Thank you to Nintendo UK for providing this game for review!
HAL Laboratories is celebrating Kirby‘s 30th anniversary this year, and over that time, Kirby’s been in pinball games, weird touchscreen titles, fighting games, a racing game, and of course, 2D platformers. Despite the variety, a full 3D adventure is something that HAL hasn’t really tried aside from Kirby 3DS spin offs where they tested the waters. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the first major attempt at bringing Kirby to 3D, but it doesn’t just play it safe with simple ideas, it goes above and beyond. Kirby and the Forgotten Land uses the game design and puzzle solving aspects that made the 2D games so much fun and translates it to an unforgettable 3D experience.
STORY
When a portal opens in the sky, Kirby and most of Dream Land’s residents are pulled through. Now, strange animals are capturing Waddle Dees and they’re even after Kirby. How could you stand to look at them getting captured like that? You need to save them!!
It starts simple, but most Kirby stories have tended to be pretty light throughout the beginning and middle up until their final bosses because story isn’t really a focus for them. This one plays out in a similar way, but it has so much more environmental storytelling at play than other Kirby games. With so much more for Kirby to explore, it seems like the developers really tried thinking about ways to use all that space effectively and build a history for this world. Though the characters leave more to be desired, there still are standout moments that make you feel for them.
Bandana Waddle Dee says some things that build on his character in Waddle Dee town once you meet King Dedede for the first time, and Dedede himself has a great moment near the end. The ending almost leaves Kirby sad and I couldn’t help but feel the same way. It isn’t all bad after the credits roll though, there’s a post-game story too!
GRADE: B+
Forgotten Land, like all Kirby games, is light on story since that isn’t really a focus for it. But, it does use its new 3D environment to make you wonder how the world ended up this way so it can build on that curiosity with story explanations at the end. That extra level of detail makes the world seem so much more connected and easily makes it one of my favorite Kirby stories.
PRESENTATION
Forgotten Land looks amazing! It’s exactly how you might imagine Kirby in 3D and more. Its gorgeous lighting really makes the worlds look bursting with color while still demonstrating a clear focus on enemies and Kirby himself. The UI looks the best it ever has and features health bars that fade in and out whether you’ve taken damage, a small choice that really helps put more focus on the worlds you’re exploring. The game’s transition effects also work so smoothly with the rest of the game. The only graphical problem I noticed is a problem for a few Switch games: a drop in frame rate for far off enemies. It’s not a huge deal since it doesn’t affect the gameplay, but it can be pretty badly noticeable sometimes.
The new bosses have some pretty average designs, but the mini-bosses and average enemies each have some fun, wild-themed looks to them. King Dedede has been redesigned in every main series Kirby game he’s been in recently including Forgotten Land, and this time, his new design looks a lot more round and huggable, so I’m fine with that as long as there’s a plush of it soon. The final boss sequence definitely features the coolest designs in the game when it comes to both the bosses themselves and their fights’ environments.
The music overall was good, but there weren’t really any tunes that stuck with me… except for the awesome main theme song! There’s even a version of it that includes vocals during the beginning and that was such a great way to set the stage for the rest of the game.
GRADE: A
Far-off distance framerates aside, this game will fulfill whatever presentation expectations you have of a 3D platformer and go beyond. From the super-clean UI and well-suited music to colorful environments and wild designs, it was all fun to experience!
GAMEPLAY
For 3D platforming, moving around the world fluidly is one of the most foundational aspects. Thankfully, Kirby nails this, and the movement feels so polished. Of course, Kirby’s no acrobat like Mario, but jumping up and down feels responsive and light like bouncing a ball – it’s fun!
Kirby’s 2D games really lent themselves well to his copy abilities with four simple directional inputs for each one, but with so many options in 3D, how does Forgotten Land handle it? It seems clear that abilities needed to be restricted more when it comes to the amount of moves they have, but that doesn’t mean they can only do one thing. They still have their usual main moves along with one or two others, like slightly more fleshed out forms of the abilities in Kirby’s Adventure on the NES.
In fact, all of the abilities are taken from Adventure except two new kinds: Drill and Ranger. Drill is an interesting concept that really can only work if you can move around in 3D, but it really didn’t have much use aside from puzzle solving for me. Ranger has more utility, it’s similar to Kirby’s old Laser ability except charging a shot turns the game into a shooter minigame, and the game includes target puzzles all around that only this ability can hit.
That adds up to 12 copy abilities, or 10 if you don’t include Sleep or Crash. That’s about half of what Kirby’s Adventure had. There is a feature that kind of makes up for this though: ability upgrades. These upgrades will give some abilities more ways to use them, more power, or a little of both. Most abilities can upgrade one or two times before reaching their limit, but none of the upgrades are really drastic enough that I would call them brand new abilities. I think they were great options to try using existing animations and interactions while giving something new to the player, but I think adding a few more brand new abilities and limiting all abilities to one major upgrade would have been my preference instead.
One reason for less access to standard abilities may have been the brand new addition of Kirby’s Mouthful Modes. Much of the level design in Forgotten Land is focused on these new kinds of abilities. These abilities can let Kirby control cars, stairs, and more. Each Mouthful Mode got a spotlight somewhere since there are so many puzzles for them all. They were all great ways to break up the standard copy-ability gameplay with puzzles that take a different angle… or take a scissor lift or stairs!
The level designs are all pretty great translations of Kirby‘s 2D formula with exploration being even more of a focus since Kirby has goals for each level to find extra captured Waddle Dees or do secret tasks. Puzzles with abilities seemed a little too lenient this time though. By that, I mean most ability puzzles would give you the ability you need to solve it right next to the puzzle, so it doesn’t really make them challenging to figure out.
Finding more Waddle Dees through those puzzles increases the amount of things to do in Waddle Dee Town, like minigames, item shopping, and more! The progression with them is fine as it is, but I do wish there were more things you could do with the Waddle Dees in town, like extra buildings you could choose to create with them or tasks you could assign them to do, like some kind of RTS minigame.
The minigames that are in Waddle Dee Town now are a lot of fun though. Fishing is a fun test of button reflexes and café working can get hectic, but it’s worth it for so many happy Waddle Dees! There’s even one that has you use the controller’s gyroscope to roll a ball around a maze. Each game is simple, but there’s nothing wrong with simple fun. Not to mention, two out of three of these games also feature options for two players! Café serving with a friend is chaotic fun, and fishing keeps a quick pace, even when either player catches a fish.
Speaking of multiplayer, this option is also available anywhere else in the main game. Player 2 might get dragged around by Kirby a lot of times so the camera can function correctly, but it’s great to have the option for someone else to jump in if there’s a puzzle somewhere that you can’t figure out, or something you can’t find. Bosses can be fun with two players too, but I don’t think any of the bosses really chose to target Player 2.
Bosses get more fun as the game goes on, and I really liked the ones that had some platforming challenges in them, like Tropic Woods and the game’s amazing secret final boss. Near the end, I needed to learn dodge rolling in order to dodge bosses’ really quick attacks, and I really appreciated that difficulty scaling. The final few bosses in this game are probably some of the toughest in the series!
GRADE: A
The core gameplay of Forgotten Land is a lot of fun! Some things left more to be desired like more complex abilities, more difficult puzzles, and more uses for Waddle Dees, but it hits home in every other way! Bosses feel like great tests of skill and Mouthful Modes are fun ways to break up standard gameplay.
VERDICT
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a true evolution of Kirby into 3D, and HAL Laboratories didn’t hold anything back to make this a memorable game to celebrate 30 years of Kirby! The presentation, gameplay, and even the story each feel almost perfectly translated to fit into this new 3D mold, and I loved it all. It might be my favorite modern Kirby game! The only restrictions come in its far-off low framerates and simpler copy abilities. Whether you’ve tried a lot of 3D platformers, you’re already a Kirby fan, or you’re more into 3D platforming than anything else, this game is an unforgettable experience that you really need to try!
Overall, I’d give Kirby and the Forgotten Land an A.
I love translation, writing, and talking about video games. MOTHER has been the series that's inspired me the most - from Itoi's writing to the MOTHER 3 fan translation. I research gaming translations and storytelling through games. I'm also making a game called GNOMONIC. I appreciate any constructive comments to help me improve.
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Thanks for the review! This really sounds like one for the books when it comes to good, memorable Kirby games. 🙂