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    Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe – Is There Online Multiplayer?

    Kirby and friends can travel between planets and dimensions, but can they pass through the internet?

    The co-op in the Kirby series is legendary, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe continues the tradition. Whether in Story Mode, Extra Mode, The Arena, Magolor Epilogue, or Merry Magoland’s ten mini-games, up to four players can compete and cooperate throughout the game. “Drop in/drop out” multiplayer makes this a breeze; there’s no need to go in and out of modes or quit out of levels. Instead, players just hold the Y button to join or leave a session. Whether you’re helping or hindering each other, it’s a ton of fun. With the recent release of the new Nintendo Switch platformer, players are wondering if there’s a way they can share the experience with their friends through online multiplayer.

    Is There Online Multiplayer?

    The Egg Catcher mini-game in Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
    What’s more fun than guzzling eggs? Guzzling eggs against friends.

    Unfortunately, no, there’s no true online multiplayer in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Playing together in the game’s primary platforming modes or competing head-to-head in its mini-games is a strictly couch co-op affair. There’s no way to initiate online multiplayer for these modes.

    What does Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe connect to the internet for then?

    Actually, there is one mode where you can compete against other players online, but it works more like a leaderboard than live online multiplayer. In Merry Magoland you can unlock an online-enabled version of Samurai Kirby: Samurai Kirby 100. In this game, your fastest reaction time serves as your score, where you’ll be ranked among 100 other online players once per day.

    Aside from the single internet-connected sub-game, the host of the Merry Magoland hub, Manager Magolor, can give you fun facts about the feats Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe players have accomplished. Speaking to him at the time of writing, he tells me players have collected 10,101,058 Magic Tomes in the Tome Tracker mini-game, the most popular dress-up mask among all gamers is the Dark Meta Knight one, and that 82,299,789 food items have been consumed by everyone’s Kirbys combined in Story Mode. Playing online enables players to add their stats to these totals, and allows Manager Magolor to tell you these fun facts as well.

    Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is available now on Nintendo Switch. A free demo is also available to download, featuring three story stages and two sub-games from Merry Magoland for players to try.

    BusterSwordBoy
    BusterSwordBoy
    BusterSwordBoy is a video game enthusiast who writes about them here, plays them live on Twitch, and talks about them endlessly to anyone who will listen. Subjectively believes that the PS2 is objectively the greatest console of all time, but also loves games from far older hardware, and new releases as well.

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