Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe

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He’s pink, he’s round, and he has an appetite for anything. That’s right Kirby’s back for another addition to the already adorable and enjoyable franchise some of us will remember from childhood. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a platformer game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is an enhanced remake of the original 2011 Wii game Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.

Kirby’s return is the dream we wanted to land on Switch

Have you been excited to get your hands on this? Did you play the original on the Nintendo Wii? let us know in the comments!

Gameplay

Kirby’s Return to DreamLand Deluxe may be a remake which can be a grey area for some gamers. This may be why you are reading this now. Is it any good? Does it capture that historic enjoyment we had for the original? Well with the improvements the switch has over past-gen consoles, it does this game justice. We had the opportunity to give this a whirl and to say it was enjoyable is an understatement. The game featured multiple game modes to enjoy it even has the couch co-op functionality. Making it easy with the multiple joy cons on the Switch and drop-in drop-out feature. The only issue to be mentioned with this function is it is strictly local/couch co-op there is no online with your friends across the pond or in the next town over. Kirby also came back with a neat-looking mech suit as one of his available power-ups which were incredibly fun to use and blast the bad guys away with.

Kirby's wearing the new mech suit surrounded by stars in a ruin looking level. — Geared up and ready to go!

There are 2 overall game modes to enjoy. We have Main Mode which is your box standard solo play or couch co-op play through the story which is fun to play from the get-go. Next, we get the other game mode called Merry Magoland, which works like a funfair or carnival environment with multiple mini-games to enjoy and earn rewards such as masks you can wear in the main game. Mini-games such as Bomb Rally, Samurai Kirby, and there are a good few more, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise of what there is to enjoy so we will give you an idea of one of them, Crackity Hack was a favourite. This one involved 4 players or computer-controlled opponents that would need to press ‘A’ at the closest point to the end of the gauge to build power, then all characters jump in the air and you need to hit the crosshair on the marker as accurately as you can. The characters will punch the ground and the one with the furthest crack wins.

Kirby's riding on a giant star with friends while smaller dee's are walking around the fairground with various different masks. — No autographs, please

Graphics & Audio

So being a remake there are certain expectations that gamers want, like the original Kirby charm in terms of the colours. The nostalgic sound when Kirby is inhaling everything in his path. Smoother graphics and a stable frame rate.. This meets those expectations with flying colours. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe uses a pop-up texture look, updated colouring, and graphics to an already adorable cartoony art style. Using special moves and the animation is still as colourful as the original with finer detail in the contrasting. There were no graphical glitches or tearing, which were not detected on the Switch OLED.

The sound in game is a lot more developed with updated sounds such as the world and level music. It hasn’t been changed but has been updated to sound crisper and HD. This makes the overall experience of playing through the game much more enjoyable and gives you the feeling that a Kirby game always had. Adorable and the thrill of the adventure. Other little sounds and visual updates help the game look and sound more modern.

Kirby's fighting the Whispy Woods boss in a woodland background level with 3 friends — You grew up in the wrong neighbourhood tree!

Longevity

This is the sort of game you could play for any varied amount of time, especially with the family. You could see many hours disappear and you are still enjoying the mini-games or smashing and inhaling through the main game. A typical playthrough could take you up to 15 hours, but add into that the collecting of all the stars and other objectives could add up to way more time.

Final Thoughts

As far as remakes go, this is a success. We have seen better looking visuals, crisper sounds and the mini-games that are as fun as ever. With features like this, we could see ourselves playing this many more times to come. I played this with my son to test out the Co-op and it was seamless and fun, and many laughs were had throughout, especially when we found out about the piggyback feature.

Kirby's getting a piggyback ride from a yellow waddle dee in a starry night level — Charge waddle dee!

If you are looking for something to casually play on your own, or something for the family to play on a Sunday evening. Then consider Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Given that it’s a local co-op of course. If you enjoyed the original get ready for a nostalgia-infused ride into Dream Land.

It is worth noting too if you haven’t made up your mind there is a demo you can download free from the Nintendo Store.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe receives the Thumb Culture gold award