Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the first true 3D Kirby game, and it's all in all a pretty by-the-books adaptation of the 2D mechanics into the new dimension, which seems to irk many. Certainly, you can't control the camera, but the game often frames the landscapes itself in cool ways, and you have to remember that this game is also made for multiplayer (Although the fact that Bandana Dee is the only other playable character is really stupid). As such, I don't think the game "Not taking advantage of 3D" is a huge flaw.
The thing is though, most of the new copy abilities do take advantage of the new perspective. Drill simply couldn't work in 2D, and the implementation of Ranger is not only surprisingly effective, but adds a lot of variety. This applies to all of the evolutions to copy abilities as well. Just because you can't control the camera doesn't mean the game doesn't take advantage of being 3D at all.
Anyway, going back to copy abilities, there's only a dozen this time. However, a few things do kind of supplement this. First, the aforementioned evolutions. Most copy abilities have three variants, and after unlocking them all you really should never use the first one. The second and third do have their strengths and weaknesses, but are at heart the same abilities with just enough changes to make them feel distinct.
My biggest complaint with the copy abilities is that many don't have any interesting movement options. You can't do dash attacks here or falling attacks at all, and tornado and needle do have more interesting movement, but that's all there is to those abilities. You can press guard + jump to do a Kirby slide kick, so why other copy abilities besides sword didn't replace this slide kick and add an aerial function is beyond me.
The other thing that supplements the low copy ability count is the Mouthful Mode, which are basically situational copy abilities. "Carby", for example, is basically the wheel copy ability from previous games, except more restrictive in where you use it. This lack of freedom with many cool abilities does kind of suck, but it also means levels can be built around these abilities. However, some of these are also subpar or glorified QTEs, so don't expect these to replace all of your favorite copy abilities.
Even that aside, I have a few issues with the twelve we have here. Sleep? Really? Crash? Why not UFO as an OP move if we were going with quality over quantity? And more importantly, was sacrificing some potential copy abilities for gotcha machines and a bunch of glorified mobile games really worth it? Imagine how cool abilities like beam and whip would've been in 3D.
There's also the mission system, and I think a lot of people are missing the point with this issue. I think the way they reveal the missions after beating a level would've been fine, as you now have a good hint when you replay, but many missions themselves simply don't work with that system. I remember I completed every mission in one level except for "Sleep by the pool" or something like that. Even if I knew to do this going in, does it make completing the mission fun? All I would do is go to the pool, inhale the sleeping enemy, and that's it. This isn't a massive deal, as none of this is needed to finish the game, but it's indicative of the fact that the game wasn't entirely focused on what it should've been focused on, and cared too much about side content that's really just a distraction at the end of the day.
All of that aside, the game is still very good. Aside from the frame drops for far away enemies, the visuals are excellent in detail, animation, and interesting settings. The music is pretty good too. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a good game, but it could've been great with better priority.
The thing is though, most of the new copy abilities do take advantage of the new perspective. Drill simply couldn't work in 2D, and the implementation of Ranger is not only surprisingly effective, but adds a lot of variety. This applies to all of the evolutions to copy abilities as well. Just because you can't control the camera doesn't mean the game doesn't take advantage of being 3D at all.
Anyway, going back to copy abilities, there's only a dozen this time. However, a few things do kind of supplement this. First, the aforementioned evolutions. Most copy abilities have three variants, and after unlocking them all you really should never use the first one. The second and third do have their strengths and weaknesses, but are at heart the same abilities with just enough changes to make them feel distinct.
My biggest complaint with the copy abilities is that many don't have any interesting movement options. You can't do dash attacks here or falling attacks at all, and tornado and needle do have more interesting movement, but that's all there is to those abilities. You can press guard + jump to do a Kirby slide kick, so why other copy abilities besides sword didn't replace this slide kick and add an aerial function is beyond me.
The other thing that supplements the low copy ability count is the Mouthful Mode, which are basically situational copy abilities. "Carby", for example, is basically the wheel copy ability from previous games, except more restrictive in where you use it. This lack of freedom with many cool abilities does kind of suck, but it also means levels can be built around these abilities. However, some of these are also subpar or glorified QTEs, so don't expect these to replace all of your favorite copy abilities.
Even that aside, I have a few issues with the twelve we have here. Sleep? Really? Crash? Why not UFO as an OP move if we were going with quality over quantity? And more importantly, was sacrificing some potential copy abilities for gotcha machines and a bunch of glorified mobile games really worth it? Imagine how cool abilities like beam and whip would've been in 3D.
There's also the mission system, and I think a lot of people are missing the point with this issue. I think the way they reveal the missions after beating a level would've been fine, as you now have a good hint when you replay, but many missions themselves simply don't work with that system. I remember I completed every mission in one level except for "Sleep by the pool" or something like that. Even if I knew to do this going in, does it make completing the mission fun? All I would do is go to the pool, inhale the sleeping enemy, and that's it. This isn't a massive deal, as none of this is needed to finish the game, but it's indicative of the fact that the game wasn't entirely focused on what it should've been focused on, and cared too much about side content that's really just a distraction at the end of the day.
All of that aside, the game is still very good. Aside from the frame drops for far away enemies, the visuals are excellent in detail, animation, and interesting settings. The music is pretty good too. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a good game, but it could've been great with better priority.