QCF: Kirby's Return to Dreamland

Warp Stars abound! The stage franticly opens up with our pink puff-ball hero rushing through the Dreamland-scape with strawberry shortcake in tow, and with Kirby’s company not too far behind. Suddenly, a fantastical galleon-like vessel bursts off course from its route of reverie to a sudden crash-landing against the grassy surface of Pop-star that would make Launchpad McQuack blush.

Enter the latest effort from HAL Laboratory to bring a new Kirby game for the Wii, which follows a much more traditional formula in contrast to 2010’s Epic Yarn. While Nintendo released this game under the holiday radar, Return to Dreamland holds many surprises, and may just be the contender you never expected.

While the 2011 release landscape of the Wii may be as barren as my wallet through the holidays, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland snuck onto the scene without any of the traditional first-party fanfare that Nintendo usually supports its new release with. An initial response to the game is its ordain talent of compelling you with a whimsy that never overstays its welcome. The graphics do a great job of refreshing its presentation, yet retaining a welcome sense familiarity that doesn’t feel like a step back from the astounding visuals of Epic Yarn.

The multiplayer is the real shine in Return to Dreamland, with a fusion of Kirby’s past multiplayer outings that include Superstars, Dreamland 3, and The Amazing Mirror. Cooperative play features an immaculate design of a universal interface that can appeal to veterans and newcomers into being able to play together without any accommodations required for any of the possible pairs of skillsets you can come across.

This is done with very subtle mechanics that are amalgamation of piggy-back riding or flight carriage techniques seen in recent co-op side-scrollers and health sharing, through time sensitive contact with other players after collecting health power-ups reminiscent of Superstars. The distinction separating Kirby from the rest is the open nature of applying this “hitchhiking” technique to anyone’s play style without it being forced on you through some forced contextual set-piece in stage, but rather a cooperative effort to assist a near-dead partner or a novice player that doesn’t need to be left out.

The available characters are uniquely varied with the option of either choosing King Dedede, Meta-Knight, or Waddle-Dee, or being an additional Kirby, which creates a dynamic that also translates really well into having the charm of playability with anyone. So how does this work exactly? The non-Kirby characters resemble permanent representations of Kirby powers. King Dedede would be the hammer, Meta-Knight being the sword, and Waddle-Dee being the new spear power (more on that later), but they also have their own attributes as well. Dedede is slower but can take the most damage, Meta-kinght is the quickest in his maneuvers, and Waddle-dee has the most varied weapon. Kirby also possess a super suck ability that’s activated when shaking the Wiimote up and down, which takes out multiple objects as well as specific objects that can only be taken out by this tactic, and it's integral in certain points progression (implying that if there’s only one veteran player in your group that they should take the mantle of Kirby.) with your friends choosing to be one of non-kirby characters, the advantages of have their Hammer and Sword power-ups can make stage exploration much easier. These abilities can both be used underwater, along with unlocking certain secrets (the Kirby equivalent of interacting with contextual set-pieces) that eliminate a lot of the challenge of needing to do any heavy resource management for circumstantial powers that Kirby would normally need to obtain to tackle any stage secrets. For those experienced players chomping at the bit for a challenge, going with a full-Kirby set of players adds the element of smart resource management and communication that hasn’t been done this well since Castle Crashers.

New mechanics introduced in Return to Dreamland add to the established Kirby formula. However, these following additions are coincidentally the only forms of friendly-fire that will be the only complication for seamless team play. These friendly-fire moments are never frequent enough to cause any serious conflict, but rather a rare annoyance that’s expected for these sorts of cooperative games. To start off the first new addition are these temporary and consumable weapons and items that can be picked up by anyone. These items include an auto-fire hand cannon, a rainbow shield, variable explosives that feature different strengths and weaknesses, and I shit you not…a Kirby variant of the Kuribo Shoe is among these items.

Using these items and passing them around amongst your group shakes your enjoyment up a bit, as there’s going to be at least one item that appeals to one of you, and better cements your team rapport when coming across these items for different players to help contribute towards your team’s efforts. The second addition is specifically for Kirby, but plays a major role in your standard Kirby stage run that there are now super versions of copy ability powers that are consumable with every use, but deploy a devastating screen-filling attack that not only obliterates every enemy on screen, but will also destroy specific objects that could be hiding secret mini-bosses.

The stage designs in these segments really complement the associated super abilities for the given scenario, and are another layer of depth to the accessible appeal for the multiplayer in Return to Dreamland. The last additions in Return to Dreamland include new copy abilities, which are not only innovative to the existing fold of choices but feel really polished as well. The abilities include spear, and a new long range weapon that’s used for projectiles or pike melee. The leaf ability can create a shield, shoot in a wave of projectile when jumping, or be used an spin attack to clear enemies in the ground. The last is the whip ability, which can be used in all directions, in quick successive attacks or used to retrieve items. All abilities have directional and special move inputs similar to previous entries in the series, but some now include a charge attack by simply holding the attack button and unleashing the fury once it’s let go. While our rosy champion shines brighter than expected in this latest installment, this experience has a very dicey drawback.

The Multiplayer in this game is one of the finest ever, completely refining concepts introduced from New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Donkey Kong Country Returns that ultimately designates it as the best of its kind when it comes to this feature…but only this feature. Unlike those games, the single player experience doesn’t really stand on out on its own, and lacks a lot of the magic this game provides when you play with friends. The stages and items are still the same, sure, but that’s the problem: without the element of team play, they don’t add anywhere near the same excitement when you’re going at it alone. This is where the age of the traditional formula for a Kirby game starts to really show and feel like a dreadful sense of Déjà vu, which may only appeal to the Kirby dedicated.

Single player is strengthened with challenge rooms that offer time-attacks centering around skilled application through its focused powers, but it loses its allure over time and adds nothing more than some optional filler for the game, which again, the same can be said for the multiplayer mini-games which are nothing more than glorified motion mini-games that we’ve seen far too much on the Wii to begin with.

The fact of the matter when it comes to brass tax is this game is worth your attention, especially for fans of cooperative games. The team-play found in this title can beat the best of them (even you, Rayman Origins). However, the single player experience ultimately falls short of anything spectacular, and can be shelved with those "been there, done that" games. Return to Dreamland isn’t a bad single player experience, but definitely a rental if you don’t have any friends to play with.