Among the many characters that Nintendo has, our pink ball, Kirby is one of the most popular. In fact, he’s been getting the attention he deserves for some time now with releases like Kirby Battle Royale, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, Kirby’s Dream Buffet, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Now, Hal Laboratory brings us Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe a definitive version of the game released in 2011 for Wii that now makes the leap to Nintendo Switch. Return to Dreamland Deluxe, as a remaster, brings graphical improvements, better controls, accessibility and a new, unprecedented campaign of considerable length, so much so that it is closer to what a remake is.
a crashed ship
The simple story of Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe takes us to an afternoon in which Kirby is with his friends and witnesses the accident of a strange ship that comes from another dimension. Said ship, called Astrosailer, belongs to Magolor and its remains have been scattered throughout the planet Pop Star, it will be our duty to find the pieces throughout 8 levels with their respective stages.
At the plot level, you don’t have to wait long, except at the end, in which an unexpected revelation is made. With just some context, we are immediately thrown into the ring in the first five minutes. We have the presence of several recurring characters in the Kirby saga, such as Meta Knight, Rey Dedede and his henchman Bandana Dee who will become part of our team.
back to dreamland
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe is a game that returns to the roots of the pink character, a 2.5D platformer. Basically, we will go through a series of levels in which we must find some gears that are part of the Astrosailer ship. Along the way we will meet recurring enemies and some of which Kirby will be able to absorb and copy abilities. In some levels we will have confrontations with bosses that will grant us one of the aforementioned gears.
In the levels we will find secrets and the odd surprise, which we will talk about later. The controls have been adapted to make them more accessible. Now the movement controls of the Wii version are set aside for ones that are much more comfortable to learn. New movements have been included for some of the powers among other novelties.
The really attractive thing about the game is the combat, Kirby has a wide set of movements depending on the ability he has. We will have powers of fire, electricity, swords, wind, etc. However, the game turns out to be very easy and will hardly present any challenge. The times I died was due to a miscalculation when falling into an abyss, rather than facing an enemy. Although that has never been the forte of the Kirby saga.
The game can be played with up to three friends, even using Joy-Cons. We can either use four Kirbys of different colors or friends like Meta Knight, Rey Dedede and Bandana Dee. They each have different powers and moves, while Meta Knight is faster, King Dedede is slower and stronger. However, only Kirby can copy the abilities of others.
Deluxe Edition
As was obvious, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe brings news that was not only limited to aesthetics, but also new content. Starting with the return of extra mode which presents a new challenge by raising the difficulty of the game. The coliseum mode is also back to face the bosses as Boss Rush.
The great addition is a new epilogue in which the protagonist will be Maglor. The objective is to recover our powers and it has its own list of levels. Maglor is a different character and has his own powers so much that he changes the way you play. We will be obtaining magic points that we can invest in new abilities to finally face a level boss.
Another addition is the mode Maglolandia Fantasy. It is an amusement park in which we can participate in a series of challenges and challenges, a total of 100 mini-games that can be done alone or with friends. Once the levels are overcome, we can obtain rewards in the form of skins and masks for Kirby.
In terms of content, the game has not fallen short of everything it offers. We may well be playing the campaign mode with everything and a second round, Maglolandia and the 100 mini-games or a series of additional challenges on Maglol’s ship. It is a very dense game in terms of content.
A new graphic wash
Aesthetically Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe is a beautiful game, the characters are created with very marked contours in a rather striking Cel-Shading. The settings have a very good level of detail, even in the distance. The game never suffers with 30fps in handheld mode and 60fps in docked mode.
Musically, the game has new songs on its soundtrack and some well-known ones. There will be different versions of the victory theme and the characters do not have voices when speaking only with babble, however, their conversations are through texts.
verdict
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe is a game that falls somewhere between what is a remake and a remaster due to both its new graphic wash and the huge amount of new content. It’s a really fun title, especially if we play with three friends, although it may feel easy at first, things change at the end. New additions like the Maglolandia park and the challenge room will keep us busy trying to get 100%. Widely recommended for fans of the pink ball and those who couldn’t enjoy its original release.
Note: This review was made thanks to the copy provided by Nintendo.
