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“Explore 3D platforming stages as you discover a mysterious world, save the kidnapped Waddle Dees, and defeat the ferocious Beast Pack. Hope you’re hungry for a big adventure!”

Kirby and the Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch

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Kirby and the Forgotten Land is HAL Laboratory’s first attempt at a fully 3D mainline Kirby game and they nailed it. While the new gameplay and level design is quite different compared to previous Kirby games, everything is so polished that it fits right in with the older games. Forgotten Land released on the Nintendo Switch on March 25th, 2202 and was a massive success, becoming the best selling Kirby title. 

While this game may be the first fully 3D mainline game, Hal has been practicing and experimenting with 3D gameplay with other titles like Kirby’s Blowout Blast or even Kirby’s Air Ride. The controls are excellent and I never felt like any of my deaths were the games fault and not mine. The Kirby series’ level design was perfectly recreated in a 3D environment and each level is incredibly unique design and appearance wise. The classic Kirby power-ups return in Forgotten Land but this time with more power ups and the ability to upgrade all of them to be even more powerful. A new mechanic, mouthful mode was introduced in this game which adds even more fun mechanics into the levels. The bosses are all unique and fun to fight, each bringing their own type of challenge. Forgotten Land has done an excellent job transitioning Kirby to full 3D. 

Forgotten Land is very optimized for the Nintendo Switch, as I experienced no lag, bugs or graphical issues. The game looks great and the setting of a post-apocalyptic world really helps show how good the game looks. Apart from levels, the designs of the new enemies and bosses are all very unique and fit in with the world around them. Also, Kirby’s new partner, Elfilin, is super cute!

The new soundtrack of Forgotten Land is fantastic with each song perfectly fitting the vibe of the area or fight. An opening song with lyrics was also unexpected, but a great addition to the soundtrack. My favorites are definitely the songs that play during the final boss and Northeast Frost Street. 

One of my favorite aspects of Kirby games is how fun it is to 100%, and Forgotten Land continues this trend. There isn’t too much a player needs to do to completely finish the game, but with less quantity, there is more quality. The only thing I wasn’t the biggest fan of was having to grind for money to use a capsule machine and hoping to get what I needed. Forgotten Land took me about 20 hours to complete, which is a perfect amount of time for a Kirby game. 

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an incredible game and is a ton of fun to play alone or with a friend and I highly recommend trying to 100% it. Forgotten land is one of my favorite 3D platformers with its fun gameplay, levels, bosses and a simple but fun story. Completing Forgotten Land has made me very excited to see what HAL has in store next for Kirby.