Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Developer	HAL Laboratory
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Wii
Release Date	US October 24, 2011 JP October 27, 2011 EU December 2011
Rating	ESRB: E10+

Kirby's Return to Dreamland is the second Kirby installment for the Nintendo Wii. As the title indicates, Return to Dreamland opposes the new gameplay style of the preceding Kirby's Epic Yarn to return the Kirby series to its classic gameplay style.

Development

Return to Dreamland appears to be the fruition of an attempt at a Kirby game that had been started earlier in the 2000s, which originally used a style similar to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. A Kirby game was announced for the Gamecube in 2005, but it was never released before the console's lifespan ended. Production seemed to move up to the Wii afterwards, although this was seemingly contradicted by the development of Kirby's Epic Yarn. However, in the months following the release of Epic Yarn, Nintendo confirmed that a traditional Kirby game was still coming to the Wii with a new trailer, and it was eventually appointed the full title Kirby's Return to Dreamland.

Plot

An alien spaceship has crash landed on Pop Star, with the pieces being scattered across the land. Kirby volunteers to search for them, so that the alien can return home.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay reprises from the earlier Kirby games, in that Kirby can swallow enemies and copy their abilities. Classic abilities retained, and new ones are also added, as well as special Super Abilities which can only be used after swallowing special enemies.

Return to Dreamland also adds cooperative multiplayer gameplay with up to four players. The additional players can choose to play as King Dedede, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee or a different-colored Kirby. The different characters can ride on each other, and Kirby can also swallow any number of them to spit at enemies.