Kirby's Return to Dream Land

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 which will heal him. This includes food items that recover health and items which grants an extra life. An extra life will also be granted upon collecting 100 stars. There are also 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 extra 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 perform 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, lets Kirby access 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 them 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 lets Kirby 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 assaults. The Nintendo 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", 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 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 being 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 almighty. 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, Magolor 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 to 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. ==Development==

Development on a new Kirby game for the GameCube began following the release of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game underwent an 11-year development cycle, in which three different proposed versions were developed and scrapped. Kirbys long development caused the game to frequently appear and then disappear from Nintendo's upcoming game lists. On September 14, 2006, the Kirby game appeared on a list of upcoming Wii games, tentatively named , set for release in Japan. The December 2006 issue of Nintendo Power removed Kirby from its list of GameCube releases, but did not place it on its list of Wii releases. Matt Casamassina of IGN, posting on his blog, furthered the idea of a Wii release by stating that it would indeed be released for the Wii in 2007. He compared it to Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, another game that was originally announced as a GameCube title, but eventually released on the Wii. While the game did not appear at E3 2007, Beth Llewelyn of Nintendo of America confirmed the game "had not been abandoned". The December 2007 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine claimed that a Kirby game for the Wii was not in development. On May 7, 2010, Nintendo confirmed that a Kirby Wii title was still in the making. Nintendo announced the game ''Kirby's Epic Yarn at E3 2010, a separate title that was in development by Good-Feel. Some believed this to be the manifestation of the canceled Kirby game until Nintendo re-announced the game in January 2011, with a release date set within the same year. At E3 2011, the game was demonstrated in playable form under the tentative title Kirby Wii. The game was later renamed Kirby's Return to Dream Land in North America, Kirby's Adventure Wii in Europe and Australia, and Hoshi no Kirby Wii in Japan. The music was composed by Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando, with a soundtrack called Kirby Wii Music Selection'' featuring 45 musical pieces from the game. ==Remake==

During the Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2022, an enhanced remake was announced for the Nintendo Switch titled ''Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Additions to the original include Mecha and Sand Abilities, the Festival ability from Kirby Star Allies, a comic book graphical style, revamped controls based on those introduced in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, and new sub-games, as well as some returning from past Kirby titles that did not appear in the original, though Scope Shot is excluded. During the Nintendo Direct on February 8, 2023, a new mode, Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler'', was announced. The game was released on February 24, 2023. Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler stars Magolor after his defeat at the hands of Kirby and his friends. Stranded in the depths of Another Dimension and without most of his powers, Magolor sets out attempting to reclaim them while also collecting Fruit Fragments, parts of a mysterious fruit called the Gem Apple. He eventually repairs the Gem Apple Seed at the Ethereal Altar, but it is soon corrupted by the remnants of the Master Crown, becoming the Crowned Doomer. After its defeat, the Master Crown remnants combine with the Gem Apple, transforming into a massive tree-like being, known as the Tree Crown Without a Ruler. Magolor fights the Master Crown, and eventually defeats it for good by infusing a sword with his magic, turning it into an Ultra Sword, and slicing the Master Crown in half. Magolor then leaves Another Dimension through a dimensional rift that opens up after the Master Crown is defeated. The credits sequence reveals that via the portal, Magolor ends up in the village of the Dream Kingdom, which is located in an alternate universe, with the Gem Apple seed, now reduced to a sapling, being planted as the village's Gem Apple tree. Having now redeemed himself, Magolor takes up residence as the Dream Kingdom's shopkeeper, leading into the events of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash. ''Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe'' was the final game that Vanpool worked on before it shut down on May 2023, three months after the game's release; the company had previously worked with HAL Laboratory on multiple Kirby games for the Switch during its final years. ==Reception==

''Kirby's Return to Dream Land'' received "generally favorable" reviews, based on review aggregator Metacritic. Multiple critics appreciated the return of traditional Kirby gameplay, compared to unique content like ''Kirby's Epic Yarn. with James Stephanie Sterling of Destructoid'' describing it as "refreshing" and stating that "Kirby doesn't need to innovate, he just needs to be fun; Return to Dream Land brings the fun in spades." The Switch remake sold 1.46 million copies as of March 2023. ==Notes==