Games I Played In 2025 - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
NEW WORLD, NEW PERSPECTIVE
Forgotten Land finally allows players to play as Kirby in 3D, which was only possible before in a handful of spin-off games. Taking place in the New World, the game's story is simple as usual for the franchise: Kirby is sucked into a portal and dropped into the New World, where a bunch of people from his home planet also are now, including a new friend called Elfilin. Time to save everyone!
As with the other "recent" main Kirby games, Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, there is a central theme to Forgotten Land's environments: the entire game takes place in the ruins of a civilization that's been taken over by nature and animals. The grass world is an overgrown city, the water world is the remains of a flooded factory and dam, and so on. As a result, though all of the game's world hit the typical Nintendo platformer tropes, they're all tackled through this post-apocalyptic lens that makes them feel just fresh enough to not feel passé, yet is handled in a light-hearted manner to not make it feel dreary even when you're deep in an abandoned oil rig. This setting is also leveraged very well with the game's overall story; as with every Kirby game lately, there is more than meets the eye with the lore.
While much is left to interpretation, there's still the usual amount of cosmic/sci-fi horror under the hood that makes the series so unique for Nintendo. However, in previous games, the pause screen would be used to give some slivers of lore and story for bosses and the like. In Forgotten Land, this has been replaced by placing flavor text that includes backstory on collectible gacha figures reminiscent of trophies in the Super Smash Bros. series. I can't help but wish the pause screen flavor text was still there in addition to the figure text.
The transition to 3D for the series might as well be seamless: Kirby controls like you'd expect, depth perception is basically never an issue, and the level designed has translated perfectly to 3D with some gameplay tweaks. Namely, a big thing HAL no doubt had to consider was Kirby's ability to float; without a limiter, then not only could the player simply fly over everything and not have to engage with the platforming, but it'd also make vertical levels redundant. As a result, they went with a limitation that Kirby 64 had: Kirby can only float for a certain amount of time before running out of breath and falling back to the ground. In addition, however, they made it so his height is capped to make vertical levels and puzzles possible. I think this was the best way to tackle this issue, and it's done in a way that doesn't feel unnatural or like it shackles the player.
The level design most resembles Super Mario 3D World, in that while 3D, this game is still stage-based and they are all linear with side areas to explore. Like in previous games, there are collectibles to get in every level, with a minimum required to fight the boss of a world. This time around, they feel more tangible due to being the Waddle Dees you're actually supposed to save. Unlike the previous games, there's more than 3 per level, and while some are tied to the traditional side area puzzles, a large portion of them are tied to other level-specific challenges, like finding a secret room, eating three burgers, or defeating a mini-boss with a specific ability. Boss battles also get this treatment, with each one having some universal challenges: a speedrun challenge where you need to defeat them quickly, and a no-hit challenge where they must be defeated without taking damage. When starting a level, all of the optional Waddle Dees are marked with question marks, so unless very thorough, not all of them will be acquired the first time through. As a result, multiple replays are often necessary, which I don't really mind, but it can feel a bit like padding, not to mention that only one is revealed per clear. The levels aren't long enough for it to feel particularly bad, but I feel like it should reveal all of them after the first clear. The lack of a retry button is also pretty annoying for the no-hit boss challenges, as they all have a little intro area. As a result, if you want to retry, you need to exit to the world map, reload the level, and go through the intro area. Kind of annoying.
Another kind of level is the Treasure Road. Every single ability in the game gets at least one. They are essentially timed skill tests for everything in the game, with an optional target time that will grant you more Star Coins (an in-game currency used for multiple things in the hub world). These are a fun change of pace, being introduced usually in pairs after each stage. The target times aren't too difficult for the most part (with one exception) and are achievable if you simply don't mess up too much. They usually do a good job of showing the full extent of an ability's moves as well.
Forgotten Land has an actual hub world (that isn't just the room full of doors from Amazing Mirror) for the first time, Waddle Dee Town, and it's actually quite lovely. Waddle Dee Town grows as you rescue more Waddle Dees, getting new stores and minigames, such as fishing. The minigames are nothing special, but are a nice little distraction. The main appeal here is how the town grows, giving an actual sense of progression that is tied to the story. The spot most players will use more often than not is Waddle Dee's Weapons Shop.
EVOLVED POTENTIAL
As the first truly 3D game in the franchise, Forgotten Land's handling of abilities had to change from its predecessors: in the previous games, various moves were executed by pressing or holding the B button while pressing a certain direction, running, or being in mid-air. With Forgotten Land, any direction is now "forward," and Kirby now only has one speed instead of walking and dashing (which required two taps forward). As a result, all the abilities have had their controls and attacks simplified, which actually threw me off at first when I tried the game's demo. I got used to it pretty fast in the full game, and while it's disappointing, I also understand that it was necessary to keep the game's control scheme simple as it has always been. Now, abilities' moves are done either by pressing, mashing, or holding B, either on the ground or in midair. This doesn't sound like a big change, but it makes quite a few abilities feel like they're missing something, with some of them lacking moves I feel could've been there either way.
As a trade-off, though, each ability can be evolved into a more powerful version, with each main one getting at least two. These evolved abilities come with new hats and props, and are generally just stronger versions of the base ability. For example, the Needle Ability gets the Clutter Needle evolution, which really just makes it better in every way as it is the exact same (with different visuals) functionally, except that small projectiles are fired randomly at the start and end of a roll. While fun to see and use, it feels a little disappointing that almost all of them can be reduced to "better version of the base ability" or either a fast or strong version of the base ability, with the second evolution being the other option. In most cases, there isn't much of a choice to make, or even that makes gameplay with that ability feel much different. Nonetheless, this is a good addition to the series, and one I feel should stay and be iterated upon.
The abilities don't get old even though they are pretty basic even with evolutions in mind, and Forgotten Land is a fair bit longer than other Kirby games too. Something that helps the game's flow is the new key mechanic: Mouthful Mode. When presented with certain large objects, Kirby can stuff them in his mouth and take their shape, becoming a car, a vending machine, a traffic cone, and quite a few others. All of these are temporary, meant for certain sections of levels, and are used perfectly throughout the game's runtime as fun pace-changers that diversify the gameplay without ever getting annoying or boring to use. There are also Treasure Road levels for each. The only problem I have is, again, the pause menu not having the ability's controls, leaving the player to try and figure out what they can do. It took a Treasure Road level to teach me that I could do a certain move with Ice, for example.
Speaking of, some abilities also get some welcome redesigns in Forgotten Land. The typically dull Needle is now much more dynamic, allowing Kirby to roll around as a spiky ball and keep going as long as enemies or objects are rolled through (almost like a Katamari Damacy game!), while the Ice ability now gets the ability to freeze mid-bosses and bosses if attacking them consistently for long enough, causing massive damage (to the point of feeling a little overpowered). Sword gets pretty different moves depending on its evolution, and even Crash gets to be interesting with its lone evolution. Bomb is a bit of a let down, as despite feeling great, its evolutions feel too difficult to take advantage of. The two new abilities, Ranger and Drill, feel right at home with the rest of the abilities, though Drill gets pretty boring evolutions compared to Ranger.
As always, enemy variety is great in Forgotten Land, with a bunch of enemies that always feel thematically appropriate that come in various sizes and are used in effective ways as either obstacles or tools. Some ability-giving enemies will even always respawn when near puzzles that require said ability (but not every instance of this is true, which is strange). There's a good amount of new enemies as well as old favorites that make a return once more. The only disappointment is that the old enemies have no flavor text on their figures.
The bosses are also all pretty great, though leaning on the easy side for the most part. As has become the norm for the series, each boss has at least two phases that they transition into after a certain amount of HP is lost. By the end of the game, the bosses actually get pretty tough, and in the post-game, they can get truly difficult depending on the ability you use. Where the game falters is with the mid-bosses. While there's normally a decent variety of these, there's only 4 this time around, with three being returning mid-bosses (but with visual redesigns) that are nothing special or exciting. By the end, you can really feel the lack of variety with the mid-bosses, as they get reused again and again in later Treasure Road levels. Mouthful Mode is also never really used in boss fights, which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity.
BEASTLY TRACKS
Forgotten Land's soundtrack is handled by four composers: series veterans Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando, and newer regulars Yuuta Ogasawara and Yuki Shimooka. As is to be expected of a Kirby game, the soundtrack is stellar, with multiple stand-out tracks, catchy leitmotifs, and just overall great music. Interestingly, Ishikawa provides the fewest tracks, and they range from typical bouncy Kirby fare to tracks with a slight EDM flair. Ogasawara has the second least, but is very easy to spot on the soundtrack: whenever the track is rocking and has an electric guitar, whether distorted or clean, it's almost always Ogasawara. His contributions are perhaps not numerous, but they are some of the best tracks in the game.
Ando has the second most tracks on the soundtrack, and outside of a few outliers, his work sounds exactly like what Kirby music has always sounded like, with an emphasis on strings and synths. He helms the absolutely fantastic final boss theme, amongst other memorable tracks, and his work's quality is unsurprising at this point. Shimooka leaves the biggest mark on the soundtrack, with more orchestral pieces that include all of the world map themes, the results screen, and most of the post-game tracks. Whether it's high intensity or chill and vibey, Shimooka truly delivers and is, I'd say, the biggest revelation on this soundtrack. "Moonlight Canyon" is my biggest highlight, feeling like what a quintessential Kirby track should be. All four feature on about an equal amount of stages, outside of Ogasawara, who mostly features on battle themes.
PROS AND CONS
PROS
• An almost-perfect transition to 3D for a 30 year old franchise is nothing short of impressive. The changes to Kirby's floating alone show that a lot of thought went into it.
• Great worldbuilding and theming despite a simple story, with stages and worlds that all create a bigger picture of an abandoned human-like world.
• Fantastic soundtrack, as usual for the series.
• Good enemy variety and fun bosses with a really good difficulty curve.
• Excellent post-game, as usual for the series.
• Collectibles are almost all fun to acquire, even if needing to replay stages a few times.
• Good level design all-around, with well-placed hidden rooms and fun but simple puzzles, along with the Mouthful Mode sections, which overall makes each level feel memorable in its own right.
CONS
• Lack of pause menu information for both story and ability controls.
• No retry button for boss fights makes trying for the no-hit challenge a bit tedious.
• Severely lacking mid-boss variety causes them to feel stale and repetitive pretty quickly, even more so for series veterans who have fought most of them countless times already.
• Abilities can feel overly simplistic, and their evolutions aren't always very exciting outside of getting a new hat.
• Waddle Dee requirements being revealed one at a time after a cleared stage is needless, and they should all be revealed after clearing it once. As is, this feels like a bit of padding.
• No flavor text on half of the gacha figures is disappointing.
• As with every Kirby game, will feel a bit expensive for what it is to some.
WORTH PLAYING?
Absolutely. There's a very real argument to be made that this is the best game in the entire Kirby franchise. It ranges from great to excellent all around, and all the big negatives are nitpicks at the end of the day. The price could be a bit of a deterrent since it's a bit of a short game despite being longer than other Kirby games, but Forgotten Land feels like a must own for Switch owners that like platformers at all and don't mind a game that is on the simpler, easier side outside of some late and post game content.
I don't think this is my favorite Kirby game (that goes to Planet Robobot still, I think!), but it's easily in the top 3. With time, I could see it being my favorite once my thoughts on it settle. I haven't played any of the other Kirby games on Switch yet, so I'm looking forward to the day I do. I don't think the series should completely shy away from 2D games, however. I'd rather see 3D games and 2D games coexisting within the franchise, as they both have their own strengths. Forgotten Land really sets a great base for the series to evolve in 3D, and I hope to not have to wait too much for a new one.
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