Over the last week or so I've been playing lots of a wonderful little game called Kirby's Return to Dreamland. When the game released, I wasn't confident it was worth the $50 investment, so I skipped it at first. But I'm glad I reconsidered.
First of all, let it be known that I am not coming at this from an "OMG it's back to classic Kirby finally" perspective. I played and quite enjoyed spinoff titles such as Epic Yarn and Canvas Curse, and I hope to play and similarly enjoy Mass Attack soon. So I didn't immediately think higher of this title for having Kirby's traditional ability-copying powers. But they are certainly a welcome return. While there are few new abilities, many of the old favourites return with style, and it was lots of fun learning and using all the different techniques you can execute with each power.
Overall, the gameplay is top-notch. The length of each level feels not too long but not too short, and it's not too easy or too difficult. Maybe it's just me, but it feels really well put together. The enemies are interesting, the level design is clever without being frustrating, and most of all it is genuinely fun to bounce Kirby through all of the environments. One new addition is super-abilities, which are new over-powered ability that Kirby has access to during designated segments of the game. While they're fun to play around with at first, by the end of the game I found them to be a bit gimmicky. Each one of them gives you the ability to murder anything in sight. At the end, you're warped to a special area where you run away from an ever-advancing wall of purple, followed by a relatively straight-forward boss fight. It gets repetitive after awhile, but it doesn't detract too far from the game.
The music is very fitting. I didn't find a lot of it to be as catchy as some of the songs of games past, but it is cheerful and well-suited to each environment. The graphics are also perfect for the game. They lack the detail of a more realistic game, but they are sharp and colorful, exactly what a game like this should be.
There are also some fun side games to pursue when you aren't busy with the main quest. The two main minigames are a ninja shuriken throwing game and a robot shooting game. Both are fun enough but they get old quickly. There are also challenge rooms, where you're tasked with navigating expertly through a specially-made area with a certain ability, and you're scored based on how well you performed and how many coins you picked up along the way. Aiming for gold medals on these challenges is not for the faint of heart.
Of course, one of the main selling points is the 4-player simultaneous play. I can't comment much on this since I haven't had much experience with it, but from experiences playing co-op in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I can say with confidence that it's more fun to play solo.
There's not much else to say about the game, as it mostly speaks for itself. It has no ulterior motives; it quite simply seeks to be good, old-fashioned Kirby fun, and it succeeds wonderfully. Since I'm out of stuff to say, here's some pictures of Kirby donning various powers.
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