This review contains spoilers
Kirby has been pretty well regarded as a rather consistent franchise. From all of the titles under his name, a great majority of them fall under a category of 2D game. From action-platformers to all sorts of other genres viewed in this sort of plane. A great majority of them are even commonly regarded as really great to middling at worst. Just the sort of admirable consistency you get from a franchise like Kirby’s, even with it however having an extensive history of playing it safe for a very notable 3 decades so far. Some peeks into how Kirby would play with an extra axis aren’t a foreign concept, however. Games like Kirby’s Air Ride, Kirby’s Blowout Blast, and Kirby Battle Royale are present and have you maneuvering around a 3D space in some form, but while they may have done the whole “Kirby in 3D” thing first, they aren’t exactly what you could consider a “true” 3D Kirby game. Not trying to insult these titles obviously, but they’re mainly considered as spinoffs to Kirby’s mainline platforming-action hybrid formula. Part of the reason as to why a game like this feels so special is due to it being the first mainline title in the franchise to make the jump into the third dimension. Interviews from HAL Labs after the development of Kirby Star Allies gave us a bit of a sneak peek into how a game like this was essentially on the horizon, with discussion into moving towards the “next stage” of the franchise. After the 4 mainline entries reusing and mixing a modern formula, and the notable mixed reception from the last of these, Star Allies, a new world for Kirby to finally jump into after all this time may have been just the thing to celebrate for him coming all this way.
Now, if I want to be honest, I’ve never really been one to jump into overwhelming hype with big new triple A releases. Part of it is due to my current self now being aware of quality desires making me be cautiously optimistic with new releases. A sort of “I wonder what the consensus on this is? I might be interested but I wanna know if it would be worth it.” instinct. Doesn’t help that the other part is that I don’t exactly have the money to go vomiting out at every neat looking thing that I wanna get my dainty little hands on. Big and new games are pricey, man! I guess this should be a good sign to jump into after establishing that with how Kirby and the Forgotten Land may have been the first game in a particularly long time that I’ve ever considered getting on launch day. The last time I could remember doing so before is likely, well, Kirby Triple Deluxe on the Nintendo 3DS! Funny how that works out, I may just have a soft spot for Kirby I guess. All of the first looks into this were looking really enticing, sure, but after that second trailer with Kirby wondrously roaming around in all of these gorgeous landscapes and just having fun in many sorts of ways, all to the simply brilliant tune of an early version of the game’s main theme, I was hooked. I re-watched the last couple of seconds of that trailer so many times, it was simply wonderful. I just simply had to know how Kirby would work in this new frontier of his, I couldn’t help but listen to my impulses.
With all of my cautious optimism in hand, I’m very glad to say that Kirby and the Forgotten Land was every bit of the joyride I had hoped it would be. Going from a 2D style into a 3D style isn’t an easy task, with notable ways of backfiring if you don’t end up doing it properly. I’m rather pleased with how smooth Kirby has made this sort of jump, though. I guess some testing of the waters here and there and roughly several decades of the growth of overall game design philosophy and evolution could assist in having your first true 3D entry turn out well, but if you’ve played a mainline Kirby game before, you’ll likely be surprised how natural it all feels. It feels just like what Kirby has done best but just with (quite literally) more depth to it! I guess that means it’s pretty similar to standard Kirby fare but that’s not a bad thing at all, in fact, it’s essentially all Kirby really needed to do. You have your action-platforming around your whimsical stages, not really akin to something like Super Mario Odyssey like certain comparisons made before it’s release (because quite a lot of people like to use Mario’s 3D collectathons as the gold standard of 3D games with platforming in them), but more akin to a game like Super Mario 3D World where you have a stage by stage basis of more linear 3D stages. (and having played both of them I’d honestly say I enjoy this one out of the two!) It’s so natural feeling that it doesn’t even feel bizarre that this is finally a thing when you get real into how it feels.
But enough of how impressively natural it feels to jump into, how the extra space expands upon the format is the real highlight here! Kirby’s never been purely focused on pure platforming, but more into using platforming as a way to give more freedom into your movement around the action. You have tons more room to roam around and strike at your foes thanks to that extra axis, with the added plus of the individual stage design having so much more environmental depth to it. That’s yet another I’ve gotta commend this game for, the art direction is absolutely phenomenal. Do you see how well every stage is designed into looking and feeling like a formerly lived in and natural landscape? Traversing abandoned and overgrown locales, once lively theme parks, a precarious wasteland made out of resorts, crumbling cities in an infernal crisis, you name it. Places like the individual stages of Winter Horns give that pure aura of some cool feeling place that you’d want to take a moment to lay down and relax in. (just bundle up in the case of the example I gave, that world looks kinda cold) Kirby games have always had this neat whimsy to their landscapes but not quite to this sort of interactable depth before.
But with all of this new depth added into Kirby’s formula, it’s not entirely in it’s full potential. The extra detail to the main action could be considered to come at the cost of the depth of Kirby’s main power, his abilities. A rather decent amount of playtime can clue you in to how little of them are really present here, with only 12 available for you to use in total with less to their individual movesets than in previous entries. (and 2 of them are one time uses with one of them being a joke one so uuuuh) I could presume that most of the lost moves here would be tougher than usual to translate into a 3D space, but the overall shortage of abilities this time around is still a bit off-putting. Iconic abilities like Fighter, Beam, Stone, Wheel, and Parasol are missing here, strangely enough. Some abilities like ESP, Beetle, Ninja, Plasma/Spark, Bell, Yo-Yo, and Jet are some other really cool ones that aren’t present either which is sad. We have a pseudo-alternative in the form of abilities having many sorts of upgradable forms, but sometimes it just makes me think of what the evolved forms of the absent abilities would look like. Like, what if Beam could be upgraded into that magical girl outfit it had in Super Kirby Clash? That’d be REALLY cool, but that’s for a different day I guess. But I guess we also have a new, alternate form of abilities known as all of the different sorts of mouthful modes. They’re basically the new main gimmick in this entry, and their evolution into the formula wanted to know if instead of these gimmicks being these really cool looking additions, they were really funny. I especially like cone mouth and vending machine mouth, and I like referring to them as triangle Kirby and rectangle Kirby respectively. The way they waddle around is really funny and makes me smile :) Now with what you use all this extra depth your action and stage designs has for, you have your main extra collectables have extra interactable depth in the form of all of the captured Waddle Dees. They’re pretty fun to scavenge out in levels but how the extra mission-based ones work could have likely been handled better. Some of the hassle of them could’ve been remedied if you had the ability to see all of the different tasks you needed to do for them instead of them being hidden until you find out what to do or finish the stage without finding out. They aren’t really cryptic however so if you’re mainly paying attention and interacting with your environment a lot you’ll get by without having to replay stages that often so it’s not much of a hassle. (except for that one on the penultimate stage of Winter Horns when you have to eat a Maxim Tomato on a different route but you put the Maxim Tomato at the entry to the alternate route????? if they made the way onto that route more clear and actually put the Maxim Tomato on said route the confusion around this particular mission would’ve not been an issue but I digress)
Thankfully, the shortcomings of certain aspects here are more than well made up for with just how fun all the action is. Remember how more in depth the combat is due to the 3D space? Well, Kirby has always been known to have some super entertaining bosses, but the boss fights in the Forgotten Land? These boss fights might just be an elaborate way to prove that being in 3D may just be the true way for Kirby to play at all. I’m not exaggerating when I say the boss fights here are easily some of the most entertaining in the entire franchise, or even in games I’ve played in general. The way you weave around attacks through running around, jumping over, and swiftly dodging through them with the dodge giving a cool slowdown to counter them back with for those close calls, oooooh it’s just SO good. Easily where then 3D combat shines the brightest, and shines so brightly regardless of it’s individual ability-wise limitations. And those extra challenging ending bosses and postgame phantom bosses in particular were so unbelievably goddamn cool, the way you weave through and whittle them down here is just a feeling I can’t get in a 2D space, it’s absolutely phenomenal. I’ve taken such a fondness for the action in this game that I even caught interest in speedrunning the different cups in the colosseum! My best time on The Ultimate Cup Z is 3:09.40. Pretty cool, huh?
Simply put, I just can’t get enough of the vibrancy on display here. I went into this with cautious expectations and was so pleased, it truly can only be described as the best evolution of the Kirby franchise. Despite some lacking aspects, Kirby is still here to provide a joyride as he always has. A sweet, delightful trip of a game to savor with in between bunches of big blockbuster releases, whether it’s being adorable, lively, hype as all hell, or surprisingly terrifying. Seriously, those last few hours had me on the absolute edge of my seat. Kirby has always had some fucked up aspects, especially in the endgames or his recent titles, but the whole encounters with Fecto Forgo were legitimately some Giygas caliber shit, my GOD. No wonder this got the fear warning in Europe. But afterwards you have the confrontation with Fecto Elfilis which is legitimately one of the most beautiful final bosses I’ve ever seen. Then you promptly deepthroat a semi truck and turn them into divine roadkill in one of the most insane sequences in the franchise, god I love you Kirby. After all of our wildest adventures, we befriend our former foes and look into the future of the new world we made. Our town of beloved friends, hanging out and being lively in their own ways. We waltz up to a group of Waddle Dees and wave them hello and they wave back, it’s just so cute! That’s all it’s really about, what this entire franchise has been about, having fun with Kirby! Kirby and the Forgotten Land gives the feeling of seeing a new frontier, having that burning curiosity to leave behind your regrets and explore the new future given to you. It’s a feeling of bittersweet goodbyes, hopeful beginnings, an eager look into the future, the pure wonder of curious freedom, and a relaxing refreshment from the wind of a soft breeze, all perfectly conveyed by one of the greatest main themes a video game could ever have: “Welcome to the New World!”, from each time it plays when Kirby’s new adventure opens and closes. A song that perfectly sets the tone of it’s game and the future to come.
Welcome to a new world, Kirby!
Now, if I want to be honest, I’ve never really been one to jump into overwhelming hype with big new triple A releases. Part of it is due to my current self now being aware of quality desires making me be cautiously optimistic with new releases. A sort of “I wonder what the consensus on this is? I might be interested but I wanna know if it would be worth it.” instinct. Doesn’t help that the other part is that I don’t exactly have the money to go vomiting out at every neat looking thing that I wanna get my dainty little hands on. Big and new games are pricey, man! I guess this should be a good sign to jump into after establishing that with how Kirby and the Forgotten Land may have been the first game in a particularly long time that I’ve ever considered getting on launch day. The last time I could remember doing so before is likely, well, Kirby Triple Deluxe on the Nintendo 3DS! Funny how that works out, I may just have a soft spot for Kirby I guess. All of the first looks into this were looking really enticing, sure, but after that second trailer with Kirby wondrously roaming around in all of these gorgeous landscapes and just having fun in many sorts of ways, all to the simply brilliant tune of an early version of the game’s main theme, I was hooked. I re-watched the last couple of seconds of that trailer so many times, it was simply wonderful. I just simply had to know how Kirby would work in this new frontier of his, I couldn’t help but listen to my impulses.
With all of my cautious optimism in hand, I’m very glad to say that Kirby and the Forgotten Land was every bit of the joyride I had hoped it would be. Going from a 2D style into a 3D style isn’t an easy task, with notable ways of backfiring if you don’t end up doing it properly. I’m rather pleased with how smooth Kirby has made this sort of jump, though. I guess some testing of the waters here and there and roughly several decades of the growth of overall game design philosophy and evolution could assist in having your first true 3D entry turn out well, but if you’ve played a mainline Kirby game before, you’ll likely be surprised how natural it all feels. It feels just like what Kirby has done best but just with (quite literally) more depth to it! I guess that means it’s pretty similar to standard Kirby fare but that’s not a bad thing at all, in fact, it’s essentially all Kirby really needed to do. You have your action-platforming around your whimsical stages, not really akin to something like Super Mario Odyssey like certain comparisons made before it’s release (because quite a lot of people like to use Mario’s 3D collectathons as the gold standard of 3D games with platforming in them), but more akin to a game like Super Mario 3D World where you have a stage by stage basis of more linear 3D stages. (and having played both of them I’d honestly say I enjoy this one out of the two!) It’s so natural feeling that it doesn’t even feel bizarre that this is finally a thing when you get real into how it feels.
But enough of how impressively natural it feels to jump into, how the extra space expands upon the format is the real highlight here! Kirby’s never been purely focused on pure platforming, but more into using platforming as a way to give more freedom into your movement around the action. You have tons more room to roam around and strike at your foes thanks to that extra axis, with the added plus of the individual stage design having so much more environmental depth to it. That’s yet another I’ve gotta commend this game for, the art direction is absolutely phenomenal. Do you see how well every stage is designed into looking and feeling like a formerly lived in and natural landscape? Traversing abandoned and overgrown locales, once lively theme parks, a precarious wasteland made out of resorts, crumbling cities in an infernal crisis, you name it. Places like the individual stages of Winter Horns give that pure aura of some cool feeling place that you’d want to take a moment to lay down and relax in. (just bundle up in the case of the example I gave, that world looks kinda cold) Kirby games have always had this neat whimsy to their landscapes but not quite to this sort of interactable depth before.
But with all of this new depth added into Kirby’s formula, it’s not entirely in it’s full potential. The extra detail to the main action could be considered to come at the cost of the depth of Kirby’s main power, his abilities. A rather decent amount of playtime can clue you in to how little of them are really present here, with only 12 available for you to use in total with less to their individual movesets than in previous entries. (and 2 of them are one time uses with one of them being a joke one so uuuuh) I could presume that most of the lost moves here would be tougher than usual to translate into a 3D space, but the overall shortage of abilities this time around is still a bit off-putting. Iconic abilities like Fighter, Beam, Stone, Wheel, and Parasol are missing here, strangely enough. Some abilities like ESP, Beetle, Ninja, Plasma/Spark, Bell, Yo-Yo, and Jet are some other really cool ones that aren’t present either which is sad. We have a pseudo-alternative in the form of abilities having many sorts of upgradable forms, but sometimes it just makes me think of what the evolved forms of the absent abilities would look like. Like, what if Beam could be upgraded into that magical girl outfit it had in Super Kirby Clash? That’d be REALLY cool, but that’s for a different day I guess. But I guess we also have a new, alternate form of abilities known as all of the different sorts of mouthful modes. They’re basically the new main gimmick in this entry, and their evolution into the formula wanted to know if instead of these gimmicks being these really cool looking additions, they were really funny. I especially like cone mouth and vending machine mouth, and I like referring to them as triangle Kirby and rectangle Kirby respectively. The way they waddle around is really funny and makes me smile :) Now with what you use all this extra depth your action and stage designs has for, you have your main extra collectables have extra interactable depth in the form of all of the captured Waddle Dees. They’re pretty fun to scavenge out in levels but how the extra mission-based ones work could have likely been handled better. Some of the hassle of them could’ve been remedied if you had the ability to see all of the different tasks you needed to do for them instead of them being hidden until you find out what to do or finish the stage without finding out. They aren’t really cryptic however so if you’re mainly paying attention and interacting with your environment a lot you’ll get by without having to replay stages that often so it’s not much of a hassle. (except for that one on the penultimate stage of Winter Horns when you have to eat a Maxim Tomato on a different route but you put the Maxim Tomato at the entry to the alternate route????? if they made the way onto that route more clear and actually put the Maxim Tomato on said route the confusion around this particular mission would’ve not been an issue but I digress)
Thankfully, the shortcomings of certain aspects here are more than well made up for with just how fun all the action is. Remember how more in depth the combat is due to the 3D space? Well, Kirby has always been known to have some super entertaining bosses, but the boss fights in the Forgotten Land? These boss fights might just be an elaborate way to prove that being in 3D may just be the true way for Kirby to play at all. I’m not exaggerating when I say the boss fights here are easily some of the most entertaining in the entire franchise, or even in games I’ve played in general. The way you weave around attacks through running around, jumping over, and swiftly dodging through them with the dodge giving a cool slowdown to counter them back with for those close calls, oooooh it’s just SO good. Easily where then 3D combat shines the brightest, and shines so brightly regardless of it’s individual ability-wise limitations. And those extra challenging ending bosses and postgame phantom bosses in particular were so unbelievably goddamn cool, the way you weave through and whittle them down here is just a feeling I can’t get in a 2D space, it’s absolutely phenomenal. I’ve taken such a fondness for the action in this game that I even caught interest in speedrunning the different cups in the colosseum! My best time on The Ultimate Cup Z is 3:09.40. Pretty cool, huh?
Simply put, I just can’t get enough of the vibrancy on display here. I went into this with cautious expectations and was so pleased, it truly can only be described as the best evolution of the Kirby franchise. Despite some lacking aspects, Kirby is still here to provide a joyride as he always has. A sweet, delightful trip of a game to savor with in between bunches of big blockbuster releases, whether it’s being adorable, lively, hype as all hell, or surprisingly terrifying. Seriously, those last few hours had me on the absolute edge of my seat. Kirby has always had some fucked up aspects, especially in the endgames or his recent titles, but the whole encounters with Fecto Forgo were legitimately some Giygas caliber shit, my GOD. No wonder this got the fear warning in Europe. But afterwards you have the confrontation with Fecto Elfilis which is legitimately one of the most beautiful final bosses I’ve ever seen. Then you promptly deepthroat a semi truck and turn them into divine roadkill in one of the most insane sequences in the franchise, god I love you Kirby. After all of our wildest adventures, we befriend our former foes and look into the future of the new world we made. Our town of beloved friends, hanging out and being lively in their own ways. We waltz up to a group of Waddle Dees and wave them hello and they wave back, it’s just so cute! That’s all it’s really about, what this entire franchise has been about, having fun with Kirby! Kirby and the Forgotten Land gives the feeling of seeing a new frontier, having that burning curiosity to leave behind your regrets and explore the new future given to you. It’s a feeling of bittersweet goodbyes, hopeful beginnings, an eager look into the future, the pure wonder of curious freedom, and a relaxing refreshment from the wind of a soft breeze, all perfectly conveyed by one of the greatest main themes a video game could ever have: “Welcome to the New World!”, from each time it plays when Kirby’s new adventure opens and closes. A song that perfectly sets the tone of it’s game and the future to come.
Welcome to a new world, Kirby!
NOWITSREYNTIME17
1 year ago