Date Completed: 4.29.2012
Thoughts: Only one year after releasing Kirby's Epic Yarn, Nintendo is at it again, releasing another Kirby game to try to breathe a little life into the dying console. While Epic Yarn strayed off the beaten path, applying an unusual yarn asthetic, and a dumbed-down difficulty where a player literally cannot die, Return to Dreamland is also a return to status quo Kirby. The graphics are back to the cartoony, colorful, non-yarn look we are accustomed to, and the game, while still not difficult, except for certain boss-battles, at least does allow for the possibility that the player could die.
A Nintendo sequal coming out a year after another game in the series is basically unheard of. I can't think of a single example where we didn't have to wait at LEAST 2 years, usually much more for a second game in a franchise for the same platform. So this leads to the obvious question: Is this game a rush-job? Does it really stand out as a game worth playing? My answers are yes to the first question and no to the second. Nothing about this game stands out. Once again the game follows the same painfully boring cookie-cutter level choices. Spoiler alert, there is a fire level, and an ice level, and a water level, and.... Ugh. I'm so sick of the same choices over and over again. Why not try different concepts? Why must I play the same ideas I've been playing since the first Super Mario Brothers in 1985? Even when the game does try to go slightly off the rails, such as including a candy level (though I'm pretty sure they had one of those in Epic Yarn, also) it does so with such an underwhelming effort that you wonder why they didn't just make a second fire level.
The boss battles aren't much better. A few are a little interesting, but most again fall prey to the normal video game conventions, if you've played a video game you know what you need to do. Some, towards the end do become pretty difficult, but the difficulty mainly comes in how little damage you deal the enemy, and the conflicts become tedious battles of attrition.
Probably the biggest stand-out quailty of this game is it's 4 player co-op. If you have small children and a few controllers, this is probably a good choice, but if they're a little older, like 10 or above, they'd be better served with far-superior 4 player games like New Super Mario Brothers and Rayman Origins. Donkey Kong Country Returns is also a much better game, though it's a lot harder, and only allows for 2 players. Basically I can only recommend this for young families, or as a quick rental, for someone who just wants to play through a Kirby game in a weekend like I did, but not a purchase.
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