Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Encyclopedia
Kirby's Return to Dream Land, known in Japan
as and in Europe
and Australia
as Kirby's Adventure Wii, is a Kirby
video game and the twelveth platform
installment of the series, in development by HAL Laboratory
, and published by Nintendo
. While Kirby's Epic Yarn
was released in 2010, Kirby's Return to Dream Land is the first traditional Kirby platforming home console
game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
, which was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64
. The title was first released in North America on October 24, 2011, and later in Europe on November 25, 2011.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land features the staple gameplay of traditional Kirby platform games, in which the titular character Kirby possesses the ability to inhale and copy enemies in order to attain forms which give him a variety of attacks such as breathing fire or swinging a sword. The game supports cooperative
multiplayer gameplay, allowing up to four players to control various Kirby characters, including Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Meta Knight. Kirbys plot focuses on the characters retrieving the scattered pieces of a crashed alien spaceship.
The game was first announced as a Nintendo GameCube
title with a projected release date of late 2005, but development was later shifted to its successor console, the Wii. While it was later denied that the game was still in development, the game resurfaced in 2009 with an updated release date for that year. The game was then presumed to be cancelled following the announcement of Good-Feel
's Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2010, but was then officially re-announced at a financial results briefing on January 28, 2011. The game was then playable at E3 2011 under the tentative title Kirby Wii, with a projected release date of fall 2011 in North America. Its final titles were announced in the following months.
side-scrolling platform game
, controlled by holding the Wii Remote
sideways. The main objective is to assist the alien Magolor, whose spaceship, the Lor Starcutter, has crash-landed on Pop Star. The player is tasked with collecting the scattered pieces of the spaceship, which are dispersed and hidden within the game's levels, each of which take place in various areas of the planet.
Kirby, the main protagonist, retains his signature ability to inhale indefinitely, allowing him to suck in nearby objects and enemies. The inhaled objects can either be propelled back out as projectiles or swallowed. Certain enemies, when swallowed, allow Kirby to extract their special qualities, giving Kirby access to a wide variety of different powers, called "copy abilities." Copy abilities are used to defeat stronger enemies and clear special environmental obstacles, though Kirby can only possess one copy ability at a time. Similar to Kirby Super Star
, each copy ability has multiple forms of attack that are summoned depending on the player's button-presses. The game introduces more powerful, though temporary copy abilities called "Super Abilities," which are able to destroy multiple enemies at once as well as parts of the environment. Whip, water, and leaf abilities are also obtainable. In Return to Dream Land, Kirby also retains the ability to inhale multiple objects and enemies simultaneously to create a massive energy star to expel.
The game features a drop-in cooperative
multiplayer system, which allows up to three additional players to be added or removed at any time. The three other playable characters, each possessing his own set of abilities, are Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee, but multiple Kirby characters are also allowed. The players are able to ride on each other, and Kirby is the only character able to inhale the other characters and fire them at enemies. Unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii
, however, all players will share extra lives instead of each having their own lives.
as a title for the Nintendo GameCube
. The game underwent an 11-year development period in which three different proposed versions of the game were developed and then scrapped. The first build was similar to the graphical and gameplay style of Kirby 64, rendered in 3D but using traditional 2D side-scrolling
gameplay. The game would also support multiplayer with up to four players. This build was demonstrated at E3 in 2005, and was set for release later that year. However, difficulty with programming four-player led to this version being scrapped. The second build placed Kirby in a 3D environment with open world
-style gameplay, and the third build returned to side-scrolling gameplay but had the graphical style of a pop-up book
. The development team realized that the failure of the first three attempts were caused by too much focus on multiplayer, so focus was shifted almost exclusively to the single-player experience. Development of the final version accelerated in October 2010, when the game began to take form.
Kirbys long development caused the game to frequently appear and then disappear from upcoming game lists. On September 14, 2006, the Kirby game appeared on a list of upcoming Wii games, 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 the Wii in 2007. He compared it to Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, another game that was originally announced as a GameCube title, but eventually released on Wii. While the game did not appear at E3 2007, Beth Llewelyn of Nintendo of America confirmed the game "had not been abandoned." The December 2007 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine claimed that a Kirby game for Wii was not in development. On May 7, 2010, Nintendo confirmed that a Kirby Wii title was still in the making.
Nintendo announced the game Kirby's Epic Yarn
at E3 2010, a completely separate title that was in development by Good-Feel
. The 2005 Kirby game was then presumed to have been canceled until a Financial Results Briefing on January 28, 2011 re-announced the game with a release date set within the same year. At E3 2011, the game was demonstrated in playable form under the tentative title Kirby Wii. The game was later re-named Kirby's Return to Dream Land in North America and Kirby’s Adventure Wii in Europe, and 星のカービィWii in Japan.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as and in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as Kirby's Adventure Wii, is a Kirby
Kirby (series)
The series is a fantasy video game series developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo, and produced by Nintendo. The gameplay of a majority of the games in the series consists mainly of action, platform and puzzle-solving elements...
video game and the twelveth platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
installment of the series, in development by HAL Laboratory
HAL Laboratory
is a Japanese video game developer that was founded on February 21, 1980. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its name comes from the HAL 9000 computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The company is most famous for its character Kirby, the protagonist of the eponymous game series, as well as...
, and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. While Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Epic Yarn, known in Japan as , is a platform video game developed for the Wii video game console by Good-Feel and HAL Laboratory, and published by Nintendo. It is the tenth installment of the Kirby video game series....
was released in 2010, Kirby's Return to Dream Land is the first traditional Kirby platforming home console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, known as in Japan, is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64...
, which was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
. The title was first released in North America on October 24, 2011, and later in Europe on November 25, 2011.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land features the staple gameplay of traditional Kirby platform games, in which the titular character Kirby possesses the ability to inhale and copy enemies in order to attain forms which give him a variety of attacks such as breathing fire or swinging a sword. The game supports cooperative
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
multiplayer gameplay, allowing up to four players to control various Kirby characters, including Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Meta Knight. Kirbys plot focuses on the characters retrieving the scattered pieces of a crashed alien spaceship.
The game was first announced as a Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
title with a projected release date of late 2005, but development was later shifted to its successor console, the Wii. While it was later denied that the game was still in development, the game resurfaced in 2009 with an updated release date for that year. The game was then presumed to be cancelled following the announcement of Good-Feel
Good-Feel
is a Japanese video game developer. Good-Feel began in Hyogo, Japan in 2005 and soon opened a production facility in Tokyo. Their main focus has been educational games for the Nintendo DS, which have solely been released in Japan...
's Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2010, but was then officially re-announced at a financial results briefing on January 28, 2011. The game was then playable at E3 2011 under the tentative title Kirby Wii, with a projected release date of fall 2011 in North America. Its final titles were announced in the following months.
Gameplay
Kirby's Return to Dream Land is a 2.5D2.5D
2.5D , 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are terms used to describe either:* 2D graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of images or scenes to fake or appear to be three-dimensional when in fact they are not, or* gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is...
side-scrolling platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
, controlled by holding the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
sideways. The main objective is to assist the alien Magolor, whose spaceship, the Lor Starcutter, has crash-landed on Pop Star. The player is tasked with collecting the scattered pieces of the spaceship, which are dispersed and hidden within the game's levels, each of which take place in various areas of the planet.
Kirby, the main protagonist, retains his signature ability to inhale indefinitely, allowing him to suck in nearby objects and enemies. The inhaled objects can either be propelled back out as projectiles or swallowed. Certain enemies, when swallowed, allow Kirby to extract their special qualities, giving Kirby access to a wide variety of different powers, called "copy abilities." Copy abilities are used to defeat stronger enemies and clear special environmental obstacles, though Kirby can only possess one copy ability at a time. Similar to Kirby Super Star
Kirby Super Star
Kirby Super Star, known as Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe and as in Japan, is a 1996 platforming video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was first released in Japan on March 21, 1996, in North America on...
, each copy ability has multiple forms of attack that are summoned depending on the player's button-presses. The game introduces more powerful, though temporary copy abilities called "Super Abilities," which are able to destroy multiple enemies at once as well as parts of the environment. Whip, water, and leaf abilities are also obtainable. In Return to Dream Land, Kirby also retains the ability to inhale multiple objects and enemies simultaneously to create a massive energy star to expel.
The game features a drop-in cooperative
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
multiplayer system, which allows up to three additional players to be added or removed at any time. The three other playable characters, each possessing his own set of abilities, are Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee, but multiple Kirby characters are also allowed. The players are able to ride on each other, and Kirby is the only character able to inhale the other characters and fire them at enemies. Unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
is a 2009 side-scrolling platform video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released on November 12, 2009 in Australia, November 15, 2009 in North America, November 20, 2009 in Europe and December 3, 2009 in Japan...
, however, all players will share extra lives instead of each having their own lives.
Plot
The story starts off with King Dedede and Waddle Dee chasing Kirby carrying a cake. They run past Meta Knight who is reading a book. Kirby suddenly stops at the sight of a spaceship shaped like a sailboat travel through what appears to be a star-shaped wormhole. Kirby and his companions enter the ship and find an alien creature named Magolor. When Magolor finds out that five main pieces, along with all 120 energy spheres of the ship (the Lor Starcutter) have been scattered across the five corners of the planet Popstar, Kirby and the rest of the group offer to help find the pieces. After recovering all the parts of the Starcutter, they attempt to travel to Magolor's homeworld, only to crash on an unknown planet and fight the four headed dragon Landia. Upon defeating Landia, the Master Crown Landia was wearing came off, splitting each head into a separate, smaller body. Magolor then reveals his true intentions of taking over the universe using the power from the Master Crown and places it on his head, transforming him into a giant being. Magolor travels back to Popstar, intent on it's destruction. The smaller Landia dragons seat each character, and they take off to foil Magolor. After two failed attempts to defeat Magolor, the group finally defeats him.Development
Kirby's Return to Dream Land first began development immediately after the release of the 2000 game Kirby 64: The Crystal ShardsKirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, known as in Japan, is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64...
as a title for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
. The game underwent an 11-year development period in which three different proposed versions of the game were developed and then scrapped. The first build was similar to the graphical and gameplay style of Kirby 64, rendered in 3D but using traditional 2D side-scrolling
Side-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
gameplay. The game would also support multiplayer with up to four players. This build was demonstrated at E3 in 2005, and was set for release later that year. However, difficulty with programming four-player led to this version being scrapped. The second build placed Kirby in a 3D environment with open world
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
-style gameplay, and the third build returned to side-scrolling gameplay but had the graphical style of a pop-up book
Pop-up book
The term pop-up book is often applied to any three-dimensional or movable book, although properly the umbrella term movable book covers pop-ups, transformations, tunnel books, volvelles, flaps, pull-tabs, pop-outs, pull-downs, and more, each of which performs in a different manner...
. The development team realized that the failure of the first three attempts were caused by too much focus on multiplayer, so focus was shifted almost exclusively to the single-player experience. Development of the final version accelerated in October 2010, when the game began to take form.
Kirbys long development caused the game to frequently appear and then disappear from upcoming game lists. On September 14, 2006, the Kirby game appeared on a list of upcoming Wii games, named , set for release in Japan. The December 2006 issue of Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
removed Kirby from its list of GameCube releases, but did not place it on its list of Wii releases. Matt Casamassina
Matt Casamassina
Matt Casamassina is a video game journalist who worked for IGN until April 23, 2010. In his time at the site, he was the author of many reviews and previews of Nintendo games. He resides in Los Angeles, California, is married and has two daughters, Zoe and Fiona Jade, and a son named Rocco Archer...
of IGN, posting on his blog, furthered the idea of a Wii release by stating that it would indeed be released for the Wii in 2007. He compared it to Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, another game that was originally announced as a GameCube title, but eventually released on Wii. While the game did not appear at E3 2007, Beth Llewelyn of Nintendo of America confirmed the game "had not been abandoned." The December 2007 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine claimed that a Kirby game for Wii was not in development. On May 7, 2010, Nintendo confirmed that a Kirby Wii title was still in the making.
Nintendo announced the game Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Epic Yarn, known in Japan as , is a platform video game developed for the Wii video game console by Good-Feel and HAL Laboratory, and published by Nintendo. It is the tenth installment of the Kirby video game series....
at E3 2010, a completely separate title that was in development by Good-Feel
Good-Feel
is a Japanese video game developer. Good-Feel began in Hyogo, Japan in 2005 and soon opened a production facility in Tokyo. Their main focus has been educational games for the Nintendo DS, which have solely been released in Japan...
. The 2005 Kirby game was then presumed to have been canceled until a Financial Results Briefing on January 28, 2011 re-announced the game with a release date set within the same year. At E3 2011, the game was demonstrated in playable form under the tentative title Kirby Wii. The game was later re-named Kirby's Return to Dream Land in North America and Kirby’s Adventure Wii in Europe, and 星のカービィWii in Japan.
Reception
Kirby's Return to Dream Land has received positive reviews, with many praising the game's cooperative gameplay and colorful graphics, but criticizing its lack of difficulty and impressive sounds. Destructoid awarded the game a perfect score of 10/10, claiming, "Videogames simply do not get any more pure than Kirby's Return to Dream Land." Game Informer gave it an 8.5 out of 10, noting that, "While it doesn’t have the challenge of Donkey Kong Country Returns or the charming art style of Kirby Epic Yarn, Kirby’s Return To Dream Land is another formidable entry in a line of great side-scrolling Wii platformers." IGN was a bit less enthusiastic, giving it a score of 7.5 out of 10, criticizing the game's lack of difficulty while stating it fits perfectly for a younger audience.External links
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land Official Website
- Kirby's Adventure Wii Official Website
- 星のカービィWii Official Website
- Kirby Wii at Nintendo's E3 2011 website