Kirby's Return to Dream Land

2011

platform
adventure
action
comedy
single player
multiplayer
co-operative
split screen

The story

Kirby and his friends are back in an adventure designed to satisfy longtime Kirby fans and beginners alike. When an alien spaceship crashes in the otherwise peaceful realm of Pop Star, its pieces are scattered throughout the land. Players must guide Kirby as he retrieves the ship’s parts and helps the aliens return to their home planet. This time, however, he’s not alone. At any time, up to three more players can join in the fun and play as Meta Knight, King Dedede and Waddle Dee to help Kirby in his quest.

What it’s like

Bright, saturated pastel worlds with soft, rounded shapes, where grassy hills, candy-coloured skies and cotton-puff clouds fill the frame in clean daylight, and the camera drifts sideways across side-scrolling stages with a gentle, almost toy-like bounce. Sun-warmed and cheerful, with a light, friendly sense of play that suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a family game night, or a comfort session after a long day. Its music is bubbly and melodic, full of sprightly brass and xylophone-like tinkles, and the pace is brisk but forgiving, with checkpoints and short levels that make it easy to drop in and out. Enemies are puffed away in comic clouds and never bleed; the only danger is cartoonish, low-stakes, and gentle, with no real gore and only mild peril. Its emotional register is warm and playful, centred on a small pink hero who swallows foes and borrows their powers, and on friends who arrive to help him. It is built for cosy, all-ages play, for people who want something charming and uncomplicated, and it shines especially in four-player co-op, where the chaos stays good-natured and sociable.

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