Kirby Returns to Dream Land (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

Nintendo has sat back and watched as the classic 2D platform genre has had a massive revival, mainly thanks to the release of two New Super Mario Bros. titles, which were then followed by Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns. It is no surprise then to find that Kirby Returns to Dream Land ditches any sort of 3D world approach in favour of the tried-and-tested side-scrolling gameplay style. It is basically a solo adventure through and through, although having the chance to include three friends during the journey definitely opens it up to family game nights due to the drop-in, drop-out nature of the multiplayer aspect.

Whilst four players joined in the fun during the demo edition, however, it placed one person as Kirby, with the others taking on the roles of Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, and King Dedede. Unfortunately this meant that three people were left to merely wander around doing barely anything. Kirby has all the special powers and can go through doorways, whilst the rest simply cannot, thus leaving the group to do only the donkey work, removing obstacles and killing enemies, which grew amazingly boring after a short time. Watching the difference in body language between players working through long stages as the support characters and the person playing as Kirby was quite stark. Later, however, a Nintendo representative confirmed that there will actually be an option to all play as different coloured Kirby characters in the final game, thus allowing for the main abilities to be utilised by everyone. Whether or not the difficulty changes is currently unknown, but hopefully it will or else Kirby Returns to Dream Land may well be a very short-lived affair.

To summarise the plot briefly, an alien spacecraft has crashed into Pop Star, with its broken pieces being spread far and wide. Kirby and his cohorts travel across the land, retrieving the ship sections so that the foreign beings can return to their homeland. Interestingly enough, the traditional Kirby manoeuvre of swallowing enemies and taking on their abilities has been greatly augmented to the point where a massive sword can be whipped out of nowhere to smash through previously indestructible blocks, or a gigantic fire dragon can be spewed forth to singe everything in sight. Players can also jump on top of each other and be carried for a while, as well as sharing energy with those running low on reserves. This is the Kirby we all know and love, but with some extra flavouring.

As with previous Kirby outings, there are numerous extras hidden around stages, meaning that a keen eye is required to ensure everything is acquired before the final goal is reached. When three players are tagging along, this sometimes involves the whole team playing nicely, grabbing keys and then going back through a level to unlock certain aspects. When holding a key, however, it must be noted that Kirby (or one of the other team-mates) can no longer fly and greater care must be taken when traversing treacherous gaps. This was something that everyone kept forgetting in the demo trial, resulting in numerous untimely deaths!

Also of interest is how Kirby now has a super-suck ability, whereby holding down the ‘1’ button (the game is played with the Wii Remote being held on its side) and shaking the controller instigates a new move that can help with the collection of heavier items and blocks. A swift shake or two of the Wii Remote also helps break free when an enemy is trying to quickly digest Kirby. There is nothing particularly tough throughout Kirby Returns to Dream Land, as with most Kirby adventures, and the new moves almost make matters even simpler, yet the fun element of Kirby adventures is always the exploration, the light-hearted soundtrack and the bright, breezy and amazingly colourful environments to play through, all of which are back with great aplomb. Thankfully the special power-ups mentioned earlier are time-limited, so at least there is chance of keeping the gigantic sword to smash through the whole stage to make progress even easier. It is also hoped that their availability is restricted, or else it could become a case of too much, too often, and with longer than normal animations they could prove to be a tiresome addition if overly used.

Kirby can pick up normal attacks along the way, so fear not as they have not been forgotten about. In fact, in addition to the standard moves such as the beam and cutter transformations, new forms of offense appear to have joined the line-up, with there being the chance to use a whip, throw water, and even fling homing-missile style leaves. The weird and wonderful attacking abilities that Kirby can use has become a staple feature of previous entries, and it looks like Return to Dream Land will not disappoint, whilst also including a whole host of new, intriguing features to keep long-term followers happy. The length of levels is a very pleasing aspect, and it definitely looks like although the difficulty level has not been upped considerably, HAL Laboratory has decided to extend the length and cram each stage with numerous collectibles to add to the replay value and general longevity. As long as there are no development foibles before release, this should be the next million-selling Wii game, without any doubt. The excitement that had been built up for Hoshi no Kirby back when it was announced on the GameCube has just increased ten-fold.