Kirby's Return to Dream Land



Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Kirby's Adventure Wii in Europe) is a new game in the Kirby series for Nintendo's Wii system, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. While initially believed to be the cancelled Game Cube title, Return to Dream Land, is, in fact, HAL Laboratories' fourth attempt at making a home console game for Kirby since Kirby's Air Ride.

A trailer for the game was released on January 28, 2011, revealing new abilities, including enhanced versions of Sword Kirby (officially known as Ultra Sword Kirby) and Fire Kirby (officially known as Monster Flame Kirby) that can each use a Final Smash-like attack. See the first trailer here.

On June 7, 2011, Nintendo released a second trailer of the game at E3, which shows off more features the game will contain, such as more new abilities, and co-op multiplayer alongside Meta Knight, King Dedede, and the Bandana Dee. Also, the plot of the game is revealed: while greedy King Dedede is chasing Kirby for his cake, a gateway suddenly opens up in the sky, and a ship known as the Lor Starcutter emerges. It crashes, and Kirby and his allies must help Magolor, the ship's captain, recover its parts and get it working again. See that trailer here.

The game was released in America on October 24, 2011. Europe got the game on November 25, 2011.


 * Two and a Half D: The first game since Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards to contain 2D gameplay among 3D graphics. Unlike in Kirby 64, however, there are no bends or curves in Kirby's path.
 * Added Alliterative Appeal: All the levels but the last one,.
 * Advancing Wall of Doom: The Sphere Doomer areas have you running away from one each time.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield:
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: After a brief break in the trend with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Star Ultra, and Epic Yarn, Kirby once again dons angry eyebrows for North American releases.
 * Another Dimension: Where you fight ..
 * Ascended Extra: Bandana Dee, a minor character from Super Star Ultra, is now a playable character.
 * Batman Gambit:.
 * Beat Them At Their Own Game:
 * BFS: The Ultra Sword ability, as seen in this E3 2011 trailer
 * And it gets even bigger when.
 * Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Goriath appears to be a Yeti.
 * Blade Lock:
 * Blade on a Stick: Bandana Dee wields one to attack with.
 * Blackout Basement: Several areas have you traverse through a dark room, with lit candles to help you out (not only as a light source).
 * Bonus Boss:
 * Boss Remix: The Super Ability theme is remixed into something more upbeat when used in the Grand Doomer battle and at the end of Stage 7-3.
 * Boss Rush: Two of them. There's The Arena, which is a rush through all bosses in main mode, and The True Arena, which is a rush through all bosses in Extra Mode . There's also the last level of Dangerous Dinner, the final segment of which is multiple copies of every miniboss in the game - which you face after getting the Ultra Sword ability for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. The last level of Nutty Noon, on the other hand, is a tower filled with minibosses from the game (no Sphere Doomers, though), much like Kirbys Adventure. The tower holds Gigant Edge, Moundo, Water Galboros and Dubior.
 * But Thou Must!: The very first Energy Sphere is just floating in a wide open room, but you can't proceed in the level without collecting it. It also applies in the Extra Mode.
 * Call Back:
 * The Cameo: One of Stone's forms is a statue of three of the "Dark Matter Trilogy" Animal Friends: Rick, Coo, and Kine.
 * Stone in general is chock full of cameos. Wham Bam Rock from Super Star, the Dragoon from Air Ride, Meta Knight and Galacta Knight's wings and masks, the HAL Labs logo, Kirby's original 8-bit sprite, and a few others.
 * The UFO enemy appears to reward Kirby during end-of-level bonus games, despite UFO being absent from the game.
 * Cool Crown:
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: If having your multiplayer partners as characters with predetermined abilities just isn't your thing, then here you go.
 * Continuity Nod / Call Back: Loads, mostly to Kirby Super Star and its remake. In this installment of the series, the developers have referenced nearly everything Kirby-related. Now has its own page.
 * Cut Song: Subverted. The cancelled Kirby GCN's trailer music can be heard in the game as the Arena theme.
 * Disc One Final Boss:.
 * Disc One Final Dungeon: Nutty Noon. Did you really think you were done with the game?
 * Disney Villain Death: Happens to Goriath, albeit coming before the Grand Doomer
 * Development Gag: Seeing how long it took for this game to be released, there are quite a few of these.
 * Look familiar?
 * Development Hell: This game started as the Game Cube title, was scrapped, then went through several re-imaginings until this became the final product. According to this interview, development started as soon as Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards was completed, meaning it took eleven years for it to be released.
 * Dub Name Change: Magolor is referred to as 'Mahoroa' in the Japanese release.
 * Dummied Out: There is data in the game for a Cutter super ability hat, but it was never used.
 * Edible Theme Naming: Each of the levels.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Sphere Doomers have this vibe to them..
 * Enemy Mine: King Dedede (again), Meta Knight (again), and Bandana Dee are helping Kirby on his quest.
 * Partially averted with Dedede, as he was never really evil, just sometimes mischievous, or more often, possessed by Dark Matter. And no one's really sure what side Meta Knight is on.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Abilities that make use of weapons can often let Kirby spin them. In particular, the Sword can now do as Spin Attack and the spear can be spun around like a helicopter blade, making Kirby fly upward and hit enemies in the way.
 * Evil All Along:
 * Evil Makeover:
 * Expy:.
 * This is cemented
 * Extreme Omnivore: Kirby was already a Big Eater, but now he can inhale other players, even (for the second time) King Dedede, to spit out more powerful stars.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Kirby
 * The Lancer: Meta Knight
 * The Big Guy: King Dedede
 * The Smart Guy: Magolor
 * The Chick: Bandana Waddle Dee
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: The elemental variations of Sphere Doomers represent Fire, Spark, and Ice.
 * The three elemental Super Abilities are Monster Flame, Flare Beam, and Snow Bowl.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble
 * Kirby is sanguine.
 * King Dedede is choleric.
 * Meta Knight is melancholic.
 * Bandanna Dee is phlegmatic.
 * Friendly Enemy:
 * Fun with Acronyms: If you take the first letters of each level, you get
 * Golden Super Mode: When Goriath, the boss of White Wafers, Turns Red, his hair stands up and glows yellow.
 * Goomba Stomp: This game allows Kirby to control a giant cleat to perform this trope on enemies. It's highly reminiscent of Super Mario Bros 3's Kuribo/Goomba's Shoe.
 * Hailfire Peaks: Nutty Noon appears to be Bubbly Clouds mixed with Floating Continent.
 * Heel Face Turn:  though it was really Good All Along.
 * Hidden Depths: If you talk to Magolor after all the Energy Spheres are collected, he reveals to you that he acquired the Lor Starcutter by excavating it from the volcano where Landia lives, and that the ship is said to have a mind of its own, making it on par with legendary weapons like Kirby's Star Rod and Meta Knight's sword Galaxia.
 * He also reveals that he was told everything he knew about Kirby by a friend, long before they even met. Some fans have theorized that said friend is Marx, Ribbon, or someone else entirely.
 * Furthermore, if you have all the Energy Spheres in EX mode Magolor gives more information. He adds that the Lor Starcutter was made by the same people who built the clockwork suns (most likely a reference to NOVA from Milky Way Wishes). He also mentions that some enemies Kirby fought before came from world where he comes from.
 * And on top of that, Magolor states that the Lor Starcutter, 'the clockwork suns' and the were created by use of an incredible power.
 * Hub Level: Returning from Kirby's Adventure, though this time they're accessed through a World Map. The Lor Starcutter is designed similarly, though it's more of a sandbox in that you can check in on Magolor and use the Energy Spheres you've collected throughout the game to get abilities for convenience, enter challenge rooms, or play MiniGames.
 * Humongous Mecha:
 * Your objective is to shoot these down in the Scope Shot Mini Game.
 * King Mook: Several of the minibosses are these, for example, King Doo (a large, yellow Waddle Doo), Water Galboros (a large Water Galbo), and Kibble Blade (a Sir Kibble with a more knight-like helmet).
 * And later, the boss of
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Super Abilities.
 * Infinity-1 Sword: The Game Breaker Copy Abilities, such as Tornado.
 * Interface Screw:
 * Kirby Is About to Stab You: You can tell American Kirby Is Hardcore when he has his BFS aimed right in the face of anyone looking at the (American) cover.
 * Let's Play: By Medibot, going solo
 * Letting the Air Out of the Band: Did you really think you were gonna get the Lor Starcutter's mast without a fight?
 * Limit Break: Large, glowing enemies, which when consumed will give Kirby larger, more destructive versions of their normal powers. (i.e., Sword becomes Ultra Sword, Fire becomes Monster Flame.) Ultra Sword Kirby cuts massive ropes with his BFS, and Monster Flame can use a dragon to burn down trees.
 * Make My Monster Grow: Whispy, Mr. Dooter, and Fatty Puffer grow in size when they turn red.
 * Market-Based Title: The game is called Kirby's Adventure Wii in PAL countries. The title used here is the North American one.
 * Medley: The first miniboss theme (this one is used for miniboss battles ) is a medley of the Egg Catcher/Arena and Boss themes from Kirby's Adventure. The second one (this one is used for miniboss battles ) is based on the miniboss theme from Kirby 64, which was also previously used for battles with Meta Knight's troops in Nightmare in Dream Land, as well as Kirby 64's boss theme.
 * The music used for  is a medley of various versions of Green Greens.
 * Mega Manning: Of course, after the noticeable lack of the move in Kirbys Epic Yarn. Returning abilities include:
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade/Battle Boomerang: Cutter Kirby.
 * An Ice Person: Ice Kirby.
 * Blow You Away: Tornado Kirby.
 * Converging Stream Weapon: Beam Kirby.
 * Cool Sword: Sword Kirby.
 * Drop the Hammer: Hammer Kirby.
 * Feather Flechettes: Wing Kirby.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja / Katanas Are Just Better: Ninja Kirby.
 * Joke Weapon: Sleep Kirby.
 * Kamehame Hadouken: Fighter Kirby.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout: Mike Kirby.
 * Parasol of Pain: Parasol Kirby.
 * Playing with Fire: Fire Kirby.
 * Shock and Awe: Spark Kirby.
 * Smart Bomb: Crash Kirby.
 * Spikes of Doom / Spike Shooter: Needle Kirby.
 * Spring Jump: High Jump Kirby.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Bomb Kirby.
 * Taken for Granite/Dishing Out Dirt: Stone Kirby.
 * Shock and Awe: Spark Kirby.
 * Smart Bomb: Crash Kirby.
 * Spikes of Doom / Spike Shooter: Needle Kirby.
 * Spring Jump: High Jump Kirby.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Bomb Kirby.
 * Taken for Granite/Dishing Out Dirt: Stone Kirby.


 * New abilities include:


 * Blade on a Stick: Spear Kirby.
 * Green Thumb: Leaf Kirby.
 * Making a Splash: Water Kirby, who's actually a Canon Immigrant from the Kirby anime.
 * Whip It Good: Whip Kirby.


 * Super abilities include:


 * BFS: Ultra Sword Kirby, who can unleash a Final Smash-like strike than can cut through massive ropes, and can destroy bigger blocks of the terrain.
 * Drop the Hammer + Bigger Is Better: Grand Hammer Kirby, who wields a giant hammer to smash stakes with.
 * Human Snowball: Snow Bowl Kirby, who can turn into a giant snowball to mow down enemies.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Monster Flame Kirby, who can summon a dragon Wreathed in Flames to destroy trees.
 * Sphere of Destruction: Flare Beam Kirby, who can create an orb of energy that can be remotely controlled.
 * New Game+: Beating the game once unlocks Extra Mode (a throwback to the original Kirby's Dream Land), where your Life Meter is reduced by a third, the enemies now come in various sizes, Phantoesque foes are now added to every area with a key, and the bosses are harder.
 * Nice Hat: A staple in the Kirby series. It should be noted that the Bomb, Stone, and Ninja abilities have brand new hats, the Fighter, Ice, and Mike abilities have extra features added to their hats, and the Crash ability has now gained a hat.
 * Nintendo Hard
 * The Copy Ability Challenge Rooms are as well if you want to get the best score (though just beating them for the sake of getting the file selection screen to display 100% after the game is completed isn't nearly as hard). They can take a decent amount of tries to get a gold medal. Then you learn there's a medal better than gold...
 * Let's not even get started on the Item Challenge.
 * There are also hidden rooms in some levels that qualify, which have an Advancing Wall of Doom, and the farther you get in the game the more additional obstacles you have to avoid and the faster the wall advances.
 * In fact, the entire Extra mode is Nintendo Hard. At least the boss fights are. The constant Sphere Doomer battles that you need to do to get all the Energy Spheres get on your nerves when they're all the EX version. And there's also Metal General, who literally Turns Red,
 * No OSHA Compliance: The Eternal Engine levels of Egg Engines are dangerous enough to give the factory level of Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards a run for its money.
 * Notice This: Objects that can be destroyed with a Super Ability are marked with glowing stars. The enemies that give the abilities themselves glow brightly and the first time per level they spawn, the camera zooms in on them.
 * One-Winged Angel:.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The Monster Flame ability, as seen in this trailer
 * Also, Landia, the four-headed dragon who attacked Magolor. It can split into four smaller one-headed dragons.
 * Outrun the Fireball: A dark void of some sort that's consuming everything in at least one of the pocket dimensions.
 * Paper Fan of Doom / Shamu Fu: Ultra Sword becomes a large fan or a large tuna on rare occasions.
 * Plot Coupons: The 5 parts of the Lor Starcutter, obtained after defeating each level's boss, and the Energy Spheres, many missing in each level. There are 120 in all.
 * Pocket Dimension: There appears to be many of them throughout the game, where a good portion of the gears can be found.
 * Powerup Mount: In Co-op, anyone can be this to each other. You can even stack up all four characters to create a giant totem pole.
 * Recurring Riff: Several, including the file select/Lor Starcutter theme, the music from the GCN Kirby trailer, the Recurring Riff from Kirby Super Star, and the menu music.
 * Retraux: The BGM for the Item Challenge is a retro-style remix of Green Greens, sounding very similar to the arrangement used in Super Star.
 * In terms of gameplay, the entire game may qualify.
 * Rubber Band AI: The Advancing Wall of Doom mentioned above will always be just offscreen, slowly coming into view, no matter how much you think you've distanced yourself from it. But if you are close enough to it, it clearly slows down, and it gets exponentially faster the further away you are from it.
 * You can actually make the wall reel back by spitting stars at it. This is practically essential to know in later parts of the New Game+, where the wall is faster.
 * Sad Battle Music: Used for Landia, HR-D3, and.
 * Same Content Different Rating: Although it's the first Kirby game to garner an E10+ rating, it's hardly more violent than any other entry in the series.
 * Although it was averted with Japanese release, which was rated an A.
 * Sarcastic Clapping:
 * Scenery Porn: True to Kirby form, the backgrounds of this game are vivid, detailed, and colorful.
 * The backgrounds in the "Looming Darkness" sections shown after you defeat the Sphere Doomers are hauntingly beautiful.
 * Scoring Points: Present in the challenge rooms.
 * Shout-Out: Whip Kirby wears a fedora.
 * Not only does Sword Kirby regain the Sword Beam at full health, it now has a chargeable Spin Attack! In this game, the Spin Attack hits targets more than once instead of a single time that simply does more damage at once like in its inspiration series, often making it useful for shaving off enemies' health, especially for enemies that are more durable.
 * The shoe powerup: invincible, can walk on spikes, and only available in certain parts of the game. Sound familiar?
 * Ninja Kirby has traded in his old hat for a dark blue headband with an engraved metal plate. (In a shuriken-throwing minigame, Dedede and Waddle Dee sport them, too. Meta Knight doesn't appear to have one; more of a Bleach man, perhaps?)
 * Just in case HAL Labs didn't make Fighter's fireball move a direct shout-out to a certain fighting game obvious enough, one of the inputs to perform an instant powered-up version of the standard fireball is down, forward, 1 button.
 * Meta Knight keeps his Shuttle Loop and jab attack from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Also from Brawl, both the Hammer ability and Dedede have a downwards drilling attack that comes from Dedede's down-air in Brawl.
 * The factory world is called Egg Engines, and, in some places, has orange and brown checkerboard walls. Hmmmm...
 * Also, the Needle Ability gives you a new, vaguely familiar rolling wheel attack.
 * After completing the Egg Engine level, Magolor mentions his home being a hop, skip, and a jump away.
 * One of the snow levels features multiple cannons (somewhat standard Kirby fare), although one cannon path features a trail of banana bunches.
 * is named after HAL Laboratory, the company that made this game.
 * Landia EX is purple. This gets even more obvious when it Turns Red and splits itself into four smaller dragons.
 * Goriath's hair turns gold and stands up when he Turns Red. And if that's not enough, he's got Kamehame Hadouken attacks, too!
 * And when Goriath EX goes Super Saiyan, he gets a Spirit Bomb.
 * The Grand Doomer's second phase has a method of attack that is remarkably similar to a particular shrieking ball of paint...
 * The name of  sounds remarkably similar to the names of the planets from The Space Trilogy.
 * Stealth Pun: Sometimes Kirby's Ultra Sword ability has him use a fish as a weapon.
 * Sticks to the Back: Whenever someone with a weapon needs to use both their hands or play the goal game, they resort to this.
 * Storm of Blades:.
 * Super Title 64 Advance: The European release of the game will be renamed Kirby's Adventure Wii, which will differentiate the game from the NES game titled Kirby's Adventure.
 * There is also its Working Title, shown below.
 * The Other Darrin: Makiko Ohmoto voices not only Kirby, but Dedede and Meta Knight too. (Bandana Dee is silent.) It's difficult to tell the difference from Sakurai and Meta Knight's Japanese voice actor.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
 * Teleport Spam: The Grand Doomer, Ice Sphere Doomers, and all do this.
 * : Fixed only once you clear extra mode.
 * Theme Music Power-Up:.
 * Whenever Kirby gets a Super Ability.
 * Totally Radical: Magolor's speech.
 * "The Lor is a beast!"
 * Transformation Is a Free Action: Bosses cannot be hurt when they're in the middle of turning red when their health bars drop by half. Their health bars glow to signify that they're temporarily invincible.
 * The action freezes while Kirby does his elaborate Super Ability transformations.
 * True Final Boss:
 * Turns Red: Every boss does this when their health bars fall by half.
 * In Extra Mode, Mr. Dooter and Fatty Puffer are all mainly recolored red (from light blue and purple, respectively.)
 * Also, the last series of bosses from Landia EX onwards (including ) turn red when their health hits about 60%.
 * Unexpected Shmup Level: In Kirby tradition.
 * The tradition is played with a bit though.
 * Wall of Weapons: Ultra Sword pulls out an assortment of large swords and sharp objects to cut with, like a standard Kirby sword, Meta Knight's Galaxia sword, a scimitar/cutlass, a butcher's knife, and a kendo sword. If you're lucky, there's also a giant paper fan. And a fish.
 * Walking Spoiler:
 * Warmup Boss: Whispy Woods, naturally.
 * Working Title: Was originally called Kirby Wii, although the game's Japanese title has been announced as "Hoshi no Kirby Wii".
 * Video Game Settings:
 * Green Hill Zone: Cookie Country
 * Shifting Sand Land + Temple of Doom: Raisin Ruins
 * Palmtree Panic + Under the Sea: Onion Ocean
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: White Wafers
 * Bubbly Clouds + World in the Sky: Nutty Noon
 * Eternal Engine: Egg Engines
 * Lethal Lava Land: Dangerous Dinner
 * Villainous Harlequin:
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The masked knight cometh!
 * Villainous Harlequin:
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The masked knight cometh!