Kirby’s Return to Dream Land

"Kirby's Adventure Wii" redirects here. For the re-release of Kirby's Adventure on the Wii Virtual Console, see Kirby's Adventure.

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Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Title (NTSC)

Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Title (PAL)

Kirby's Adventure Wii

Title (JP)

星のカービィ Wii (Hoshi no Kābī Wii)

- Translates to

Kirby of the Stars Wii
星のカービィ = Kirby of the Stars

Developer

HAL Laboratory

Publisher

Nintendo

Release

Wii

October 24, 2011^[1]

October 27, 2011

November 25, 2011^[2]
December 1, 2011
September 6, 2012

- Re-release(s)

Wii U Virtual Console

January 28, 2015

February 19, 2015

July 30, 2015

Genre

Action, 2D Platformer

Mode(s)

Single player, 4-player co-op

Rating

MSRP (launch)

$49.99^[3]

Platform(s)

Wii

“

When a mysterious traveler crash-landed on Planet Popstar, Kirby and his friends rushed to his aid, and an amazing adventure began! This game featured extra-powerful Copy Abilities called Super Abilities, which gave Kirby incredible new attacks. Kirby's inhale ability also got powered up in this game. Additional player could join and leave the game at will. Moves like Piggyback and Team Attack let players help each other through tough spots. This game also included minigames that could be unlocked as the story progressed.”

— Summary • Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition

Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Kirby's Adventure Wii in PAL regions) is a platformer Kirby game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released in North America on October 24, 2011, on October 27, 2011 in Japan, on December 1, 2011 in Australia and on September 6, 2012 in South Korea.

This game was also re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan on January 28, 2015 and North America on July 30, 2015.

Story

KWii Alien — Kirby and co. with Magolor inside the Lor Starcutter

On another peaceful day in Dream Land, Kirby is holding a Strawberry Shortcake while being chased by King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee. The three of them run past Meta Knight, who is sitting on top of a small hill, reading a book as he slightly glances over at them. Just then, a bright light shines in the sky and catches the attention of Meta Knight before he could continue reading. It also catches the attention of Kirby, who stops in his tracks as King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee bump into him before looking into the sky as well, causing Kirby to drop his cake. As the four look on, a dimensional rift opens, and a ship named the Lor Starcutter emerges from it and begins to plummet from the sky. In the process, it loses all 120 of its Energy Spheres, its oars, its wings, its emblem, and its mast, which scatter throughout Dream Land. The heroes chase down the wrecked ship, as it crashes right into the ground.

The four of them eventually reach the crash site and find the ship's hull mostly intact. Immediately after they arrive, the ship’s door opens, as Kirby then peers inside. The four wander into the ship, looking all around its interior. They find an alien named Magolor lying unconsciously on the floor, right before he jolts up in a shock. He makes his way to the control panel and checks the status of his ship, only to see that it is beyond repair, as its Energy Spheres and its five major parts are long gone. Magolor looks down in despair, but Kirby runs to his side and reassures him by offering his help. The other three then do the same. Magolor shakes Kirby’s hands and nods in thanks, and shows them the locations of the five parts, starting with the oars. The heroes exit the ship and run off to Cookie Country in order to retrieve the oars, as Magolor waves goodbye and stays behind to tend to the ship.

Kirby and company venture throughout Dream Land, searching for the parts to reconstruct the Lor Starcutter piece by piece. After each part they find, they head back to the Lor Starcutter and reattach the respective part to the ship, and then head inside to check in with Magolor. After getting the final part from the Grand Doomer in Nutty Noon, the Lor Starcutter is repaired at last. Magolor, ecstatic that his ship is back together again, decides to take the heroes on a trip to his home planet, Halcandra, as thanks. And so, with a simple press of a button, the Lor Starcutter rises from the ground and opens another dimensional rift, as it then flies through it towards Halcandra.

As the Lor Starcutter enters Halcandra’s atmosphere, Landia, a four-headed dragon, notices the ship, and proceeds to blast it out of the sky, causing it to crash once again. The heroes and Magolor lay unconscious on the floor after the crash. Magolor wakes up and checks the control panel to see what had attacked. The screen shows that Landia was the one who attacked, and showcases his immense power scale and danger level. Sometime after the heroes wake up and look at the screen as well, Magolor once again looks down in despair. However, Kirby and friends reassure him once more, offering to defeat Landia for him. Magolor proceeds to thank them again, and the heroes then set off on their quest to defeat Landia.

KRtDL end4 — Magolor with the Master Crown

The four venture through the hostile Halcandran lands and encounter Landia at the pinnacle of the volcano in Dangerous Dinner. The quartet fight the dragon and manage to defeat it, and as the four dragons lay unconscious, the Master Crown detaches from one’s head. As the heroes celebrate in victory, Magolor slowly descends from the sky, applauding their victory. He then snatches the Master Crown off the ground, and places it onto his head, with its power causing him to transform into a menacing wizard. The four heroes look at him in shock, as Magolor proceeds to explain his true motivations all along. He had previously attempted to steal the Master Crown from Landia with the Lor Starcutter, but the ship was no match for the dragon. As a result, Magolor had to flee to Planet Popstar, and that was what caused the ship to lose all its parts. He then reveals that he tricked the heroes into defeating Landia for him so he can get his hands on the Master Crown. Magolor then sets off through a dimensional rift to conquer the universe, starting with Planet Popstar.

The heroes stand there, still processing what had just happened. One of the Landias then marches up towards Kirby and hurls him onto his back. The dragon nods, recognizing their battle as a misunderstanding and signaling that it wasn’t their fault. The other three hop onto the other dragons, as they fly into the dimensional rift to thwart Magolor’s plans.

The heroes brave all manner of Doomers and hazards inhabiting Another Dimension before finally catching up to Magolor in transit. Magolor then opens a dimensional rift and summons the Lor Starcutter, and with it under his control, he uses its various parts to attack them. However, the heroes shoot down the ship, and Magolor attempts to flee. The heroes quickly catch up before Magolor fires two dark orbs of energy at them, but Meta Knight bats them aside with his sword. Magolor generates two larger orbs that split into multiple as he fires them, shooting down each hero and their respective dragon one by one. The heroes fall to an unknown planetoid, and there they confront Magolor, who had arrived there to finish them off once and for all. The five duke it out in a grueling battle, but the heroes come out on top after Kirby slashes Magolor multiple times with the Ultra Sword. Immediately after Magolor’s defeat, the Master Crown takes control of his body and transforms him into a manifestation of itself. Magolor, now under the crown’s control, battles the heroes once again. Nonetheless, he is defeated by their efforts. Magolor returns to his normal form, as the Master Crown shatters, with Magolor vanishing in a shaft of light, going to "the dimension between time and space."^[4]

KRtDL end1 — Another Dimension breaking up

After Magolor’s defeat, the ground begins to shake as the entirety of Another Dimension begins to collapse. The dimensional rift to Planet Popstar begins to close as the ground lights up before collapsing as well. Before the heroes could be lost in the collapsing dimension forever, Landia and the Lor Starcutter return to rescue them. The dragons each pick up a hero as they struggle in the air. After Kirby wakes up, the Lor Starcutter reopens the dimensional rift to Planet Popstar, and they all fly through it.

KRtDL end3 — Landia and the Lor Starcutter depart

After the whole incident, Kirby is woken up by a butterfly and sees that he is back in Dream Land. He looks to his sides to find Bandana Waddle Dee and Meta Knight getting up as well. The three of them look over at King Dedede, who has his head stuck in the ground. As he finally pulls it out, a flower rests on his head, with a butterfly landing on it, causing Kirby to smile and Bandana Waddle Dee and Meta Knight to laugh. The former two walk over to Dedede, when the four of them then notice Landia and the Lor Starcutter fly overhead. The Lor Starcutter opens a dimensional rift and it and the dragons fly through it, with the heroes waving farewell.

Gameplay

Kirby's Return to Dream Land is a traditional platformer Kirby game; the player controls Kirby, whose objective is to get to the end of each stage by using Copy Abilities. The game is a 2.5D platformer, and characters move on a two-dimensional plane in a 3D environment. The game's camera moves around to show different angles in some stages, similarly to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

KWii Ultra Sword — Ultra Sword, a Super Ability

Alongside four new Copy Abilities, the game introduces a set of five powered-up Copy Abilities called Super Abilities, which are acquired from inhaling large versions of enemies glowing with a starry aura. All the Super Abilities have no limit on the number of times used, but they only last for a limited time, as indicated by a rainbow-colored meter below Kirby. They can destroy parts of the environment marked with a certain star pattern which are otherwise indestructible. The main objective of doing so is to reveal a portal to unstable dimensional space perpetually erasing itself, in order to retrieve additional Energy Spheres, but entering one of these will cause Kirby to lose his current ability.

Each regular ability is given 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 is noticeably different from the one depicted in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, giving Kirby a set of long-range and hovering moves. Whip Kirby can fly for a short while, and can grab items through walls. Leaf Kirby has area and missile attacks and a unique guard move, Spear is a longer-ranged version of Sword with an additional hover move, and can also be used underwater, and Stone Kirby now wears a rocky headdress similar to the one seen in the Kirby GCN footage rather than his old gear.

Kirby's discarded or lost Ability Stars have a unique coloration and icon for every ability, replacing the traditional appearance of a yellow, glowing star in all previous games. Stars of Super Abilities are larger than normal ones and have more pointed corners. 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.

Kirby's moveset includes the inhale, Star Spit, Slide attack, air bullet, floating, and guarding. In addition to these abilities, Kirby is now able to climb grates and carry some objects underwater. Kirby's inhale is more powerful than before, as he is now able to inhale many more objects and enemies at once and produce a larger Star Spit that can go through things like Star Blocks and enemies. Shaking the Wii Remote or pressing the +Control Pad buttons repeatedly while holding the 1 Button (the inhale button) makes Kirby perform his Super Inhale, which allows him to inhale stone blocks or larger enemies with ease. He can inhale up to all three allies and use them as a projectile as well.

Energy Spheres serve as the game's main collectable. Every 20 Energy Spheres will unlock a new Copy Ability Room.

Modes

Main Games

Sub-games

Challenge stages are unlocked by collecting a set number of Energy Spheres. Players are awarded medals (bronze, silver, gold, or platinum) depending on their performance.

Ninja Dojo
Scope Shot
Challenge
- Sword Challenge
- Whip Challenge
- Hi-Jump Challenge
- Water Challenge
- Bomb Challenge
- Wing Challenge
- Item Challenge

Controls

The game is played with the Wii Remote held sideways.

Control	Move
Control Pad	Move
A Button	Guard
1 Button	Inhale
1 Button + shake Wii Remote/mash +Control Pad	Super Inhale
2 Button	Jump/Float
(-) Button	Discard Copy Ability
Start Button (player 2, 3, 4)	Join game

Characters

Playable Characters

Aside from Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee, and multicolored Kirbys are additional playable characters for the game's multiplayer mode, and in The Arena. Meta Knight's moveset is based off of Sword with some of Wing's moves. Dedede's moveset is similar to Hammer, but he is able to use Hammer Throw without losing the ability. Waddle Dee's attacks are the same as Spear's and is able to jab repeatedly, throw spears, and hover by using his spear like a helicopter blade. Should more than one player wish to play as Kirby, palette-swapped Kirbys are also available.

All characters are capable of some manner of flight; Kirby and King Dedede float, Meta Knight uses his wings to fly, and Waddle Dee is able to do multiple jumps. Characters can hold onto each other during flight, like Helpers do in Kirby Super Star when they run out of air jumps. All characters are capable of swimming; when they do, Kirby, Meta Knight, and Waddle Dee don goggles underwater that look like the version introduced to Kirby in Kirby Super Star. King Dedede also receives a pair of goggles, but they're designed differently and only cover his eyes. If a player goes to the surface of the water, the player will have a floaty.

Players can stack up on each other's backs when moving about, similar to the footage seen in Kirby GCN, and this does not slow down movement. By doing so, the four players can use a special attack. By holding and simultaneously releasing the A button, they can release a powerful attack that is unique to the character at the bottom of the stack. Kirby shoots out a giant blast of air, Meta Knight releases a giant Sword Beam, King Dedede smashes the ground, unleashing a giant shock wave (similar to Kirby's Grand Hammer), and Waddle Dee can launch multiple spear-shaped beams in multiple directions while performing his Multi-spear Attack.

Multiplayer Co-op

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. The other players can play as Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee, or a different-colored Kirby. Kirbys are the only ones who can copy abilities, while the other three characters each have the moveset of a different Copy Ability (Meta Knight has Sword and Wing; King Dedede has Hammer; and Bandana Waddle Dee has Spear). If Kirby has a Super Ability, Kirby can hit his teammates, causing them to flinch. When playing in multiplayer, Kirbys can inhale other Kirbys and steal their Copy Abilities.

If there are no more 1UPs left, the new player enters with a quarter of his/her health full.^[5] The selected character then appears right beside Kirby wherever he may be. If a player quits at any time, Player 1 does not gain a 1UP back unless they do so with full health. If Player 1 loses all of his/her HP, everyone has to restart the level at the last checkpoint, but if the same thing happens to Players 2, 3, or 4, they can simply reselect the desired character and beam right beside where Kirby was.

Should a player fall too far behind the others, the character beams back to Player 1 like Helpers do in Kirby Super Star. They can also go back to Player 1 by holding the A and B buttons at the same time. 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.

Enemies

Regular enemies

The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help)

Mid-bosses

Bosses

Copy Abilities

Kirby's Return to Dream Land contains 23 standard Copy Abilities, four of which are new.

Beam	Bomb	Crash	Cutter
Fighter	Fire	Hammer	Hi-Jump
Ice	Leaf	Mike	Needle
Ninja	Parasol	Sleep	Spark
Spear	Stone	Sword	Tornado
Water	Whip	Wing

Super Abilities

Five Super Abilities are introduced in Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Sword's Super version is called Ultra Sword, obtained from a glowing Blade Knight; Fire's version is Monster Flame, obtained from a Super Hot Head; Beam's version is called Flare Beam, obtained from a Super Waddle Doo; Hammer's version is called Grand Hammer, obtained from a Super Bonkers; and Ice's version is called Snow Bowl, obtained from a Super Chilly. These enemies leave behind the Ability Star even when defeated by players other than Kirby, and these ability stars persist indefinitely.

Flare Beam	Grand Hammer	Monster Flame	Snow Bowl	Ultra Sword

Items and Objects

KWii ss7 — Sword Kirby using Stomper Boot

Items introduced in Kirby's Return to Dream Land include the Stomper Boot, the Invisibility Stone, a fireworks-shooting Cracker, the French horn-like Prism Shield, the Candle, the Balloon Bomb, as well as Keys that unlock doors. These pick-ups need to be held over the player's head, which makes them incapable of doing anything other than moving, jumping, and slide kicking unless it is dropped or used.

Obstacles in the game are reminiscent of 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: The Crystal Shards. Large, red stars are worth 10 regular stars, giant blue stars are worth 30 regular stars, and every 100 stars give a 1UP.

Levels

Development

See also: Kirby GCN

The game has had an extended development cycle of 11 years. It was initially designed for the GameCube to be released soon after Kirby Air Ride. Its concept of a 3D platformer like Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards went through three major iterations before all the ideas were coalesced into the game for the Wii.^[6]

Information timeline

Maboroshi01 — The first iteration - what became known as *Kirby GCN*

E3 2005 - The title Kirby was announced to be in development for the GameCube, along with in-development 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.^[7]
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 reworked and changed. Many elements from the game's trailer were used for Kirby's Return to Dream Land.^[8]

July 31, 2009 - Nintendo included a vague Hoshi no Kābī in a list of expected 2009 releases in a press release.^[9]
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.^[10]^[11]
October, 2010 - After Kirby's Epic Yarn was released in 2010 for the Wii, this was thought to be the Wii game 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.^[12] 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 23, 2011 - The North American localization's title is finalized as Kirby's Return to Dream Land^[1]

Music

Main article: Kirby's Return to Dream Land/Music

The official soundtrack is currently only available in Japan via Club Nintendo.

Glitches

Main article: Glitch#Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Reception

Kirby's Return to Dream Land received positive reviews, holding a rating of 80.50% on Game Rankings based on 34 reviews.^[13]

Transcript

Main article: Kirby's Return to Dream Land/Transcript

Staff

Main article: List of Kirby's Return to Dream Land Staff

Related Quotes

“	He looks almost as cute as Kirby himself, lazily floating in the air... but you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. If you try to inhale him, Scarfy will instantly turn into a terrifying, one-eye monster before ruthlessly chasing you down and exploding! In Return to Dream Land, some kinds of Scarfy only chase you if you're holding a key.”
	— Scarfy trophy description • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

“	Making his debut in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the Moonja enemy looks about as ninja as you can get. If you copy its ability, Kirby can become a master of the ninja arts! With a variety of useful skills like Knife Throw and Blossom Storm, you might want to remain a ninja forever!”
	— Ninja Kirby trophy description • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

“	With a theme song called "The Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy," you know this guy is serious business. Meta Knight does battle with him in Kirby Super Star Ultra. Also, he shows up in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where he is the 13th boss you'll face in The True Arena.”
	— Galacta Knight trophy description • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Trivia

KRtDL Super Cutter hat — The unused Super Cutter ability hat

The game's title was previously announced under the tentative name Kirby Wii at E3 2011. Prior to that, it was simply known as Hoshi no Kābī (Kirby of the Stars),^[12] which is the same title of Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy and the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! in Japan. This isn't far off from the final Japanese title, which is simply Hoshi no Kābī Wii.
This is Kirby's first title to be rated E10+ (for mild cartoon violence) rather than the usual E in the United States.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land was released in Japan three days after its release in North America; this was unusual as the vast majority of Kirby titles are released in Japan first.
The first letter of all levels except Another Dimension, in order of appearance, spell the word "CROWNED," foreshadowing Magolor's claiming of the Master Crown, and, in the game, "C-R-O-W-N-E-D" is the name of the music theme that plays during the battle with the game’s final boss, Magolor Soul.
- The French names of the levels instead spell "PARFAIT"—which translates to "perfect" in French. In the Spanish American version, the level names spell "CORONAR"—which translates to "to crown" in Spanish.
- This trait of having the first letters of each word form an acronym was present in past Kirby titles (Kirby's Adventure and Kirby: Canvas Curse) and was carried over to future Kirby titles (Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot).
The Disc Menu music is a short remix of the title music from Kirby's Dream Land.
This is the first game to give Mike and Crash Copy Essences.
The Stomper Boot item is similar to Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3.

Unused clock — Model of the Copy Essence for the unused ability

Inspecting the game files reveals models, images and movements for Super Cutter Kirby, which went unused in the released game. The prospective "Super Kibble" enemy that would have granted Kirby this ability is not found in the game's files, suggesting an early omission.
- There is also a mysterious normal and super "clock" icon, which may have been either a placeholder or time/space-based ability. Some testing indicates that this clock might have been an ability to turn Kirby back to normal, although the purpose of doing so is unknown.
- Although only one piece of this ability is in the game's files, there was a Super Spark ability planned to be in the game as well, although only its ability star remains. Interestingly, the star is colored green instead of teal, similar to the Plasma ability. This may suggest that Spark was originally intended to be replaced with Plasma.

There is one known enemy that was cut from the final game: Hearbell, a flower-like object that latches onto or possibly eats Kirby (or the other characters) in a similar fashion to Pacto.
Once the player completes Extra Mode with 100%, the main menu music changes, with a remixed portion of Vegetable Valley's music from Kirby's Adventure.
The gradient (yellow to white) on the words Return to Dream Land looks similar to the gradient on Kirby's Dream Land, possibly as a throwback to the series' first game.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land takes up 1 block of Wii memory.
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby's Epic Yarn share very similar Wii memory icons.
If the player shakes the Wii Remote right before the opening video plays, a different colored Kirby will appear during the opening cinematic and on the title screen.
The Halcandra mid-boss theme is a remix of the boss theme from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
With the exceptions of Bonkers, Super Bonkers, and Dubior, all the mid-bosses in this game appear to be stronger versions of regular enemies.
- These are:
- Gigant Edge to Blade Knight
- King Doo to Waddle Doo
- Kibble Blade to Sir Kibble
- Moundo to Rocky
- Water Galboros to Water Galbo

KirbysReturnPuzzle — The *Kirby's Return to Dream Land* puzzle panel

The StreetPass Mii Plaza game Puzzle Swap contains a puzzle panel based on Kirby's Return to Dream Land. When completed, it plays an animation of Kirby running along a green path as Bandana Waddle Dee, Meta Knight, and King Dedede jump onto his back, in turn. Then, the Lor Starcutter appears and Magolor flies out, appears to chuckle to himself, and jumps on top of the stack and knocks everyone off of Kirby's back. The animation then loops.
There are Pop Flowers that bloom and grant a star or food upon being passed over. The color a flower becomes is determined by the character who passes it first. Kirby, Yellow Kirby, Blue Kirby, and Green Kirby turn flowers pink, yellow, blue, and green, respectively; Meta Knight turns flowers purple, King Dedede makes them red, and Bandana Waddle Dee makes them orange.
Red Kirby, which commonly occupies the Player 3 slot, is strangely absent from the game, instead replaced by Blue Kirby.
Early in Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s development, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata instructed the development team to make the game single-player. The developers, however, felt a strong desire to include multiplayer in the game--so much so that they secretly made an agreement with HAL Laboratory to eventually shift focus to making Kirby's Return to Dream Land a 4-player game.^[14]
Kirby's Return to Dream Land consists of approximately 280 rooms (excluding those in special modes).
In the Music Room in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby's Return to Dream Land is represented by an image of the Lor Starcutter.
During development, the creative team considered calling the game Kirby Wii: Super Friends, in reference to the game's Super Abilities and 4-player co-op.^[15]
Since its release, this game's characters, locations, and/or music have been referenced at least once in every following Kirby game except Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn.
Notes from the ESRB suggest that the Scope Shot sub-game is partially responsible for Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s E10+ rating, in addition to the series's usual cartoon violence. An excerpt reads: "In one mini-game, players assume a third-person perspective to fire pellet guns at an oversized tank and passing blimps—the sequence is accompanied by constant projectile fire and realistic explosions."^[16]