Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe announced for Switch with February release date

Kirby has really received somewhat of an anniversary treatment this year with two game releases in quick succession. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a major entry in the series, but most recently, Kirby’s Dream Buffet – which sees you roll around as the lovable pink puff eating as many strawberries as you can to become the fattest version of the character in the race – made its debut on the Nintendo Switch.

Now, during the latest Nintendo Direct event, a surprise release for Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe got fans extremely excited. Normally, you’d have to own the game for the original Wii or emulate it to play through it, but now that it’s headed to the Switch, it will be more accessible!

If you snag a copy of it on release day, you’ll get all the same fun as the original plus some extra features that were added for this modern version. For example, a new Mecha Copy Ability turns Kirby into a Gundam or exoskeleton-style machine complete with blaster beams.

Most notably, this Switch edition will allow you to play alongside three of your other friends in local co-op mode, and everyone can choose to play as different color Kirbys too. Lastly, all of the original minigames are returning, like ‘Samurai Kirby’, and those too can be played with friends. A new minigame is also being added called ‘Magolor’s Tome Trackers’.

Nintendo has come under fire a lot in recent years for not making its back catalog of beloved titles available to players on its latest console. Does the release of Return to Dream Land Deluxe prove that the company is finally listening to fans, or that it merely that the retro game’s turn finally came up to be ported? Let me know in the comments what you think and if you’ll be picking it up when it launches on February 24, 2023. You can pre-order right now on the eShop.