Stranded on the planet Pop, the traveler Magolor needs help. It is up to Kirby and his group of friends to have the mission to repair his spaceship by recovering the pieces of the cabin scattered throughout the different levels of the game. The little pink ball therefore sets off on an adventure, armed with his Usual abilities: flight, vacuum, and use of enemy powers. Fans of Kirby games will not be disoriented. The mascot is still as pleasant to handle and retains the prize of accessibility for the youngest.
Kirb(y) your enthusiasm
In the purest tradition of Kirby games, Return to Dream Land Deluxe suitable for beginners and young players. Very permissive thanks to Kirby’s abilities, which it will be difficult to make fall into a hole for example, the game is generous in healing objects and powerful abilities. It is also entirely possible to play the game cooperatively with up to four players, which will help during the most complicated passages. Note that the Magolor Assistant is also there to help if the need arises, by ensuring that the player cannot fall but also by doubling their life bar. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe therefore fully embraces the fact of addressing the youngest audience or beginners of platform games. More seasoned players, for their part, will only see this game as a perfect walk in the park in a world of marvelous landscapes.
In total, Kirby travels through eight worlds with different identities, from the plain to the desert to the volcano. Classic environments but also slightly more original worlds at the end of the adventure. Each world itself is made up of five to six levels, the last of which will always pit you against a boss. All of them are relatively easy to beat, especially when using Kirby’s powers or when playing with others. Two new powers are added to Kirby’s range already known in the original game: the Mecha power and the Sand power, one allowing you to transform into a robot capable of shooting laser beams, the other giving access to sandy jets.
Superpowers are always manifested with great visual effects and allow you to play with the scenery but also to get rid of enemies with the press of a button. Sown throughout the levels, spheres unlock training rooms in Magolor’s ship. They are generally quite easy to find, provided you know how to keep the right power to access them. In fact, the game is quite short, between 7 and 10 hours for the main adventure depending on whether you are looking for 100% or not. But Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe stands out for the plethora of additional content that is added to the story mode.
Nintendo Land: Kirby Edition
Throughout the game, the player will unlock various challenge areas but also access to an amusement park called Magoland where there are around ten Mario Party style mini-games, most of them from previous Kirby games. By participating in these mini-games, alone or with others, you will unlock masks representing other well-known characters from the Kirby universe. Nothing very exciting though, but enough to enjoy the game differently through this amusement park which turns out to be a nice break from the game. However, we regret that there are so few new mini-games in the Magoland park.
Once the main adventure is over, we can try Extra mode, namely the same adventure but with a greater challenge, depriving us of most of the healing items and, above all, with a significantly reduced life bar . The bosses are also more complex. Enough to satisfy more seasoned players, assuming they want to repeat the adventure a second time. Arena mode is also unlocked after the game credits. This allows you to face all the game’s bosses again.
It is Magolor to rise
Finally, and it is undoubtedly the most substantial new feature of this remake, completing the game will allow you to access the all-new Magolor Epilogue. This allows us to play for the first time as the interdimensional traveler in a short adventure where he lost all his powers. We will be responsible for going through around twenty additional levels in order to gradually recover Magolor’s magic. In fact, this epilogue encourages the player to obtain as many points as possible and then spend them in a store used to improve them. Enough to add between one and two additional hours of play to this Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe who, casually, shows himself to be more generous than he seems at first glance.
For this remake, the developers at HAL Laboratory took care of their copy, paying homage to the original game while adding welcome little visual touches. First, the image is finer and is better suited to HD screens. For example, we benefit from pretty pastel colors and a cel-shading outline on the characters. The effects are numerous and successful, particularly with regard to the superpowers that Kirby will not fail to use throughout the adventure. The result is delightful and awe-inspiring, both on television and in portable mode. The musical tracks, inspired by Kirby’s great classics, punctuate the levels perfectly although they are sometimes a little repetitive.