Kirby's Dream Collection

The compilation was released in Japan on July 19, 2012, and in North America on September 16, 2012. To promote its release, Nintendo organized the breaking of a Guinness World Record for the most people blowing a chewing gum bubble simultaneously. Positively received, with praise for its content and as a celebration of Kirby. Critics compared the title to the Wii re-release of Super Mario All-Stars (1993), describing Kirby's Dream Collection as a better anniversary compilation.

• Title — Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition • Developer — HAL Laboratory • Publisher — Nintendo • Director — * Shinya Kumazaki • Tatsuya Kamiyama • Producer — * Yoichi Yamamoto • Hiroaki Suga • Kensuke Tanabe • Composer — * Jun Ishikawa • Hirokazu Ando • Shogo Sakai • Series — Kirby • Platforms — Wii • Genre — Platform • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

Kirby's Dream Collection includes six playable Kirby platform games: the Game Boy games Kirby's Dream Land (1992) and Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995), the NES game Kirby's Adventure (1993), the SNES games Kirby Super Star (1996) and Kirby's Dream Land 3 (1997), and the Nintendo 64 game Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000). All six games see the player controlling Kirby as he traverses through 2D levels and inhales enemies to defeat them, with later entries introducing the ability to absorb enemies' Copy Abilities and take on their powers. In addition to the GameCube Controller and Classic Controller, all six games have been calibrated for use with the Wii Remote turned horizontally. The game supports up to four players depending on which game is chosen. Like the other four games in the collection, the Game Boy games (Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Land 2) are emulated via the Wii's Virtual Console interface, complete with the "suspending play" and manual features, despite Game Boy titles never being released on the service via the Wii Shop Channel. As a result, the console must be reset in order to switch games. All six games had previously been released separately on the Virtual Console via the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS, though Kirby's Dream Land 2 was not yet available in North America at the time of release. Kirby's Dream Collection also features new challenge stages based on those found in Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011). Each stage gives Kirby a specific Copy Ability, which he must use to clear the stage and achieve a high score, being awarded a medal based on the player's performance. Completing challenges will unlock additional stages where Kirby must defeat Magolor in a race. A museum section features video spotlights and 3D box art for every game in the Kirby series released through 2012, positioned in a timeline alongside real world historical events from each game's release year. The museum also includes three viewable episodes from the anime television series Kirby: Right Back at Ya! ("Kirby Comes to Cappy Town", "Crusade for the Blade", and "Waddle While You Work"). In addition to the game disc, the package includes Kirby’s 20th Anniversary Celebration Book, a booklet highlighting Kirby's history and providing behind-the-scenes trivia about the series. It also includes a 45-track soundtrack CD, containing 42 music tracks from past Kirby games and 3 new arrangements by the HAL Laboratory sound team.

In April 2012, Scott Moffitt of Nintendo of America elaborated on Nintendo's plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kirby series, including mention of a compilation game. The compilation's title was first confirmed at E3 2012, followed by the list of included games in an issue of CoroCoro Comic. Further information was detailed during a Nintendo Direct presentation on June 21, 2012 by Satoru Iwata. The game was released in Japan on July 19, 2012, and in North America on September 16, 2012. It was not released in PAL regions, and was the final first-party Wii game released in North America. To promote the compilation, Nintendo invited attendees at PAX Prime 2012 to help break a Guinness World Record for most simultaneous chewing gum bubbles blown at once. The record was successfully broken with 536 bubbles, exceeding the previous record of 304 set in 2010, and participants received Kirby T-shirts. Players who registered the game through the Club Nintendo rewards program were entered into a raffle to win special Kirby-themed playing cards, with a limited edition medal also being offered. In Japan, the game was also promoted on an episode of the Game Center CX television series.

Kirby's Dream Collection sold over 100,000 copies in Japan during its first week of release. It topped the first position of the Japanese weekly sales charts, outperforming Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 and the newly released Rune Factory 4. It remained on the Famitsu top 30 sales charts for eight consecutive weeks, selling a total of 225,772 copies in Japan. It was Nintendo's second best-selling title on the Wii in 2012, selling less than Mario Party 9 in Japan.