Kirby: Legends of Dreamland

Kirby: Legends of Dreamland is a platform video game
developed by StarHominid Montpellier and published by Nintendo.  The game was released for Wii U in July 2015.
The Nintendo 3DS version was released in July 2016.
Kirby: Legends of Dreamland was originally announced at E3
2014 as a Wii U exclusive and was planned for release in April 2015. However,
the game was delayed and released 1 month later.
Kirby: Legends of Dreamland received critical acclaim upon
release. Many critics praised the game's visuals, level design, controls,
soundtrack, overall gameplay, and the large amount of content. Some critics
went as far as calling Kirby: Legends of Dreamland one of the best platforming
video games ever made. The game was considered a commercial success and won
several awards from video gaming publications.
== Gameplay ==
Kirby: Legends of Dreamland is a side-scrolling platformer,
the same style as the original Kirby game. Kirby: Legends of Dreamland is
playable with up to four local players who may drop in or out at any time.
Players can choose to control Kirby, Adeleine, Rick, or Coo, with additional costumes
available as the game progresses.
Players travel
through each level, fighting enemies and rescuing imprisoned citizens of
Popstar. As the game progresses, players gain new abilities such as running up
walls, swimming and shrinking in size to reach new areas. Certain segments also
see players riding a mosquito, where players can shoot enemies or suck them up
and fire them. If a character is hit by an enemy or obstacle, they will inflate
into a ballooned state until another player can bring him back into the game by
slapping him. Although players can collect hearts that will protect them from
one hit. However, if all players are inflated simultaneously, or if a character
is hit during single play, play returns to the last checkpoint. Throughout each
level, players can collect the animal friends to be summoned in game, and when
you collect crowns, you can put them on your animal friends to double their
ability. There are also Score Coins placed in hidden or dangerous areas that
are worth 50 points each should they be successfully collected.
In order to progress through certain parts of the story,
players need to free the citizens of Popstar. The most common way to get them
is to free them from cages; there is one at the end of each level, with more to
be found in hidden areas. More citizens of Popstar can be found by collecting a
certain amount of points within a level and clearing Time Trials that are
unlocked after clearing a level once. Scoring high marks in either of these
challenges can also earn medals and trophies. Players can also unlock special
“Treasure Levels”, in which they must chase a runaway treasure across a
dangerous course in order to receive a figure. Completing all of the figures
grants access to the incredibly challenging World of the Undead.
== Plot ==
Kirby, Adeleine, Rick and Coo have been sleeping for a
century. During that time, the Dark Matter grew in strength and numbers and so
has King Dedede, who has split into 10 Dark Popstars. Kirby and friends are
awakened by their friend Kine who tells them about the bad news, and tells them
the 20 rulers of the world and some of the citizens of Popstar have been
captured by Nightmare and the Dark Popstars. Kirby, Adeleine, Rick, Coo, and
Kine set out to defeat these new threats. After defeating 8 of the Dark
Popstars and fighting Nightmare, Kirby and friends go to the Battleship Halberd
and confronting Nightmare one last time. After the darkness has been destroyed
and the last two Dark Popstars are sent to the moon, the credits roll. If
eight-hundred citizens are saved, the player unlocks the last world in the
game, Undead Circuit. Once completed, Nightmare is defeated and the player is
rewarded with 20, 000 crowns and 12 new figures. Once the player saves all 1,
400 citizens of Popstar, they unlock Kirby’s crown.
== Development ==
The game was first leaked in an online marketing survey,
which hinted that the upcoming “Kirby: Origins of Dreamland” would include
dragons, vampires, ghosts, the World of the Undead, and also someone dear to
the Kirby series. Subsequently, Nintendo registered the domain names “KirbyLegendsofDreamland.com”
and “Kirby-LegendsofDreamland.com”.
On August 28th, 2014, the game's first trailer
was leaked, revealing several details about it, including new playable
characters, as well as the inclusion of online multiplayer and socialization.
The end of the trailer also showcased Wii U exclusive features such as the use
of amiibo to make figures placed on the touchscreen appear on the game, as
demonstrated with Magolor and leaked it with a figure of Pit from Kid Icarus:
Uprising. Nintendo later released a statement that confirmed its development,
though stated it was "intended as a purely internal demonstrative video,
and in no way represents the final game, the final console or their
features."
The game was officially unveiled for the Wii U and
demonstrated by Nintendo at E3 2014 trade show, Kine appeared as a playable
character in the demo. Though Nintendo has only confirmed the game's release on
the Wii U, Nintendo of America Senior Product Marketing Manager Bill Trinen
stated that Nintendo is considering a 3DS version of Kirby: Legends of
Dreamland.  A trailer at Gamescom 2014
revealed it would be exclusive to the Wii U.
It was originally set to be released on February 25th,
2014 (for Wii U). However, on January 16th, 2014, it was reported to
be delayed. On June 26th, 2014, a demo of the game was released on
the Wii U eShop. The official release date was reported to be April 13th,
2014, but it was delayed further to July 2015. Fans started a petition for the
game to be released on the original date on the Wii U, which had over 22,000
people sign onto it. To appease fans, Nintendo said the Wii U would get another
exclusive demo in the future; however this was just as negatively received. Developers
that worked on the game have also expressed their distaste for the delay, while
creator Masahiro Sakurai was photographed with protesters campaigning for the
release of the game.
In response to the delay, the development team has announced
that they will be releasing the game's Online Challenges mode for free via the
Nintendo eShop, which released on June 12, 2015. This mode features daily
challenges based on one of five scenarios, one of which is exclusive to Wii U,
and features online leaderboards and ghost functionality. They also stated that
with the extra development time, they would be adding new levels, enemies and
more to the game. On April 12th, 2015 it was revealed that Masahiro
Sakurai and StarHominid’s Montpellier team might leave over this controversy
but Nintendo denies Masahiro Sakurai’s departure rumors. According to Tatsumi
Kimishima, President of Nintendo, Star Fox Adventures 2’s poor sales
performance led to the decision of making Kirby: Legends of Dreamland a
multi-platform game.
On May 2nd, it was announced that people who own
a Wii U who downloaded the Kirby: Legends of Dreamland Challenges prior to May
10th, 2015, receive an exclusive costume for Kirby. Pre-orders of
certain versions of the game either come with bonus character Palutena,
inspired by Kid Icarus: Uprising, or bonus costumes for Kirby. On May 14th,
2015, in a Nintendo Direct, 2 new costumes were announced for the Wii U version:
a Mario costume for Kirby and a Luigi costume for Adeleine. On May 10th,
2015, Nintendo announced on the Kirby: Legends of Dreamland site that the
European 3DS version has been delayed to July 24th, 2016 to apply
the "final level of polish" players expect from a Kirby game.
Category:Fan Games
Category:Kirby (series)
Category:Kirby Games
Category:Wii U Games
Category:Nintendo 3DS Games