Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, the Nintendo Switch remaster of a classic Wii title, is adding a variety of new features for first-time and returning players to enjoy. One of these additions is the recently revealed mini-game theme park Merry Magoland, owned and operated by the game's secret true villain Magolor. While this mode is separate from the main story of Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, it continues the trend of villains in platformer titles having their own whimsically evil amusement parks.
In this upcoming Kirby title, Merry Magoland serves as a hub for sub-games that can be enjoyed by up-to four players. It features two new sub-games along with eight returning from previous Kirby titles, and these offer players various in-game rewards as well. Kirby and the Forgotten Land featured a similar array of mini-games throughout its hub of Waddle Dee Town, but this new incarnation of Merry Magoland has a more sinister background as it's owned by the game's antagonist, earning it a spot among gaming's other villainous theme parks.
Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park Gives Sonic Colors an Ominous Cosmic Setting
Originally released in 2010 for the Wii (alongside a version for the Nintendo DS), Sonic Colors gained enough praise to warrant a remastered release in 2021 called Sonic Colors Ultimate. The game follows the Blue Blur on a quest to help save the alien race of Wisps from enslavement by Dr. Eggman. It's set in an appropriately colorful amusement park devised to harness planetary energy and ultimately create a mind-control laser that can enslave Earth's population, too.
This amusement park serves as a hub world, connecting the planets that Sonic travels to during his adventure to save the Wisps and thwart Dr. Eggman. The dazzling lights and colors serve to enhance the ominous atmosphere atop the void of space, all while maintaining the whimsy of a typical theme park. As the setting for a high-speed space adventure, Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park sets the bar high for villainous themes parks to come.
Super Mario 3D World's Bowser Land is a Neon Theme Park Fit for a King
Another popular platformer to receive a re-release in 2021 was Super Mario 3D World, which originally launched in 2013 on the Wii U but was remastered alongside the new Bowser's Fury campaign on Switch. Like Sonic Colors, this game features a theme park for its iconic villain in the form of World Bowser, also known as Bowser Land. This world featured some of the game's hardest levels and saw the return of bosses from throughout the adventure, all culminating in a final showdown against Bower's Cat Bell power-up alter ego, Meowser.
The bright neon lights of World Bowser give its world a haunting glow, illuminating a large Ferris Wheel, volcano, and giant Bowser statue against the night sky. The circus aesthetic of the world captures the sinister, yet light-hearted nature of Bowser as a villain while filling the player with unease during their trek to the finale. While Kirby's Merry Magoland doesn't have the same climactic or cosmic feel of these other two villainous amusement parks, it still has an oddly sinister aura for a side mode given Magolor's true identity.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe releases February 24, 2023, for Nintendo Switch.