every nook and cranny.
In the different levels we will meet all kinds of enemiesand if we take advantage of Kirby’s famous ability to swallow enemies and copy his ability, we can call on more than 25 different skills that we can change at will whenever we find the enemy that gives us that specific ability. Sometimes it will even be necessary to use one skill or another to access hidden areas where one of the spheres will surely be found. So it’s best to alternate between skills if you don’t want to forget anything along the way.
New abilities and “Super Abilities”, the characteristic mechanics of this opus
And speaking of skills, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe brings two very cool new copy abilities that I liked a lot more than I expected. With the ability “Arena“Kirby will be able to shape the sand to perform different attacks from remarkable distance, and with the ability”mech” will not only be able to fire lightning, but will also be able to fly. But in case with all these skills he still hasn’t convinced you, this episode of the saga presents the “super abilities”, special abilities that are obtained in certain specific levels and which are much more powerful versions of some of the most classic abilities of the saga. And the truth, the parts where these abilities are used are very fun and quite inspired.
Playing alone is fun, but doing it in company is even better
And from the mechanical part I want to move on to the possibility of play out the story from start to finish with up to three friends or family members. Because yes, in the return of Kirby in Dream Land Deluxe, each player can choose one of the four characters available and thus use their unique abilities, or if they prefer, everyone can be Kirby and take advantage of the possibility of use one of the copy abilities that is in the game. Because it is true that if you play alone it is totally enjoyable, because that is how I did it, but surely the experience in company is even better.
Because yes, not only the story mode is fully compatible with the cooperative game, but also all the mini-games and additional modes. Throughout our adventure, if we obtain several spheres, all kinds of challenges and quite fun secondary mini-games will be unlocked for us to alternate while advancing in the main story. Besides, We can also access “Maglolandia Fantasy”, an amusement park where we can find many classic and totally new minigames in which we can spend hours and hours completing challenges and obtaining rewards of all kinds.
There’s a lot to do once you’ve completed the main quest!
And as if that were not enough, once the main story is completed, a coliseum mode will be unlocked, an additional mode in which we can complete the story again, but this being a little more difficult, and finally, a brand new epilogue called “Maglor’s Epilogue”. And I want to talk about this last addition, because I found it to be the most interesting thing that this Deluxe version brings.
A new epilogue not to be missed
Once the main adventure is completed, we will unlock “Maglor’s epilogue”, a small expansion that will give us 20 new levels and the ability to control Maglor, which means having a whole new arsenal of abilities that Kirby and his friends possess. In this new epilogue, Maglor will have a skill improvement system, and we will be able to use the gems that we collect at each level to improve our character. This is something that I really liked, because if in the main adventure it didn’t make much sense to get all the stars, here there are reasons not to leave jewels to collect.
Come on, in a nutshell this epilogue was the big unexpected surprise of this new version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, because although the levels are not very complicated, they maintain the level of quality of those of the main adventure, while adding small changes to the gameplay that give it a rather fresh touch. Also, at the end of this extra part, we will be able to enjoy what was for me the best boss battle in the whole game.
The Two Sides of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe Accessibility
See, The Kirby saga in general is well-known enough to be very accessible, for better or for worse. In this case, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is no exception. This is a very positive point, since all types of players can complete the adventure without too much difficulty, but it can be a problem for many other players. Because in this video game a challenge, what is a challenge, you will not find it.
This means that if you are looking for a platform video game that is a little more demanding, you may be more convinced by any installment of the Super Mario saga, or even a video game from the Donkey Kong saga.
conclusion
I recommend Kirby’s Return to Dream Land if…
- You like simple platform video games
- Are you passionate about collectibles?
- You are in love with the most charismatic pink ball in the video game industry
- Looking for a simple adventure to disconnect and play with friends or family
The main adventure Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe lasted me about 6 hours approximately, and the “Epilogue of Maglor” lasted me more or less about 2 hoursalthough if you are one of those players who want to get 100%, you will need much more since this video game has a fairly large amount of content.