Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a Mouthful of Fresh Air
Nowadays, it is rare for me to start playing a new game with almost zero expectations. I am someone who always goes into a new game with at least some background of what the game is about and what the gameplay is like. For highly anticipated games that I am dying to play, I unashamedly consume all the content I can find — trailers, gameplay demos and reviews — to hype myself up for the experience that lies ahead.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a game that stumbled onto my radar purely by chance, as my friend owned a copy of the game he was willing to lend to me. I am not a Kirby fan by any stretch of the imagination, and I probably would have overlooked Forgotten Land completely if my friend did not have a copy of the game to try out.
I also had a very limited understanding of Forgotten Land’s premise and gameplay prior to my initial playthrough, having only watched the game’s announcement trailer during a Nintendo Direct (which I was half paying attention to) and hearing some friends talk about the game casually. All I really knew was that it took place in a post-apocalyptic setting, and that the game had post-game boss battles. I definitely did not have an opinion on the game going into it and I had no clue if it would be something that I would enjoy.
After fully completing Forgotten Land’s main story and finishing most of the game’s optional and post-game content, I can confidently say that this game was a welcome surprise with the phenomenal experience it delivered from start to finish. Forgotten Land was a great introduction to the Kirby franchise, with a memorable and imaginative visual identity, fantastic level design that never fails to keep things fresh and exciting, and immersive gameplay that rewards exploration. It is certainly a title that left a strong impression in more ways than one, and a game that I absolutely wish I tried sooner.
I wanted to preface this review by mentioning I will not be comparing Forgotten Land with any other Kirby titles (because obviously I have not played any of them). Ultimately, my thoughts on the game are targeted to gamers such as myself who have no prior experience with other Kirby games.
Design
My thoughts on design encompasses Forgotten Land’s art direction, platforming gameplay mechanics and level design, and how these individual elements harmonize with each other in the game. Forgotten Land’s unique visual identity and differentiated gameplay compared to other 3D platformers is the game’s most noteworthy achievement, and most of my review will be addressing how these facets of the game were flawlessly executed to deliver one of the most creative, one-of-a-kind gaming experiences out there.
Forgotten Land starts off with our lovable protagonist Kirby being teleported to a “New World” — the remnants of a collapsed civilization similar to our own. The main objective of the game involves traversing through the New World to save Waddle Dees captured by the villainous Beast Pack and uncovering the Beast Pack’s underlying motivations. Progressing through the game, I was intrigued by the world itself and what led to its eventual ruin, especially after unlocking and visiting new areas. I did find the overarching narrative of Forgotten Land to be fairly inconsequential for the majority of the game, but the game’s ending was fantastic and succeeded in leaving a lasting impression with some seriously awesome moments and unexpected revelations.
Forgotten Land’s immersive setting and world design more than makes up for the game’s limited narrative depth. Each of the six worlds in the game are differentiated with a distinct color palette, common environmental motifs (e.g. sandstorms, ice, lava) and music specific to the world itself. None of the worlds felt the same, and the deliberate design choice to give each world its own unique theme kept the game exciting throughout and enabled each world to evoke different emotions.
Each world in Forgotten Land features 4–5 stages, and almost every stage in the game succeeds in delivering a different gameplay experience with the majority of stages emphasizing gameplay elements — such as gameplay mechanics and environmental hazards — unique to that stage only. For example, one stage features an unrelenting headwind that Kirby must overcome and another stage takes place in a haunted house with an assortment of illusions and traps. HAL Laboratory’s philosophy for level design prevents Forgotten Land from becoming stale or overly predictable because it forces the player to adapt to gameplay that continuously changes and evolves. Finally, individual stages are also distinguished by the location they are set in. From factories to a desert oasis, each stage stands out visually with their own unique landscape, architecture, landmarks and layout. Some stages even have their own soundtrack theme assigned to it!
Another hallmark of Forgotten Land is the amazing synergy that exists between Kirby’s abilities and level design. Kirby can transform to access new attacks and abilities after absorbing certain enemies (Copy Abilities) and inanimate objects in the world (Mouthful Mode). Although these transformations provide Kirby with new offensive tools for combat, they play an even bigger role in elevating the game’s platforming gameplay and exploration. Every stage in Forgotten Land is designed with Kirby’s abilities in mind, and all of them feature sections where specific abilities are needed to solve puzzles, unlock new areas and safely navigate past obstacles. Highlighting different abilities and introducing new applications of these abilities through clever level design helped these abilities feel more multidimensional and meaningful. None of Kirby’s abilities were forgettable or overshadowed in any way because they were all given multiple opportunities to shine and showcase their usefulness and value over the course of the game.
Lastly, I love how Forgotten Land encourages players to leave no stone unturned when it comes to in-game exploration. From secrets found in the overworld map to blocked areas and hidden paths in levels, Forgotten Land invites players to think outside of the box to determine how to unlock them. The idea that there is always something waiting to be unlocked or discovered in each section of the game really influenced how I played through them, challenging me to look at the game’s stages from different points of view and experiment with different in-game actions to ensure I completed everything before proceeding. Although I liked the added immersion and creative thinking that comes from Forgotten Land having so much to explore and uncover, I did find that these design principles clashed with the inability to backtrack. Moving to a new checkpoint will often lock the player from returning to the preceding section unless the stage is restarted. It was particularly annoying when I realized I skipped over something early in a stage and had no way to return and pick up what I missed.
Combat
Combat is not particularly challenging within the stages themselves, with the hazards of the stages generally posing a bigger threat to Kirby than standard enemies. I did find the combat against regular enemies to be somewhat repetitive because most enemies die within three to five hits. There is sadly not a lot of strategy towards fighting these enemies, as you can just spam the B button and steamroll through most of them. Forgotten Land is a game marketed to children, so I can understand HAL Laboratory’s decision to make combat more straightforward.
On the flip side, the boss battles in Forgotten Land are incredible. All of them feel distinct from one another in terms of design, attacks and overall stage layout, and get increasingly more difficult as the game progresses. Unlike normal combat encounters, more strategic thinking is required to defeat these bosses because they have a wider range of attacks in their arsenal. Becoming familiar with attack patterns and learning how to dodge and counter them is needed to win these tough battles. The endgame and post-game boss fights are unforgettable, and I consider them to be of the some of best combat encounters I have played in recent memory. The higher difficulty of these boss battles demand that the player master Kirby’s abilities and movement, and overcoming these bosses specifically was probably the most rewarding part of the game for me.
All of the Copy Abilities that Kirby can equip in battle are creative and fun to use. The best thing about these abilities is that they all play differently from one another and enable different combat playstyles. Some abilities improve Kirby’s proficiency in close range, while other abilities offer more defensive benefits like being able to engage enemies from a distance with a long-range attack or dodge enemies easier through enhancements to base movement. The diversity of Copy Abilities adds a refreshing element of experimentation to Forgotten Land’s combat, as players have the option to test out different abilities to figure out what works best for specific stages and bosses. This also adds a ton of replay value to the game, as players can challenge themselves by completing stages and bosses with different abilities (or none at all!). Ultimately, I consider Copy Abilities to be one of the most well-implemented features of Forgotten Land because it empowers the player with the opportunity to tailor their gameplay experience and align it to their preferences.
My last thoughts on combat concerns Forgotten Land’s overall controls. I found the game’s controls to be simple, responsive and well-tuned, and I think all gamers will find the game approachable and easy to pick up as a result. Even though the controls are simple, there is still enough depth and nuance for players looking to fully optimize their gameplay. Guarding and dodging, and how to best use these skills in combination with everything else, will take time to master. Becoming proficient in these skills has the potential to be extremely rewarding for players with how much it can elevate their gameplay, especially in the game’s more difficult segments.
Progression and Notable Optional Content
I quite like how Forgotten Land rewards players for venturing off the beaten path to fully explore the stages and uncover all of their secrets, in the form of finding Waddle Dees through secret objectives. Unfortunately, the game does not really provide a great incentive to save every last Waddle Dee. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing in the grand scheme of things, and I would compare it to completing the Pokédex in Pokémon. It is acknowledged and commemorated in the game, but the end reward is just not valuable enough given the effort required which involves playing most of the game’s stages a second time.
Completing the optional Treasure Road challenges scattered throughout the world map is easily the most entertaining part of the main game outside of completing story stages. These challenges are self-contained time trials generally centered around a specific Copy Ability or Mouthful Mode Ability, and serve as the primary method of collecting Rare Stones which are used to upgrade Copy Abilities. These challenges were not particularly difficult, but I found them enjoyable because these levels were well-designed, easy to get into and replay, and creatively highlighted Kirby’s assortment of unique abilities.
With the main story of Forgotten Land generally being on the easier side in terms of difficulty, I admire the ways Forgotten Land caters to players looking for a greater challenge through the Colosseum and post-game stages. The Colosseum is a boss rush mode which contains the most difficult sequence of encounters in Forgotten Land rivalling some of the hardest games out there. For the post-game stages, players will find them comparable in design and layout to the stages featured in the main story, but with more challenging obstacles and boss encounters. The increase in difficulty is immediately noticeable for these stages, but this ultimately makes completing them immensely fulfilling and satisfying. These stages offered plenty of surprises from a narrative and gameplay perspective, and were also fairly substantial content-wise as it can take upwards of four hours to beat all of these stages.
Conclusion
Finishing Kirby and the Forgotten Land was one of the most worthwhile gaming experiences I have had all year. Although Forgotten Land is not perfect, the amount of love and polish HAL Laboratory put into the game’s world more than compensates for the game’s shortcomings. The game’s innovative and diverse level design in combination with Kirby’s expansive set of abilities makes Forgotten Land’s 3D platforming gameplay incredibly engaging, unpredictable and fun. I would highly recommend Forgotten Land to Switch gamers looking for a dynamic new adventure to sink their teeth into, and I wholeheartedly believe this game does more than enough to meaningfully distinguish itself from other titles in its genre.
