Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krtdl_us_box.png
Hardcore once more!
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe 

Kirby's Return to Dream Land (also known as Hoshi no Kirby Wii in Japanese, Kirby's Adventure Wii in European languages, and Byeol-ui Kirby Wii in Korean) is a game in the Kirby series for the Wii, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The end result of 11 years of development, this game is the fourth attempt to make a home console Kirby title since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards; the first attempt was famously shown off as a Nintendo GameCube title at E3 2005.

One day, while Kirby and his friends King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee are enjoying a sunny day in Dream Land, a star-shaped portal opens in the sky, from which a spaceship called the Lor Starcutter emerges. When it crash-lands nearby, Kirby and friends enter the ship and meet its captain, a friendly blue alien named Magolor. Seeing Magolor's distress over the wreck, Kirby selflessly volunteers to recover the Lor's five missing parts and 120 missing Energy Spheres, and in return, Magolor promises to take the four to visit his home world once his ship is in working order.

Compared to the experimental approach of the series throughout the 2000s — a knock-on effect of series creator Masahiro Sakurai's 2003 departure from HAL — Return to Dream Land offers a modernized take on the gameplay style of Kirby Super Star, with far more action-oriented gameplay marked by a return to wide movesets for copy abilities. Additionally, four new copy abilities are introduced (Water, Whip, Leaf, and Spear), as are Super Abilities, enhanced versions of various powers which can each use decisive attacks that open rifts to Another Dimension. At the same time, however, the game also maintains the puzzle-solving elements and storytelling style of games like Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64, more cleanly consolidating them with the aforementioned action-oriented approach. This gameplay style would set the definitive standard for later entries in the series. The game additionally features co-op multiplayer, with other players being able to select between King Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandana Waddle Dee, or a palette swapped Kirby.

The game was released in North America on October 24, 2011, Japan on October 27, 2011, Europe on November 25, 2011, Australia on December 2, 2011, and South Korea on September 6, 2012.

A Video Game Remake, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, was announced during the September 2022 Nintendo Direct and released on the Nintendo Switch on February 24, 2023. In addition to featuring a visual overhaul (and Dedede's Kirby and the Forgotten Land redesign), the remake adds a breadth of new content, including new and returning Copy Abilities such as Mecha, Sand and Festival, plus two new modes:

  • "Merry Magoland", an amusement park built by Magolor where players can enjoy an enhanced library of subgames, including two new games and remade subgames from past Kirby games, which include "Egg Catcher", "Bomb Rally", "Samurai Kirby", "Kirby on the Draw", "Crackity Hack", "Smash Ride", and "Checkerboard Chase".
  • "Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler", a new post-game episode in which Magolor is trapped in a strange dimension and must recover five Fruit Fragments to escape. But since Magolor lost all his powers, he will have to slowly regain them through Magic Points, which are found in each stage and by building up combos defeating enemies.

The Wii version also has a more difficult Game Mod developed by a dedicated fan, Kirby: Revenge of Dream Land, which was released on October 31st, 2021.


Kirby's Return to Dream Land, as well as the Video Game Remake Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, contain examples of:

  • 100% Completion: Collecting all 120 Energy Spheres and clearing all of the challenge stages with a bronze medal or higher is required to get 100%. Extra Mode is unlocked when the main game is cleared with at least 70% completion, and its completion percentage is tracked separately — becoming a "Kirby Master" entails beating both modes 100% and clearing the two Arenas as well. In Deluxe, finishing all stages of Magolor Epilogue (including one that only unlocks if you have a gold medal on every other stage) and clearing 100 Merry Magoland missions is also required.
  • 2½D: The first game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards to contain 2D gameplay among 3D graphics. Unlike in Kirby 64, however, there are no bends or curves in Kirby's path.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Similar to Meta Knightmare and Dededetour! from past games, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe introduces an unlockable campaign called Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler that focuses on Magolor restoring his powers and escaping the realm between dimensions. Unlike the aforementioned Meta Knightmare and Dededetour! that function more like alternative "What if?" scenarios, the purpose of Magolor's campaign is to explain how he survived being defeated by Kirby and company in the main story, and ends up directly tying into the canon of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: The Festival Copy Ability and corresponding Don Puffle enemy appear in the Deluxe remake, despite not debuting until Star Allies.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The Deluxe version adds pause screen lore to bosses that didn't get any Flavor Text in the original game, including the series' perennial Butt-Monkey, Whispy Woods.
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: The Another Dimension platforming areas have you outrunning what seems to be a black hole. The wall itself doesn't actually hurt you, and you can even push it back by hitting it with Star Bullets, but it's a One-Hit KO if you get caught between it and another wall.
  • Alliterative Name:
    • The names for all the levels but the last one, Another Dimension, are composed of an adjective and a noun that start with the same letter.
    • This game is notable for standardizing PopStar/Pop Star as "Planet Popstar".
  • All the Worlds Are a Stage: The secret Extra Stage in Magolor Epilogue sees Magolor going through every dimensional rift Kirby unlocked with his Super Abilities, from Cookie Country all the way up to Dangerous Dinner.
  • Alternate World Map: Halcandra, Magolor's home planet becomes accessible after you assemble all of his ship parts.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: You fight the Doomers and the final boss, Magolor, in a different dimension where the floor is neon-coloured and the background is a blue space. Likely due to the sheer ferocity of the latter, the players are given a spinning marker on the ground to tell where the floor is. The fight with Magolor Soul in the remake's True Arena is even more ominous, now being dark red and purple with a light blue orb in the background that resembles Void Termina's core.
  • Alternate Continuity: Merry Magoland takes place in "a different world in a different time", explaining how it can reference games released after Return to Dream Land and why Manager Magolor is fully reformed.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: After a brief break in the trend with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Star Ultra, and Epic Yarn, Kirby once again dons angry eyebrows and is wielding the Ultra Sword on the North American box art, unlike the Japanese, European, Australian and Korean box art. Averted for the Deluxe release, which depicts Kirby with a happy face for all regional box arts.
  • And I Must Scream: It is heavily implied that Magolor is no longer in control of his body once he puts on the Master Crown. Deluxe not only outright confirms this, with various lines of text indicating that the Master Crown eats the souls of its owners and Magolor begging for Kirby's help in the True Arena version of the Magolor Soul fight, but the background music for the True Arena Magolor Soul fight is punctuated by Magolor constantly crying for help.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Deluxe has dress-up masks that can be unlocked through playing sub-games in Merry Magoland, which carry over into the main game. These, for the most part, serve no purpose outside of changing your appearance and some can play unique voice clips.
  • Another Dimension: The portal that Kirby opens with a Super Ability leads to that place where you fight the Sphere Doomers for Energy Spheres, and later, Magolor after defeating Landia. It's literally named "Another Dimension". Magolor's homeworld of Halcandra is also situated in a different dimension to Planet Popstar.
  • Antepiece: A later version of the portal bonus levels starts with the Advancing Wall of Doom boxing you into a narrow area with a single enemy and nearly no time to escape, prodding you into discovering that you can push the wall back by spitting a star at it.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Dying during Sequential Boss battles (Magolor and Metal General EX / HR-D3) will start you off at the last phase you got to, rather than going back to the first phase.
    • After defeating Magolor's first form, which requires you to drop your ability to use Super Abilities, his second form will juggle a bunch of smaller enemies he'll throw at you. The first enemy he throws will always correspond to the ability you had before you had to ditch it. If you had Hammer, which doesn't have any enemies tied to it, he'll throw a hammer instead; if you didn't have an ability, he'll toss out a Halcandle Dee.
    • In Deluxe's True Arena, you'll be given an apple to restore some health before Magolor Soul's surprise second phase, a much needed Heroic Second Wind after surviving not only the original bosses but the additional Magolor Epilogue ones as well.
    • In Deluxe, playing the minigames inside of the Lor Starcutter instead of Merry Magoland will give you Stamp Tickets equivalent of your efforts so you don't miss out on stamps.
    • Before unlocking the Merry Magoland True Extra Missions in Deluxe, the game counts your stats if you've already fulfilled a mission's requirement, so you'll be immediately awarded the respective mission stamp so you don't need to do it again.
    • Touching a downed miniboss after depleting its health (which may likely happen in the Magolor Epilogue while you're whaling on it for extra combo points) won't count as a damaging hit, which is useful in Magolor's case so you don't accidentally end your combo.
  • Anti-Villain: Landia. The only reason for why he shot down the Lor Starcutter when it entered Halcandra and attacked Kirby and his friends was to stop them from giving the Master Crown to Magolor and allowing him to take over the universe.
  • Arc Welding: Magolor Epilogue serves as a Stealth Prequel to Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash, revealing how Magolor obtained the very first Gem Apple and ultimately wound up in Dream Kingdom.
  • Art Evolution: In Deluxe:
    • The entire game has strong outlines applied to the character models, making the game look closer to a storybook setting, though the lighting and backgrounds are the same HD standard seen in Kirby Star Allies and Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
    • Dedede's design in the remake has been changed to his redesign from Kirby and the Forgotten Land, now with his original hammer, colors and robe rather than his Beast Pack attire.
    • Likewise, Meta Knight's design in the remake was changed to that of Planet Robobot onward, with his mask being somewhat bigger, mitten gauntlets atop his gloved hands, his cape and pauldrons more detailed (ala his Super Smash Bros. counterpart), and his feet being armored sabatons rather than plain purple stubs like the original.
    • Bandana Waddle Dee, while having virtually no changes design-wise, looks closer to how he does in Forgotten Land than in the original game, has the orange ribbon around his spear from Kirby Fighters 2 (it was red originally), and now utters his high-pitched warbling sounds from Kirby Battle Royale instead of having no voice clips like he did previously.
    • A few of the enemies in the game, such as Poppy Bros. Jr. and Walf, now match their modern appearances note 
    • Landia reuses his model from Super Kirby Clash; as such, he now has fully-modeled teeth instead of them being flat textures on the inside of his mouth. Landia EX also has a more elaborate crown, which was a detail introduced in the Kirby Clash series.
  • The Artifact: In Deluxe, the message upon unlocking the Jukebox still mentions listening to sound effects, which are not present in the Jukebox in Deluxe, unlike the original's Sound Test. However, there are some "songs" that are just ambient soundscapes, which may be what the message is referring to.
  • Artifact Title:
    • The remake is called Hoshi no Kirby Wii Deluxe in Japanese, Xing-zhi Kirby Wii Deluxe in Chinese, and Byeol-ui Kirby Wii Deluxe in Korean even though it's no longer on the Wii. Averted with the European translations, though, which use the North America title across the board.
    • Barely subverted by Kirby on the Draw, which is called "Touch! Quick Draw Kirby" in Japanese and Korean. It's been reworked to function using analog and gyro controls, but if you're playing solo, you can use the Switch's touch screen to play it like the original. Since Smash Ride removed the touch screen controls of the original, they were likely kept in Kirby on the Draw solely to keep the name accurate.
  • Artifact of Doom: The flavor text of Magolor Soul implies that the Master Crown itself is sentient and evil, and takes over Magolor's body to channel its power. The Crown also wiggles about in all of Magolor's boss fights, implying that it's manipulating Magolor already. And it looks really creepy doing so. It also changes shape for each of Magolor's forms. This is later made more explicit in the remake's Magolor Epilogue, which has Magolor fight the crown itself as the Final Boss, where it takes the form of a twisted, demonic Gem Apple tree.
  • Ascended Extra: The bandana-wearing Waddle Dee, a minor character from Kirby Super Star and its remake, is now a playable character. This also marks his introduction as one of the main characters in the series.
  • The Atoner: Magolor becomes this over the course of Magolor Epilogue, where it's revealed that he survived the Magolor Soul battle, but ended up banished to the lowest depths of Another Dimension, losing almost all of his powers in the process. With that, he sets out to recover his lost magic and return home, but it's left ambiguous as to whether it's "a journey of penance or revenge"… at least, at first. Ultimately, Magolor sets up his real Heel–Face Turn by not only obtaining the first-ever Gem Apple and setting up shop in the Dream Kingdom, but also rejecting the Master Crown that previously possessed him and destroying it once and for all.
  • Background Music Override: The theme song to the super abilities is programmed to do this almost every time you obtain one, which is more obvious when you hack the game to use them within areas where they can't normally be used within (like The True Arena, for example).
  • Balance Buff:
    • In Deluxe, characters move considerably faster and Kirby's Super Abilities execute much quicker than in the original Wii version. The gauge depletion rate for Super Abilities was hastened somewhat to compensate for the speed boost.
    • Kirby can now carry a spare Copy Essence and summon it on command in Deluxe, replacing his current Ability if he has one. Notably, this doesn't exclude Another Dimension despite normally not being able to use Copy Abilities there.
    • In addition to the above, features from later Kirby games were added retroactively. For example, rather than having to button mash/shake the controller to perform a Super Inhale, Kirby will automatically transition into Super Inhale after a moment of inhaling. Kirby also now has the ability to dodge and air dodge, which was first added in Triple Deluxe.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: After you break all of Magolor's protections with Ultra Sword, he'll attempt to block it with his hands. Mash buttons or shake the Wii Remote against his attempt, and Kirby then proceeds to slash him over and over before doing one final, truly gigantic slash. In the remake's Magolor Epilogue, the Master Crown does much the same when Magolor comes after it with an Ultra Sword of his own.
  • Barely-Changed Dub Name:
    • All of the level names were already in English in the Japanese version, but some were changed slightly to sound more natural in the localization. White Wafer was changed to White Wafers, Nuts Noon to Nutty Noon, and Egger Engines to Egg Engines. The final level, "The last battle in another dimension," was abbreviated to just Another Dimension.
    • Likewise, the area names in Magolor Epilogue were tweaked to preserve the wordplay: Airgreef Dimension became Aerogree Dimension, Puromson Dimension to Pyred Dimension, Poseinbul Dimension to Poseiblu Dimension, and Loscadra Dimension to Locandra Dimension. The final one was changed more drastically, going from the Room of Eden to the Ethereal Altar.
  • Batman Gambit: Magolor gets the heroes to defeat the dragon Landia so he can take the Master Crown he guards and use its power to rule the universe.
  • Beam Spam: The final boss loves using laser beams against the player. In particular, Magolor's second form and Magolor Soul often use portals to summon multiple laser beams. The Master Crown also has two laser beam attacks, one of which has multiple rotating beams to dodge.
  • The Beastmaster: Monster Flame Kirby can summon a dragon Wreathed in Flames to destroy trees. And so can Magolor, in his second form.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game:
    • Whispy Woods has learned to copy Kirby's iconic Vacuum Mouth as a result of taking another level in badass.
    • During the final battle against Magolor, Kirby has to use the Super Abilities to break through the villain's defenses. However, this causes Magolor to go One-Winged Angel and employ corrupted versions of the Super Abilities against him.
  • BFS: The Ultra Sword ability, as seen in this E3 2011 trailer, can conjure a variety of sharp objects for Kirby to attack with, all of which are several times as big as the hero is. At the climax of the Magolor Epilogue, Magolor uses his power to turn a nondescript sword into his version of the Ultra Sword from Kirby Star Allies to finish off the Final Boss.
  • Biblical Motifs: It's very subtle, but according to design notes seen in Kirby: Art & Style Collection, the yellow in Magolor's design is supposed to tie into yellow representing betrayal in Christianity, because it's the color associated with Judas. The Magolor Epilogue in Deluxe leans much more heavily into Biblical motifs, with Magolor vying for an apple that eventually grows into a wicked tree (ala the Original Sin), the hub area being called the Ethereal Altar (in Japanese, the Room of Eden), and Magolor explicitly being described as "atoning" for his misdeeds.
  • Big Bad:
    • Main game: Landia is revealed to be the entity that destroyed the Lor Starcutter, Magolor's ship that Kirby spends much of the game repairing, and Magolor begs Kirby and co. to defeat it in order to stop it from rampaging across Halcandra. Until it then gets revealed that Magolor tricked the gang into beating Landia in order to obtain the dragon's Master Crown, which he intends to use to conquer the universe.
    • Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler: The Master Crown itself is revealed to be the entity that trapped Magolor in Another Dimension and the superior of the bosses sent to collect the Fruit Fragments in order to repair itself and continue its mission to destroy all worlds.
  • Big Eater: Kirby and King Dedede swallow the eggs in Deluxe's Egg Catcher, while Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee use a basket to catch the eggs.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Goriath, the boss of White Wafers, is based on a Yeti.
  • Blackout Basement: Several areas have you traverse through a dark room, with lit candles to help you out (not only as a light source). Some abilities (such as Fire or Spark) can help you see in the dark, too.
  • Blow You Away: Tornado Kirby has the ability to transform himself into a destructive miniature tornado, as well as fire blasts of wind from his crown.
  • Book Ends: In Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe. The first boss of the game, series regular Whispy Woods, is an apple tree. The True Final Boss at the end of Magolor Epilogue, the Master Crown, possesses the Gem Apple and gains its own form, that being of a giant Gem Apple tree.
  • Boss Remix: The Super Ability theme is remixed into something more upbeat when used in the Grand Doomer battle and at the end of Stage 7-3.
  • Boss Rush:
    • Like in Kirby Super Star Ultra, there's The Arena, which is a rush through all bosses in Main mode, and The True Arena, which is a rush through all bosses in the Extra Mode (plus a fight against Galacta Knight). Deluxe further ups the ante on The True Arena by adding all of the "Magolor Epilogue" bosses on top of those already there plus souping up Magolor Soul with new and enhanced attacks.
    • The last stage of Nutty Noon is a tower filled with minibosses from the game (no Sphere Doomers, though), much like Kirby's Adventure. The tower holds Gigant Edge, Moundo, Water Galboros, and Dubior, if you're going through the main entrance. The hidden entrance contains Water Galboros, King Doo, Dubior, Kibble Blade, Gigant Edge, Bonkers, and Moundo.
    • There's also the last stage of Dangerous Dinner, the final segment of which is multiple copies of every miniboss in the game — which you face after getting the Ultra Sword ability for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Boss Subtitles: A weird variation. In the Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions of Deluxe, most of the bosses besides the final bosses (Landia and Magolor) have titles on the first line of their Pause Screen Flavor Text, rather than having it visible as the battle begins. In the English, French, Dutch, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese localizations, this is translated by working it into the actual text (i.e. "Glutton of the Sea, Fatty Puffer" becomes "A glutton of the sea, Fatty Puffer, has surfaced!")
  • Bowdlerise: The more Biblical overtones in the remake's Magolor Epilogue were toned down in the English localization, with the "Room of Eden" becoming the "Ethereal Altar" and the Japanese version's repeated use of the English phrase "Pay For One's Sin" becoming "atone for one's misdeeds".
  • But Thou Must!: The very first Energy Sphere is just floating in a wide open room, but you can't proceed further in the stage without collecting it. It also applies in the Extra Mode.
  • Call-Forward: Several in Deluxe.
    • Merry Magoland references Magolor's affinity for building amusement parks, a trait which was introduced after the original game (specifically showing up in Kirby's Dream Collection and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe).
    • Deluxe has several dress-up masks of characters not introduced until after the original game, such as Taranza, the Three Mage-Sisters, and Elfilin.
    • The Ultra Sword can transform into Morpho Knight's or Wild Edge's sword on rare occasions.
    • Newly added Stone transformations include a statue of Car-Mouth Kirby from Forgotten Land and a statue of an overstuffed Kirby from Dream Buffet.
    • Two of the HAL Rooms play medleys of music from Kirby's Dream Buffet.
    • Kirby now screams in fury during the Barehanded Blade Block with Magolor's first phase, like in later games starting with Kirby: Planet Robobot, and finishes off with a "Toryah!" like his Ultra Sword Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
    • Aside from being a Stealth Prequel to Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash, the final boss of the Magolor Epilogue uses a laser attack that's identical to the Crown of Evil and Obsession attack used by Void Termina.
    • In the modified fight against Magolor Soul in Deluxe's True Arena, the planetoid in the background has been changed to resemble Void Termina's core.
    • The various masks that can be earned in Merry Magoland include characters from later games up to Forgotten Land. Of them, there's an unusual one simply referred to as "Old Friend" and resembles a feminine Taranza, heavily implied to be the original form of Queen Sectonia.
    • After upgrading his upwards attack all the way in Magolor Epilogue, Magolor muses that he could "attack and rule over a floating kingdom in the sky" if he wanted to.
    • In "Magolor's Tome Trackers", two possible book covers can depict a Heart Spear or Elfilin.
  • The Cameo:
    • One of Stone's forms is a statue of three of the "Dark Matter Trilogy" Animal Friends: Rick, Coo, and Kine.
    • Stone in general is chock full of cameos. Wham Bam Rock from Super Star, the Dragoon from Air Ride, Meta Knight and Galacta Knight's wings and masks, the HAL Laboratory logo, Kirby's original 8-bit sprite, and a few others.
    • The UFO enemy appears to reward Kirby during the Goal Game, despite UFO being absent from the game.
    • The UFO and Kabula, the blimp boss from Kirby's Dream Land, appear in the background as bonus point targets in the Scope Shot mini-game.
    • Kirby and friends can unlock masks representing other characters in the series in Deluxe86 of them, to be precise.
    • In Deluxe, Stone's Mt. Fuji and Yamanashi office transformation has Qbby sitting on top of it, like in Star Allies.
  • Camera Abuse: Exclusive to the Deluxe version, Kirby can use his Super Ability to send his enemies crashing to the screen. And boy, that's got to hurt.
  • Canon Immigrant: The Water ability, which made its debut in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! as Official Fan-Submitted Content. invoked
  • Canon Welding: Magolor Epilogue ties the events of Kirby's Return to Dream Land to the previously-Alternate Continuity Kirby Clash games, with Magolor's main collectibles being slices of a Gem Apple, the final boss being a manifestation of the Master Crown that heavily resembles the Gem Apple tree, and images in the credits showing Magolor arriving through a dimensional portal to the Dream Kingdom, donning his Shopkeeper outfit.
  • Character Development: This game quickly demonstrates how Kirby and King Dedede have finally become friends after a 19-year long rivalry, tying back to Kirby Super Star Ultra's Revenge of the King where King Dedede sought to end his long-standing grudge with him.
  • Chef of Iron: While the traditional Cook ability is not present, Kirby can still use this trope by turning his Ultra Sword into a massive meat cleaver.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • If you talk to Magolor after collecting the Lor's emblem, he mentions that one of the things the Lor Starcutter can do is fight. Sure enough, it does end up fighting later. ...against you.
    • In the remake, astute players may notice a sword hung on part of the Ethereal Altar. The same sword also appears lodged in the ground when fighting the Master Crown. Magolor ends up using this very same sword to finish the Crown off.
  • Chest Monster: In a variant, when you encounter Energy Spheres in a Pocket Dimension, they will turn into a Sphere Doomer that you have to fight as a mini-boss. Once they're beaten, you can obtain the spheres. The fight with Grand Doomer also starts with you obtaining the sphere containing the mast, complete with the "item get" fanfare... which promptly gets halted as Grand Doomer appears and engulfs the sphere, starting the fight.
  • Cool Crown: The Master Crown that Magolor wants to rule the universe with. He says that it is a source of limitless power... but what he doesn't know is that it's sentient and evil.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer: In multiplayer, Yellow Kirby, Blue Kirby (replacing Red Kirby), and Green Kirby are available as characters, for those don't want to play as King Dedede (red), Meta Knight (purple), or Bandana Waddle Dee (orange). Flowers that grant items like Point Stars and Food will have them bloom in the color of the character that passed them by.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When you're going for the hardest difficulties in Merry Magoland, the computer players tend to leave you at a disadvantage. For example, in "Magolor's Tome Trackers", you'd better hope you're next to the correct tomes, because they will rush to them in an instant, and if they're right next to them by chance, then that makes it worse. And in "Kirby on the Draw", they seem to know exactly when the highest targets are going to appear before you can process it.
  • Continuity Nod: Loads, mostly to Kirby Super Star and its remake. In this installment of the series, the developers have referenced nearly everything Kirby-related. It has its own page. Deluxe only adds to it.
  • Cool Sword: Played with. Ultra Sword can summon massive, stylized swords Kirby can attack with. However, sometimes it also generates comical items, like a bamboo training sword or a giant fish (which somehow is just as powerful as a real blade).
  • Creator Cameo: One of Stone's transformations features Mt. Fuji and a multi-story office building, which is actually a caricature of HAL Laboratory's corporate office in the Yamanashi prefecture (situated near Mt. Fuji in real life).
  • Crown of Horns: The Master Crown takes on a much more elaborate, twisted antler-like form for the Magolor Soul fight. Ditto for when you fight it again as Magolor in Deluxe's Magolor Epilogue.
  • Crown of Power: The Master Crown worn by the dragon Landia. Magolor proceeds to steal it, and its power ends up corrupting him; amplifying both his power and the darkness in his heart tenfold, and had he not been freed by Kirby and friends, would have truly lost himself and been fully turned into an Omnicidial Maniac.
    Original: A sad shell possessed by the limitless power of the Master Crown, no more than a manifestation of the crown itself.
    Deluxe: What remains of Magolor is a sad shell. He's possessed by the limitless power of the Master Crown, imprisoned by the hatred and obsessions of prior rulers. Now... defeat it and free Magolor's soul!
  • Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: Wing Kirby no longer bears the Tribal Face Paint on his cheeks seen in previous appearances, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe shows that the ability hat is further redesigned to bear less of a resemblance to a warbonnet. Both alterations are owed to increased scrutiny towards cultural appropriation of Native American imagery, which became particularly prominent in the decade since the Wii version's release. This is especially true in regards to the warbonnet, which in Native American cultures can only be worn by tribespeople who earned the right to do so.
  • Cute Is Evil:
    • Landia is quite cute for the boss of the last level. Subverted when he is revealed to be Good All Along.
    • A much straighter example with Magolor, who is an adorable alien creature that is later revealed to be Evil All Along. It's downplayed somewhat in the remake, which makes it clear that outside of his ambitions to rule and him manipulating Kirby and friends to help him get it, the truly evil side mostly comes from the Master Crown itself and that Magolor was in way over his head trying to use its power.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: During the cutscene where Magolor reveals his intentions to take over the universe and takes the Master Crown for himself, none of the heroes attempt to stop him from putting the crown on or getting away (granted, they could just be in shock from the betrayal).
  • Dark Reprise:
    • Magolor's battle theme in his second form, "CROWNED", is one giant dark medley containing Nightmare's theme, Green Greens, the main theme, and Magolor's theme.
    • The theme for the Final Boss of Magolor's Epilogue, "Mistilteinn, Tree Crown without a Ruler", has a dark reprise of the Dream Kingdom theme from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, which is fitting as it's essentially the Master Crown wrapped around a Gem Apple tree.
  • The Day the Music Lied: A pretty obvious one in Nutty Noon's boss stage. You pick your ability, go to where the boss should be, and...the Goal Game music is playing? But we haven't beaten anything yet? And there's the item we're supposed to get... When you pick it up, the usual Item Get! music goes sour, and the prize turns into Grand Doomer.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The dimensional rift sections you can enter at the end of a Super Ability section are all in black and white... at least, until you defeat the rift's Sphere Doomer, and the entire area returns to color. This was altered in Deluxe so that instead of being totally monochrome, the color palette is simply heavily muted.
  • Demonic Possession: It's implied by Magolor Soul's pause description that he has been possessed by the Master Crown and has become an Empty Shell of his former self. The remake not only outright confirms this by revealing that the Master Crown corrupts and possesses its wearer via The Power of Hate, but also establish that Magolor is outright possessed by the Master Crown in his second phase.
  • De-power: The remake's Magolor Epilogue has Magolor's powers reduced to having only a basic shooting attack and limited levitation. Collecting Magic Points allows Magolor to upgrade his abilities, gradually expanding his moveset to something closer to his abilities in Kirby Star Allies.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • In Deluxe, the "Samurai Kirby 100" sub-game uses "wandering adversaries" if you don't connect the game to the internet. You can still get the missions tied to it this way, meaning it will still be a possible to get 100% Completion once the game's server goes down permanently.
    • Also in Deluxe, if you play Kirby on the Draw on the Switch's touch screen, you might expect to blow past the CPU players because you don't have a reticle and you can respond faster, but the CPUs are actually adjusted to match — they also don't have reticles and get faster response times.
    • Deluxe adds a new feature called "Helper Magolor", essentially an "easy mode" where Magolor will pull you out of a Bottomless Pit or provide helpful items during levels and boss battles. However, due to Magolor betraying you near the end of the game, this feature becomes unavailable during the Final Boss. Attempting to use it gives you a special message:
      Magolor's help is unavailable here. You'll need to overcome this challenge on your own!
  • Digging to China: The "Crackity Hack" sub-game from Kirby & the Amazing Mirror returns here, and like in that game, a strong enough Brick Break will create a crack in the ground. Getting the highest possible score makes the crack reach all the way to the upside-down other end of the planet, creating a waterspout that startles the Waddle Dees vacationing there.
  • Disc-One Final Boss:
    • Grand Doomer is the final boss Kirby must defeat to repair Magolor's ship. After it's done, the group heads to Halcandra, where the game's final levels take place.
    • Landia seems to be the main villain and the final boss of the game, as he is responsible for the destruction of the Lor Starcutter, as well as the source of all trouble going on in Halcandara. This is all just a massive Batman Gambit from Magolor, who reveals himself as the true Big Bad and becomes the Final Boss.
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon:
    • Nutty Noon. Did you really think you were done with the game? We still haven't even collected all the Energy Spheres yet!
    • Dangerous Dinner. You defeated Landia and saved the day, right? Except Magolor has other plans...
  • Disc-One Nuke: In stage 1-4, if you get to the very end of the first room and touch the rightmost boundary then go back, you'll find that a section of the stage has sunk down, revealing a hidden door. Behind it is one of the game's two HAL rooms, with this one harboring four Copy Essencesnote  of advanced abilities that aren't supposed to show up until more than halfway through the game. In Deluxe, the new Sand and Mecha abilities can also be found here.
  • Disney Death: While Magolor's survival was much up to debate, Kirby's Dream Collection confirms that he survived and made a Heel–Face Turn. The new Magolor Epilogue in Deluxe shows what happened in between.
  • Disney Villain Death: This happens to Goriath, complete with him looking down before he falls. Hydriath, Goriath's Underground Monkey from the Magolor Epilogue, gets the same fate.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: In Deluxe:
    • The non-Kirby playable characters have extra moves from later games in the series, making them less straight copies of Kirby's equivalent Copy Abilities — Dedede has Super Dedede Jump and Head Slide, Meta Knight has Galactic Counter and Crescent Shot, and Bandana Waddle Dee has Ground Thrust.
    • The Super Abilities all have unique intro cutscenes and voice clips, whereas they were all the same in the original game.
  • Double-Meaning Title: In Deluxe's Magolor Epilogue, the final boss theme is titled "Mistilteinn, Tree Crown without a Ruler". "Mistilteinn" is a legendary blade from Nordic myth, which can be used to describe the sword that Magolor transforms into an Ultra Sword to defeat the Master Crown. However, "mistilteinn" is also the Icelandic word for "mistletoe", a parasitic plant that latches onto other foliage and steals their nutrients, which just as easily applies to the Master Crown itself; not only does it resemble mistletoe when it combines with the red fruit to form a wicked tree, it doubles as an allegory for the Master Crown as a whole, being a malevolent artifact that grants ultimate power at the cost of consuming the souls of its bearers.
  • Dreamworks Face: Sometimes, when Kirby does his signature dance, he may make this expression.
  • Dual Boss: Starting in Halcandra, Kirby must occasionally fight two mini-bosses at once. The fourth boss of the Magolor Epilogue is a quartet of "Rampaging Doomers" that more or less fight in coordination with one another.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • Magolor is referred to as "Mahoroa" in Japanese, which is pronounced similar to mahoroba (meaning wonderful place). The change was made to translate his Meaningful Name into the English language ("mahou" also means magic, which the "Mag" part of his English name also references).
    • Among the Super Abilities: Drago Storm was changed to Monster Flame, Gigaton Hammer was changed to Grand Hammer, and Miracle Beam was changed to Flare Beam.
    • The new "Armor" ability in Deluxe was changed to "Mecha" in English.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: As the first modern Kirby game, this game has some notable differences compared to its successors, many of which were addressed in Deluxe:
    • Kirby's move set feels a bit more stiff and limited, with Triple Deluxe having overhauled the basic movement to feel a lot smoother (adding the ability to Dodge and Air Dodge, dash from a standstill, manually Quick Fall in mid-air, and Super Inhale automatically by inhaling for a while). Deluxe backports all of these tweaks, resulting in much smoother control.
    • The game is divided into seven levels discounting Another Dimension (the last of which, Dangerous Dinner, has fewer stages than typical) spread across two "worlds" rather than the standard six for non-Star Allies games. There also aren't any unlockable side or bonus stages, something the later games would have plenty of.
    • Energy Spheres are a completely optional collectible used for unlocking extras in the Lor, whereas the similar items in later games are required to unlock each stage's boss. The game's Sphere Doomer fights also reward Kirby with two Energy Spheres at once, something that never happens with the later collectibles barring the end-of-stage Caged Dees in Forgotten Land.
    • Mix works differently, requiring three enemies of any type rather than two of different types. Triple Deluxe would return Mix to its usual functionality, while the remake adds that option but also keeps the original game's activation method.
    • Only plot important and secret bosses were given special pause screen blurbs, much like in Super Star Ultra. From Triple Deluxe on, every boss would have extra lore, with Deluxe adding them for all the bosses lacking one originally as well as the Sphere Doomers.
    • Later games would have three HAL Rooms, one accessed by backtracking, one accessed by a hidden door, and one accessed by waiting somewhere for 86 (Goroawase for HAL) seconds. The original game only had the former two, with Deluxe adding the 86 second room introduced in Triple Deluxe.
    • This is the only modern Kirby game where the final level is an actual playable level rather than a Boss-Only Level, and it's also the only one where the game's primary gimmick isn't used to finish off the final boss — the Super Abilities and button-mashing Quick Time Event only come into play during the first phase, with the second phase being defeated normally.
    • This game's Extra Mode would not be done again in later games, instead letting you play through a condensed version of the game as another character or a much shorter game with new levels. Deluxe would combine both concepts for the Magolor Epilogue while keeping Extra Mode.
    • Secret bosses would be fought at the end of the new mode in later games, while here, the first secret boss is part of the Egg Engines boss fight in Extra Mode while the second is exclusive to the True Arena. Deluxe would add a more traditional secret boss as the Final Boss of the Magolor Epilogue, though the original two would remain unchanged.
    • The True Final Boss, Magolor Soul, is the Final Boss of Extra Mode and is exactly as strong in the True Arena as he is in Extra Mode. Later games would make the enhanced versions of the Final Boss exclusive to True Arena or its equivalent, and Deluxe would follow that trend by buffing Magolor Soul when fought in the True Arena.
  • Easter Egg:
    • The "HAL Rooms" are back, again accessible in obscure ways. There are two this time, and Deluxe adds two more (one in Story/Extra Mode, one in Magolor Epilogue).
    • Also, a different colored Kirby will occasionally appear on the title screen if you exit back to it.
  • Edible Theme Clothing: Snow Bowl gives Kirby a hat that resembles a swirl of soft-serve ice cream.
  • Edible Theme Naming: Just like in Kirby's Adventure and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, each of the levels are named after food (with the exception of the eighth level). note 
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • The Sphere Doomers have this vibe to them. They live in Another Dimension eating energy spheres, and that's we all know about them.
    • Magolor's second form is a monstrous being of black smoke (teal as Magolor Soul) with red eyes and a white mouth frozen in a Slasher Smile. For added bonus, an eye pops out when he opens his mouth.
    • The Master Crown itself turns out to be one — it's not only sentient, but full of evil magic, and it controls the body of anything unlucky enough to put it on. It can conjure dimensional rifts at will, and it's also capable of summoning or outright creating Doomers.
  • Enemy Mine: King Dedede (again), Meta Knight (again), and Bandana Waddle Dee are helping Kirby on his quest. This game notably standardized this group of characters as Kirby's True Companions, giving each of them a full Heel–Face Turn.
  • Energy Ball: Flare Beam Kirby, who can create an orb of energy that can be remotely controlled.
  • Ennio Morricone Pastiche: The song "Sandy Wilds", used in the first few stages of Raisin Ruins, incorporates the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on a "whistling" synth.
  • Eternal Engine: Egg Engines, the sixth level and first level in Halcandra, takes place in a factory.
  • Evil All Along: Magolor, who executed a massive Batman Gambit to get Kirby and the crew to beat Landia and take the Master Crown so he could take over the universe.
  • Evil Makeover: The Lor Starcutter gets one when Magolor powers it up to face Kirby and the others while riding on Landia.
  • Eviler than Thou: The Master Crown is a far deadlier threat than Magolor for a Cool Crown that outright destroyed countless civilizations and succeeded in possessing the Big Bad himself.
  • Expy: Magolor, plot-wise and otherwise:
    • Like Marx, Magolor tricks Kirby into fulfilling his evil plan and betrays him in the end. He also shares a few attacks with Marx, like the black hole and the huge laser. This is cemented in Extra Mode, where Magolor's second form is called Magolor Soul.
    • Magolor EX uses Marx's briar attack, alongside the aforementioned laser and black hole moves. In all of his forms, Magolor resembles a jester, too, just like Marx.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Kirby was already a Big Eater, but now he can inhale other players, even (for the second time) King Dedede, to spit out more powerful stars.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning:
    • Three variations of Sphere Doomers represent Fire, Spark, and Ice, and Kirby can gain those Copy Abilities by eating their orbs.
    • The three elemental Super Abilities are Monster Flame, Flare Beam, and Snow Bowl.
    • The three Underground Monkey bosses of Magolor Epilogue in Deluxe are Electricky Dooter, Fiery Puffer, and Hydriath.
  • Floating Limbs:
    • Magolor's arms are detached from his body. He keeps this trait for his monstrous boss forms.
    • Mr. Dooter, the boss of Raisin Ruins, has detachable White Gloves which allows him to juggle with ease.
  • Follow the Money: Some Point Stars will be placed in several suspicious areas that lead to bonuses like an Energy Sphere. Stage 5 of White Wafers has gravity-affected ones in the Blackout Basement to help you see where the platforms are, or fall into a Bottomless Pit.
  • Forbidden Fruit: The Master Crown which Landia guards grants its wielder limitless power, but is also filled with evil, and causes its victims to give in to the darkness in their heart. Magolor finds this out the hard way, becoming nothing more than a puppet for the crown by the end. In the remake, Magolor Epilogue makes the Biblical parallels more obvious, with the Master Crown possessing an apple to become a gnarled tree-demon.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • A case so oblique it had to be confirmed in a supplementary art book nine years later. In Kirby: Art & Style Collection, an annotation reveals that the use of yellow in Magolor's design is meant to hint at his Evil All Along status, playing off of its association with betrayal in Christianitynote .
    • It's hinted that the Master Crown is alive and dangerous as early as the first time Magolor puts it on—rather than him putting it on himself, it floats onto its head of its own accord. Later on, it can be seen wriggling around on Magolor's head, implying that it's influencing him already.
    • The intro cutscene of the Magolor Epilogue shows shards of a golden object falling into the dimensional abyss along with Magolor. The pause screen description of the mode also states that pieces of the Master Crown have been scattered across dimensions. Both of these hint at the Master Crown being the Final Boss of the mode.
  • Friendly Enemy: In the secret "Kirby Master!" video, Magolor, Galacta Knight, and Marx are inexplicably among the audience enjoying a very special Kirby Dance.
  • Fun with Acronyms:
    • If you take the first letters of each level note , you get "CROWNED," which foreshadows Magolor's possession of the Master Crown. This is alluded to in the way that the game shows the alliterative letter in bold. The soundtrack points it out too: The True Final Boss's theme is also called CROWNED.
    • The Magolor Epilogue gets in on this too. Combine Aerogree, Pyred, Poseiblu, Locandra, and the Ethereal Altar, and it spells "APPLE". Not only is Magolor's goal to collect fragments of a giant Gem Apple to regain his powers, it also foreshadows the final boss: that very same apple, possessed by the Master Crown and transformed into a giant, eldritch apple tree!
  • Galactic Conqueror: Magolor's true plan once he obtains the Master Crown is to take over the universe, starting with Popstar. That was his intended endgame at least; new information on the Master Crown in the remake reveals that its power would've corrupted him into something worse.
  • Genre Throwback: As indicated by the title, this game is a return to the style of Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star after several years of non-traditional Kirby platformers, updated with modern 3D presentation and a grander scope.
  • Golden Super Mode: When Goriath, the boss of White Wafers, Turns Red, his hair stands up and glows yellow. The same happens with Hydriath in the Magolor Epilogue.
  • Good All Along: Landia may just seem like a violent dragon who just attacked Kirby for the sake of it, but it turns out that he's actually an Anti-Villain who only attacked the heroes so they don't let the Master Crown fall into the hands of Magolor.
  • Goomba Stomp: This game allows Kirby to control a giant cleat to perform this trope on enemies. It's highly reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3's Goomba's Shoe.
  • Goroawase Number:
    • The final upgrade of Magolor's "Trickery" skill in Magolor Epilogue costs 5586 ("go go HAL") Magic Points, referencing the recurring 86/ha-ru Creator Thumbprint.
    • The Secret Stage of Magolor Epilogue gives you 860 Magic Points if cleared perfectly, and another 860 as the first-clear bonus.
    • The final room of the Extra Stage in Magolor Epilogue features the word "MAGOLOR" spelled in Star Blocks. Blasting every block at once with Magolor Cannon (plus the Broom Hatter sweeping on top of them) provides a combo of exactly 86.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: It's implied, and later confirmed in Deluxe, that the Master Crown that Magolor wanted so badly is this, as it is said that the Crown possesses Magolor's lifeless shell in order to create Magolor Soul. How much influence it had on Landia when he wore the crown is kind of ambiguous. Kirby Star Allies, in turn, implies that the Master Crown is linked to Void Termina, as it summons replicas of the crown for some of its attacks, and the crown's final form as the Final Boss of the Magolor Epilogue even uses a laser attack that's visually very similar to Void Termina's.
  • Green Hill Zone: Cookie Country, the first level in Planet Popstar, is a grassy plain, and it is where Kirby and his friends begin their adventure to help find Magolor's missing ship parts.
  • Green Thumb: Leaf Kirby lets him attack with swirling leaves and hide himself in a pile of leaves. Like TAC's guard in Kirby Super Star, attacks pass through Kirby without harming him in that state.
  • Guide Dang It!: A minor case in Deluxe where despite appearances, the motion controls from the original game are still present wholesale in the main modes as well as the Magolor Epilogue such as shaking your controller for Grand Hammer and Snow Bowl. They're usually present when the game tells you to wiggle the control stick.
  • Hailfire Peaks:
  • Heel–Face Turn: The entire Magolor Epilogue is Magolor's own Villain Episode centered on his journey to reclaim his powers and return home, all while having to atone for his misdeeds for deceiving the people he befriended. Come the final phase of the Master Crown, Magolor doesn't flee to find help, but instead finds a lone sword in the ground and turns it into his very own Ultra Sword and slays the Master Crown, finally setting aside all self-serving egotism to clean up his mess once and for all.
  • Hidden Depths: If you talk to Magolor...
    • ...after getting all the Energy Spheres, he reveals to you that he acquired the Lor Starcutter by excavating it from the volcano where Landia lives, and that the ship is said to have a mind of its own, making it on par with legendary weapons like Kirby's Star Rod and Meta Knight's sword Galaxia. He also reveals that he was told everything he knew about Kirby by a friend, long before they even met. Some fans have theorized that said friend is Marx, Ribbon, or someone else entirely. Maybe even Galacta Knight.
    • ...in Extra Mode, he outright tells you that Landia guards a crown that allows the wearer to rule the universe, and that Landia will not part with it easily, and that therefore you should defeat Landia post-haste, with a cheerful expression that could not possibly be sinister in any way. Of course, this is before the second time you fight him as the final boss, so nothing is truly spoiled.
    • ...after getting all the Energy Spheres in Extra Mode, he says that the Lor Starcutter was made by the same people who built "clockwork stars" (most likely a reference to Nova from Milky Way Wishes). He also mentions that some enemies Kirby fought before came from the world where he comes from. Magolor also says that the Lor Starcutter, clockwork stars, and the Master Crown were created by the use of an incredible power.
    • ...after getting all the Energy Spheres in Extra Mode in Deluxe, Magolor reveals that he's not really from Halcandra, and that he lied to make Kirby want to visit it (presumably so he could get the Master Crown for him). To apologize, he reveals his greatest dream: he wants to build an amusement park, but he decides to start small and open a shop instead. There are plenty of double entendres referencing his Evil All Along reveal, which — like before — is more of a joke since you've already beaten the game.
  • Hub Level: Returning from Kirby's Adventure, though this time they're accessed through a world map. The Lor Starcutter is designed similarly, though it's more of a sandbox in that you can check in on Magolor and use the Energy Spheres you've collected throughout the game to get abilities for convenience, enter challenge rooms, or play Mini Games. The Ethereal Altar serves as this for the Magolor Epilogue.
  • Human Snowball: Snow Bowl Kirby can turn into a giant snowball to mow down enemies.
  • Humongous-Headed Hammer: In addition to the classic Hammer ability, this game introduces the Grand Hammer Super Ability, which lets Kirby wield three increasingly large hammerheads of escalating fanciness to create massive shockwaves and pound down giant obstacles.
  • Humongous Mecha:
    • When compared to Kirby, HR-D3, who is fought in Extra Mode as phases 2 and 3 of the Egg Engine Boss.
    • Your objective is to shoot these down in the Scope Shot Mini-Game.
  • Humongous-Headed Hammer: In this game, Kirby's Hammer ability gets a Super variant called Grand Hammer, which can grow ridiculously large and send massive shockwaves across the screen.
  • Ice Magic Is Water: Deluxe introduces Hydriath, a more powerful version of Goriath who has water magic instead of ice powers.
  • Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Bandana Waddle Dee's "Waddle Copter" attack has him use his spear for this effect by spinning it rapidly above him, using it to hover for a little time. Kirby can do the same with the "Spear Copter" attack if he has the Spear copy ability.
  • Interface Screw: White Sphere Doomers EX and Magolor Soul have the ability to flip the screen upside-down during battle.
  • Interface Spoiler: If you're diligent about getting Energy Spheres, beating Stage 5-5 will show that there are still more Energy Spheres to be collected, giving away the fact that there are more levels for Kirby to explore. The overworld screen specifically has a spot reserved telling you you're on Planet Popstar, also hinting that you'll be visiting another planet. Magolor specifically tells you he'll take you to visit his home planet after you collect all of the Lor's parts, but it's easy to skim over this and assume the Disc-One Final Boss is the final boss unless you pay attention.
  • Jaw Drop: King Dedede's reaction to the final boss showing his true form.
  • King Mook:
    • Several of the minibosses are these: King Doo (a large, yellow Waddle Doo), Water Galboros (a large Water Galbo), and Kibble Blade (a Sir Kibble with a more knight-like helmet).
    • The boss of Nutty Noon is the "Grand Doomer," a giant Sphere Doomer guarding the last Lor part.
  • Last Lousy Point: In Deluxe, certain songs in the Jukebox have pretty obscure or difficult unlock requirements. You can technically get 100% completion without all of the songs, but if you want the complete Jukebox, you have to go out of your way to find some well-hidden parts of the game, such as the HAL Rooms and the secret paths of the mid-boss tower. The biggest example is track 199, which requires beating the otherwise optional and tough-as-nails True Extra Missions in Merry Magoland.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Mr. Dooter EX and Fatty Puffer EX are both mainly recolored red (from light blue and purple, respectively).
  • Legacy Boss Battle: Galacta Knight from Kirby Super Star Ultra appears as an extra boss in The True Arena. In this game, he cannot be fought anywhere else.
  • Leitmotif: The theme that plays inside the Lor Starcutter and on the file select screen is mostly associated with Magolor, though it is a bit of a Recurring Riff, too.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Dangerous Dinner, the seventh level and final level in Halcandra, is lava-themed. At the end of the level, Kirby and his friends trek up Haldera Volcano to fight the planet's guardian, Landia.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: When Kirby finds the Lor Starcutter's mast, he starts performing his signature dance, when the music suddenly stops and the ship part gets swallowed by the Grand Doomer, initiating the boss fight.
  • Level in the Clouds: Nutty Noon, the fifth and final level in Planet Popstar, mostly takes place on a giant tower extending deep into the stratosphere, and the last piece of the Lor Starcutter is guarded at the very top.
  • Limit Break: Large, glowing "super" enemies, which when consumed will give Kirby larger, more destructive versions of their normal powers (i.e. Sword becomes Ultra Sword, Fire becomes Monster Flame). Ultra Sword Kirby cuts massive ropes with his BFS, Monster Flame can use a dragon to burn down trees, Snow Bowl literally bowls over obstacles on his path, Flare Beam destroys blocks and activates switches around Kirby, and Grand Hammer drives down giant pegs and generates massive shockwaves.
  • Living Hat: The Master Crown is at least implied to be sentient, with it visibly wobbling on Magolor's head. It also grows when its user decides to take on its power, and later Magolor's soul is mentioned to be "a sad shell, nothing more than a manifestation of the Master Crown itself". Deluxe makes this much more explicit, with Magolor fighting the Master Crown itself as his mode's final boss.
  • Magicians Are Wizards: Mr. Dooter has an "Arabian stage magician" theme to him, and his more powerful version introduced in Deluxe, Electricky Dooter, is dressed as a wizard.
  • Magikarp Power: The main gimmick of Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler. In this mode, Magolor at the beginning is stripped of his powers, to the point he can barely float and only perform the most basic of movements and attacks. But by defeating enemies and collecting magic points, he can slowly regain his powers by investing said points into various things, and eventually become a lot more powerful and versatile.
  • Making a Splash: Water Kirby, who's actually a Canon Immigrant from the anime. It lets him slide on fire blocks and lava, surf through enemies, hit enemies up with a water geyser, float while firing a water stream downward and attack with damaging rainbows. It also improves your underwater bubble shooter.
  • Marathon Boss: Metal General EX, an already tough fight that's extended to three stages when it reveals the HR-D3 mech; thankfully, it checkpoints at HR-D3.
  • Meaningful Background Event:
    • While fighting Magolor, a dimensional portal to Popstar drifts in from the right side of the screen to the center, and then grows larger after Magolor transforms into his second form, implying that the battlefield is closing in on Popstar. In the remake, the portal becomes huge, making it more obvious.
    • In the remake's Magolor Epilogue, the sword that Magolor draws during the final phase of the Master Crown fight is visible during the entire preceding fight before it becomes relevant, easily missed due to lacking an outline like most objects do.
  • Medley:
    • "Fight! Mid-Boss Battle" (this one is used for miniboss battles on Planet Popstar) is a medley of the Egg Catcher and boss themes from Kirby's Adventure. "Mid-Boss Battle in Another World" (this one is used for miniboss battles on Halcandra) is based on the miniboss theme from Kirby 64, which was also previously used for battles with the Meta-Knights in Nightmare in Dream Land.
    • The final boss theme, C-R-O-W-N-E-D. You can hear the "Final Boss" theme from Kirby's Adventure, "Green Greens," "Road to Victory," "Four Adventurers: Cookie Country," "The Adventure Begins," and, of course, "Magolor, the Far-Flung Traveler."
    • The remake adds the final boss theme for Magolor Epilogue, "Mistilteinn, Tree Crown without a Ruler", incorporating not just the "C-R-O-W-N-E-D", "Four Adventurers: Cookie Country", and "Magolor, the Far-Flung Traveler" motifs, but also adds in the main theme of the Kirby Clash games, as well as "Save the Kingdom! Ordeal Quest" from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.
  • Minigame Zone: Deluxe adds an all-new area called Merry Magoland, which is a theme park run by Magolor that hosts sub-games, both new and returning.
  • Multi-Stage Battle: Goriath does this by smashing the snowy floor after you hit him enough. It turns from snow to icy to both, etc. In Deluxe, Hydriath does the same, since it's an Underground Monkey of Goriath.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In Deluxe, most of the sub-games in Merry Magoland got new results screens with a new song. However, Checkerboard Chase already had its own results screen in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, so it keeps its unique screen, complete with the same song.
    • In Deluxe, Samurai Kirby's single-player and two-player modes are presented identically to the original Kirby Super Star, with a flat horizontal view. However, if you play with three or four players, the camera angle shifts to a behind-the-back view, matching the Nightmare in Dream Land version of Quick Draw.
    • In the original game, the animation for obtaining a Super Ability involved the camera panning dramatically around Kirby before he strikes a pose. This was changed in Deluxe so that the camera stays in place while Kirby performs a special animation, such as flourishing the Ultra Sword before posing, but when Kirby gets the Super Abilities in the final fight against Magolor, the Super Ability animations from the original Wii version are played instead.
    • When Kirby deals the final blow to Magolor with the Ultra Sword in Deluxe, he uses his Battle Cry from his Final Smash in the Super Smash Bros. series.
    • The Scope Shot sub-game doesn't return in Deluxe, but there are several references to it scattered about. Its music is used in the main game ("VS Waddle Tank" on the secret route of the mid-boss tower in Story Mode, "Climactic Clash! Robo Dedede" during a crusher room in Egg Engines, the title theme and "VS Mecha Kawasaki" in HAL Rooms), the Booming Blasters sub-game is a thematically similar game that remixes its music, Robo Dedede appears as the egg-thrower in Egg Catcher, and Kirby on the Draw is reworked to play more like Scope Shot.
    • The Deluxe version of the Galacta Knight fight upgrades his revolving beam to cause fire to erupt from the ground, which was originally added to his moveset in Super Kirby Clash.
  • New Game Plus: Beating the game once unlocks Extra Mode (a throwback to Extra Game from the original Kirby's Dream Land), where your Life Meter is reduced by a third, the enemies now come in various sizes, Phanto-esque foes are now added to every area with a key, and the bosses are harder. Also, Magolor's One-Winged Angel form is now more powerful than ever, especially when you finally encounter Magolor Soul. And before that, Metal General EX summons HR-D3, becoming a three-form Sequential Boss. There are no stronger enemies replacing others, though.
  • No Fair Cheating: Using an amiibo or a Souvenir Item in the Arena modes will slap a respective sticker on your final score.
  • No OSHA Compliance: The Eternal Engine stages of Egg Engines are dangerous enough to give the Factory Tour stage of Kirby 64 a run for its money, with giant hammers in the background and big crushing machines still running.
  • Not-Actually-Cosmetic Award: The Kine and Mine masks in Deluxe give Kirby the "Enhanced Water Gun" normally exclusive to the Water ability when equipped, and are notably the only masks to have an actual gameplay effect. Strangely, the Chuchu, Fatty Puffer and Fatty Puffer EX masks do not have this effect, despite also being sea creatures.
  • Notice This: Objects that can be destroyed with a Super Ability are marked with glowing stars. The enemies that give the abilities themselves glow brightly and the first time per stage they spawn, the camera zooms in on them.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: The Master Crown. It corrupts the darkness in one's heart to turn them into destructive tyrants and destroy multiple civilizations. It got very close to turning Magolor into one, and would've made him destroy the universe if it weren't for Kirby.
  • One-Hit Kill: The super abilities are programmed to do this to whomever they're used against. Including the game's main bosses as well, apparently. You're still out of luck with Gordos and Shotzos though.
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Under the influence of the Master Crown, Magolor takes on a more menacing form after being defeated with the Ultra Sword.
    • Just when you think Metal General EX is going down, it summons HR-D3 and fights you with it.
    • The Master Crown itself does this in the Magolor Epilogue when it appears at the end. It starts as a half-shattered version of its initial form atop Landia's head, but fuses its fragments together with the Grand Doomer to transform into Crowned Doomer. Once it's beaten there, it attaches itself to the fruit Magolor collected to transform into an enormous Gem Apple tree!
  • Only Sane Man: Meta Knight's reactions to Kirby and Dedede at the title screen suggest this.
  • Origins Episode: Magolor Epilogue serves as one for Shopkeeper Magolor and the Gem Apples from the Kirby Clash duology.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: One of the bosses is Landia, the four-headed dragon who attacked Magolor. He can split into four smaller one-headed dragons as a Doppelgänger Attack.
  • Outrun the Fireball: You have to outrun an EXPANDING BLACK HOLE in the pocket dimensions.
  • Painting the Medium: After Magolor puts on the Master Crown, his written dialogue swaps from the usual cartoony font to a more dramatic and sinster one.
  • Palmtree Panic: Onion Ocean, the third level in Planet Popstar, is water-themed and takes place on a beach.
  • Paper Fan of Doom:
    • Ultra Sword becomes a large fan on rare occasions.
    • The "Samurai Kirby" minigame in Deluxe usually has the characters pull this out instead of their sword.
  • Plot Coupon:
    • The five parts of the Lor Starcutter, obtained after defeating each level's boss, and the 120 Energy Spheres, many missing in each stage.
    • In Magolor Epilogue, Magolor must collect Fruit Fragments, crystalline blue-green shards with immense magical power that restore some of Magolor's lost abilities when he obtains them. When all 5 Fruit Fragments are gathered, they combine to form a red fruit that resembles a Gem Apple, which is subsequently possessed by the Master Crown's powers and becomes the True Final Boss of the game.
  • Pocket Dimension: There appears to be many of them throughout the game, where a good portion of the Energy Spheres can be found. The final battle against Magolor also takes place here.
  • Post-End Game Content: Deluxe introduces a new mode after beating the main story: Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler, a continuation of the main story where a disgraced and depowered Magolor is stranded in Another Dimension and must reclaim his lost magical powers to return home.
  • Power Copying: Kirby's signature ability to copy his foe's powers make a return after being absent in Kirby's Epic Yarn. The new ones are Leaf, Spear, Water and Whip — Deluxe introduces Mecha and Sand. The game also introduces Super Abilities, a more powerful version of the regular abilities that Kirby can use to wreck everything on his path and solve big puzzles. Magolor's second form imitates the Super Abilities in the fight against him.
  • Power-Up Mount: In co-op, anyone can be this to each other. It's officially referred to as "piggybacking". You can even stack up all four characters to create a giant totem pole. The character at the bottom gets a unique Combination Attack performed if everyone guards at the same time, and it gets more powerful the more players are involved.
  • Powered Armor: The Mecha ability introduced in Deluxe grants Kirby a suit of robotic armor, including oversized gauntlets and dual shoulder cannons. Kirby can fire cannon shots at foes, punch them with a dash attack, or charge up and unleash a massive, multi-hitting laser beam.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: In Deluxe, the Scope Shot sub-game from the original game does not return, being replaced with a thematically similar game called "Booming Blasters" that acts as an arena-based top-down shooter rather than a third-person Light Gun Game.
  • Recurring Riff: Even though Kirby is already notorious for Recycled Soundtracks, a few themes in this game recur in several different pieces of its own background music, and in several different contexts, too:
    • The main motif from "Road to Victory," the first part of which hits the tonic, subdominant, and dominant notes in that order three times in syncopation.
    • The first part of the "Four Adventurers: Cookie Country" theme, where the brass instruments do a couple of up-and-down octaves through tonic and dominant.
    • The opening bars of "The Adventure Begins," which is very similar to the middle snippet of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Little" Fugue in G Minor's main subject.
    • The "Kirby's Triumphant Return" riff from Kirby Super Star comes back to represent Kirby here.
    • Magolor's Leitmotif is occasionally used like this as well.
  • Regretful Traitor: Magolor is heavily implied to be this. On top of saying he genuinely appreciated Kirby and co.'s help in repairing his ship, the description of his soul form is "A sad shell possessed by the limitless power of the Master Crown, no more than a manifestation of the crown itself". Starting with the New Challenge Stages in Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition, he actually makes peace with Kirby. It's outright confirmed in Deluxe via the Magolor Epilogue, where some of his skill dialogue has him remorsefully reflect on betraying Kirby.
  • Repeat Cut: When Ultra Sword Kirby lands the final hit on Grand Doomer and Magolor's first form, it repeats a few times for emphasis, using different swords each time. In the latter case, he makes his sword massive for the final blow.
  • Retraux:
    • The music for the Item Challenge is a retro-style remix of Green Greens, sounding very similar to the arrangement used in Super Star. This same arrangement also plays in both of the game's HAL Rooms on the Wii version.
    • Some of the new songs are done in the chiptune style of Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
    • The Secret Songs in the Merry Magoland minigames from Deluxe either reuse the original songs or use 8-bit remixes of new tracks.
  • Revenge: The Crowned Doomer's pause description implies that the Grand Doomer was revived by the Master Crown to get vengeance on Magolor for making Kirby gather the pieces of the Lor Starcutter.
  • Rubber-Band A.I.: The Advancing Wall of Doom in the sections in Another Dimension will always be just offscreen, slowly coming into view, no matter how much you think you've distanced yourself from it. But if you are close enough to it, it clearly slows down, and it gets exponentially faster the further away you are from it. You can make the wall reel back by spitting stars at it. This is practically essential to know in later parts of the New Game Plus, where the wall is faster.
  • Sad Battle Music: Landia's theme is somewhat melancholic, foreshadowing that he's not evil, just trying to prevent Magolor from getting his hands in the Master Crown.
  • Sand Blaster: Sand, exclusive to the Deluxe remake, allows Kirby to conjure up sandcastles and waves of sand, as well as a fist made entirely out of sand.
  • Sarcastic Clapping: Magolor, complete with stock "bravo", right before he picks up the Master Crown and reveals his true form.
  • Scenery Porn:
    • True to Kirby form, the backgrounds of this game are vivid, detailed, and colorful. From a bird's eye view of Dream Land to outer space itself, the Kirby series delivers on this trope.
    • The backgrounds in the Another Dimension sections shown after you defeat the Sphere Doomers are hauntingly beautiful.
  • Scoring Points: Present in the optional challenge rooms, which grade you on your performance based on how many coins you grab, how many enemies you beat, how fast you go, and how much damage you take.
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: You can tell American Kirby Is Hardcore when he has his BFS aimed right in the face of anyone looking at the North American Wii cover.
  • Secret A.I. Moves: During the True Arena version of Magolor Soul's fight in Deluxe, his second phase allows him to use Super Ability versions of Sand and Mecha, allowing him to create two large tornados or fire several gigantic mortar rounds and giant laser beams respectively. The player gets no such abilities on their side.
  • Sequential Boss:
    • The only bosses in the Wii version who don't simply have one two part health bar are the Grand Doomer (though the second part of the battle is not played in The Arena and he just explodes), Magolor, and HR-D3. The last is even worse if you're playing Extra Mode instead of The True Arena, as you have to fight it immediately after Metal General EX.
    • The Magolor Epilogue's final boss is one as well — first, you fight the Crowned Doomer, a black version of the Grand Doomer enhanced by the Master Crown, before going on to fight the Master Crown itself in the form of a flying Gem Apple tree. Furthermore, in the remake's True Arena, Magolor Soul now has two HP bars, with two different phases during the final battle.
  • Shamu Fu: When using Ultra Sword's attack, Kirby has a very rare chance of whipping out an oversized tuna.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Raisin Ruins, the second level in Planet Popstar, takes place in a desert.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Whip Kirby wears a fedora. Just to drive the point home, the first stage in which you obtain the Whip has you outrunning rolling boulders.
    • Not only does Sword Kirby regain the Sword Beam at full health, it now has a chargeable Spin Attack! In this game, the Spin Attack hits targets more than once instead of a single time that simply does more damage at once like in its inspiration series, often making it useful for shaving off enemies' health, especially for enemies that are more durable. He also looks like Link.
    • The Stomper Boot is a reference to the Goomba Shoe: An invincible, ridable giant shoe that can walk on spikes, but is only available in select stages.
    • Just in case HAL didn't make Fighter's Force Blast move a direct shout-out to a certain fighting game obvious enough, one of the inputs to perform an instant powered-up version of the Force Blast is down, forward, attack.
    • Some movesets were adapted to resemble the characters' skills from Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
      • Meta Knight can now perform his Shuttle Loop and jab attack from that game.
      • Both the Hammer ability and Dedede have the Hammer Twirl, which is a downwards drilling attack that comes from Dedede's down-air.
    • One of the snow stages features multiple cannons (somewhat standard Kirby fare), although one cannon path features a trail of banana bunches.
    • Halcandra is a combination of the names of HAL Laboratorynote , the company that made this game, and the alien name for Mars in C. S. Lewis' The Space Trilogy "Candra" means planet in Old Solar, and Malacandra is the Old Solar name for Mars.
    • Goriath's hair turns gold and stands up when he Turns Red. And if that's not enough, he's got Kamehame Hadouken attacks, too! And when Goriath EX goes Super Saiyan, he gets a Spirit Bomb. His water version specializes in Teleport Spam, even while preparing some attacks, almost like Instant Transmission.
    • The Lor Starcutter's mast, during the last battle in Another Dimension, has what resembles the Dark Star on its sail. The EX version has what resembles the Dark Star X.
    • The new Mecha ability in Deluxe seems strongly influenced by the Gundam, down to the pointed helmet, mechanical fists, and Wave-Motion Gun.
  • Signpost Tutorial: There are large signposts in the background of the first few stages that demonstrate controls and actions with pictures. If the player follows directions, the sign shows a checkmark and the game plays a chime.
  • Sizeshifter: Whispy Woods, Mr. Dooter, and Fatty Puffer grow in size when they turn red. Deluxe adds Electricky Dooter and Fiery Puffer to that list, being Underground Monkeys of Mr. Dooter and Fatty Puffer.
  • Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: The Pre-Rendered Graphics cutscenes have no dialogue... except for when Magolor reveals his actual role in the plot, which is conveyed entirely through subtitles.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: White Wafers, the fourth level in Planet Popstar, is snow-themed.
  • Snot Bubble: New to this game, Sleep leaves a snot bubble that can be popped to wake Kirby up early (either by button mashing or shaking the Wii Remote).
  • Snowy Sleigh Bells: "Snowball Scuffle," which plays in a stage from the glacial White Wafers, makes sure to start off with sleigh bells, setting the wintery feel right off the bat.
  • Speaking Simlish: Word of God states Magolor essentially speaks "Magolorese" throughout the game and that the subtitles that appear every time he speaks provide translations to what he says. Indeed, it's actually possible to hear his voice in-game when he does so (except during a certain cutscene). It's mostly unintelligible aside from a few words like Kirby's name. invoked
  • Spectacular Spinning: Abilities that make use of weapons can often let Kirby spin them. In particular, the Sword can now perform a Spin Attack and the spear can be spun around like a helicopter blade, making Kirby fly upward and hit enemies in the way.
  • Sound Test: Unlocked after beating the main story, the Wii version was the last Kirby game to call its sound player a Sound Test (as later games don't include sound effects). The remake renames it the Jukebox and removes sound effects, but in exchange, it adds song titles and color-coded composer credits.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Sometimes Kirby's Ultra Sword ability has him use a fish as a weapon. Get it? Swordfish.
    • In the first stage of Nutty Noon, the two main abilities Kirby can find in the first area are Whip and Wing. Whip gives Kirby a cowboy hat, while Wing gives him a feathered headdress that looks vaguely Native American. So Kirby's playing Cowboys and Indians.
  • Stealth Sequel: The remake's Magolor Epilogue turns out to be a Stealth Prequel to Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. The credits show that Magolor ended up in the Dream Kingdom after his decisive battle against the Master Crown.
  • Sticks to the Back: Whenever someone with a weapon needs to use both their hands or play the goal game, they resort to this.
  • The Stinger: The credits of Magolor Epilogue adds a few extra scenes that take place after Magolor defeats the Final Boss. After escaping Another Dimension, Magolor and his Gem Apple are transported to the Castle Village in the faraway realm of Dream Kingdom, and Magolor's tattered robes have transformed into white and green robes. Magolor eventually uses the Gem Apple to establish the Shoppe to do business with the many citizens of Dream Kingdom.
  • Storm of Blades: One of Galacta Knight's attacks when he Turns Red is to summon several energy blades that rain down on Kirby.
  • Superboss:
    • HR-D3 is a Sequential Boss fought immediately after Metal General EX only in Extra Mode and the True Arena.
    • Galacta Knight is a surprise boss exclusive to the True Arena.
    • In Deluxe, Magolor Soul gets a much more difficult battle at the end of the True Arena, bringing him more in line with the "Soul" bosses from the later Kirby games (this also means that the regular version of Magolor Soul is never encountered in any Arena outside of the original game).
  • Super Title 64 Advance: The Japanese, European and Korean titles have "Wii" in them. This is retained in the remake, but only in the Japanese, Chinese and Korean titles.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Since Meta Knight is an ally and playable character for this game, Metal General is made as a substitute for a "knight" boss fight, although it ends up having pretty distinct attacks. Galacta Knight also appears in The True Arena as a more proper substitute.
  • Taunt Button: In Deluxe, Kirby and company can perform various emotes by tilting the R Stick, a feature introduced in Forgotten Land.
  • Teleport Spam: The Grand Doomer, silver-colored Sphere Doomers, Hydriath, and Magolor all teleport all across the screen during their boss battles.
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • Galacta Knight's fight starts out with Landia's boss theme, but when his health drops by roughly half, his theme from Kirby Super Star Ultra starts up and he fights more seriously. When playing as King Dedede or Meta Knight, though, it instead plays the True Final Boss theme of Kirby Fighters 2 and then shifts into Galacta Knight's theme from Kirby: Planet Robobot when he Turns Red.
    • The Super Abilities give Kirby his own Leitmotif, including during the fights against the Grand Doomer and the minibosses in 7-3, but not in the Dangerous Dinner HAL Room in Deluxe where the "VS Mecha Kawasaki" music keeps playing until Kirby leaves the room and not when fighting Magolor, whose own boss theme continues playing until Kirby wins the Blade Lock, at which point the music stops.
    • When fighting HR-D3, its first theme plays Grand Doomer's boss theme. Once it Turns Red, it begins playing Landia's theme. In Deluxe, however, it instead plays Roar of Dedede from Kirby and the Forgotten Land, just to drive the point home that HR-D3 is based on Dedede.
  • Tiered by Name: Almost all of the bosses and minibosses that appear in Extra Mode have an "EX" suffix added to their names, in addition to looking more menacing than their Story mode counterparts.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Whispy Woods has learned to copy Kirby and King Dedede's Vacuum Mouth to Beat Them at Their Own Game.
    • Bandana Waddle Dee. Originally a Zero-Effort Boss in Kirby Super Star Ultra who could be taken out with a single inhale, he has now learned to master his iconic spear and it's clear that his training has paid off with the range of his attacks.
    • Galacta Knight has gotten stronger since we last saw him. While he loses the ability to summon his own Meta-Knights and summon fire pillars, he makes up for it by being able to bring down lightning bolts and create energy swords to rain down on the arena with.
    • In Deluxe's True Arena, Magolor Soul turns Magolor's basic One-Winged Angel form into a force to be reckoned with, making him much stronger, changing his attack patterns, teleporting much faster to the point where he spends more time off in the background, and giving him a new second phase where he just sends every Super Ability at you in quick succession - even stronger versions of the new Sand and Mecha.
  • Totally Radical: Magolor's speech, pre-Evil Plan reveal. Deluxe keeps it going.
Manager Magolor: However, that feature is not available in this demo... Apologies, my dude.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action:
    • Bosses cannot be hurt when they're in the middle of turning red when their health bars drop to 50-60%. Their health bars glow to signify that they're temporarily invincible. Magolor Soul's battle in the Deluxe True Arena stays flashing after the start of his second phase, although he can still be hit.
    • The action freezes while Kirby does his elaborate Super Ability transformations.
  • Translation Nod:
    • The credits theme in Japanese, Chinese and Korean is called "Return to Dreamland," after the American English subtitle. (The English name of the song is simply "Return to Dream Land".)
    • Although Magolor is called Mahoroa in Japanese, the Japanese and Chinese versions of Deluxe make multiple references to his English name, such as the main theme of Merry Magoland being called "WELCOME TO THE MAGOLOR LAND!".
  • Trapped in Another World: Magolor is stranded in Another Dimension in Magolor Epilogue, and must traverse different areas to get his powers back. At the end, he finds a way out that takes him into the Dream Kingdom, setting up the events of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.
  • Triumphant Reprise: In the remake, "Mistilteinn, Tree Crown Without a Ruler" serves as a simultaneous Dark Reprise for the Team Kirby Clash Deluxe main theme, representing the Master Crown's tree form, and a triumphant reprise for "CROWNED", signifying that Magolor has well and truly made his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Turns Red: Every boss does this when their health bars fall to around 60%-50% of their maximum health.
  • Uncommon Time: The Sphere Doomers' Battle Theme Music is in 5/4 time. Its remixes in the Magolor Epilogue change the time signature multiple times, making it even more uncommon.
  • Underground Monkey: Deluxe's Magolor Epilogue introduces all-new elemental variants of previous bosses, namely Electricky Dooter, Fiery Puffer, and Hydriath.
  • Underwater City: One lies beneath Onion Ocean's waters. It is merely a background element and cannot be visited by Kirby.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level: In Kirby tradition. After Magolor is transformed by the Master Crown, Kirby and the gang each ride on a part of Landia into another dimension where this trope takes place. The tradition is played with a bit, though. Most Kirby games take the mystical item that Kirby was assembling over the course of the game, and use it against the final boss, who's usually a One-Winged Angel version of the penultimate boss. This time, you ride the penultimate boss, who's revealed to have been Good All Along, and the item you've been assembling the whole game ends up being turned against you as the Shmup stage boss battle.
  • Unlockable Difficulty Levels: Extra Mode is unlocked upon beating the regular campaign, featuring more enemies, less health, fewer healing items in Deluxe, and harder boss fights.
  • The Un-Reveal: Deluxe features a character mask of Queen Sectonia's original form, but instead of revealing the character's actual name, the mask is simply called "Old Friend", leaving it ambiguous.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Super Abilities don't have many techniques compared to their regular counterparts, but they're all very strong, as they're meant to destroy giant obstacles.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Goriath is said to get very angry, and once he gets mad, he won't calm down.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Downplayed with Magolor. Even though he's the Big Bad of the game, he's mostly the case of Badass Adorable just like any other character in the series. But when he puts on the Master Crown, he gets a more sinister form which gets more creepier as the Master Crown slowly corrupts him. The Master Crown itself plays this trope straight as one of the most dangerous villains of the series, being a destructive creation of evil that is implied to have killed many through darkness and even manages to play the role as the final boss of the remake's Magolor Epilogue.
  • Villain Episode: Deluxe adds the Magolor Epilogue, detailing what happens to Magolor after he is defeated in the main game.
  • Villainous Glutton: The boss of Onion Ocean, Fatty Puffer, is called a "glutton of the sea", and is said to have eaten the Lor Starcutter's Left Wing. His Another Dimension counterpart, Fiery Puffer, is also suggested to be this and is implied to have eaten a Fruit Fragment.
  • Villainous Harlequin: Magolor's boss forms have attacks where they juggle enemies or energy spheres before hurling them at you.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Goriath is when the game starts getting harder. Unlike other bosses, he moves fast and attacks quickly; notably, it's rare for him to actually be on the ground. He also gets some pretty powerful attacks after he Turns Red, and the platform (as he crushes them one after another) becomes more uneven over time.
    • There's also Fatty Puffer, who primarily fights with rolling attacks, which will often flatten you if you're not careful. You better hope that you remember that you can guard them, or else this battle will destroy you.
  • Walking Spoiler:
    • Magolor. It's hard to talk about the plot of the game without revealing the fact that he's Evil All Along and is just using Kirby to give him ultimate power.
    • There's also Landia. Any serious talk about him will become impossible without revealing that he's just an Anti-Villain trying to keep Magolor from gaining the Master Crown.
    • The Master Crown itself. The Magolor Epilogue in the Deluxe remake reveals so much about this supposed Artifact of Power that it basically turns everything we thought about this game on its head.
  • Wall of Weapons: Ultra Sword pulls out an assortment of large swords and sharp objects to cut with, like a standard Kirby sword, Meta Knight's Galaxia sword, a scimitar/cutlass, a butcher's knife, a kendo sword, and in Deluxe, the Gigant Sword. Occasionally, it will also produce a giant fish, a golden paper fan, or in Deluxe, the Morpho Knight Sword.
  • Warm-Up Boss: Whispy Woods reprises this role from the classic Kirby games, being the first major boss the player comes across. His attack pattern is as simple as it was in the earlier titles, even when he Took a Level in Badass by trying to copy Kirby's iconic Inhale.
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: If someone who's not using controller slot 1 (Kirby unless playing as someone else in The Arena) dies, they can come back anytime even without an extra life available (coming back with zero lives just means starting with less than half health). If Player 1 dies, then everyone goes back to the start of the room, like in single-player.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Probably the biggest example in the series pre-Star Allies, introducing the Ancients and the massive lore surrounding them, as well as the revelation of the true creators behind both the Star Rod and the Novas. The Ancients would, of course, become some of the most recurring figures throughout the franchise, even having an incredibly major posthumous role in Star Allies and being implied to have also had another posthumous role in Forgotten Land.
    • In Magolor Epilogue, Magolor is revealed to have ended up in the Dream Kingdom after defeating the Master Crown, effectively canonizing everything from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash, including the Aeon Hero.
  • Wham Line:
    • In Deluxe, one that will affect long-time players of the series (or at least the modern era.) The final boss of the Magolor Epilogue descends without a word... and then the boss display shows the name "Master Crown".
    • Also in Deluxe, to those going into the True Arena expecting it to be the same as in the Wii version, two words on the display let you know it's not going to be as "easy" as you thought.
    "True Arena Display: 20 more."
  • When Trees Attack: Whispy Woods returns as always to fight Kirby and friends. At the end of the Magolor Epilogue, the Master Crown turns into a tree-themed abomination after its shards possess the Gem Apple that Magolor created.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Magolor Epilogue focuses on what happens to Magolor after the events of the main story, eventually revealing that he travels to the Dream Kingdom to become a shopkeeper.
  • Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Dedede spouts a hilariously bug-eyed expression when the Big Bad takes on his stronger form in Deluxe.
  • Wind Is Green: Tornado averts this in the original, where the ability icon is white, but Deluxe plays it straight by not only making the icon a light green, but the tornado itself on Kirby's head also becomes a light green.
  • Windmill Scenery: Several weird windmills are scattered around the bucolic Cookie Country. They seem to be actual trees with three rotating leaves acting as blades.
  • Wintry Auroral Sky: Northern lights are heavily featured in the icy White Wafers. They are bright enough to occur in broad daylight and are very colourful (a mix of red, violet, green and blue). One of the stages features them so prominently that its music track was commonly unofficially named "Aurora Area" prior to Deluxe revealing its official English name of "Freezing Temple".
  • Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Sometimes, the Ultra Sword will turn into a massive Shinai blade.
  • Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Magolor has yellow eyes, which serve as the first clue that he can't be trusted.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: From Meta Knight's pause screen description in the original Wii version:
    "The masked knight cometh!"

Alternative Title(s): Kirbys Adventure Wii, Kirbys Return To Dream Land Deluxe

Top

Magolor

Magolor casts multiple magical energy balls at Kirby.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / EnergyBall

Media sources:

Report