Kirby’s new Switch remaster runs in circles

polygon.com:

In the third world of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, a coral-filled ocean with crystal-clear water, I noticed an animation I hadn’t seen before. When I pressed B, Kirby exhaled a bubble that could break blocks or hit enemies. It was cute, almost as cute as the little life preserver Kirby wears when floating on top of the water. But eventually I realized that what seemed like a new action was actually just a tweak to underwater combat, which had previously made me feel vulnerable, to align with how Kirby acted on land. Though it at first appeared to be an evolution, it was just a rearrangement of the set dressing.

Both functionally and aesthetically, this bubble is a good metaphor for the time I spent with Return to Dream Land Deluxe: charming, even delightful, but ultimately a bit unsubstantial.

Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a Nintendo Switch remaster of the 2011 Return to Dream Land for Wii, with several new features, including a harder endgame mode and a theme park with a large collection of minigames. After agreeing to help an interdimensional traveler who’s crash-landed on your planet, you guide Kirby through side-scrolling levels and absorb enemies to copy their abilities: Sword and Beam have become ubiquitous in the series, but there are also two new ones, Sand and Mecha (the latter turns you into a hovering robot complete with orange safety goggles). Deluxe also emphasizes multiplayer, allowing four friends to jump across Planet Popstar together.

The Kirby series tends to vacillate between classic and experimental. Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the crafts-themed Wii game that came out just a year before the original Return to Dream Land, is an example of the latter. Perhaps it’s inevitable that I mentally compared