I didn’t think it would be Kirby.
When I wrote last month about how I’ve been in a gaming doldrums for some time now I was confident that something would pull me out of it. I thought it might be Final Fantasy VII Rebirth or perhaps some random indie or shadow drop that would jolt me back into being excited about games again. What I did not expect was that it would be an enhanced remaster of a decade+ old Wii game starring everybody’s favorite piece of place-holder art made mascot, the pink puffball himself, Kirby.
I’ve never been a Kirby fan. I don’t hate the character, and he’s pretty fun in Smash because of his transformations, but the combination of the cutesy world and the slightly weird way that he controls when he’s doing his floating thing has always made me lukewarm at best on his games. I’ve dabbled in them throughout the years, playing them at friends’ houses and renting a few, but the only two I’ve owned were Kirby 64, which was an interesting but not very compelling title, and Kirby Star Allies, which is fun in short bursts but too chaotic to be an actually good platformer, especially solo.
I’m not really sure why I picked up Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe for my Switch. It was $40, which counts as being on sale but definitely not cheap. I played the Forgotten Land demo recently and that game has me intrigued about the idea of Kirby as a 3D platformer, a genre I tend to prefer over 2D. But something drew me not to Forgotten Land but to Return to Dreamland. I think it was a combination of that game’s more recent reviews and the fact that I’m going through a stressful period of life right now and I wanted something simple and easy and cheerful and pleasant. I’m getting a little burned out on apocalypses and misery and the thought of spending some time in a world of Waddle Dees and really good music had a lot of appeal. There’s also the fact that Super Mario Bros. Wonder somewhat reignited my love of 2D platformers even to the point where I went back and finished Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, a game I am lukewarm on at best.
The thing that made Return to Dreamland click for me is how easy it is to get into. Minimal story, minimal tutorial, few controls to master (especially if you’re already familiar with the basics of Kirby) and a very low level of challenge with a gentle curve. I don’t dislike difficult or complicated games, and even love some of them, but there’s something so comforting about playing something simple and friendly where the developers just wanted you to see and hear some fun things and have a good time. I guess that’s much of Kirby’s appeal, and Nintendo’s appeal in general, though while I wouldn’t call something like Tears of the Kingdom particularly difficult, I also definitely wouldn’t call it simple and easy to learn.
The other part of Nintendo’s appeal is polish. Return to Dreamland Deluxe has plenty of that. Despite being an upgraded version of a Wii game, it looks absolutely fantastic, with bright and colorful visuals that have a timeless appeal. The music is excellent, and I’ve tried to listen to podcasts multiple times while playing, only to find myself turning them off so I can crank up the game’s tunes. There are a lot of extra modes and unlockables, including the patented Kirby multiplayer minigames, which seem pretty quaint by 2023 standards. Is anyone actually going to invite friends over to play these simple party games that were already starting to be outdated when the Wii was relevant? Maybe they make sense for very young kids. They are, however, presented in both a cute little theme park you can roam around completing challenges and collecting stamps to be rewarded with consumables and cosmetics, and also in the game’s flying ship hub, where you can unlock challenge levels as well. It’s a lot of material to supplement a relatively short main game, and there’s even a new epilogue in the Deluxe version, which might secretly be the best part of the entire package.
While Return to Dreamland is not nearly as good as Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I do think it might have served as a bit of inspiration for that game. Just like in Mario Wonder the stages are often built around gimmicks, like a water stage with a strong current or a couple sections of stages where you use a boot that resembles Kuribo’s shoe. That’s not uncommon in platformers, but in certain levels in Return to Dreamland you encounter enemies with powered up abilities that, once absorbed, allow Kirby to unleash screen covering attacks that can break apart pieces of the environment, opening up new paths. This ends up functioning a lot like the Wonder Seeds in SMBW, though in a more predictable and less transformative way. Despite not being at the level of Wonder, Return to Dreamland does manage to capture some of the novelty and delight that drives that game, and that helped remind me what I love so much about gaming. The sense of discovery and possibility within a game while you explore its levels, while you also take in the creativity and craftsmanship of the people who made the game. The clever level design, whimsical graphics, and gorgeous music drew me in and instead of struggling to engage with the game I found myself scouring the levels and playing longer than I intended because I was excited to see what was next.
My enjoyment of Return to Dreamland led me to pick up some other games and I found myself enjoying those too. I never finished the original Bayonetta, which I started in 2022, and I played through a couple more levels of that, enjoying the over-the-top presentation and brawling action. Then I picked up Crisis Core, which I also laid aside last year and want to finish before Rebirth next week, and I enjoyed diving back into that a little. I found myself mapping out the games I want to get through this year in my head, which is generally a good sign that I’m getting absorbed in the hobby again. I’m not constantly playing in every spare moment like I was with Tears of the Kingdom, but I’m able to play a couple hours here and there without finding myself struggling to engage or enjoy myself, and that feels good.
I wish more games like Return to Dreamland were being made today. I don’t necessarily mean 2D platformers, which there are many of, but these higher budget straightforward polished experiences, almost regardless of genre. I guess this is just partially more nostalgia for the days when major publisher games put out games with 8-12 hour linear campaigns. But it’s also partially a desire for more games that want the player to enjoy themselves without falling into the “cozy” trap of being boring and repetitive. More games that want to encourage and cheer players on instead of challenging and grading them. Of course those games still exist; Mario Wonder being a prime example, but they seem fewer and further between in an industry where big budget games seem to favor either bloat or challenge as a way to extend play time and justify their existence. I think a lot of us agree that one of the best things in gaming is to play through a tightly designed linear experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome, it’s just that the economic model for those games seems to have broken down outside the indie space.
I wouldn’t say Return to Dreamland is a particularly great game. If I had played it last year I don’t think it would have made my top 10 (though it would have supplanted Immortals of Aveum in position 11, and there’s a much bigger gap between Kirby and that game than between Kirby and Mario RPG, my #10.) It’s a solid 8 out of 10, but while I enjoy the breezy difficulty it’s a little bit too easy to fully engage me. Sometimes a game comes around at the right time and it doesn’t have to be anything spectacular, it just has to be good in the right ways that you need at that moment. Kirby’s good in the right ways.
I knew that at some point I’d get back into gaming, but this was a long drought of interest for me and I never thought that Kirby would be the game to pull me back in. I’m still not 100% sure why I picked it up. Nonetheless I did, and it’s a lesson for me that when I’m feeling unengaged maybe I should lower the barrier to entry and go back to basics with something that’s just some simple fun. And it’s a small thing but I’ll never think of the Kirby franchise in the same way. I think I want to explore some more of the games, many of which are on the Switch Online service and some others of which I have on 3DS, just as a way to get familiar with this franchise that now matters to me a little more. And that excites me a little bit. Kirby will never be up there with Mario or Zelda for me, but I now understand better why he has so many fans, and I think I’m one of them.
Log in to comment