Kirby and the Forgotten Land Preview – Hands-On With Kirby’s New Mouthful Adventure

Kirby returns to the Nintendo Switch later this month in the new 3D platforming adventure, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It takes Kirby to another dimension, away from Popstar. He is taken to an area that looks very similar to Earth in the first levels. To survive and explore the Forgotten Land Kirby must use his Copy Abilities as well as a few tricks such the meme-able Mouthful Mode. This week, I was able to go hands-on with the first world of the game, similar to what Switch owners can play today in a new demo that’s now available through the Nintendo eShop.

Leave it to a Kirby game to make what looks to be a post-apocalyptic environment charming and delightful despite the dire implications of the setting’s entirely missing civilization. I was allowed to play through the entirety of the first world, the dilapidated, overgrown city environment called Natural Plains. Levels such as the Downtown Grassland and A Trip to Alivel Mall show plenty of signs of life despite the disrepair of the buildings and streets. Moss, vines, and grass have taken claim to swaths of concrete and steel, while wildlife like the new adorable doglike enemies called Awoofies have taken residence in place of whoever built and lived or worked in these abandoned structures. Many of the walls and streets are cracked and fragile, offering plenty of places for Kirby to crash and blast through to find hidden areas or secret items.

While this new Kirby adventure is a break from its 2D roots, opting for 3D control and environments, it plays more like Mario 3D World than Mario Odyssey. Kirby is able to perform the basic moves of his character as usual. To reach greater heights, he can jump, run and inflate his self to float up into the air. And Kirby can, of course, still consume enemies and spit out their starry essence to deal damage to foes as well. He uses these moves to traverse levels that are linear in nature, ushering Kirby from start to finish, solve platforming or environmental puzzles, gobble enemies, and gain powers along the way. I was worried about bringing Kirby’s naturally floaty controls into a complex, 3D world, but in a matter of minutes with my hands on Forgotten Land, my concerns were briskly cast aside. Everything Kirby does – running, jumping, floating, and vacuuming objects – feels tight, and, for the most part, precise. Precision is important with many of the powers Kirby can take on through Copy Abilities, and even the new Mouthful Mode.

Mouthful Mode is every bit as charming as it is in the trailers. For the uninitiated, Kirby can consume specific objects that are too big a bite for him to chew, leaving Kirby’s pink skin stretched around that thing and somehow taking control of that oversized snack. The mouthful mode is when Kirby breathes in a worn-out car. He then stretches his face over the body, and leaves the wheels and chassis exposed. The car was then able to be driven around the surface, smashing through cracks and doing sick leaps over gaps with a tire-burning booster.

Kirby’s insatiable appetite doesn’t begin and end at cars, though. Mouthful Mode is all over the Natural Plains levels. Kirby can snarf down vending machines to transform into a large, waddling, box capable of shooting a small amount of soda from his mouth. He can also shove a staircase through his gullet, allowing him to reposition steps that are difficult-to-reach platforms. It can also be used to smash enemies or topple over crates. There is no limit to what stairs can accomplish. Mouthful Mode can look like a shallow gimmick at first glance, but I’ve found it to be an entertaining component to puzzles so far. I rarely kept these forms for long since many limit mobility considerably. Even though Mouthful Mode is the mainstay of Kirby’s arsenal and his Copy Abilities still work, it doesn’t matter.

Enemies or elements found in levels absorb these attributes, which transform the hero into the essence whatever food he eats. The opening world of Normal Plains features classic copy skills such as Fire, Cutter and Sword. However, these attacks are more complex than previous versions. To make it more fun, Kirby can hit the attack button with Bomb to send an explosion in any direction she is going. You can also throw bombs into any direction to cause more damage wherever you go. Standing still (or while in the air) and holding the attack button would trigger an arched aiming reticle, allowing for precision tosses to rain from the sky wherever I deemed it to land. There are many moves for every copy skill that you can use. 

New to Kirby’s Copy Ability slate, and playable in these early levels, is a power called Ranger that equips Kirby with a pistol-like gun which he can shoot forward in any direction. There’s also a charge attack that lets Kirby aim the projectile in any direction and blasts a large projectile at a specified area. This is a unique and interesting ability. It can be used in target shooting situations to find secrets or to cap baddies from the other side of the stage. Treasure Road was a challenging series that tested my abilities in these areas.

Natural Plains features seven Treasure Road levels that set Kirby up with a specific Copy or Mouthful ability and task him with using those moves to finish a level within a time limit. Ranger Challenge features moving targets that you must shoot at distances while enemy cannons and other enemies may occasionally fire at you. Another 3 star-rated challenge popped a traffic cone inside Kirby to use to break water mains and ride the torrent of water upwards to the next part of the level. Some levels require less time than others, and some may take longer depending on your skill level. Completing a Treasure Road challenge earns me a Rare Stone. It is a technicolor crystal star which can be used to upgrade Copy Abilities at Waddle Dee Village.

Kirby’s main objective in each level is to rescue caged Waddle Dees at the end of each level segment. Many are placed right on the critical path and are hard to miss, while others require seeking out hidden corridors or environmental triggers set off by specific copy abilities. Earning more Waddle Dees is possible by performing tasks such as making several flowers bloom, or driving around in Car Mouth mode and not falling off of a cliff. Waddle Dee Village houses all Waddle Dees that have been saved. All Waddle Dees collected will be used to rebuild the town. Buildings rebuilt during my time in the first world include a movie theater where cutscenes can be replayed and Waddle Dee’s Weapon Shop where Kirby can upgrade and evolve each Copy Ability at the cost of blueprints, Rare Stones, and Star Coins, which are the main collectible. These upgrades can greatly change abilities, like when Cutter is evolved into Chakram Cutter, which adds significantly more projectiles to attacks and changes the look of Kirby’s hat and the weapons he throws.

You have more to discover, Treasure Roads you can conquer, upgrades to your abilities, and Waddle Dee structures beyond the Natural Plains. I am excited to find it. I’ve had a great time with the early hours of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but these opening levels really feel like the prologue setting up a grand adventure with more challenge and turmoil. The tail end of the five main levels I played offered plenty of exploration and threatened to take Kirby’s life down to zero more than once, but the final threat of my preview, a big gorilla boss named Gorimondo who does require a tiny bit of pattern recognition and a whole lot of bombs in the face to take out, was a snore. My hope is that Kirby’s first truly 3D adventure provides a little more depth in gameplay and keeps offering increasingly weird and wonderful Mouthful moments. If these two elements follow the same path, then I feel I will have an amazing vacation in The Forgotten Land.