Kirby's Return to Dream Land (released as Kirby's Adventure Wii in PAL regions for the platform) is a 2011 platform video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the ninth mainline installment and the twenty-second game in the Kirby series. The game's plot follows Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee as they help an alien named Magolor recover the pieces of the Lor Starcutter so he can return home. While Kirby's Epic Yarn was released in 2010, Kirby's Return to Dream Land is the first traditional Kirby platforming home console game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, which was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. The title was released in North America on October 24, 2011, in Japan on October 27, 2011, in Europe on November 25, 2011, and in Australia on December 1, 2011.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land features the staple gameplay of traditional Kirby platform games, in which Kirby possesses the ability to inhale and copy enemies to gain a variety of attacks such as breathing fire or swinging a sword. The game supports cooperative multiplayer gameplay, allowing up to four players to control various Kirby characters, including King Dedede, and Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee.
The game was announced as a GameCube title to be released in late 2005, but development was later shifted to its successor console, the Wii. The game was presumed to be canceled until it was re-announced in 2011. The game was made available on the Wii U's Nintendo eShop in 2015.
Some elements from the cancelled Kirby title of 2005 were carried over to Kirby's Return to Dream Land, such as the ability for players to stack up in a totem carried by the player on the bottom of the stack. Other elements from the Kirby title of 2005, such as Kirby's ability to befriend up to three "Helpers" (a gameplay mechanic from Kirby Super Star), were modified and carried over to another Kirby game, released in 2018 on the Nintendo Switch, Kirby Star Allies. Kirby's Return to Dream Land received generally positive reviews, with praise for the return to form of the traditional Kirby series gameplay, level design, visuals, graphics and soundtrack, but criticism for its low difficulty and multiplayer. A remake for the Nintendo Switch, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, was released on February 24, 2023. The remake was also Vanpool's last video game, before dissolving on May 31, 2023.
