After venturing off the beaten path with his last few games, Kirby’s back to his inhaling and power-absorbing ways in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. And he’s brought along a few friends, and even foes, allowing for up to 4-players to tackle the adventure together for the first time.

 

 

If you’ve played any of the classic Kirby games, you’ll feel right at home here...literally, since you’ll be holding the controller NES-style! The game stays true to Kirby’s heritage with a slower style of gameplay, but focuses on the vast array of abilities at Kirby’s disposal, thanks to his ability to suck up enemies and steal their powers (confirmed: Kirby is The Thing). And Kirby Returns to Dreamland doesn’t disappoint with upwards of 25-copy abilities, not including a few additional “super” variants. The number of abilities is basically the most ever featured in a Kirby game, with the exception of Kirby 64, where you could combine powers--which is sort of cheating.

Some of these powers are Kirby mainstays, including Beam, Fire, and Cutter, in addition to several new ones such as Water, Leaf, and the cowboy-hat donning Whip -- sadly, my favorite Wheel didn’t make the cut.  It’s a lot of fun trying out all the powers--learning what works for you...or doesn’t--and either tailoring your play style to focus on certain types, or attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Like in Kirby Super Star, each power has multiple attacks, which adds a surprising amount of depth to each one. And though most of the attacks are pretty intuitive, some do require different button combinations, a la Smash Bros. Fortunately, there’s a move-list cheat-sheet on the pause screen for quick reference, which is handy considering the game has well over 100 attacks to keep track of. Now it should be noted that several moves do make use of the Wii’s motion controls, asking you to shake the controller to charge up attacks. Though with few exceptions, these are largely optional, as you can generally rotate the control-pad as an alternate means to charge, which is pleasant news to those adverse to motion-controls.

As mentioned, you’ll occasionally find “Super” versions of several of the copy-abilities, which allow you to basically take out a screen-full of enemies, as well destroy any weak structures that might be in the way. You can use these powers endlessly until time runs out, usually a minute or two later. Unfortunately, while they look cool, they’re more style than substance--the most “impressive” thing about the “super” attacks is how quickly the novelty wears off. You see, it takes absolutely no skill to wield these all-destroying attacks which saps any reward associated with them, since you’re basically just coasting by. To compound the issue, only a single player can wield a “super” power at a time, making it especially annoying for your friends since each attack freezes the action for several seconds while the animation completes. It’s ultimately a small issue, but one that does that does negatively impact the pacing, and always left me letting out a small sigh whenever I’d encounter one, as they’re largely required to finish the game 100%.

Speaking of which, there are 120 gears scattered throughout the levels that you’ll want to track down in order to unlock bonuses such as copy-ability challenges, which has you racing through short levels while going for the high-score, and even a few multiplayer minigames. Though they’re not required to finish the journey, they are fun to seek out, and will add a few hours to what is otherwise a pretty short adventure (5 hours, if you rush through).

 

Now let’s touch on the game’s biggest feature: co-op. Kirby Returns to Dreamland allows you and up to three friends to play through the main adventure together. Although the first-player is stuck as Kirby, the other three can either choose to be a different colored Kirby, or one of three additional characters: Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle-Dee. These three sport each their own unique move-set, though the catch is that they’re unable to use copy abilities. Fortunately, the additional players can switch characters at any time simply by holding the “Minus” button. In fact, players can drop in and out at any time in the same way, which is incredibly quick and painless, unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Also unlike NSMBW, Kirby lends itself better to working together, since you won’t often find yourselves getting in each others’ way, resulting in inadvertent deaths.

Now, we did discover that 2-3 players seems to be the sweet spot, as there usually simply isn’t enough for 4-players to do at all times, since you’re only ever dealing with a small amount of enemies on the screen at a time. There is also a side-effect to playing cooperatively, and that is it makes what is already a pretty easy game even easier. Fortunately, the game does pick up the challenge-level in the latter half, and it remains fun throughout regardless.

Besides the main game, you’ll also unlock a few multiplayer mini-games, similar in vein to those seen in previous Kirby titles. This time, you’ll throw Shurikens at targets or shoot down giant robots. They’re both very simple, and fun for a few rounds, but we can’t imagine ourselves revisiting these much down the line. The coolest unlockables are ones we can’t really talk about yet, but should please fans of Kirby Super Star.

Unfortunately, the lack of challenge in the main game does ensure the journey is over rather quickly (about 5 hours), though some end-game secrets and collectible-searching do add a decent amount of replayability for those who seek it. Kirby Returns to Dreamland is, at its core, a pretty standard Kirby game, but one that is made notably more compelling when played with friends.

Though designed with co-op in mind, Kirby's Return to Dreamland can also be tackled solo, though it loses some of the excitement inherent when playing with others. Unfortunately, the game’s flaws also start to stand out a little more when playing by yourself.

Most noticeable is the game’s difficulty, or lack thereof, which doesn’t actually start to get challenging until well in the latter half. This problem is more easily overlooked in multi-player when there’s too much chaos going on too notice, but it becomes much more apparent when playing by yourself and makes some earlier sections a little dull to play through.

 

Now you may have noticed that I haven’t even touched upon the story up until now, and that’s for good reason--there’s barely a story here. Granted, this is a Kirby game, so I don’t expect some sweeping epic narrative with deep undertones that equate Kirby’s hunger to his desire for world peace. What I do want, at a minimum, is context and--maybe--some character motivation. As it stands, some alien spaceship crashes down, Kirby and the villainous Dedede crew roll in, and for some inexplicable reason, opt to work together to help the alien dude fix his ship. The game provides zero explanation as to why Kirby and the tyrannous bunch have (temporarily?) turned to the good side, which you would think would be given a little more attention considering they’ve been enemies for nearly 20 years. The game is also almost entirely antagonist-free, which draws into question who exactly the enemies you’re fighting the entire way are working for...

Okay, it’s a small issue, and one that’s easily overlooked in light of playing with friends. But it is a bit jarring when playing by yourself. Last month’s Kirby’s Mass Attack handled the story much better, providing just enough context and an actual antagonist, on which the gameplay was successfully built around.

Fortunately, playing by yourself does have one benefit: allowing you to tackle the Copy-Ability challenge-rooms that unlock as you find enough collectibles. In these, you’ll race through an environment, battling enemies and grabbing gems, all in an effort to reach the end before time expires. Though seemingly mere short diversions, they can quickly become an addictive time-sink as you try to perfect your run for the coveted gold medals.

Ultimately, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, as a single-player adventure is a solid, but entirely conventional entry in the Kirby series. There’s little here that we haven’t seen before, and the few things that are new, such as the Super Abilities, aren’t particularly compelling. With that said, it is a step-up from last year’s visually delightful but overly simplistic Epic Yarn, and is a decent, but unremarkable return to squishy form for the pink puff. Just try and play through it with a friend or two for maximum enjoyment.