After his incredible return and success with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the pink puffball returns with a remake. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is based on Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, released in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii. Unlike the Forgotten Land, this is a 2.5D side-scrolling platformer and plays closer to the older Kirby titles. Nevertheless, mechanics like Copy Abilities are still available, along with new co-op features.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe releases on February 24th for Nintendo Switch. Here’s what you need to know before jumping in.
Story
After an alien crashlands on Planet Popstar, Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee set out to fix his ship, the Lor Starcutter. It seems pretty straightforward, with five pieces and several energy spheres to recover, but more is going on than meets the eye. No spoilers, of course.
Visual Changes
As a remake, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe features visual changes. However, it looks more like the original aesthetic has been updated, giving it more of a comic-book feel with new lighting, a higher resolution and some environmental differences. Not the most drastic overhaul – it won’t compete with Resident Evil 4’s remake anytime soon – but it’s still a very nice-looking game.
Other Differences
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land used the Nintendo Wii’s motion controls back in the day for various actions. However, these are gone in the remake. The music is remastered, though it hasn’t undergone any changes, and various characters have updated looks to match their appearances in later titles.
Multiple Playable Characters
Along with Kirby, there are three other characters to control. King Dedede, Kirby’s so-called “arch-frenemy” uses the Hammer ability and can float through the air. Meta Knight uses the Sword and Wing abilities, and Bandana Waddle Dee uses the Spear ability and can Infinity Jump. Kirby is still the only one who can inhale enemies and copy their abilities. However, each character has received additional moves in the remake to help keep pace.
Co-op
Up to four players can team up through drop-in co-op, each controlling one of the main characters. Of course, you can also have more than one Kirby or Meta Knight, and so on, if you truly want, with each color-coded for easy identification. Characters can stack on top of each other and move together, totem-style while executing powerful Team Attacks.
They can also share health items using “Face-to-Face.” Other characters can also hold Copy Essences for Kirby and throw them out if he needs them. Co-op has a life pool, which means anytime someone dies, they’ll consume a life. Once all lives are gone, it’s game over, though everyone can also be sent back to the previous checkpoint if Player One falls.
Copy Abilities
The original game featured classic Copy Abilities like Bomb, Hammer, Ice, Needle, Sword and Stone, each with unique combos. However, it also added four new Copy Abilities. Whip allows Kirby to attack enemies with a whip and grab them from afar. Spear grants a spear to strike through walls or throw from range. Leaf throws cutting leaves at foes and allows Kirby to hide and protect himself. Finally, Water allows for riding waves and shooting water to extinguish flames and damage enemies.
Brand New Copy Abilities
However, in addition to the previous Copy Abilities, the remake adds some new ones. Mecha sees Kirby taking a mechanized form and being able to deploy mines, attack with fire and electric punches, fly, and much more. Sand lets Kirby strike with a sand fist and create a sand castle from below to launch enemies. In addition, the Festival Ability from Star Allies has been added and sees Kirby dancing to turn enemies into Point Stars and food.
Super Abilities
Super Abilities are powered-up versions of certain Copy Abilities and can destroy Star-Marked enemies and obstacles. There are five in total: Flare Beam, Grand Hammer, Snow Bowl, Monster Flame, and Ultra Sword. The remake adds new voice tracks for each Super Ability and unique cutscenes when they’re acquired, which is a nice touch to make them feel more unique.
Merry Magoland
Completely new to the remake is Merry Magoland, a giant theme park run by Magolor. When it becomes available is unknown, but players can travel here to play various Subgames. These are mini-games available for up to four players on the same system (no online multiplayer, sadly). There are also Missions to complete, and though it’s unknown what they are, there are seemingly 100 objectives in total. Magolor also provides interesting statistics when connecting online, like the number of Stamps collected globally.
Subgames
Merry Magoland offers multiple Subgames, with eight reimagined from previous Kirby titles. Smash Ride from Kirby: Squeak Squad has each player on a Smash Star, which they must use to push the others off. Checkerboard Chase sees everyone running around on a chessboard, using attacks to cause tiles to drop, thus sending their opponents into the abyss. Even Subgames like Samurai Kirby and Crackity Hack return. Return to Dreamland Deluxe adds some brand new Subgames, like Booming Blasters, where all players are armed with blasters and engage in top-down arena combat with power-ups.
Samurai Kirby 100
Along with the traditional Samurai Kirby, where participants must quick-draw their weapons at the earliest possible moment to cut each other down, there’s Samurai Kirby 100. Instead of competing online against other players live, you play solo and must beat the 99 most recent quick-draw times available worldwide. It’s a novel concept and should serve as good practice for regular Samurai Kirby.
Magoland Tour
If you’re unsure what Subgame to play, opt into the Magoland Tour. It essentially collects various Subgames into a sequential order for players to attempt one after the other. As players complete Subgames, they’ll earn Stamps. Collect enough Stamps to progress the Stamp Rally card, and you unlock rewards like Rare Copy Essence and Dress-up Masks, the latter based on characters from the entire series. Stamps are also earned after finding hidden Magolor Stickers in the park once per day.
Souvenir Shop
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Stock Items served as consumables that could be stored in one’s inventory and used later. They return in Return to Dream Land Deluxe as Souvenirs and can be obtained from the Stamp Rally and Souvenir Shop in Merry Magoland. Maxim Tomato and Energy Drink are some of the confirmed Souvenirs, but the shop also sells Dress-up Masks. How they’re purchased is unknown, but there are dozens to collect.
6 GB Install Size
Even with the Merry Magoland content, it’s understandable that Return to Dream Land Deluxe isn’t a heavy install. According to its Nintendo eShop listing, it only requires 6 GB of installation space on the Nintendo Switch. Interestingly, it’s slightly bigger than Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which has a 5.8 GB install.
Playtime
Unfortunately, those expecting an adventure on the same scale as the Forgotten Land may be slightly disappointed. The original could be finished in about nine hours if you played the story and did extra content, while completionists could wrap it up in about 12 hours (compared to the Forgotten Land’s 26 or so hours of content). Nevertheless, with the base game, Extra Mode, co-op, and the addition of Merry Magoland, the remake should have enough to keep players busy.