Kirby games come in two flavors: Simple, saccharine platformers, and wildly innovative (and saccharine) experiments in any number of genres. The latest chapter of the series, Return to Dreamland, falls squarely into the former category. It’s a perfectly decent little platformer, but coming hot on the heels of the brilliantly inventive Mass Attack and visually imaginative Epic Yarn, it feels decidedly mundane.
The title “Return to Dreamland” is strictly an invention of the Western localization, but it’s fitting enough; the game is more than slightly reminiscent of Kirby’s Dreamland 3, with absolutely beautiful graphics and a heavy emphasis on Kirby’s companions. The main difference between this adventure and that Super NES classic is that the companions this time around aren’t adorable animals (though those guys do show up in a random blink-and-you’ll-miss-it visual reference); instead, they’ve been supplanted by other players thanks to a drop-in/drop-out multiplayer format that can totally transform the play experience.
