The newest Wii game featuring Kirby, a pink blob who can copy abilities from his enemies, can be played with up to four players.

When a mysterious ship from a different dimension crashes on Kirby’s planet Popstar, five pieces break off and scatter over the world. Magolor, the ship’s only passenger, cannot return to his home dimension without the missing pieces, so naturally, Kirby and his friends Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee offer to help.

On planet Popstar, you have to travel through five different areas, each containing at least four levels, before you can collect all the pieces. At first, the game seems fairly easy, but it gets harder and harder, and things get even more interesting when Magolor takes you back to his home world.

It’s really fun to be able to play with so many characters. Player one is always Kirby, because some parts would be impossible without him. The other players can choose between Meta Knight, King Dededee, Waddle Dee, and different color Kirbys. When you’re a Kirby, you can swallow enemies to gain their abilities, or swallow blocks to spit at people. When you’re another character, you constantly have an ability, but you can’t change it.

Some things that make the game interesting are the different enemies you can swallow. You can gain any ability from fire to ice, including rock, ninja, and sword. Each ability allows you to do different things, and enter secret areas. For instance, with the water ability you can surf on lava to reach a secret door. Many levels have giant enemies that you need to defeat in order to continue.

Also, some levels have super enemies you can swallow, that give you incredible power! Using these powers, you can smash you way through a level, and even unlock a door to another dimension.

There are also energy spheres to collect in every level. Finding enough lets you unlock bonus challenges and mini games that can be played with 1-4 players. They are a nice break from the story, without being out of place.

The music is traditional Kirby music, and according to my brother is one of the best parts of the game.

I only have a few criticisms of the game, one of them being that both Kirby and King Dedede are very slow when they fly, which can be annoying. Also, I think that player one is made too much more important that the other players. For instance, if players 2-4 lose all their health, they can rejoin the game in a few seconds. However, if player one runs out of health, the whole level needs to be restarted.

Overall, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is a fun game. At first it seemed easy, and looked like it would be over soon, but many levels later I found myself battling a huge four headed dragon, hurtling through an inter-dimensional area, and saving much of the known world. It’s nice to be able to play with so many characters.  I would recommend this game to almost anyone. And so would my brother.

Rating 9/10