And here we are! You’d think that they’d been been making 3D Kirbys all along. I came because I wanted something easygoing to relax with, and I stayed because someone at HAL clearly played Bayonetta during the making of this. With any luck, Forgotten Land’ll be looked to in the future as a chief example of how to slap an extra dimension onto your series, but it’s got more going for it than even that. Stuff like its bosses, music and level design are all superb from top to bottom and rightfully getting a lot of attention, but it also has lots of surprisingly understated strengths which deserve more.

One of these is the camera. I can’t imagine it being implemented any way other than the way it is, and not just because things like finding optional Dees or challenge rooms through side alleys and hiding enemies or collectibles behind certain objects would be totally trivialised if you could fully control it. It’s hard to describe how much having a fixed camera adds to Forgotten Land’s setting and art direction. Can you imagine how utterly deflated moments like the start of Alivel Mall or Battle for Blizzard Bridge would be if the devs had just thoughtlessly gone with the standard for 3D games and had it statically rest a few metres behind Kirby’s back at all times, letting you point it in any direction? The sense of scale wouldn’t be anywhere near as striking. It transforms the setting from what could’ve just been a surface level novelty in the hands of lesser devs into something that’s so absorbing at times I’d go as far as to call it a selling point.

And on the setting, the way Forgotten Land contextualises stuff into its world is the type of thing you never realised how much you wanted from a Nintendo platformer until you’re given it. I’ve always thought highly of Mario 3D World, but after Forgotten Land, I can’t help but think about how much it might’ve benefitted from making its levels feel like actual places rather than interchangeable floating blocks in the sky. Waddle Dee Town’s the obvious star of the show in this regard, and far more than just a glorified menu. It physically and visually changing over the course of the story makes it feel more like an adventure with a tangible sense of progress, and that’s without going into the charm of the Dees themselves. I would never bother rewatching cutscenes from some boring menu, but the novelty of going to a cinema and waving at my fellow blob-like cinephiles has led me to do it more than a couple of times in Forgotten Land. And the band you unlock after a while is fantastic. Did you notice that the Dees don’t play certain instruments at parts of a song which don’t feature them, or that the notes coming out of their instruments are different colours depending on who composed the song? Greatest sound test mode of all time, by far.

Forgotten Land’s movement seems basic on the surface, but thanks to abilities it has more to play around with than it’s being given credit for. Drill gives you what’s basically an air dash, Ranger lets you hover a bit without using up Kirby’s float, Needle gives you an initial speed boost, etc. But even if it didn’t have nuances like these, that wouldn’t be a knock against it – it’s not uncommon to see Rayman 2 brought up in the conversation of the best ever 3D platformers (rightly so), and it hasn’t much more to its name in this respect than his trademark hovering. That’s because its obstacles are packed together so densely that you’re never really crying out for a long jump or a slide or whatever else. Forgotten Land’s the same, except abilities are multifaceted enough that you have more wiggle room for player expression regardless. You’re not gonna be hitting those target times in Treasure Road without some tricks, kiddos.

Looking at Forgotten Land’s abilities in terms of how few there are also seems myopic considering how smartly they’re implemented. Yeah, there are “only twelve,” but those twelve each cover a bunch of niches that used to be spread across multiple abilities. Is Wheel really needed when Forgotten Land’s version of Needle does everything it did and more? Would Stone be much use when Mouthful Mode’s cone is basically that already, except it doesn't take away whatever ability you have equipped? The variety of older Kirby games is all here, it’s just been achieved with less. Chuck in all the different ability variants (which wisely aren’t just straight upgrades and have pretty distinct purposes) and you’ve got a formula that not only stays fresh throughout the whole game, but which also gives you even more reasons to revisit the top notch bosses and experiment with the sandbox of tools on offer. Fighting Meta Knight in 3D is everything I dreamed it would be as a kid, and he as well as others get even better in the post-game.

Part of me wondered if I’d put too much thought into all this, but Kirby shouldn’t be held to a lower standard just because of his target audience. As the excellent C.S. Lewis would say, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children isn’t a good children’s story in the slightest.” The quality of and care that’s gone into Forgotten Land’s obvious, no matter who you are or what you look for in games. In the best way possible, it really does have something for everyone, except maybe if you’re a conspicuously absent Waddle Doo.

Hey, Kirby... thanks for everything.