After a long line of gimmick-heavy titles, 2011’s Kirby’s Return to Dream Land signaled the franchise’s return to traditional platforming style. With four-player co-op, a huge suite of fun copy abilities, and cleverly designed stages, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land stands out as one of the franchise’s highlights. Thanks to a visual HD upgrade and meaningful content additions, this new version of Switch establishes itself as the definitive way to enjoy this outstanding adventure.
An interdimensional being named Magolor has crash-landed on Kirby’s Planet Popstar, and it’s up to Kirby and his friends to collect the missing parts to repair Magolor’s ship. Players, along with up to three friends, must run, jump, and soar through a variety of exciting platforming levels spread across multiple biomes in cooperative drop-in/drop-out play. I’m glad co-op is still in this version, but I’m disappointed that this remaster didn’t add online functionality.
While additional players can take the form of Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Waddle Dee (each with different moves), Kirby is the best character to play thanks to his ability to absorb powers from enemies. Luckily, each player can take on a variant of Kirby in lieu of these specific characters, giving each player full access to the impressive list of copy abilities they can inhale in Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
Each copy ability is inherited from the original version, giving you dominion over water, electricity, fire, snow and more. While the elemental abilities are fun and helpful in solving environmental puzzles, I still prefer the more offensive move sets offered by the magic ray, classic sword, and nimble ninja. This version also adds two brand new copy abilities in the form of Mecha and Sand. While surfing around and sandblasting enemies is fun, I often struggled to experience the powerful Mecha ability’s lasers, blasters, and missiles. I love the variety of gameplay that the wide range of copying abilities offers.
The stages in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe use these copy abilities to encourage exploration. While it’s sometimes frustrating not having the right power to grab a hidden collectible, the game will usually give you rough hints that you should acquire a specific new ability before moving on to the next area. I loved repeating these stages to go through different doors and see how the branching paths rewarded me.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is not a difficult game, but the challenge certainly increases towards the end of the main story. In those moments I was glad to have mastered some of my favorite skills. However, if you need extra assistance to complete the adventure, Deluxe adds a new Magolor helper mode where he’ll throw you some health when you’re low or fish you out of pits when you fall. Most experienced players will not need Magolor’s help with this optional feature, but for less experienced players, this option will inevitably increase their enjoyment. Thankfully, Extra Mode returns, with bosses tougher, players weaker, and bonus stages more challenging to make your second run even more challenging.
Speaking of Magolor, he’s the focus of the two most significant additions to this deluxe pack. In addition to unlocking Extra Mode when you play through the main story, you can play Magolor Epilogue. This brand new story-based mode follows Magolor on a journey to regain his powers following the events of the original adventure. Though Magolor’s projectile-based move-set is underwhelming at first, level up his skills by defeating enemies and maintaining combo streaks to earn magic orbs as you play. This greater emphasis on combat satisfied me the more I delved into this shorter story. I ended up pulling off massive combos with bombs, spiral projectiles, and black holes, shredding any enemies that dared stand in my way. The souped-up boss fights in this mode are no joke, however, and give me some of the most challenging sequences of my time in Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
However, Magolor isn’t just about blasting away his enemies. A second new mode that bears his name, Merry Magoland, is all about kicking back and having fun with friends. Here you can experience a wide range of gameplay challenges with various subgames from the past and some brand new ones. Whether it’s Nightmare in Dream Land’s frantic Bomb Rally game, Squeak Squad’s combative Smash Ride, or Super Star’s reaction-based samurai Kirby, I loved experiencing the different playstyles this fun collection offers. A mission system serves as an exciting in-game checklist, rewarding you with cosmetic masks featuring characters from the series based on your performance in the mode.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is still an improved remaster of a 12-year-old Wii game, but it effectively advances one of pink puffball’s best outings, complete with sensible additions. The result is a game worthy of standing alongside last year’s excellent Kirby and the Forgotten Land in the Switch catalogue.
