The last time a proper iteration in Nintendo's pink-studded Kirby franchise came out I was a gaming baby, at the ripe ol' age of 10. I still carry nostalgia-fueled memories of "Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards," which stood as my first, and still one of my favorite, games in the series.

And then, over the past 11 long years, Dreamland went quiet. Sure, we got several Kirby titles, and last year we even got "Kirby's Epic Yarn," which was artistically a masterpiece. But none of them were traditional main-entry platforming Kirby games.

Enter "Kirby's Return to Dreamland." From the ashes of three different cancelled Kirby titles comes the true sequel to "Kirby 64," bringing a fun and enjoyable ride of the game to the Wii's draught-dry game line-up of late.

Unlike "Epic Yarn" last year, "Return" has our pink superhero back in all his glory. Floating? Check. Inhaling objects? Check. Copy abilities? Check. Oh, and add super abilities. Double check.

Super abilities are one of the new additions. These allow Kirby to take control of several different suped-up (and nearly unstoppable) versions of the regular abilities he can absorb from enemies. The Ultra Sword, for example, gives Kirby a sword that slashes across the whole screen, destroying everything in its path.

The problem is that while the super-abilities are graphically awesome and fun to use, they are somewhat game breaking: Kirby can just plow though the enemies like a knife through butter. A few of the later super abilities do require some skill, but it's pretty much just spamming through a world. It would be like if Mario could use his invincibility star in half of the levels: it removes having to work to get through a tough spot. They only show up in certain level sections, and there was excitement in finding and trying them all out, but I'm just not sure how balanced they ended up being.

This time around four players can also join in, adding multiplayer flair a la "New Super Mario Brothers Wii." It can be difficult to create a game that is stimulating and challenging for one, and at the same time four, players, and at times having more than one player breaks some of the puzzles or battles. The camera sticks with whoever Player 1 is, so other characters can grab keys or items and simply warp back to player 1 as they walk off screen. I only played through about half the game with a second player, but it felt more like a single player game with multiplayer added on then a true multiplayer experience. No complaints from my end, but it isn't exactly the multiplayer success that "NSMBW" was. It does, however, manage to allow players to jump in and out at any time: Something that no Wii game has really made easy until now.

Ironically, the game's biggest flaw is "Epic Yarn"'s greatest triumph: level design and style. "Yarn" boasted vibrant worlds, and managed to be dosh-garn cute. "Return"'s levels don't feel inspired or inventive. Platforming has advanced at least a little bit in 11 years, and the black-and-white dimension levels were really the only example of something we haven't seen before design-wise, and I wish we had seen that kind of creativity in all of the game's levels.

But, the most important ingredient in this recipe, the overall Kirby spirit, had me smiling and outright happy when I was knocking foes over the head with a sword that could barely fit on the screen. Ninja Kirby easily became one of my favorite abilities, and while I will admit I'm still sad to see the ability-combining from "Crystal Shards" go the wayside, the super abilities ups fill that hole slightly.

Before all is said and done, the game actually manages to throw a few twists at you. The final boss is tough as nails, even with two players, and the game ramps up the challenge in the last few worlds, a very welcome departure from the you-can't-die mentality of "Epic Yarn." Post-game there is a hard mode to complete, challenge levels, mini games, and a boss challenge arena, all of which I was glad to see, especially since they add some additional difficulty. The main story is still on the short side; I clocked it just shy of seven hours, and while I'm sure that number will rise if a player masters hard mode and all of the challenges, playing the same game again, just on a more difficult setting, won't be enough for everybody. There are also hidden energy spheres to collect through all the levels, but without looking too hard I found almost all of them on my first run through.

So, I'm on somewhat of a tightrope here. I'm simply ecstatic to see Kirby return, and the game managed to bring Kirby back in a bold and big way. It was everything that "Epic Yarn" was not in most ways, but it isn't perfect. For Kirby fans, this is the best game we've gotten in a long time, and hopefully won't be the only true Kirby game we see until I hit my 30s.