Kirby's back with a mix of old and new! (Kirby and the Forgotten Land, in review)

     Hey friends! As you know, I've been extremely excited for Kirby and the Forgotten Land since it was announced a few months ago. I'm happy to report that the game is finally out, and after 30 years, we finally have the adorable puffball's first full foray into the 3D platformer space. Does this game live up to the hype, or does it come up just shy of the amazing heights that we had in mind? In more Kirby terms, is he able to Megaton Punch his way through Popstar, or will he be unable to scratch the surface? That's exactly what I'm going to cover today. I'm too excited to stall any longer, so watch out for the portal, because today, we're being sucked into a forgotten land!

"For his neutral special, Kirby uses a gun!"

A Beast of an Adventure!

    Kirby games are never incredibly long, but what they're known for is being extremely easy to start, but pretty brutal in the end, and this game lives up to all of those conditions. The game does include two different difficulty modes, which you see as soon as you start the game up, a nice touch for sure, though it pretty much only impacts how much health Kirby has, I don't think it has anything to do with the enemies. Wild mode gives you less health, but allows you to get 50 coins extra for completing the stage on that difficulty. Spring Breeze mode gives Kirby more health but no extra coins at the end of a level. Even though Wild mode is more challenging, I got through the main campaign pretty simply, only dying a handful of times, and all around it was a great experience! The controls are really fluid, making perfect sense to anyone who has played a Kirby game, as this is, just as stated, a Kirby game in 3D. I will say, having the height cap on Kirby's float feels weird, as well as him only being able to stay in the air for a set period of time, but it makes perfect sense, considering that kind of movement would completely break any sort of platforming challenge, as well as the camera or level structure that they've set up. It makes me shudder to think how long it took these developers to script the camera angles like this, as you're really not in control of the camera at any time, instead having the camera moving around almost constantly and allowing you to see little parts of a level that may have been obscured until you got closer to it, or thought to check out a little cave at the far right of the screen. The team at HAL Laboratory have been making 2D Kirby games for a long time, so I'm sure it was a huge change to have to focus on all of the enemies and hidden secrets coming at Kirby from all directions, and for the most part, they really knocked it out of the park.

    I should talk about the story, because it's pretty basic, and I won't be giving any spoilers here on plot points, so don't worry. Kirby is walking around Dream Land and having a great day, just generally relaxing, but then a portal comes and sucks him up along with many other residents of his planet. Kirby gets a special power from going through the portal and wakes up on an unfamiliar beach. It's not too long until he finds that Waddle Dees are being stuffed in cages and being chased by animals (which form the Beast Pack, the main antagonists of this game) for some reason. He finds a little creature named Elfilin (who acts as your companion in this game) who says that he's been with the Waddle Dees and helped them build a little town, which has now been destroyed by the members of the Beast Pack, who captured all of the Waddle Dees. Kirby decides to help save them all, and Kirby and Elfilin begin their wild adventure across the forgotten land. That's how the story begins, and I'm not going to spoil any more of it because there are so many fun twists and turns in the story that I just don't want to ruin anyone else's experience. Just suffice it to say that if you're a Kirby fan from years past and are familiar with any of the characters, you'll see quite a few of them in some capacity, alongside some completely new enemies and bosses, which are all just as fun and exciting to see!

Powers Galore!

    Where would a Kirby game be without the titular character's copy abilities? Ask Kirby's Dreamland for the original Game Boy, as there were no copy abilities in that one. Kirby and the Forgotten Land doesn't have as many copy abilities as some games, only twelve made the cut this time around, including temporary abilities like Sleep and Crash, but this time all of them can be upgraded into new forms. I don't want to spoil them, especially some of the later ones which are a lot of fun and cool to use, but while I would have loved to see Wheel or Stone Kirby show up in this game, there is a lot to love about the different abilities included here, especially when if you count the "Mouthful Mode" abilities. Mouthful Mode allows Kirby to suck up normal objects that you may find around the area which will help him solve puzzles or break blocks that his normal abilities wouldn't allow. Of all these abilities, I have to say the Pipe, Roller Coaster, and Car have to be my favorites, but I love all of them. Special shout out also has to go to the "Arch Mouth" which allows Kirby to become a hang glider through little areas that remind me of Star Fox games for some reason, maybe just because I'm missing that flying gameplay a lot nowadays. "Pipe Mouth" really reminds me of a mine-cart section from Donkey Kong Country, though much shorter and not as challenging, but it's still nice to get a touch of that here anyways! It's a lot more similar to the "Friend Circle" ability from Kirby Star Allies, but you understand what I mean. His normal copy abilities are no slouch either, with some of them feeling really good in terms of traversal in a 3D space in a way that they haven't in 2D. Tornado Kirby was probably my favorite for movement, even though the ability itself isn't super powerful or anything. It feels really satisfying to suck up smaller enemies with the ability as well as just to fly over a body of water quickly, though it's also great to skate over water with the Ice ability. All of the powers have their own advantages and disadvantages, especially when taking on bosses. Do you want a quicker ability that isn't as powerful, such as Sword or Tornado? Would you rather have a slower ability that does more damage, such as Hammer or Ranger? The choice is really up to you, and you're free to explore all of them and figure out what your style more adheres to. Speaking of Ranger, I need to talk about the two new Copy abilities in this game! Ranger and Drill are new, and both are a lot of fun to use in different scenarios. There are few things more satisfying than drilling through the ground or spinning in a circle and attacking anyone above you with Drill, while Ranger takes a little while to get used to, just because it's pretty slow in its original form. As with all of the abilities, however, these feel better to use and are generally more useful once you upgrade them at least once! As I said before, the game feels really good to play, and that goes for the copy abilities as well. There was a lot that they thought about leading into this first full 3D adventure, and I think it paid off in a major way.

It takes a village... or, in this case, a town.

    Waddle Dee Town is a locale that you stumble across at the end of the first level, it's completely destroyed, the only indication that it's been inhabited recently is just rubble along with Elfilin telling you about it. With all of the Waddle Dees being captured and spread around the world, as I mentioned earlier, it's up to Kirby and Elfilin to find and rescue them, and once they're saved, they come back to Waddle Dee Town. Once enough of them return to their community, they'll make a new building or business of some sort, until you come to the end of the game and the town is a pretty hopping place, complete with a movie theater, a cafe, a coliseum, a fishing pond, and quite a bit more. It's pretty cool to come back and see a new building that has been added since the last time you went there. I've always loved games with hub worlds that are effected by what you're doing in the main game, even just the touch in Super Mario Sunshine that made the world brighter in Delfino Plaza as you got more shine sprites, but this takes that concept and runs with it to an even greater degree, and I love it for that. This area really takes the sub games concept of previous games in the series, but puts them in the proper game, and the way that it all works is pretty seamless I think! Even the postgame (which I won't elaborate on) comes across as another sub game that is accessed from Waddle Dee Town, which is so cool. In a way, Waddle Dee Town is just a really refreshing alternative to having the typical menu screens that Kirby has relied on for quite some time, in one way or another, since Kirby Super Star way back on the Super Nintendo. You could say that this is yet another innovation for this game on top of it being the first Kirby game in full 3D, and one that I hope sticks around for other games, though in different contexts, as I don't think it would be great to have to rescue the Waddle Dees in every following game in the franchise. It works really well here with the story as well as just the feel of the game, especially when it comes to the optional objectives that hide even more Waddle Dees away for you to unlock.

    Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a delightful game from start to finish. I will say this game follows the Kirby trend of being pretty easy for the main story, but the postgame ramps up pretty dramatically at some parts, in addition to some boss fights being a legitimate challenge even in the main campaign. It's a great game, and I hope that this won't be the first and last 3D Kirby game that the series throws at us, but we'll have to see. In an interview with the Washington Post (which can be found here and is genuinely fascinating, if you'd like to read the whole thing), Shinya Kumizaki, the general director at HAL Labratory, said, "While a full 3D game is certainly a fresh new look for the Kirby franchise, it doesn't necessarily mean that this will be the standard going forward." (Kumizaki, 2022) It sounds like the future of Kirby's adventures is still up in the air, as they should be. Kirby's charm has always been in its simplicity and dedication to creative new powers and scenarios, and I applaud the developers for always seeming to push the envelope (even in the case of Star Allies, which a lot of people didn't really like).

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed playing this game and writing my thoughts about it. I really love the whole Kirby franchise, and I think this game could potentially get a lot of new fans for my favorite puffball, which I hope it does. While playing this game, there were definitely times where I was smiling from ear to ear, or cheering after a well fought victory, or just a wild reveal that occurred. The game is as cute as it ever was, but it also contains a mysterious darkness to it that I look forward to you experiencing as well! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Forgotten Land Explorer, and I'll talk to you again soon!

Park, Gene. March 25, 2022. Kirby's creators on developing accessible games, and the darker horrors of the series. The Washington Post. March 29, 2022, <<https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/03/25/kirby-forgotten-land-features/>>