I think I did the Wii a disservice by focusing my first review of one of its titles on a shovelware game.
The Wii had a bad, and in many ways deserved, reputation as a haven for shameless cash grabs and licensed junk. It's the kind of place where you would find, say, a game based on a reality TV show that was thrown together without any thought or effort...not like I'd know anything about that though. However, the Wii has some really good games as well, mostly stemming from Nintendo's big-name franchises. There were some excellent Mario and Zelda games for the console, it feels like there were excellent Mario and Zelda games for every console. In a way, the Wii was very similar to the Nintendo 64, with some essential first party games buoying a lineup dragged down by largely forgettable third-party titles. But unlike the N64, where many of those first party games are household names even among non-gamers, many of the Wii's better first party titles have been forgotten by time. I didn't even realize there was a Kirby console until this past week. Kirby is a strange franchise, sometimes it feels like its top tier, other times it feels like its forgotten, but it's always there. It's not technically a first-party Nintendo franchise, it's developed by HAL Labs, but it may as well be. I personally like a lot of the old school Kirby games, so I was happy to see it. But I still had my reservations, especially over how they would incorporate the motion controls. Fortunately, Kirby's return to Dreamland hit the mark.
KRTD puts you in control of everyone's favorite powder puff, faced with helping a mysterious alien rebuild his spaceship. You travel through five levels, each with five stages, unlocking new pieces of the ship after each boss fight. The levels follow the series' trademark platforming style, with fewer jumps but more airborne enemies and positional challenges to accommodate Kirby's floating ability. Most enemies can be sucked up and absorbed to give Kirby a variety of different powers, including a sword, fire breath, laser beam and high jump. Many of those powers can be used to interact with objects throughout the level to access secret areas. Finding gears in the secret areas (and throughout the levels in general) will unlock mini games and special challenge levels. It's simple and basic, but incredibly fun. The controls are spot on and the motion stuff is kept to a minimum, this game has you turning the Wiimote sideways to have it behave like an NES controller. This was definitely the right call for Kirby, the layout is perfect and the controls are tight and responsive. The game has a nice mix of 2D and 3D graphics, which are bright and colorful. The sound is great as well, it provides an upbeat and whimsical atmosphere perfect for the series. Overall, KRTDL is an incredibly well made game with top notch presentation and impeccable design. It doesn't exactly break new ground, but it builds well on an established foundation.
As for the actual gameplay? It's excellent as well. It definitely has its issues, but KRTDL is a blast and what it lacks in challenge in innovation it makes up for in well-paced fun and old-fashioned couch co-op chaos. I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone with young children who are interested in gaming, as it is very easy and is mechanically designed to be very forgiving to new players. You can have up to four, with players able to choose between Kirby, Waddle Dee, King DeDeDe and Meta Knight. The key is that no matter what is going on the screen, all the action is focused on the first player. If they die its game over, but if players two, three or four do they simply respawn at the cost of an extra life. The first player can advance the screen and if the others lag behind, they will be caught up automatically. If you are a in a figurative situation where, say, you are playing with a three-year-old who only vaguely understands that what they do on the controller translates to something on the screen, or a one-year-old that keeps trying to put the Wiimote in her mouth, you can still progress through the levels. But there is still plenty to do for experienced gamers, different shortcuts to find and ways to use powers, as well as a few legitimately challenging portions. Overall though the pacing is so well done and the action so simplistically fun that its hard not to have a good time, even if you do blow through the game relatively quickly.
The biggest issue here is that KRTDL is easy. Like, incredibly easy. No one is ever going to confuse Kirby games for the Soulsborne series, but this was just a bit too much. I was able to beat this game with little to no resistance which really shouldn't be the case. Some of the challenges were pretty tough, but that's bonus content. I can't ding it too bad, as the game is intended for younger audiences anyway, but even in that regard its a bit too easy. Blasting through the first few levels with no resistance was pretty fun, but I did find myself feeling a bit of malaise in the latter stretches. I think this is mostly a function of the extremely large health bar. Kirby and friends can take a ton of hits and health is extremely plentiful, so you are barely penalized at all for taking damage. It is almost impossible to die from taking damage outside of boss battles, and even then it's pretty easy to race the bosses if you have a power equipped. That means most of your deaths are going to come from pits...which really aren't a huge problem for Kirby because he can float. Being able to share health powerups in co-op mode makes it even easier, though you can only do this for a short time after picking up the items. I also feel like there aren't very many enemies on the screen at once, which is problematic for the difficulty. Sometimes its nice to have a walk in the park game like this, but I think KRTDL took it a bit too far.
Still, the good far outweighs the bad. There are so many unique powers for Kirby to absorb, from classics like the beam and stone and to new additions like the whip and spear. New this time around are "super" versions of these powers, which Kirby can use to clear the screen of enemies and destroy certain parts of the environment. This is critical for finding secrets, and its also just generally awesome. Four player co-op is great, it makes for a chaotic time and it feels like having extra players around is a help and not a hindrance. It's really cool to be able to play as Meta Knight and King DeDeDe, they each had some interesting moves and a unique play style. I will say it did wear a bit thin after a while, as they are limited to their one attack and can't absorb enemies like Kirby, but it was nice to have the option and it added a bit of variety. There were tons of mini games and unlockables, so it always felt like there was something to look for and exploring levels in Kirby games is always great because his abilities lend themselves to it so well. I do think it would have been nice to see something new, like combining powers or something to that effect, but I can't hold that against KRTDL. It may not have offered much new, but it was still a fun time.
And that's the key word here: fun. KRTDL may be a little too easy, but it was a blast to play through and a great time with multiple players. It's an excellent title for young gamers looking to get started, or even older folks who don't play a lot of video games. I'm not sure if there's a game I could recommend more if you are playing with your kids. There really wasn't much innovation here, but come on, what do you expect from a Kirby game? Not every video game has to be some big, epic adventure that throws endless new gameplay mechanics at a player every chance it gets. I love a good 40-hour RPG, but sometimes its nice to just run through a game as a little pink ball sucking up enemies and stealing their powers with little resistance. That the presentation, graphics and sound are spot on put the game over the top. KRTDL is an outstanding title for the Wii and its one entry in the console's library that absolutely stacks up against offerings from the bigger, more powerful PS3 and XBox 360. A really fun, quick title that's absolutely worth a look.
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