Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Kirby: Return to Dream Land is a Kirby game for the Wii, to be released in Fall 2011. The title was previously announced under its official tentative name of Kirby Wii at E3 2011. Prior to that, it is simply known as Hoshi no Kaabii (Kirby of the Stars), which is the same title of Kirby's Dream Land (1992) for the Game Boy and the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! in Japan.

A Nintendo representative referred to the game as Kirby Returns to Dream Land instead of its showcase title of Kirby Wii at some point during Comic Con 2011 at San Diego from July 21 to 24. It was later confirmed that the title would be Kirby: Return to Dream Land, slightly differing from the previously revealed title.

Story
The game's trailer at E3 2011 reveals part of the introduction, and the rest are revealed at Comic Con.

King Dedede and Waddle Dee are chasing Kirby, who is holding a large piece of cake resembling his Strawberry Shortcake from Kirby: Squeak Squad. They run past Meta Knight, who is lounging and reading a book under the sun by a large piece of rock on a grassy knoll. Suddenly, the sky flashes brightly and a five-pointed star-shaped portal reminiscent of Dark Nebula opens in the sky, and a crystalline, galleon-shaped, futuristic airship with an unfamiliar insignia pops out, trailing smoke and spilling pieces of gears everywhere. Moments after, the ship falls apart - first two banks of oars, then wings at its aft, then its engines and a piece of its bow, and finally its top mast. What's left of the hull crashes nearby, and the four heroes run off to investigate (Kirby abandons his dropped cake).

They reach the crash site and find the ship's hull mostly intact. Then its door opens. Kirby peers intently inside.

The heroes wander into the ship's shiny interior and find themselves right inside the ship's cockpit, but it's in shambles after the crash. A lone alien lies on its side, unconscious in front of a large screen flashing a warning sign. The alien wakes up and immediately runs to the control panel, and a look of despair comes over him. The screen shows all 120 pieces of gears missing, and all five parts of the ship's hull had been scattered to the five corners of Pop Star.

Kirby offers to help, and the rest join in. The four heroes run off the ship while the alien stays behind on the ship to do repairs. What caused the ship to crash in the first place?

Abilities
The game introduces several new Copy Abilities, and the abilities now have powered-up versions called Super Abilities, which are acquired from inhaling large versions of enemies glowing with a starry aura. When used, the game is paused for everyone except Kirby, and the super abilities hit most parts of the screen. They can destroy parts of the environment marked with a certain star pattern which are otherwise indestructible. Super Abilities have an unlimited number of uses, but only last for a limited time, as indicated by a rainbow-colored bar with a star below Kirby.

Sword's Super version is called Ultra Sword, obtained from a glowing Blade Knight, and Fire's version is Monster Flame, obtained from a large Hot Head. These enemies leave behind the Ability Star even when defeated by players other than Kirby.

Each regular ability has multiple moves, similar to the versions in Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra. New copy abilities have been introduced alongside returning ones. Water appears to have been redesigned with a noticeably more pink Kirby rather than a translucent blue as depicted in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, and he surfs on his own waves as an attack. Whip Kirby is self-explanatory and performed a fast attack similar to Meta Knight's standard A move from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Leaf Kirby can encircle himself with leaves, conjure columns of leaves, and throw them as missiles, putting its role between Needle/Spark and Ninja. Stone Kirby now wears a rocky headdress similar to the one seen in GameCube footage rather than his old gear.

Kirby's discarded or lost Ability Stars have a unique coloration and icon for every ability, instead of its traditional appearance as a yellow, glowing star in all previous games. Stars of Super Abilities are larger than normal ones, but otherwise look the same. Statues similar to Copy Pedestals return, but now have the Ability Star within a glass bubble on them instead of the enemy giving the ability. Sword Kirby can still throw sword beams at full health.

Kirby's inhaling ability is more powerful than before, being able to inhale many more enemies at once and produce larger Star Spit. Shaking the Wii Remote while holding Button 1 makes Kirby perform his Super Inhale. He can inhale up to all three allies and use them as a projectile as well. The super inhale can now inhale Shotzos, but not Gordos or Whispy Woods' air puffs.

Multiplayer Co-op
Up to three additional players can join and leave at any time, controlling specific characters, but there is little indication that the characters can be controlled by the CPU at this point, which would mean that the Helper system seen in Kirby GCN has been scrapped.

Players 2, 3, or 4 can join an ongoing game at any time, but it costs a 1UP to do so, and all players share the same number of lives with Kirby. Player one always plays Kirby, but other players can play as Meta Knight, King Dedede, a spear-weilding Waddle Dee, or a different-colored Kirby. The selected character then appears right beside Kirby wherever he may be. Should player 1 lose all hitpoints, everyone has to restart the level from the start, but if players 2, 3, or 4 lose all hitpoints, they can reselect their character and beam right beside where Kirby was. Only player 1 can enter Doors to end the level. Should a player fall too far behind the others, the character beams to another like Helpers do in Kirby Super Star.

Food sharing by mouth-to-mouth food transfer has returned, and works the same as in Kirby Super Star, but now up to four players can share the same food.

Characters
Meta Knight, King Dedede and (Bandana) Waddle Dee are additional playable characters for the game's multiplayer mode. Their respective control schemes are not yet completely clear, though they wield their now-standard sword, hammer, and spear respectively, so Meta Knight and King Dedede's attack patterns and are very similar to Sword and Hammer's. Waddle Dee can jab from afar using the spear, throw it (he gets another), and perform his version of the charged attack, which is twirling the spear above his head like a helicopter blade, which also makes him hover at a set height. Alternately colored Kirbies à la Kirby and the Amazing Mirror are also available in multiplayer mode.

All characters are capable of some manner of flight; Kirby and King Dedede float, Meta Knight uses his cloak / wings to fly, and Waddle Dee hovers by using his charge attack. Characters can hold onto each other during flight, like Helpers do in Kirby Super Star when they run out of air jumps. Players can stack up on each other's backs when moving about, similar to footage seen in Kirby GCN, and this does not slow down movement. All characters are capable of swimming; when they do, Kirby, Meta Knight, and Waddle Dee don goggles underwater, and the goggles look like the version introduced to Kirby in Kirby Super Star.

Other features
Power-ups and items return. Kirby is seen jumping in a giant Kuribo's Shoe-esque boot with spiked heels, and holding a Fireworks Cannon while having separate Copy Abilities. There is a class of items best described as pick-ups. Kirby is seen holding a candle, which illuminates a dark room. There is a blue, crystal-like object that phases Kirby out and lets him go through certain walls, and keys, which unlock doors when thrown at them. These pick-ups need to be held over the player's head, which makes them incapable of doing anything other than moving unless it is dropped.

Obstacles in the game are highly similar to the ones in Kirby Super Star, with Ropes and platforms, Switches, and all the classic blocks. Collectible Point Stars and Food items make a return. There are different denominations of stars, similar to Kirby 64. Large, red stars are worth 10 regular stars, and every 100 stars give a 1UP.

Miniature starry voids are seen to warp Kirby to a space that is slowly being erased. Entering one causes Kirby to lose his current Copy Ability.

Controls
The game is played with the Wii remote held sideways, like in most parts of Kirby's Epic Yarn.

Ability list

 * Beam
 * Bomb
 * Cutter
 * Fire
 * Hammer (MAYBE, since King Dedede's moveset is based off the ability)
 * Ice
 * Leaf
 * Needle
 * Parasol
 * Sleep (probable, as Noddy is in the latest trailer)
 * Spark
 * Spear (MAYBE, since Waddle Dee's moveset is based off the supposed ability)
 * Stone
 * Sword
 * Tornado
 * Water
 * Whip
 * Ultra Sword
 * Monster Flame

Enemies

 * Babut
 * Blade Knight
 * Blipper (normal and big-sized)
 * Bouncy (normal and big-sized)
 * Bronto Burt
 * Broom Hatter
 * Cappy
 * Como (normal and big-sized)
 * Glunk
 * Gordo
 * Hothead
 * Kabu
 * Mumbies
 * Needlous
 * Nelly (or Nruff)
 * Pacto
 * Scarfy
 * Shotzo
 * Sparky
 * Squishy
 * Sword Knight
 * Twister
 * Waddle Dee
 * Waddle Doo
 * An unnamed tiger-like enemy that gives the Whip ability
 * An unnamed glowing knight enemy that gives the Ultra Sword ability
 * An unnamed Hothead-like enemy that gives the Monster Flame ability
 * Waddle Dees that hide under a large paper-mache Waddle Dee-like object
 * Blue Galbos that give the Water ability
 * Large green eels
 * Plant-like creatures that possibly gives the Leaf ability

Bosses

 * Whispy Woods
 * A unknown blue genie-like boss that uses bombs to attack
 * An unknown shadow bat-like boss

Development
There are similarities between Kirby: Return to Dreamland as announced at E3 2011, and Kirby GCN for the GameCube, which was announced six years ago at E3 2005 with a simple title - Kirby. There has been much discussion about whether Kirby: Return to Dreamland is a direct derivative of the GameCube title, although if that was indeed the case, there has been extensive changes to gameplay systems throughout its development period.

Information timeline

 * E3 2005 - The title Kirby was announced to be in development for the GameCube, along with beta gameplay footage in the trailer.


 * May 26, 2006 - IGN released an article stating a pending title labelled as 星の伝説 カービィ (Hoshi no Densetsu Kābī, meaning Kirby Legend of the Stars) based on a release list found on Nintendo Japan's corporate site.
 * September 14, 2006 - the title appeared on Nintendo Japan's website, on a list of upcoming games for the Wii in Japan.
 * December 2006 - Nintendo Power removed the previously-announced Kirby from the list of GameCube releases, but did not put the title onto the list of Wii releases.


 * E3 2007 - Two years after the announcement of Kirby, the title was not brought up in the initial presentation, but in an interview with a Nintendo representative, GoNintendo was reminded "not to forget about Kirby" (on the Wii) when asking about the abandoned Kirby for the GameCube.
 * December 2007 - In the "Ask Nintendo" section of the December 2007 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine, it was stated that a Kirby game for the Wii is not currently in development.

After all this fragmented and conflicting information, no further details about the game for one and a half years, so the game was presumed to have been cancelled for good.


 * July 31, 2009 - Nintendo included a vague Hoshi no Kābī in a list of expected 2009 releases in a press release.


 * January 29, 2010 - Hoshi no Kābī appears on a release list with a TBA (to be announced) release date.
 * May 7, 2010 - Nintendo confirms that the Kirby title was still in the making.
 * October, 2010 - After Kirby's Epic Yarn was released in 2010 for the Wii, this was thought to be the Wii that Nintendo was talking about, and the traditional Kirby project was presumed to have been cancelled.
 * January 28, 2011 - In Nintendo's investor briefing, the game was officially announced to be in development on the Wii, and was set to be released within the same year. Several seconds of video footage with a fixed sideways camera are shown.
 * E3 2011 - The game was given the official tentative title of Kirby Wii and was expected to be released in Fall 2011.
 * August 12, 2011 - The game's title is changed from Kirby Wii to Kirby: Return to Dreamland

At some point in 2011, Iwata himself (CEO and president of Nintendo) apologized for the long wait and promised a release date for the title on 10/4/2011.