What an achievement from HAL laboratory. Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe is not only the best of the (relatively few) Kirby games I have played but also one of my favorite platformers of all time. An absolute joy from start to start to finish, I found myself grinning throughout most of the game. From the super abilities to the puzzles to the soundtrack to one hell of a finale, I was consistently surprised by how unique and creative this game truly was. Each level was a pleasure to explore due to the beautiful cell-shaded art direction and brilliant level design. While the combat and platforming is relatively easy to complete, some of the gears and hidden Star levels provided more than enough of a challenge to keep me engaged, and I believe the Extra mode (i.e., hard difficulty) will provide the combat challenge that is lacking in the first playthrough. Beyond the absolutely excellent campaign (and the bonus 2+ hour epilogue that I haven’t gotten to yet), this version contains another mini campaign in the form of 10 minigames located in Merry Magoland, an amusement park style area that fills with NPCs from the campaign and Waddledees as you complete over 100 missions associated with the minigames. Challenging in their own right, these were so much fun to go through and master. Alongside challenge score-attack stages for 9 copy abilities (which get insanely difficult), a boss rush mode that is a pleasure to roll through, and the unlockable hard difficulty, I’m gonna be playing this game for a long time, and I’m really excited to eventually play this in co-op, because I can already tell my partner is absolutely going to adore this. I never thought that I would enjoy a Kirby game enough to understand the passionate fanbase that the series has. Kirby’s Return to Dreamland converted me, and I am excited for whatever the pink blob and the kings & queens at HAL Laboratory have in store.