Should have been more inventive, more memorable and more important. After we were spoiled by the beautiful Epic Yarn last year, Adventure highlights the dangers of appealing to a very vocal minority.
Kirby’s Adventure Wii is a resounding success in every single area. From the gorgeous visuals to the infectious soundtrack, through to the ingenious level design, impressive new weaponry Kirby has to hand, the extra challenges thrown in to please veteran gamers, and the four-player drop-in/drop-out option. Those eagerly awaiting a high quality successor to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards need look no further. Another spectacular side-scrolling platform game to grace Wii.
The kids of Kirbys past may thrill to the new game, but for those of us who champion Kirby solely as a progressive, who wish even his return to his classic powers to in some way embody the experimental edge this smooth puffball has somehow attained, this game is a temporary stall of disappointment.
#kirby
I recently recommended that people skip the new Kirby game for the Wii, Kirby's Return to Dreamland. I don't hate the game. I just think you have better options. I also think you might like to see more of the game, since it's a charmer and has good stuff in it. More »
The relative ease of Kirby games usually result in their powderpuff protagonist avoiding death from start to finish -- however, Kirby's not immune to the most permanent form of death there is: Project cancellation. In the most recent Iwata Asks, Kirby's Return to Dreamland producer Shigefumi Kawase revealed that three installments in the franchise were killed off mid-development, explaining "We spent 11 years ... making and abandoning these three games."
The three Kirby titles in questions would have been starkly different: One was a 2.5D four-player adventure title (sort of like Return to Dreamland, but with more depth), one was a fully-3D exploration-centric game and the other was an animated platformer with "pop-up visuals." They sound charming as all-get-out, which makes us all the more forlorn that they're dead as doornails. Goodnight, sweet princes. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
- The Producer, Shigefumi Kawase, was originally the head of Jack and Beans, the Nintendo/HAL group which made Pokemon Snap.
- the original GameCube multiplayer Kirby was cancelled because Nintendo was having trouble mixing single and multiplayer elements
- The second failed Kirby was in 3D, but was cancelled due to quality concerns
- Shinya Kumazaki, the Director, has been involved with Kirby Canvas Curse and Kirby Super Star Ultra. He also worked on the 3DS software (Probably Face Raiders).
- Kumazaki has only been with HAL 10 years, so this is his first console Kirby game.
- Hiroaki Nakano, Lead Programmer, said that 4-player coop was hard to implement.
- Iwata said that the Copy Abilities were terribly complicated back on Kirby's Adventure.
- Tadashi Kamitake, the Lead Designer, started with Kirby in Kirby Super Star Ultra (man, this team is young).
- Kamitake witnessed all three failures, especially sad about the third.
- October 2010 is when the game went into full gear.
- The team made an in-house development website, like a dev diary
#gutcheck
Kirby's Return to Dreamland is the first Nintendo-published game for the Wii since June and only the third of the year, but scarcity alone does not guarantee quality. Nor does the fact that this Kirby game allows him to do what he hasn't done for years: inhale his enemies. So Kirby sucks, but is Kirby's Return to Dreamland worth buying? More »
...when you take into account how much additional content has been included, not to mention the engaging multiplayer mode, you end up with what is easily one of the most well-rounded Kirby titles ever crafted and the old-school Kirby adventure fans have been dreaming of for years.
