Monday, January 2, 2012

Kirby's Return to Dream Land

World 1

Is this game supposed to make me feel as if I'm playing Kirby Air Ride? I'm freaking loving this. I have never experienced so much nostalgia in a Kirby game before. It reminds me of Kirby 64 too, and even Super Star. Speaking of Super Star this is the best Kirby since then. I've only beat the first world but dang.

I love the music. It sounds so natural and memorable. Really captures the vibe of Kirby. The power ups are really neat this time around. More moves, cool combos, and the specials towards the end of the level where you just demolish everything in your path. Gorgeous. The controls are smooth as well, and knowing there is content to unlock after collecting all the energy spheres is a warm welcome.

The visuals, oh man the visuals.... Breathe taking. I need to see these on an HD TV. I think they're better than Brawl's to be honest. Grass in the background blows in the wind, lava is very detailed, THE WATER, explosions and really, every thing else looks mucho bueno. I can just imagine the multiplayer too... And the boss battle was really fun on the first world. Fairly difficult overall. Nice change from the past Kirby's "Button mash and you'll win, for sure." method.

World 2 --------------------

I've grown to never really like desert worlds in video games or even deserts in general. Movies, pictures, video games, paintings, you name it, I can't stand it. I don't know if it's the lack of originality or if it's just the most uninteresting terrain known to man. No universe has captured my interest to the point where you'd catch me saying something like "Yeah I enjoyed the desert world more than the ice world". Cactuses, sand, scorpions, mountains, blah blah boring blah.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland is a different story though. I mean, sure, it's not mind blowing, but from the art style, the backgrounds look great. Instead of mindlessly going through each level I found some satisfaction here and there. HAL did something different and made an atmosphere so addicting to explore, I didn't care where I was as long as I see something different.

The boss battle was fun too. I died once which was solely my fault. The challenge was present, and was nice since most Kirby games have little to no challenge to be found. The Energy Spheres were much easier to find in this world than the first. Hopefully the third world (which might be my favorite!), will have a more accessible challenge.

World 3 --------------------

For being a water world in a Kirby game I was very, very impressed. Taking place mostly underwater, World 3 really grabbed my attention. The collectables were hidden much better this time around. I had retraced my footsteps numerous times to 100% each level. The difficulty is really increasing too. Like Kirby Wii's predecessor's, certain parts of certain levels have multiple ways to go. Pick the wrong one will determine whether you'll 100% the level.

The visuals were astounding. Nintendo always does a great job with water effects and Onion Ocean was well, all water. The vistas were pretty, and the environment as a whole looked jaw dropping. Kirby Wii is one of the best looking Wii games ever.

The boss battle was really neat-o too. He's a big puffy fish that bounces all over the screen and can damage you easily. The difficulty was increased from the last boss but not frustrating to say the least. I used the ice power for this boss and I can't recommend it though as it's definitely not his weakness.

Next up is World 4. And its an ice world!

World 4 --------------------

A lot of games have excellent snow worlds to explore. Mario is one of them. Mario has inadvertently set a standard for snowy environments. I know it sounds dumb but many Mario games (Super Mario Bros. 3), have very lush attractive landscapes. Kirby on the other hand does it well. Nothing great though. I find Kirby' forests and beaches to really standout.

Playing through the fourth world made me realize how awesome Kirby can be. Unlike the previous worlds, World 4 has five levels rather than four. Making it a bigger, broader experience. I found more variety from this world than the others. Rather than constantly swimming or not even swimming at all, World 4 mixes it up every level.

Sliding down a huge mountain and later facing a new boss that's based on electricity to running through a level with a candle to help guide you. The background are immense. It makes me feel like a little kid during winter. Playing with snow for hours. Kirby's universe would be a dream for any kid and even adults for that matter.

Score wise, World 4 blew me away. I found this portion of the game to be the best overall. The music really sets the mood. In stage 5, the music sounds just like P.S.O. Episodes 1&2 more than a Kirby game. I seriously sat there and awed over the music because even though it wasn't familiar to the franchise it still felt like Kirby yet more.

The boss on the other hand was pretty difficult. I died a few times before I actually pulled through. Definitely one of the hardest boss battles since Super Star. Also the way he played was different too. Being completely bonkers, he jumped all over the room shooting beams, summoning icicles to fall upon me, and slamming his weight to my location. Nice variety.

World 5 --------------------

World 5 is by far my favorite world. The sky themed setting in Dreamland is something to shine. Never have I seen such lush, and vibrant visuals for a sky themed area/planet. Every fantasy world should take notes from this world alone. Even Kirby Wii in general. The sunset background, the grassy hills, the puffy clouds, all make you sit there for a second and awe. Every level within the 5th World is something new and fresh like World 4.

Going through it on 2 player co-op made it for myself as well. I find the multiplayer to really be the only way to play Return to Dreamland. Unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Kirby's multiplayer is actual cooperative work. You have to plan your strategy and choose power-ups wisely for the events to come. Your not just goofing around and accidentally (or purposely), killing your allies. The boss battle was immensely difficult. After my teammate died (not knowing he could have just jumped back in by sacrificing a life), I was alone to destroy this putrid beast.

Putrid was a mean thing to say. I meant this insanely furious demon thing! His life bar was almost depleted and I barely defeated him with the Whip power-up. I like to call him Indian Jones Kirby. D:

After the boss battle I thought to myself: Wow the game is over already... That was fun!! Only to be completely shattered with more levels. Of course naturally I would be overjoyed with more levels to 100% but this next world looks disgusting and boring. Have to wait and see!

World 6 --------------------

Most of the game I felt overjoyed with such a wonderful world to explore. Icy fun worlds, green grasslands, hell I even loved the desert world. World 6 on the other hand... made me want to put the game down. Complete suffocation from whats been making me thoroughly enjoy this game. Dull, grey industrial themed setting with little to no new gameplay mechanics whatsoever.

The difficulty is surprisingly increasing as time goes on. Kirby games don't usually do that sort of thing rather they tend to be quite easy. Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land are two examples that represent how difficult Kirby can be. Kirby's Return to Dreamland is right on up there. I've never died so many times in my life.

The level diversity was invisible. I found every stage to be tedious as I've clearly seen this in previous Kirby titles but to a lesser extent. Whereas the boss battle was a small robot looking dude. Even though he was difficult, his move patterns were very predictable.

World 7 & 8 -------------------

World 7 & 8 are so close together it would be a waste of time and space to separate them. First off World 7 wasn't a disappointment. At all. At first I thought it was going to be as boring and dull as World 6 but I was wrong. Another assumption was that it's lava and in my honest opinion only Mario can do lava worlds. So I had low expectations.

The layouts to these levels (only being 4 levels by the way), is incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed the levels from beginning to end. Sure it was more of the same but the visuals were astounding. Vibrant lava, dark gloomy clouds in the background, new lava enemies. The music was okay but that wasn't the main squeeze. Also the Energy Sphere placement was fairly predictable. Challenging to accomplish but easy to point out.

The final boss battle (a very nice surprising twist that most Kirby games never do), was a series of multiple waves. One included the classic shoot' em up levels from Kirby Super Star which brought with it a wave of nostalgia.

The difficulty was amp'd to an unholy level for a Kirby game. This wasn't Kirby's difficulty or at least hasn't been for many, many years. Very nice change as I hope to see this in future titles.

World 1- 4.5/5
World 2- 4.5/5
World 3- 4/5
World 4- 5/5
World 5- 5/5
World 6- 2/5
World 7/8- 4/5


Overall: World 5

I chose World 5 because it perfected the sky theme Kirby games always cater to. The visuals, the score, the layouts, mini-bosses, Energy Sphere placement, all untouchable by the rest of the game. World 1 and 4 were great as well, and the last boss was the best battle overall, but no other world can harness such perfection. We've seen World 1 many times before as we have ice but not what World 5 has to offer.


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