Gave this game another try since I could get it for a song, but I came away feeling much the same as I did the first time I played it. Return to Dream Land is the game that started Modern Kirby's descent into mediocrity. It has all of the problems of Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot, and Star Allies, but they're not as pronounced.
My major issues with the game were:
1. Kirby feels really stiff. It's amazing how SLOW Kirby is in this game. Coming to this after the GBA or DS titles and feeling how rigid the controls are is just disappointing. It's like going from an SNES game to an NES game.
2. Some collectibles are placed in such a way as to force you to retry the room entirely (by throwing yourself at minor enemies) or even the level (if you need to bring a certain copy ability which is only in the previous room).
3. You have very little freedom in which copy abilities you can carry with you through the game if you want to collect every gear. If you see a miniboss, you'd better take that power, because 19/20 times, you're going to need it in the next room. If you see a mega ability, you'd better take it. It's the only way into the void where the doomers lie.
4. This might be controversial, but I feel like many of the copy abilities are a little too strong- both in terms of damage numbers and hitboxes. I would like it more if more abilities required you to play in different ways. As it stands, you usually just stand about one Kirby length away from a boss and spam your standard attack (or up attack in the case of flying bosses) to handle them quickly.
5. Finally, I don't like the trend of mid-level transformation abilities that the Kirby team have been so big on since Epic Yarn. They're overly-gimmicky and wind up leaving very little replay value. The saving grace for this game's implementation versus other Kirby games in the past 13 years, is that you're able to skip the power-up if you want, and that gives you something of an alternate route through a stage, but they're always inferior afterthoughts.
At least the music's good and the art is cute.
Although what did they do to Dedede? I think they need to hunt for another design. The original wasn't great, but this one is just weird.
My major issues with the game were:
1. Kirby feels really stiff. It's amazing how SLOW Kirby is in this game. Coming to this after the GBA or DS titles and feeling how rigid the controls are is just disappointing. It's like going from an SNES game to an NES game.
2. Some collectibles are placed in such a way as to force you to retry the room entirely (by throwing yourself at minor enemies) or even the level (if you need to bring a certain copy ability which is only in the previous room).
3. You have very little freedom in which copy abilities you can carry with you through the game if you want to collect every gear. If you see a miniboss, you'd better take that power, because 19/20 times, you're going to need it in the next room. If you see a mega ability, you'd better take it. It's the only way into the void where the doomers lie.
4. This might be controversial, but I feel like many of the copy abilities are a little too strong- both in terms of damage numbers and hitboxes. I would like it more if more abilities required you to play in different ways. As it stands, you usually just stand about one Kirby length away from a boss and spam your standard attack (or up attack in the case of flying bosses) to handle them quickly.
5. Finally, I don't like the trend of mid-level transformation abilities that the Kirby team have been so big on since Epic Yarn. They're overly-gimmicky and wind up leaving very little replay value. The saving grace for this game's implementation versus other Kirby games in the past 13 years, is that you're able to skip the power-up if you want, and that gives you something of an alternate route through a stage, but they're always inferior afterthoughts.
At least the music's good and the art is cute.
Although what did they do to Dedede? I think they need to hunt for another design. The original wasn't great, but this one is just weird.