Kirby and the Forgotten Land

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Kirby and the Forgotten Land
No one can hold you back. New fields full of mystery.
The sky's opened up, and there's so much to see.
Protagonist(s): Kirby
Genre(s): Platformer
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
Release Date: March 25, 2022
Developer(s): HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Country: Japan
Series: Kirby
Predecessor: Kirby Star Allies
Kirby Fighters 2
Successor: Kirby's Dream Buffet (by release date)


Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on March 25, 2022, and is notable for being the first mainline game in the series to transition from side-scrolling 2D gameplay to that of 3D platformers.

Plot

As Kirby rides along with Dream Land on his Warp Star on another peaceful day, the skies darken as blue star-shaped rifts open and start sucking everything in the area into the other side. Kirby tries to flee but is struck by a tree and sent into the vortex, losing consciousness. When he awakens, he is now on the shore of a mysterious new world where urban architecture has been reclaimed by nature. Teaming up with Bandana Waddle Dee and a floating chinchilla-like creature named Elfilin and armed with Mouthful Mode (which allows him to stretch over objects he inhales and gains their properties), Kirby sets out through the Forgotten Land to save the Waddle Dees captured by an army of fierce animals known as the Beast Pack and explore the various mysteries of this new world.

Why It'll Never Be Forgotten

  1. The transition from 2D to 3D gameplay is an excellent innovation for the mainline Kirby series, and just like the 3D Mario games, the core mechanics of the series translate near-flawlessly to the extra dimension.
    • To account for this, several quality-of-life improvements were made to the gameplay. For example, whenever Kirby sports a star at his foes, it wall automatically fly toward the nearest enemy, and he swallows any enemy with a Copy Ability by default.
  2. Breathtakingly beautiful graphics that are a major step up from previous games. The mix of bright, vivid colors and detailed textures on almost everything in the game makes it feel a lot like a PS4 and Xbox One game or even PS5 and Xbox Series X/S games.
  3. The game's primary mechanic, Mouthful Mode, is not only a hilarious concept in and of itself, but also allows for creative puzzle design. Most Mouthful Modes are easy to control, and the best part is you don't have to drop your Copy Ability to use it; a button prompt will appear when you are close to the object in question, allowing you to take control of it and keep your Ability.
  4. While there are only 12 Copy Abilities in this game, they can be by upgraded when you find Ability Scrolls in various levels. Their upgrades range from improved attack speed (Toy Hammer, Meta Knight Sword, etc.) to moves that increase your attack radius (Dragon Fire, Space Ranger, etc.).
    • The two new Abilities, Drill Kirby (which allows Kirby to dig underground similar to Animal Kirby from Squeak Squad) and Ranger Kirby (which is literally Kirby with a gun!), are fun additions to his repertoire.
    • This game includes Treasure Road stages to encourage the player to master the various Copy Abilities (including the upgraded ones) and Mouthful Modes to gain Star Stones so they can make Ability upgrades happen.
    • Ice (especially its two upgrades) is the best ability in the game, as it lets you skate through dangerous liquids, like goo, poison, and lava (unless it's lava that is meant to be a bottomless pit, that is), and lets you freeze any enemy.
      • You can freeze bosses, and it does a lot of damage, but you have to press and hold the attack button for long enough while still being able to dodge attacks, and if you lose the ability, they break out of the ice without getting big extra damage.
      • If Frosty Ice or Blizzard Ice hits nothing, they make either a snowman or a big chunk of ice to throw at a foe.
  5. As is to be expected for a Kirby game, the controls are tight and solid. While certain aspects are more limited in this came compared to others, such as flight, it makes the game more challenging while still being fun.
    • If Kirby could gain unlimited height while flying, the platforming would be less challenging.
    • This game also incorporates more action-based elements into the core gameplay, such as a perfect dodge similar to the Bayonetta trilogy or the Wild Era Zelda games.
  6. The local co-op gameplay is great since, like Kirby, Bandana Dee's move set translates well to a 3D environment. His inclusion as the second player's character feels organic, as one of his goals is to rescue others of his own species. However, see FQ #7.
  7. Epic soundtrack composed by Yuuta Ogasawara, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa and Yuki Shimooka, that conveys the atmosphere of the game well. The vocal theme, "Welcome to the New World," sets the tone nicely for Kirby's adventures in the New World.
  8. Balanced difficulty: not too easy and not too hard.
  9. Unlike most post-apocalyptic games (such as NieR: Automata, Jak II, The Last of Us and its sequel), which usually have a gloomy, serious tone from the very beginning, this one manages to maintain a fairly lighthearted and friendly environment throughout a majority of the game, while reserving most of the darker moods for Redgar Forbidden Lands and Lab Discovera.
  10. Kirby's new ally, Elfilin, has a cute design and a heartwarming friendship with Kirby, especially during the Waddle Dee Town side activities. He also manages to be a helpful guide character similar to Cappy (from Super Mario Odyssey), Huey (from Paper Mario: Color Splash), Ezlo (from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap), Midna (from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and Ciela (from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass).
    • The way Elfilin is connected to the main antagonist, Fecto Forgo, is quite shocking: he is in fact the benevolent half of Fecto Elfilis, and the Beast Pack was brainwashed into hunting him down to reunite Forgo with their other half. This is a twist that hasn't been done to Kirby's allies prior, as most of them have either remained loyal throughout the game (Gooey, Adeline, Ribbon, etc.) or betrayed him for their own selfish purposes (Marx and Magolor).
  11. Most levels have unique side objectives for Kirby to do to rescue more Waddle Dees such as making tulips bloom and breaking certain objects, which helps the game break further away from the linear objectives from the other games in the series.
  12. Like the previous games since Triple Deluxe, this game has a set of collectibles, this time being Figurines. You can find these in the stages as well as in the Gotcha Machines in Waddle Dee Town's alleyway, and they provide models of every character and item in the game.
  13. Waddle Dee Town is a very busy hub world similar to that of the Super Mario Galaxy duology, where completing specific tasks in each level will add more Waddle Dees to the town, thus allowing for exploration in each stage. The more Waddle Dees you collect, the larger Waddle Dee Town will become, with new buildings such as the Item Shop (where you can spend Star Coins to purchase stat-boosting potions), Waddle Dee Café (where you can purchase food items and work part-time to feed hungry Waddle Dees) and the Colosseum (where you can battle various bosses in the game, culminating in the final showdown with Chaos Elfilis).
    • The town also has three fun subgames to play, those being Flash Fishing, Waddle Dee Café: Help Wanted!, and Tilt-and-Roll Kirby (the last of which is a clever call-back to Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble).
  14. The boss fights are as creative as always while accommodating 3D gameplay into them. The fights start off by testing your skills while going easy (e.g. Gorimondo) and progressively build up to ones where you need quick reflexes to beat them (e.g. Sillydillo).
    • They even managed to incorporate a fight in the Colosseum against Meta Knight without brainwashing him!
    • The final boss against Fecto Elfilis is just as epic as the ones before it while also being chaotic due to the lasers and portals he creates around the arena. During the climax of the fight, he tries to bring Popstar into the new world, so Kirby must use his Big-Rig Mouth to quick-time events to seal the gate.
      • The fight against Chaos Elfilis is even more chaotic and epic than his normal form; after this battle, Elfilin absorbs Fecto Forgo's soul into him which is very heartwarming.
  15. The game really challenges you to master each Copy Ability outside of puzzles. The Treasure Road stages are a good example, as you not only need to use a given Copy Ability/Mouthful Mode to solve puzzles and reach the Rare Stone at the end, but there's even an optional target time for you to complete for a few coins.
  16. This game's Extra Game mode, a mode that is used to collect Leon's Souls, is called Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams. It's the second one to be canon to the game, making Forgotten Land feel much larger than it already is. It also features the return of Morpho Knight, a boss from the previous game.

Forgotten Qualities

  1. Some of the Copy Abilities have been neutered in the transition to 3D. For example, Bomb is not as reliable as a rapid-fire attack method as it was in the 2D games. Tornado also feels too finicky to control in 3D and isn't as effective on bosses as it was in previous games.
  2. Unlike previous games, there is no guide to using the Copy Abilities outside of Treasure Road stages, so players won't know how to use moves such as Drill Stab with Sword Kirby.
  3. Once again, King Dedede's boss fights use the now-tired "ally is brainwashed to justify them as a boss" cliché, as he is brainwashed by Fecto Forgo. This also applies to the members of the Beast Pack (most, if not all of the bosses) as they were brainwashed by Fecto Forgo too.
  4. While nowhere near as annoying Pyribbit from Triple Deluxe and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe/Super Kirby Clash, Sillydillo's boss fight is still a nasty difficulty spike despite being the boss of the fifth world: many of his moves give Kirby a small window to hit him and his roll attack pretty much requires you to know how to use the Perfect Dodge to avoid it. Plus, Sillydillo can slam his cage to kill you in 1 hit.
  5. Padding: Challenges are hidden from the player before the level is completed. As challenges aren't officially marked as complete until the player completes a level, this makes the task of saving Waddle Dees more tedious than it should be.
  6. Some abilities, such as Morpho Sword and Time Crash, can feel overpowered:
    • Every third hit with a small sword heals you a bit, and every fourth hit with a big sword heals you a bit more.
    • It's even more overpowered with both Life Up and Attack Boost items activated, as you can still take many hits, until you are back to normal health and still shoot beams that do decent damage to enemies. This also applies to Meta Knight Sword too.
    • Morpho Sword charged fully does too much damage to a boss and makes fire tornadoes.
    • Guard + Charge with attack button for Morpho Knight Sword lets you spawn two homing Forgo spirits that can deal decent damage to foes and don't go away when it hits an enemy right away.
    • Not to mention that you can evade attacks like a ghost when using its Dodge, and that you deal a bit of damage to enemies after appearing near or touching them.
    • As for Time Crash, the ability can deal an absurd amount of damage to bosses, making the no damage missions a "very funny" joke.
    • Its effect doesn't go away unless you have no other enemies to hit.
  7. The multiplayer is not really fun, since only Player 1 can play as Kirby, and Player 2 can only be Bandana Dee, there isn't even a way for Player 2 to play as a Kirby recolor, such as Keeby, for example. This can make the game boring and unfair for Player 2.
  8. The game can be scary for younger players, especially in Lab Discovera. Check the game's Nightmare Fuel page on TV Tropes to get an idea of how scary it is. Plus, it may have probably been the first Kirby game ever in history to earn a "Fear Warning" rating.

Reception

Kirby and the Forgotten Land received generally favorable reviews, scoring 85/100 on Metacritic, with many critics lauding it as one of the best Kirby games ever made. High praise was given to the exploration-based level design, upgradable Copy Abilities, Mouthful Mode, graphics and difficulty.

Videos

Trailers

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Reviews

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Trivia

  • Much like with Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby Star Allies, the concept of this game (i.e. 3D exploration) dates back to the GameCube era as one of a few prototypes created for a Kirby game on the system.
  • The first letter of each world spells "NEW WORLD" (Natural Plains, Everbay Coast, Wondaria Remains, Winter Horns, Originull Wastes. Redgar Forbidden Lands and Lab Discovera). This references the world that Kirby and friends end up in.
  • This is the second game to lack a proper game over and a narrator in cutscenes, the first being Kirby's (Extra) Epic Yarn.
  • This is the very first main-series Kirby game in the Kirby series to include voice acting.
  • The development team worked much more closely with the localization teams to preserve the game's original image to the point where the menus were designed in English first to account for text space.[1]
  • This is the first Kirby game to have a fear warning issued by the PEGI.[2]

Game Tips

  1. Remember: you don't need to drop your copy ability to enter Mouthful Mode.
  2. The sliding kick is initiated with the shield + jump buttons in this game. When Kirby has the Sword ability, this is necessary to perform Drill Stab, a move that is necessary to execute Upward Slash and Sword Dive.
  3. Listen very closely to your surroundings, as whenever you hear a feint "wawa! wawa!", that means there's a Waddle Dee close by
  4. The time-slowing dodge won't work with copy abilities with unique shields that don't allow for dodging (such as Ice and its evolutions, and Gigant Sword).
  5. All bosses (including mid-bosses) can be frozen with the Ice ability. Using it on them will slowly cover them in ice them until they're trapped. Once they break free, they'll take a load of damage in the process.

External Links

References

  1. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2022/March/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-4-Kirby-and-the-Forgotten-Land-2187039.html
  2. ↑ https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en_gb/kirby-and-the-forgotten-land-70010000046406.html

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