Feature: 15 Years Ago, 'Return To Dream Land' Ushered In Kirby's Golden Era

Kirby has always been one of Nintendo's more consistently successful franchises. While the little pink puffball never had anything remotely resembling a 'dark era' like many other Nintendo series, there was a time around the turn of the century where Kirby began to spin his wheelies a bit. After the 2000 release of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , developer HAL Laboratory immediately began work on Kirby’s next big adventure. Glimmers of a mainline Kirby title for the GameCube featuring the return of the helper system from Kirby Super Star with four-player co-op popped up in various circles over the years, including E3 2005, but a full-on game never materialised.