4.5/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Kirby's Return To Dream Land.

Platform: Nintendo Wii Time Played: ~25 hours Status: Completed ⟳ I have finally moved onto the 2.5D era of Kirby in my marathon, and of course, Kirby's Return to Dream Land is fondly remembered by many as one of, if not the best game in the series, and so far I have to wholeheartedly agree. The number of overall improvements on the Kirby formula that have been combined together into one neat bow is truly amazing and creates the definitive Kirby experience. Firstly, the graphical presentation. Normally I am against game series moving away from traditional sprite-based graphics, like the Mario & Luigi series for instance transitioning to more 3D-looking sprites on the 3DS. But in this case, I think the graphic and character design in Return to Dream Land is truly impeccable. I can't help but gawk at this game's impressive graphics, especially for the Wii, along with its amazing art style and animation. Some of the character designs are in my opinion, some of the best the series has to offer, such as Magolor's Master Crown form, along with his second form (Magolor Soul more so), being the coolest villain design in the series, competing with the likes of 02 and Marx Soul. Return to Dream Land’s soundtrack is honestly the best in the series and offers so many amazing, original tracks that are just absolute bops along with new versions of classics. This game also feels like it is heavily inspired by Kirby’s Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64, as many enemies from those games reappear in this game for the first time since then (which made me feel really nostalgic), along with some tracks sounding similar to 64’s soundtrack, specifically two of the tracks from White Wafers. The gameplay is honestly the best in the series thus far, as it is so incredibly fluid, smooth and tight to control Kirby, even when you're just playing with the Wiimote, which I must say took a while to get used to, and I wish there were more controller options for accessibility. I just once again can't express how fluid it feels to play, sucking in and spitting out enemies feels better than it ever did, especially with the new ability to shake the controller to suck in harder. When talking about Copy Abilities, I have to say that Spark/Plasma is at it's best here. Sure it's had new moves added like most of the other abilities, but it truly is the best in the game, especially for bosses, as you can charge up your projectile attack easily by shaking the controller and the aura surrounding also serves as good protection against enemies. Sword was also another great one to use, as it always is, along with Hammer. This game introduced the new abilities Leaf, Spear, Water and Whip. I would say my favorite to play is Spear, as it feels really versatile to play as, with Whip coming in a close second, although it's not really as tight to control. Water is quite good as well, although its dash is slower than I think it should be, and I like how its properties against lava/fire obstacles. Leaf though, just isn't fun at all to play in my opinion, and I avoided it wherever possible. The level design in this game is really great. I think it perfectly fits a single-player adventure, with players having to go out of their way most of the time to collect the game’s 120 Energy Spheres, providing a good challenge of exploration. Sometimes it felt boring to be honest, but after I took a little break before playing Extra Mode I found the game much more enjoyable with it's increased difficulty. I especially liked the challenge that the Challenge Levels provided (I mean it's in the name). Trying to perfect the level and get the Gold Medal was fun, challenging, and rewarding (I do not have the patience to get the Platinum Medals). I feel like were so perfectly designed and they chose the perfect Copy Abilities to craft levels for, although there are times where it was pretty tricky to figure out the proper moves for some, specifically Wing. I tried out multiplayer a few time, specifically with two players on screen at once including myself, and I honestly cannot see myself player with a full party of four players, especially trying to get 100% completion like I was. Just two players was so chaotic, but I suppose that's the appeal, so I'd probably like it more if I was just playing through casually. But I still feel like the levels were not really designed for multiplayer. I really like all of the bosses in this game as well. All of them felt quite original and challenging. My favorites have to be Grand Doomer, HR-D3 (a great piece of fan service for hardcore fans), and of course all of Magolor's fights. Each of the boss themes are hands down the best tracks of the game. Galacta Knight was also a great bonus to include in The True Arena. I also really liked the short "other dimension" black and white little challenge stages in-between the Super Abilities segments and the Sphere Doomer bosses as they were a good challenge to throw in every now and then, and the most enjoyable aspect of the Super Ability gimmick in my opinion (more on that shortly), especially in Extra Mode where it was much more difficult. Now for my few nitpicks, I wish I was able to enjoy the Super Abilities more. While I think the concept is a good one, and that their looks and attacks are cool, I really wish they were utilized in a better fashion, not that some of them weren't fun every now and then, but they just felt repetitive. In the Kirby's Dream Collection booklet, there was a comment saying that they wanted to make some new abilities that were flash and cool, which I believe they achieved well, but they also thought they should make level designs to specifically accommodate them, and a part of me wishes that the Super Abilities were just rare powerful and flashy abilities. But at the same time, I can't really picture that being a much better option either, so I'm not sure how to feel. I'd like to reiterate, I found the abilities themselves fun, and the ideas behind them cool, and they were fun to play as every now and then, but they were just repetitive. Super Hammer was my least favorite though. Besides that, I wish the Sphere Doomer bosses had more variety. I believe that which one of the four you fight is based on some kind of RNG, but I always found myself fighting the same one over and over and over again. For example, when playing Extra Mode, for the first half of the adventure, I only fought the green Sphere Doomer and for the second half I only fought the silver Sphere Doomer, I only ever fought the dual Red and Purple Doomers once in the entire adventure, and I just wish there was a wider variety or that I wasn't always fighting the same one over and over, as that really made the Super Ability segments feel even more repetitive. Almost all of my other problems were smoothened out when playing Extra Mode, as the better challenge and the familiarity with where the Energy Spheres were allowed me to have a more smooth and streamlined experience that I preferred much more compared to my initial playthrough, and it just made my overall thoughts on the game improve. The side modes in this game are very minuscule. Ninja Dojo was just a super basic Wii motion control game where you throw shuriken at targets and try to complete the entire gauntlet of said targets, and I legitimately found this one hard. Scope Shot was also a pretty fun shooter and I enjoyed it a fair bit, and I’m glad the pointer functionality was utilized so well for this specific minigame. All in all, this was such a great 2D platformer, and as I've already said, hands down the best Kirby game in the series up to this point, and a great evolution to the formula and a great start to the next Kirby era. If I were to recommend any game in the series as someone's first, this would be the one for sure, as it provides everything you need to understand what makes Kirby so special. Please check out this game!