Author: Rich Meister
Kirby thrives on reinventing himself; back when Masahiro Sakurai first introduced us to the pink ball of destruction, he aimed to make a platformer that anyone could enjoy where the player could make their own challenge. Kirby and the Forgotten Land may have the outward appearance of another game reinventing the Kirby formula like Planet Robobot. Instead, they take the classic Kirby formula and attempt to move it into 3D.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land(Switch)
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Released: March 25, 2022
MSRP: $59.99
Like many of Kirby’s adventures, Forgotten Land begins with Planet Popstar being assaulted by some malevolent force. This particular baddy sees Kirby and a lot of Waddle Dee (Waddle Dees?) mysteriously transported into a post-apocalyptic world that looks suspiciously like ours. Kirby is also joined by a new ally called Elfilin, a strange cat-like creature hunted by the same beasts capturing our Waddle Dee friends.
After rescuing Elfilin and the first group of Waddle Dee, Kirby gains access to the hub world of Waddle Dee town. Here you can play a bunch of mini-games like fishing and a diner dash style game to earn extra rewards and currency. As the game progresses, you’ll also unlock an arena to fight optional bosses, and you’ll be able to visit the weapon shop and upgrade Kirby’s copy abilities. You can also have Bandana Waddle Dee join you as a second player from the village. While his skill set is limited his overall strength scales with Kirby’s copy ability upgrades.
Like every other game in the Kirby series, Kirby can absorb certain enemies to get new attacks like shooting fire or gaining a sword. As a fun edition, you can find blueprints to upgrade these abilities turning Kirby’s fire ability into a magma blast or transforming your hammer into a stronger stone one.
Kirby’s transition to 3D feels pretty great overall; At the same time, the level design of this dreary post-apocalyptic world is a significant departure from the upbeat designs of Planet Popstar; the environments are a bit unexciting, but the platforming uses Kirby’s swath of abilities well and like past 2D Kirby games levels are filled with extra objectives for the player seeking a challenge.
Forgotten Land’s other prominent new feature, Big Mouth Mode is, also brings fun new ideas to the franchise. Some objects like cars, portable staircases, or giant lightbulbs are just too big for Kirby to swallow, and as a result, instead of them giving Kiry special powers, he simply molds to their shape and takes on their properties.
This results in the horror that is car Kirby or gigantic water balloon Kirby. These segments aren’t overused but also make regular enough appearances to keep things interesting, and car Kirby handles surprisingly well.
Visually Forgotten Land looks great both in TV and handheld mode. Hal Labarotary’s cartoon style doesn’t require anything too intensive to look gorgeous, but some of the realistic landscapes are breathtaking. It's also super weird to gaze at the hyper-realistic texture on King Dedede’s coat.
As usual, Kirby and the Forgotten Land rocks a killer soundtrack; just listen to that opening music video and try not to bop along.
Verdict: Kirby and the Forgotten Land takes the best of classic Kirby and successfully migrates it into a 3D format. Unlike so many Kirby games that feel like weird experiments, Forgotten Land feels like a proper evolution for the series, and it’s about time Twinkle Popo got the successful main console game he deserves.
Buy it
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]