Gameplay
''Return to Dream Land'' is a 2.5D side-scrolling platform game, controlled by holding the Wii Remote sideways. Unlike previous entries in the ''Kirby'' series, the game features 3D models for player characters and enemies rather than sprite (computer graphics), sprites. Throughout the game, Kirby can collect Item (game terminology), items which will heal him; food items that recover Health (game terminology), health, items that give him an extra Life (video games), life, or by collecting 100 stars, which immediately grants him an extra life. There are also various items Kirby can use to interact with the environment. At the end of each stage, a bonus game is played in which players time a button press to jump as high as possible to earn additional items. The player controls Kirby (character), Kirby, who retains his signature ability to inhale objects and enemies. The inhaled objects can either be swallowed, or propelled back out as a projectile. Kirby can also do a "Super Inhale", where shaking the Wii Remote or inhaling for a long time makes Kirby's inhale stronger. A Super Inhale has extended range and can suck up "Heave-ho Blocks", which are immovable from a regular inhale; the Super Inhale also allows Kirby to inhale other players and most large enemies. Certain enemies, when swallowed, give Kirby access to a wide variety of "Copy Abilities", which gives Kirby the attack properties of the enemies he inhales. Kirby can only possess one copy ability at a time. Other players playing as another character through Multiplayer video game, multiplayer, or those playing as King Dedede, Meta Knight, or Waddle Dee, can hold onto a Copy Ability's essence and throw them back to Kirby to be inhaled. If a discarded ability from these characters is left untouched, it will vanish shortly afterward. Each copy ability has multiple attacks that are utilized depending on the combination of button-inputs pressed by the player. New abilities introduced in this game are the Whip ability, which lets Kirby grab out-of-reach items, the Water ability, which allows Kirby to extinguish fires, and the Leaf ability, which lets Kirby use leaves as a form of attack and conjure a pile of leaves to hide in and become invulnerable to nearly all attacks. The Nintendo Switch remake introduces both the Mecha ability, which gives Kirby laser cannons and robotic arms, and the Sand ability, which allows Kirby to morph sand into various shapes, as well as reintroducing the Festival ability from ''Kirby Star Allies''. The game introduces more powerful, temporary Copy Abilities called "Super Abilities," which are able to destroy parts of the environment and inflict tremendous damage across a wide range. Unlike regular Copy Abilities, ejecting a Super Ability will cause the Super Ability to be discarded instantly. Five Super Abilities exist: Ultra Sword, Monster Flame, Flare Beam, Grand Hammer, and Snow Bowl, which are enhanced versions of the Sword, Fire, Beam, Hammer, and Ice Copy Abilities respectively. The game features drop-in Cooperative video game, cooperative multiplayer for up to three additional players. These players can either play as a yellow, blue or green Kirby, or as one of three unique characters: Meta Knight, King Dedede, and List of Kirby characters#Bandana Waddle Dee, Waddle Dee. Each of these characters possess traits from corresponding Copy Abilities based on the way each character moves and attacks, though only Kirbys are able to inhale enemies and use Copy Abilities. Players are able to ride on top of each other as a "totem", which, with perfect timing, allows the use of a charged attack, called the "Team Attack", driven by the player at the bottom. Players can also share recently ingested health-restoring items through a move called "Face-to-Face". Within the Epilogue introduced in the Switch remake, Magolor becomes a playable character, having been stripped of his powers and forced to regain them. He is able to levitate for short periods and produce energy attacks at first, and gains more abilities when a player upgrades them. Players 2–4 people can play as various recolors of Magolor in this mode. All players share from a pool of lives, with each player requiring one life to enter the game. If one of the three additional players loses a life, they can spend an extra life to rejoin the game. However, if player one dies, all players stop play and gameplay restarts from the last checkpoint.Plot
One day, a dimension-hopping spaceship called the Lor Starcutter suddenly flies out of a dimensional rift and crashes onto Kirby's home planet of Popstar. As Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee go to investigate, they meet an alien named Magolor, who discovers that the five vital pieces of his ship have been scattered across the planet, with the 120 Energy Spheres being scattered across both Popstar and Halcandra. With Magolor offering them a trip to his homeworld of Halcandra should they help fix his ship, Kirby and his friends set off to recover the lost pieces. After retrieving the main pieces, they travel to Halcandra, where they are attacked by a four-headed dragon named Landia. Magolor claims Landia is an evil beast that has taken over Halcandra and sends Kirby to defeat it. However, after Landia is defeated, Magolor reveals his true motive was to steal the Master Crown on its head and become all-powerful, as he wears the crown and uses it to turn into a large monster, with the intent of making the entire universe bow before him, beginning with Popstar. Teaming up with Landia, who has split into four individual dragons, Kirby and his friends go chase Magolor in Another Dimension. During the chase, Magalor uses the Lor Starcutter to try to defeat Kirby and his friends, but Kirby and his friends defeat the Lor Starcutter. Magalor removes Kirby and his friends from the Landia dragons before they come to fight him in a final battle. During the battle, Magolor transforms into a larger monster. Kirby and his friends destroy the Master Crown, while Magolor is transported to somewhere. With the Master Crown shattered and Magolor defeated, Kirby and friends return to Popstar, after a close call escaping the now collapsing Another Dimension. The Landia dragons take the Lor Starcutter and return home. A non-canon Extra Mode, which replaces Magolor's final form with Magolor Soul, reveals that Magolor may have been used as a puppet by the Master Crown itself.Development
Development on a new ''Kirby'' game for the GameCube began after the release of ''Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards'' for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game underwent an 11-year development period, in which three different proposed versions of the game were developed and scrapped. The first version was similar to the graphical and gameplay style of ''Kirby 64'', rendered in 3D, but using traditional 2D side-scrolling video game, side-scrolling gameplay. The tentatively-titled ''Kirby for Nintendo GameCube'' would also support multiplayer with up to four players, featuring an expansion of the Helper system from ''Kirby Super Star''. This build was demonstrated at Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3 in 2005, and was set for release later that year. However, difficulty with programming multiplayer led to this version being scrapped, though the expanded Helper concept would resurface with ''Kirby Star Allies'' for the Nintendo Switch. The second build placed Kirby in a 3D environment, and the third build returned to side-scrolling gameplay, but had the graphical style of a pop-up book, similar to ''Yoshi's Story'' for the Nintendo 64 in the late 1990s. Although the second build was canceled due to not meeting HAL Laboratory's quality standards, they would continue to experiment with 3D ''Kirby'' titles, eventually culminating in ''Kirby and the Forgotten Land'' for the Nintendo Switch. Shinya Kumazaki, who had directed ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', was brought on to direct the Wii project when the third build was canceled in early 2010. Realizing that the failures of the first three attempts were caused by too much focus on multiplayer, the development team shifted focus to the single-player experience, though they ultimately kept multiplayer as a low-priority feature. Development of the final version accelerated in October 2010, when the game began to take form. ''Kirby''s long development caused the game to frequently appear and then disappear from Nintendo's upcoming game lists. On September 14, 2006, the ''Kirby'' game appeared on a list of upcoming List of Wii games, Wii games, tentatively named , set for release in Japan. The December 2006 issue of ''Nintendo Power'' removed ''Kirby'' from its list of GameCube releases, but did not place it on its list of Wii releases. Matt Casamassina of ''IGN'', posting on his blog, furthered the idea of a Wii release by stating that it would indeed be released for theRemake
During the Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2022, an enhanced remake of the game was announced for the Nintendo Switch titled ''Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe''. Additions to the original include new Mecha and Sand Abilities, the addition of the Festival ability introduced in ''Kirby Star Allies'', a comic book-esque graphical style, revamped controls based on those introduced in ''Kirby: Triple Deluxe'', and new sub-games, as well as some returning from past Kirby titles that did not appear in the original, though Scope Shot is not included. During the Nintendo Direct on February 8, 2023, a new mode, ''Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler'', was announced. The game was released on February 24, 2023. ''Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler'' stars Magolor after his defeat at the hands of Kirby and his friends. Stranded in the depths of Another Dimension and without most of his powers, Magolor sets out trying to reclaim them while also collecting Fruit Fragments, parts of a mysterious fruit called the Gem Apple. He eventually repairs the Gem Apple Seed at the Ethereal Altar, but it is soon corrupted by the remnants of the Master Crown, becoming the Crowned Doomer. After its defeat, the Master Crown remnants combine with the Gem Apple, transforming into a massive tree-like being, known as the Tree Crown Without a Ruler. Magolor fights the Master Crown, and eventually defeats it for good by infusing a sword with his magic, turning it into an Ultra Sword, and slicing the Master Crown in half. Magolor then leaves Another Dimension through a dimensional rift that opens up after the Master Crown is defeated. The credits sequence reveals that via the portal, Magolor ends up in the village of the Dream Kingdom, which is located in an Parallel universes in fiction, alternate universe, with the Gem Apple seed, now reduced to a sapling, being planted as the village's Gem Apple tree. Having now redeemed himself, Magolor takes up residence as the Dream Kingdom's shopkeeper, leading into the events of ''Team Kirby Clash Deluxe'' and ''Super Kirby Clash''.Reception
''Kirby's Return to Dream Land'' received "generally favorable" reviews, based on review aggregator Metacritic. According to Nintendo, the game sold 1.31 million copies by March 2012. Multiple critics appreciated the return of traditional ''Kirby'' gameplay, compared to unique content such as ''Kirby's Epic Yarn''. The game was called nostalgic and reminiscent of previous games, with James Stephanie Sterling of ''Destructoid'' describing the game as "refreshing" and stating that "Kirby doesn't need to innovate, he just needs to be fun; ''Return to Dream Land'' brings the fun in spades." The graphics and visuals were praised for being detailed and vibrant. ''GameSpot'' reviewer Nathan Meunier called the levels beautifully designed, appreciating each one's environment. Complaints were raised of how the game lacked difficulty, mostly from the use of multiplayer. ''IGN'' stated that the game could appeal to a younger audience with a simple difficulty level.''Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe''
Like the original, ''Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe'' also received "generally favorable" reviews according to Metacritic, scoring slightly higher than the original. Morgan Shaver of ''Shacknews'' stated that they liked the new Merry Magoland feature in the Switch remake, giving the overall game a positive review. The Switch remake sold 1.46 million copies as of March 2023.Notes
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