Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (NSP, XCI) ROM

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Kirby, the adorable pink puffball, returns for a thrilling 4-player* platforming adventure. As Kirby, you can copy the abilities of your enemies and use their powers to wield a sword, whip, or float with a parasol. This is a 2011 platform video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the ninth mainline installment and the twenty-second game in the Kirby series. The game’s plot follows Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee as they help an alien named Magolor recover the pieces of the Lor Starcutter so he can return home. While Kirby’s Epic Yarn was released in 2010, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is the first traditional Kirby platforming home console game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, which was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. The title was released in North America on October 24, 2011, in Japan on October 27, 2011, in Europe on November 25, 2011, and in Australia on December 1, 2011.

GAMEPLAY

Return to Dream Land is a 2.5D side-scrolling platform game, controlled by holding the Wii Remote sideways. Unlike previous entries in the Kirby series, the game features 3D models for player characters and enemies rather than sprites. Throughout the game, Kirby can collect items that will heal him; food items that recover health, items that give him an extra life, or by collecting 100 stars, which immediately grants him an extra life. There are also various items Kirby can use to interact with the environment. At the end of each stage, a bonus game is played in which players time a button press to jump as high as possible to earn additional items.

The player controls Kirby, who retains his signature ability to inhale objects and enemies. The inhaled objects can either be swallowed or propelled back out as a projectile. Kirby can also do a “Super Inhale”, where shaking the Wii Remote or inhaling for a long time makes Kirby’s inhale stronger. A Super Inhale has extended range and can suck up “Heave-ho Blocks”, which are immovable from a regular inhale; the Super Inhale also allows Kirby to inhale other players and most large enemies.

Certain enemies, when swallowed, give Kirby access to a wide variety of “Copy Abilities”, which gives Kirby the attack properties of the enemies he inhales. Kirby can only possess one copy ability at a time. Other players playing as another character through multiplayer, or those playing as King Dedede, Meta Knight, or Waddle Dee, can hold onto a Copy Ability’s essence and throw it back to Kirby to be inhaled. If a discarded ability from these characters is left untouched, it will vanish shortly afterward.

Each copy ability has multiple attacks that are utilized depending on the combination of button inputs pressed by the player. New abilities introduced in this game are the Whip ability, which lets Kirby grab out-of-reach items, the Water ability, which allows Kirby to extinguish fires, and the Leaf ability, which lets Kirby use leaves as a form of attack and conjure a pile of leaves to hide in and become invulnerable to nearly all attacks. The Switch remake introduces both the Mecha ability, which gives Kirby laser cannons and robotic arms, and the Sand ability, which allows Kirby to morph sand into various shapes, as well as reintroducing the Festival ability from Kirby Star Allies.

The game introduces more powerful, temporary Copy Abilities called “Super Abilities,” which can destroy parts of the environment and inflict tremendous damage across a wide range. Unlike regular Copy Abilities, ejecting a Super Ability will cause the Super Ability to be discarded instantly. Five Super Abilities exist Ultra Sword, Monster Flame, Flare Beam, Grand Hammer, and Snow Bowl, which are enhanced versions of the Sword, Fire, Beam, Hammer, and Ice Copy Abilities respectively.

The game features drop-in cooperative multiplayer for up to three additional players. These players can either play as a yellow, blue, or green Kirby, or as one of three unique characters: Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee. Each of these characters possesses traits from corresponding Copy Abilities based on the way each character moves and attacks, though only Kirbys can inhale enemies and use Copy Abilities.

Players can ride on top of each other as a “totem”, which, with perfect timing, allows the use of a charged attack, called the “Team Attack”, driven by the player at the bottom. Players can also share recently ingested health-restoring items through a move called “Face-to-Face”. Within the Epilogue introduced in the Switch remake, Magolor becomes a playable character, having been stripped of his powers and forced to regain them.

He can levitate for short periods and produce energy attacks at first and gains more abilities when a player upgrades them. Players 2–4 people can play as various recolors of Magolor in this mode. All players share from a pool of lives, with each player requiring one life to enter the game. If one of the three additional players loses a life, they can spend an extra life to rejoin the game. However, if player one dies, all players stop playing, and gameplay restarts from the last checkpoint.

PLOT

One day, a dimension-hopping spaceship called the Lor Starcutter suddenly flies out of a dimensional rift and crashes onto Kirby’s home planet of Popstar. As Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Waddle Dee go to investigate, they meet an alien named Magolor, who discovers that the five vital pieces of his ship have been scattered across the planet, with the 120 Energy Spheres scattered across both Popstar and Halcandra.

With Magolor offering them a trip to his homeworld of Halcandra should they help fix his ship, Kirby and his friends set off to recover the lost pieces. After retrieving the main pieces, they travel to Halcandra, where they are attacked by a four-headed dragon named Landia. Magolor claims Landia is an evil beast that has taken over Halcandra and sends Kirby to defeat it. However, after Landia is defeated, Magolor reveals his true motive was to steal the Master Crown on its head and become all-powerful, as he wears the crown and uses it to turn into a large monster, with the intent of making the entire universe bow before him, beginning with Popstar.

Teaming up with Landia, who has split into four individual dragons, Kirby, and his friends go chase Magolor in Another Dimension. During the chase, Magalor uses the Lor Starcutter to try to defeat Kirby and his friends, but Kirby and his friends defeat the Lor Starcutter. Magalor removes Kirby and his friends from the Landia dragons before they come to fight him in a final battle. During the battle, Magolor transforms into a larger monster.

Kirby and his friends destroy the Master Crown, while Magolor is transported somewhere. With the Master Crown shattered and Magolor defeated, Kirby and friends return to Popstar, after a close call escaping the now collapsing Another Dimension. The Landia dragons take the Lor Starcutter and return home. A non-canon Extra Mode, which replaces Magolor’s final form with Magolor Soul, reveals that Magolor may have been used as a puppet by the Master Crown itself.