Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Developer	HAL Laboratory
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Wii
Release Date	US October 24, 2011 JP October 27, 2011 EU November 25, 2011 AU December 1, 2011
Rating	ESRB: E10+

Kirby's Return to Dream Land (known in Europe as Kirby's Adventure Wii) 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 Dream Land marks the end of the attempt at a new main Kirby console game to follow Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Three games were developed throughout the 2000s which each took Kirby in a different direction. The first attempted game was announced for the Gamecube in 2005. It followed a style similar to Kirby 64 while adding four-player cooperative multiplayer. The developers had trouble with the multiplayer, and although the game seemed to be moved up to the Wii, it was soon canceled. Two more attempts were tried over the following years, one which placed Kirby in a free-roaming 3-D environment while another was a side-scrolling platformer with a pop-up motif and more cartoonish graphics.

In the meantime, Nintendo was able to convince Feel Good to use Kirby for their new game, so Kirby's Epic Yarn was released for the Wii. However, a fourth attempt was made at a Kirby game which succeeded. Kirby's Return to Dream Land was based more on the classic games while using some ideas leftover from the three canceled titles (such as Super Abilities and the four-player gameplay).

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 Dream Land 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.

Legacy

The next mainstream Kirby game was Kirby: Triple Deluxe for the 3DS.