Kirby and the Forgotten Land Review – Stretching Into A New Dimension

Nintendo’s insatiable pink mascot finally has his first full-featured 3D adventure with Kirby and the Forgotten Land. He is entrapped in a vortex and transported to a post-apocalyptic unknown world. Kirby manages to transition seamlessly into the third dimension, using both his previous tricks and newer tricks such as Mouthful Mode. 

Kirby’s classic suite of abilities are all here and are as fun to use as ever, only now he’s able to use them in 3D space. To fire at his targets, he can also jump and float and vacuum items and enemies into his mouth. I rarely felt like I wasn’t in control and I’m able to platform with precision when it’s required. The series’ staple of copy abilities that let Kirby absorb an enemy’s powers and use them as his own is, as always, the foundation of his arsenal. This includes giving Kirby a sword and making him a Katamari-like rollin’ ball of needles. Also, creating huge, screen-clearing explosions using the Crash ability.

After finding the appropriate blueprints within levels, abilities can be improved in Waddle Dee Town. Each attack style gets new tweaks and twists thanks to these upgrades. I love the Bomb skill’s evolution. This allows for regular, rollable bombs to be traded in for those that can chain together. The more they are attached, the bigger the explosions. Another evolution permits the use of homing explosives. You can swap these powerful abilities with earlier versions. However, while each variant has its own use case, I have never seen a need to upgrade. When Kirby’s natural talents aren’t enough to get him through certain obstacles, he can stretch into a new realm of transformations in the Forgotten Land.

Mouthful Mode is a new tool at Kirby’s disposal that allows him to vacuum up large objects with awkward shapes, stretching Kirby’s form around it to take control to solve puzzles. With a mouthful of traffic cone, Kirby can slam the cone-tip into cracks in the ground to break through to what’s beneath. He can also speed through the levels and smash through any obstacles by eating a car. You will find these Mouthful objects in almost every level. Although they are usually restricted to a certain area to serve a particular purpose, there is more freedom to use them throughout the levels. Almost every form of the Mouthful is good for taking down Beast Pack minions. I’m happy to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. Often, if a level doesn’t force Kirby to cough up one of these abilities when expected, there’s a reason for it, making for an opportunity to explore even further. The Mouthful Mode game is great fun. Each level can be broken up and every transformation has a unique pace. It is a great way to bring a smile on my face when Kirby discovers a new and useful gadget.

While I enjoy just about everything about Kirby’s moveset, I have a couple of tiny grievances to air. Kirby’s inability to move vertically is one unfortunate side effect to moving to 3D. This limits his ability to climb higher than expected. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s frustrating when I can’t jump up to a surface that looks scalable, while other times, I can make daring escapes from pits with ease. It’s also slower than most Nintendo platformers making exploration difficult. This is made up for a bit with fun exploration and abilities that can sometimes accelerate the speed at which Kirby moves throughout the varied areas of the new world he’s been stranded on.

Kirby discovers himself in this land filled with overgrown towns, malls and theme parks. The original residents are now gone. The setting is quite different from the typical worlds Kirby visits, and despite the appearance of the lands’ society crumbling into ruin, the game doesn’t dwell on the mystery of why everyone is missing. That’s not to say it isn’t addressed, but the game instead focuses on the urgency of saving the missing Waddle Dees and recovering their ransacked village from the ones who kidnapped the residents.

The Beast Pack is now occupying the Forgotten Land. This formidable group of animals, led by monstrous bosses who have abducted the Waddle Dees, serves as the tentpole boss fight at each world’s conclusion. Bosses are given open arenas to do battle in where the camera focuses on them, unlike the usually fixed camera angles present in the rest of the game’s stages. They have a huge fight feeling. These bosses can be tricky to evade, such as the agile cheetah Clawroline and silly dancing armadillo Sillydillo. This makes battles feel more like a third person action game than a platformer. It was fun to learn the pattern of these bad guys and then conquer them using whatever Copy Ability I could find.

The establishing shot sets the stage for each level. It often showcases the stunning beauty of once-ran places. Forgotten Land looks great, often merging Kirby’s typically whimsical style while accentuating the more realistic areas. Hal’s use of textures, lighting, and depth of field make the game’s environments and important cinematic shots shine. 

Once let loose on a stage, Kirby’s primary goal is to rescue the caged Waddle Dee’s found at the end of every somewhat linear, yet explorable, level. There are also a few secondary objectives that can be completed in each level. These will reward you with more Waddle Dees. Finding secret rooms and taking down want posters was a fun way to spend my time. It’s a natural way to extend my visit to each level, and I find myself returning to unfinished tasks to search every nook and cranny and fully complete a level. The mainline levels aren’t all that difficult, leaning more on general exploration than platforming prowess. That’s not to say there aren’t tough moments, but the difficulty I often craved was to be found elsewhere in the world.

Treasure Road is an extra stage that comes with the world’s standard level. These are great challenges and I enjoyed going to any lengths to conquer them. They provide Kirby with the Copy Ability or the Mouthful type of the level and require the player to complete the stage within a specified time limit. These side missions are worth the effort. A treasured Rare Stone can be earned by completing Treasure Road levels. This Rare Stone is available for use in ability evolutions. These helped me recognize the nuances of Kirby’s many abilities and were a lot of fun to solve and complete the task at hand. Every Treasure Road level is more difficult to reach, and each one rewards me with additional coins.

The loop involved completing all the levels and hitting the Treasure Road stage. I then returned to Waddle Dee Town and checked out the new buildings. I also developed my Copy Abilities with Rare Stones, blueprints, and augmented my Copy Abilities with the rare stones and blueprints that I discovered on my travels. There always feels like there’s something new to check out, fueling the urge to dive into another level. Fun diversions include the many minigames you can unlock around town, such as a simple foodservice game inspired from games like Cook, Serve, Delicious, or fishing in a hole. The boss rush at the colosseum offers more challenging tasks and rewards with blueprints, coins or other collectibles.

Kirby’s Forgotten Land and Kirby is a great game and should be enjoyed by platforming enthusiasts and Kirby. This isn’t quite the pink puff’s rendition of Super Mario 64, but it brings the series successfully into the 3D realm and doesn’t need to rely solely on its latest entertaining gimmick. Kirby remains charming and can provide hours of fun.