Kirby and the exciting demo! (Kirby and the Forgotten Land thoughts part 2!)

     Hey friends, as I have definitely mentioned before, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is scheduled to come out on March 25, and last week, we got a demo for the game along with a new trailer! I know I just talked about this new game in the franchise just a few weeks ago, but I'm so excited for this one, I thought I'd spend this week by giving you all some impressions of what I thought about the gameplay from the three levels that were in the demo. There isn't a ton to go off of this week, but I'll do my best to go into as much detail as necessary to talk about how this game is looking so far! Hop on the Warp Star once again, everyone, and let's continue!

Just one of the adorable and horrifying new features of this game: Mouthful Mode.

A New Dimension!

    We haven't gotten a ton of information about this game so far, but what has been seen before set expectations pretty high. Just the concept of a Kirby game in full 3D is really exciting, as really Kirby is the last Nintendo IP who has never had a full mainline entry in 3D. He's had some side titles such as Kirby Air Ride and Kirby's Blowout Blast where he moved in 3D, but I certainly wouldn't call either of those full on Kirby titles, no matter how undeniably fun City Trial was. The demo gave us our first real taste at how 3D Kirby's movement works, and I love it so far. The demo starts just as you'd expect, Kirby washes up on a beach, runs through a little forest that acts as a quick tutorial segment, and then you're sent immediately into the first level. Kirby's float seems like it's going to be a little weird, since he normally can float as high as he wants in his 2D games, but here, it has been capped to a few flutters up, so that you can't just fly over everything. It looks like they've tied this height to whatever surface Kirby is standing on, meaning that if you fall down a pit, you can still float right back up to the ledge that you were standing on before you fell, as long as you don't touch the ground or water below you. This will take some getting used to, of course, but it's not a huge deal I don't think. In addition to the 3D spaces, it makes it slightly harder to aim attacks at enemies, especially the bombs which were here in the demo. The sword and cutter abilities I didn't think were as difficult to aim, but it'll all take some getting used to. Ultimately it's all for the best, and well worth the little hiccups involved in translating this little puffball into a 3D space.

New Additions!

    Kirby has always been known as an incredibly easy series, but could they be changing this perception this time around? The first thing that you notice in the demo is that once you select the level, you're given the choice between Wild Mode, which is hard mode, and Spring Breeze Mode, which is the easier mode for less experienced players, while also being an adorable tribute to one of the games in Kirby Super Star. The difficulty level doesn't seem to change too much, it mainly seems to tie into Kirby's health bar being shorter in Wild Mode. It doesn't look like any more enemies, or harder enemies are added in the harder difficulty, but you get a certain number of coins added to your total at the end of each level played in Wild Mode. One major addition to this game that I'm looking forward to is the ability to upgrade Kirby's copy abilities to make them even more powerful than they already were. It looks like you'll be able to upgrade each ability at least twice, as we've seen the Gigant Edge and Meta Knight Sword for Sword Kirby. We've also seen two different fire variations, with one shooting lava, and the other acting as a dragon fire ability which allows Kirby to fly slightly in the form of a purple dragon made out of fire, which looks super cool. I'm so excited to see what other variations may be waiting in this game! On top of this, there's also Mouthful Mode, where Kirby has the power to suck up various things such as a car, a vending machine, a traffic cone, and even a roller coaster! There is so much that Hal Laboratory can do with this idea, and I hope they go even crazier than we've seen so far, but again, we'll just have to see! Part of me hopes that Kirby will suck up Meta Knight's ship at the end of the game, but that was already kind of done in Planet Robobot, so we'll just have to see! I haven't been able to try out Co-op mode yet, but I think that is going to be super cool, and I'm interested to see how it works in a 3D space, since I've always loved the Kirby games that have had Co-Op before, I feel like it's always just so much fun. I'm a little disappointed that it seems like Player 2 will be locked in to playing as Bandana Waddle Dee, as I like the system of being able to turn Player 2 into almost any character, but I'm sure he'll be much more polished than he was back on Return to Dream Land, where he acted just like Spear Kirby.

Waddle Dees: Gotta Catch 'em All!

    I was surprised in the demo by the fact that it seems that Waddle Dees are going to be the main collectibles for this game, which you collect in each level. It makes sense since Waddle Dee Town, as we've seen, is constantly growing, and in the demo we see the ruins of the town which the Waddle Dees have been living in for some time prior to the game apparently, so as you go through the game and complete different objectives, you get more and more of the little guys, and they build up the town until it eventually gets to its completed state. I'm really looking forward to that, as I'll love seeing how my progression is actively helping out this community as I go along. It also seems like all of the Subgames and Colosseum mode will be found here in Waddle Dee Town, which I think is a first for the series as well. Every Kirby game has a few little mini-games thrown in, but I don't remember a time where it was tied into the main campaign of the game, they're usually other icons on the main menu for you to select. Does this mean that these mini-games can have some positive effect on your game as well, giving you more money or other perks? It's unclear, as none of these were playable in the demo, but it seems likely I would think! I'm even wondering if Meta Knight's Sword will be tied to the Colosseum, since in the trailer, we see Kirby fighting him inside. I would love to see these be more than just the high score-based challenges that we've had in previous games, though I would be fine with those as well, as these mini-games all look like they'll be a lot of fun.

    I know I've said a lot of "we'll have to wait and see," in this article, but it's true. There's a lot that we still don't know, and I'm really looking forward to uncovering the mysteries involved in this game. I'm so excited for this game, and it looks like this could really be Kirby's biggest and best game in a long time. I have to say that there is more information on the official website for this game, but I don't want to spoil any more of it, so I'm not looking too deep here, I want to really enjoy discovering as much as I can as I go, though if you want more information, please take a look at the website! I've always loved pretty much all of the Kirby games, so I would be happy with another 2D game, but I'm so excited by this added dimension of innovation that they've given the pink puffball this time around. When Mario made the jump to 3D, it was a massive triumph for pretty much the entire games industry, and I can only hope that Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the game that gives Kirby the fanbase that he deserves. He's an adorable little character, but hidden beneath is truly the most powerful character in the entire Nintendo lineup. It was not an accident that Kirby was the only character to survive Galeem's onslaught at the beginning of World of Light in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, just saying.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I hope you're as excited for this game as I am, and I'm so glad that we don't have to wait too much longer for it, since it's coming out on March 25! Do you have a favorite Kirby game or is this going to be your first one? I have to say that Kirby Super Star Ultra has to be my favorite one up to this point, but I've really enjoyed all of the ones that I've played! Thanks for all of your support, I really appreciate it as always, and I hope you'll all have a good week moving forward! Expect to hear more about Kirby from me in the next few weeks, as I'll almost certainly have a lot to say about this game once it's finally released! Until next time, I've been Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Star Warrior, and I'll talk to you again soon! Puyo!