Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): March 25, 2022
- Release Date (EU): March 25, 2022
- Release Date (JP): March 25, 2022
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Developer: HAL Laboratory
- Genres: Platformer
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
If there is one thing I can confidently say about Kirby and the Forgotten Land, it’s that it is full of surprises.
Before I even get into it, I need to psych you up. Just listen to this song on repeat about two or three times. After that, it should be pretty clear, that we are dealing with a banger of a game here.
Forgotten Land starts in such a simple and familiar manner for pretty much any video game. You quickly get introduced to how the game moves and controls, you test out your boundaries as Kirby and how much you can float, where you can and can’t get to, and then get straight into all the familiar trappings of a Kirby game. It starts pretty linear as you’re running through the level and grabbing your sword Kirby power to start doing the same tried and true thing you’re used to.
But a key difference at this current juncture is how much better it feels to be bopping around in 3D space. Kirby is pretty quick despite being so floaty and when you first grab the sword it feels particularly satisfying to get to swiping away at bad guys. And this is only where the fun just starts gearing up. When you hit that Nintendo Direct cutscene and get to try mouthful mode for the first time, it's as ridiculous and as fun as they made it look in the Direct. The car is the first thing you get to experiment with and it’s the perfect toy to give you to play with. It’s fast, you can crash into stuff without much consequence, and they give you some fun pathing to really get the hang of it. You’re off to the races to jump into the main part of the story, which is rescuing all of the WaddleDees that get kidnapped by… some dogs and some birds. I’m gonna be real here, the story just kind of happens without a lot of context, but more on that later.
This is where I jump off the chronological telling of the review to really dive into the meat of this game. This game just GETS level design. The pathing, the secrets it hides in every corner, the verticality, as well as linear aspects of the levels, are just stellar. Every level has a bunch of objectives that are hidden to you on your objective list the first time you play, displayed as ?????. One of the things I love about this decision is that it encourages you to take your time through your first level play-through to check all your corners and try different abilities as well. Let’s be honest, a lot of us just want to jam sword Kirby into every situation when we play these games. But I really enjoy the fact that the game places enemies in certain areas not just as an obstacle, but as a hint that there may be a purpose for it being there.
The clever ways you can utilize your mouthful abilities and copy abilities to activate parts of the level to unlock secrets later are so incredibly satisfying. I cannot understate how often I had a dumb smile on my face when I figured out the little tricks and solutions to small puzzles to unlock hidden areas. It is so reminiscent of Super Mario 3D World and I think it not only is fair to make that comparison but deserved as well. This is an incredibly competent transition to 3D platforming and puzzling in all of those respects. The side content in the game is really fun as well! The colosseum brings us our version of boss rush which is always a grand time to try and master. There’s a tilt and tumble game that lets you earn star points for solving the little tilt puzzles, there’s a café game for all you overcooked fanatics, and some other side content that’s pretty entertaining of its own accord.
I think the other big shock this game offers is its level of challenge. Sure, you’re probably not going to die very often, if at all, but this isn’t your hold right to win Kirby games of old. Aside from all of the secrets, there is some surprising challenge that comes from the game's boss fights and treasure roads. The Treasure Roads, which are optional levels that give you upgrade points for your copy abilities, (more on that in a bit,) are fantastic at teaching you different ways to use your abilities and then testing your skills with those abilities to their maximum. The first few of them aren’t too bad, but they ratchet up in challenge level as the game progresses for some really intuitively designed levels. I adore the car challenges later in the game for their frantic speed and fantastic track design. I also really love that not only does every mouthful mode get its various challenges, but so do all the copy abilities!
Let me ask you this. How often are you using Needle Kirby in a play-through? Be honest with me, when do you ever willingly decide to use crash Kirby unless you’re in a pinch? Well, what if I told you that you could upgrade crash Kirby into a time stop ability later in the game that could be utilized for puzzles and for massive damage? What if I told you that you could run around pretending to be playing Elden Ring in Kirby with a sword that’s five times his size? What if I told you… you would use sleep Kirby for something other than HEALING???????
The upgraded abilities are a joy and I ended up using all of them throughout the game for more than just required challenges. Upgrading your bombs to chain bombs and then homing bombs is so freakin cool and has so many neat applications later in the game. The fire ability became one of my favorites as I reached its final upgrade, as its movement and strength lent to some of the most fun I had in the game.
I think all of this really comes together to complement just how surprisingly good this game looks stylistically. I love its use of colors and the themes it has for each of its worlds. It isn’t anything super new for Nintendo, but it’s indicative of their commitment to style. You have your desert world, your ice world, your lava world, and then your… well, I don’t want to spoil anything but you get your weird stuff too. Each of the levels in these worlds nails the theme and does its own small things to make them stand out. The small little moments in the background of some scenes where you’re seeing a sandstorm pass by, or rides zipping around at a nighttime amusement park really show how Nintendo can push this little tablet on wheels to its best potential. BUT, (a big but mind you,) this isn’t to say that the switch doesn’t show its limitations with this game either.
There are a lot of spots in this game where it gets choppy. Too many things on the screen can cause small frame dips. The backgrounds move at a half-frame rate sometimes to keep the stuff in focus moving a bit smoother, but that doesn’t make it any less distracting. The choppiness of the game is even worse in treasure road levels where you can shoot for the best time objective to get some extra star points for abilities. It really sucks to be going for a good time, running into some enemies with the car, having the game lag for a second, and trying to recover from the lag to keep your time consistent.
I think the other big limitation this game has is in its story. It REALLY feels like rails to keep the story going. There are some really cool moments, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t make up for how lackluster it is for motivation to keep going. You actually spend the first three worlds just saving Waddle-Dee’s before the next story beat even happens. That being said, the ending of the story for this game is bat-s#*t insane and one of the most anime endings in a game I’ve experienced that isn’t a JRPG.
I was shocked to see that there’s, even more, to do post-game to keep the game moving along as well. By the time I finished the story with 12ish hours in-game time I had about 57% of the game completed. There are so many Waddle-Dees still to rescue, there are gachapons, (their version of smash bros trophies,) there are plenty of side games to dabble with again and I find myself endlessly surprised and delighted with it all.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Wonderful level design
- Great gameplay loop
- Visually vibrant
What I Didn't Like ...
- Choppy at times
- Story is a bit lackluster
9
Gameplay
Fantastic gameplay overall, it just goes to show how dang good HAL Labs is at level design and entertaining gameplay loops.
8
Presentation
If the story was a bit better I would bump this up more. Out of the box though, I still really enjoy the presentation of this game.
8
Lasting Appeal
There is a lot to do in this game, some of which you may not want to mess around too much with. But the good outweighs the meh in this aspect.
8.5
out of 10
