To my way of thinking, this is a straight improvement over the original game. The only thing missing is Scope Shot; otherwise you have everything that made the original Return to Dream Land what it was and then some.
I do think most of my issues with base Return to Dream Land went unaddressed. This is understandable; most of my issues with RtDL (disposable level design, Super Abilities drawing too much focus from other design considerations, Extra Mode feeling pretty superfluous, etc) were pretty core to the game's identity, and to change them would make this an inaccurate remake. Still, it's weird to see (for example) Extra Mode feel even more superfluous to the experience of the game this time around, since Magolor Epilogue feels more in-line with Modern Kirby's idea of a post-game.
But all the new stuff adds a bit! Magolor Epilogue is a very, very cool experiment, adding a River City Ransom-esque upgrade/progression system to Modern Kirby's beat-'em-up approach. It's the sort of thing I'd love to see done in the scope of a larger game, though the Magolor Epilogue itself is about the right size for what it's going for. Magolor himself gets a lot of fun characterization here through his upgrade screen commentary - I've never had the same no-holds-barred adoration for Mags many Japanese fans do, going by character popularity polls, but I'm starting to see it now.
Magolor Epilogue means the True Arena's been expanded, and quite a bit at that. An issue I have with Arenas after Super Star is that they feel so small in comparison - something I'll touch upon when I get around to a Super Star write-up - but this game's True Arena finally feels like a suitable match in scope, juxtaposing the EX fights with the Magolor Epilogue fights. Not to give too much away, but I was hoping to see the game experiment a bit more than the base game's surprise run-in with Galacta Knight, and I was pleased to see it did.
Merry Magoland is a terrific addition, too. Nostalgia's always been a huge part of Modern Kirby's identity, and this is an especially sweet manifestation of it, pulling mini-games from all across the series. I'm not completely on-board with all these picks - Crackity Hack over Megaton Punch makes sense from a representation standpoint (Amazing Mirror rep, 4-player's baked in) but I would've preferred to see the original, I would've pulled Air Grind from Nightmare in Dream Land over Bomb Rally - but it's a really fun compilation nonetheless. I'm particularly impressed they didn't chose to import Chop Champs or Star Slam Heroes from Star Allies - I would've enjoyed either of those here, too, but it goes to show how dedicated they were to reconstructing all these mini-games from the ground up. And every time I thought I'd caught Magoland in an arbitrarily restrictive decision I didn't like, I'd be proven wrong. Checkerboard Chase is slower than the original? That's just for kids to get comfortable with, you can unlock a version that's FASTER than the original. Samurai Kirby 100 only lets you play once a day? Nah, it only lets you RANK once a day, you can play as many times as you want. You can only clear a certain amount of missions per day? What are you talking about, the only other daily restriction is the Hidden Magolors, which get shuffled around.
It's small potatoes compared to everything else, but it bears mention - Kirby's spot dodge was backported from Triple Deluxe. Completely changes the mechanical flow of battles and allows the new fights to test Kirby with even more complicated patterns. It's at the cost of making certain fights, like Landia, even easier - but I don't feel too bad about that. Spot dodges require some mastery to use well, and they're my bread-and-butter for Modern Kirby anyway.
Return to Dream Land is a watershed game for the Kirby series, albeit one I don't get, or I at least don't feel what the Wii generation feels about it. Return to Dream Land Deluxe, I suspect, will not be that same watershed game for the Switch generation (after all, Star Allies and Forgotten Land are on the same hardware) - but I hope it is for some kids. There's sooooo much to do with friends and family, and much as I love Star Allies, this is a far more complete package. If I were 20 years younger, I might've spent years mastering this.
I do think most of my issues with base Return to Dream Land went unaddressed. This is understandable; most of my issues with RtDL (disposable level design, Super Abilities drawing too much focus from other design considerations, Extra Mode feeling pretty superfluous, etc) were pretty core to the game's identity, and to change them would make this an inaccurate remake. Still, it's weird to see (for example) Extra Mode feel even more superfluous to the experience of the game this time around, since Magolor Epilogue feels more in-line with Modern Kirby's idea of a post-game.
But all the new stuff adds a bit! Magolor Epilogue is a very, very cool experiment, adding a River City Ransom-esque upgrade/progression system to Modern Kirby's beat-'em-up approach. It's the sort of thing I'd love to see done in the scope of a larger game, though the Magolor Epilogue itself is about the right size for what it's going for. Magolor himself gets a lot of fun characterization here through his upgrade screen commentary - I've never had the same no-holds-barred adoration for Mags many Japanese fans do, going by character popularity polls, but I'm starting to see it now.
Magolor Epilogue means the True Arena's been expanded, and quite a bit at that. An issue I have with Arenas after Super Star is that they feel so small in comparison - something I'll touch upon when I get around to a Super Star write-up - but this game's True Arena finally feels like a suitable match in scope, juxtaposing the EX fights with the Magolor Epilogue fights. Not to give too much away, but I was hoping to see the game experiment a bit more than the base game's surprise run-in with Galacta Knight, and I was pleased to see it did.
Merry Magoland is a terrific addition, too. Nostalgia's always been a huge part of Modern Kirby's identity, and this is an especially sweet manifestation of it, pulling mini-games from all across the series. I'm not completely on-board with all these picks - Crackity Hack over Megaton Punch makes sense from a representation standpoint (Amazing Mirror rep, 4-player's baked in) but I would've preferred to see the original, I would've pulled Air Grind from Nightmare in Dream Land over Bomb Rally - but it's a really fun compilation nonetheless. I'm particularly impressed they didn't chose to import Chop Champs or Star Slam Heroes from Star Allies - I would've enjoyed either of those here, too, but it goes to show how dedicated they were to reconstructing all these mini-games from the ground up. And every time I thought I'd caught Magoland in an arbitrarily restrictive decision I didn't like, I'd be proven wrong. Checkerboard Chase is slower than the original? That's just for kids to get comfortable with, you can unlock a version that's FASTER than the original. Samurai Kirby 100 only lets you play once a day? Nah, it only lets you RANK once a day, you can play as many times as you want. You can only clear a certain amount of missions per day? What are you talking about, the only other daily restriction is the Hidden Magolors, which get shuffled around.
It's small potatoes compared to everything else, but it bears mention - Kirby's spot dodge was backported from Triple Deluxe. Completely changes the mechanical flow of battles and allows the new fights to test Kirby with even more complicated patterns. It's at the cost of making certain fights, like Landia, even easier - but I don't feel too bad about that. Spot dodges require some mastery to use well, and they're my bread-and-butter for Modern Kirby anyway.
Return to Dream Land is a watershed game for the Kirby series, albeit one I don't get, or I at least don't feel what the Wii generation feels about it. Return to Dream Land Deluxe, I suspect, will not be that same watershed game for the Switch generation (after all, Star Allies and Forgotten Land are on the same hardware) - but I hope it is for some kids. There's sooooo much to do with friends and family, and much as I love Star Allies, this is a far more complete package. If I were 20 years younger, I might've spent years mastering this.