Kirby and the Forgotten Land preview: A classic Kirby romp on Switch

KirbyAnd the Forgotten Land is the pink puffball’s big 3D outing on Switch. Kirby has escaped the confines of side-scrolling and is now free to explore open areas with his friends. But make no mistake: This isn’t Kirby’s The Wild BreathOder Elden Ring. In a world filled with gigantic sequels, where players can explore every nook and cranny of an expansive world, Kirby seems to be taking a more reserved approach, and I’m happy to see him dipping just a single pink toe into a wider world.

A preview of the site Kirby, the Forgotten Land, I was able to play through the game’s first world and boss fight. But unlike previous Kirby games — which typically start with grassy fields and a pissed-off tree — Kirby, the Forgotten LandThe hero wanders through the post-apocalyptic cities. The roads have been dominated by dense vegetation, as well as traffic lights and the bones in a disused mall.

While that’s a fresh setting on its own, the modern land also gives Kirby some interesting new tools. Enter: Mouthful Mode, Kirby’s creative solution for gigantic modern items that he can’t digest. Kirby is not going to grab the car and become it. Instead, he’ll spread his gigantic mouth out over the whole thing and leave his eyes focussed on the front bumper while his feet are blown in the wind by the exhaust. This car is mys to drive around on levels, over ramps and into cracks.

Image: Nintendo/Twitch

Mouthful Mode is a scripted power, unlike the others (flames, fire, ice and the classics). I’ll suck in a traffic cone and use it to pierce a boss’ weak point, for example — then I’ll spit it out to move on with the level. I enjoyed every new Mouthful Mode item. Even though the solutions to puzzles were quite obvious, it was always a pleasant change. Watching Kirby stick his gob over a massive set of stairs or a water tower is such a joy that I’d intentionally spit the item out so I could see the animation again.

Other than Mouthful Mode or the 3D movement of levels around, Kirby, the Forgotten LandThis game is very similar to a Kirby one. My Warp Star allows me to fly between levels and collect Waddle Dees. Then I move on to the next level. There’s no interconnectivity between the missions outside of their grassy post-apocalyptic theme, and each level is linear, with only slight deviations from the central path.

Kirby, the Forgotten LandIt is charming partly because it has such simplicity. It’s adorable, and looks gorgeous. Except for distant enemies that move at single-digit frame rates. Instead of reinventing it, Forgotten LandIt’s giving me the slightest twist to the Kirby formula, which I loved growing up. And when faced with so many other 50-hour-plus games this year, I’m enjoying the relaxing pace of Kirby’s 10-minute levels.

But I left the play session feeling a little bit dreadful. The charm of Kirby’s games is often lost because they are so easy. It’s not that Kirby ever gets less cute — it’s that I don’t want to spend 10 hours making him do the same cute things ad nauseam. I’ve hit the ground running with Kirby games in the past, only to lose momentum when the game fails to show me anything new for multiple worlds in a row. However, despite the series’ historical propensity to be Too simple, I’m optimistic and eager to play more.

At the very least in its first world Kirby, the Forgotten Land does a great job of camouflaging a lot of gameplay I’ve seen before, and it’s showing me just enough new layers that I can’t wait to play more. It will continue to reveal new layers over its lifetime, which I hope is the case.

Nintendo Switch will release the game exclusively on March 25, 2015.