A collection of dark vortexes have hit Planet Popstar and sucked away all of the Waddle Dees! Kirby tries to save them, but our favorite pink puff hero also gets sucked away. Kirby wakes up in a strange world with an uncanny resemblance to ours, but where nature seems to have reclaimed the cities. Also, all of the Waddle Dees have been kidnapped upon their arrival! Can Kirby find his friends and unlock the secrets of this new land?

The story of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is full of twist and turns. You might think you know where it’s heading, but then it takes an unexpected hard turn. It gets real dark, real fast. And it just keeps going! I was like NO WAY! I was genuinely creeped out at times. It really went there. And it made me cry a couple of times. It’s amazing how a game can tell such an amazing tale with barely any dialogue.

Visuals

Obviously, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is beyond adorable. I wouldn’t expect any less from this franchise. It’s bright and cheery and the world is ripe for exploration! The details are incredible. Everywhere you look, there’s something new to see. Even the overworld map is full of secrets and fun details!

In fact, this has to be my favorite game map ever. It’s not just the vehicle to choosing the next level. Each area is fully themed and looks like a real place. They all seamlessly transition into each other as well, so it doesn’t look weird to have a snowpacalypse city right next to a bustling theme park next to a beach. I loved traveling around on this map, just looking at everything.

My favorite world is without a doubt the theme park. It looks amazing. There’s so much to look at but it doesn’t feel overwhelming or too busy. You just want to look around and take it all in, while also remembering that there’s plenty of things that can hurt Kirby! The House of Horrors is an especially well crafted level. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a true visual treat with so many things popping out and tucked away!

The final boss battle looks absolutely insane. And I mean that in the best possible way. I was in awe as the skyscape continuously morphed as the battle went on. It’s impossible to look away! Well, you don’t want to look away because you might die, but you also don’t want to look away because it’s pretty.

The regular enemies also look great, and some of them are just too darn cute! I felt bad killing them! Honestly, the attention to detail in regards to how the enemies look and behave depending on the level was mind blowing. In particular, the way the Awoofies actually line up in front of the rides in the Wonderia section? So cute!

My only complaint about the visuals in Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the camera. You have zero control over it. None. Which is odd since this is suppose to be Kirby’s first fully 3D game. While he is free to move all over the world within its boundaries, the same can’t be said for the camera. It follows Kirby around, sometimes at strange angles. You can give it a little nudge left and right to see a little off screen, but you cannot turn it around at all. This limits what you can see without actually moving Kirby to the area you want to look at. Also, some of the chosen camera positions are kind of awkward.
Sound Effects + Music:

Kirby and the Forgotten Land starts with a fully voiced J-Pop song, which immediately lets you know that we are not on Planet Popstar anymore! It was a great way to open the game and set the tone for Kirby’s next adventure. From there, it’s full of new and familiar tunes. I always had the main theme stuck in my head. It’s just so cute! It also changes based on where on the map you are to fit the theme of the selected world.

The only music I wasn’t a fan of was ironically from my favorite levels. The music in the fun house has this kind of warped quality to it, as if the record is scratched. It 100% fits the theme, but I found it irritating. It’s the only blemish on an otherwise catchy soundtrack.

Gameplay + Controls

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an adventure platformer. Kirby can jump, hover, and attack. Like in most prior Kirby games, he can copy abilities from his enemies and use it against them. There’s also the new mouthful mode which is hilarious. Some of those abilities are completely ridiculous and only useful to solve that level’s puzzles (storage locker and arch), but some are super fun and could have been used even more (car and cone).

Like most 3D platformers, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a collectathon! There’s so many things to collect! You have your currency: star coins and rare stones. You have to find blueprints to evolve Kirby’s abilities. There’s a ton of figurines, which are inside gotcha pods. And the main collectable is, of course, the Waddle Dees. AND THEN you have a new collectable in the post-credits game, but I won’t say what that is.

There are tons of secrets! Secrets everywhere! Look around! Does that look out of place? Interact with it! Is that a hole? Climb inside! I missed a lot of stuff, but I also stumbled upon a lot of stuff. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is full of surprises! Some are just hidden Waddle Dees but others are hidden levels! You even need to explore the overworld map. I was delightfully rewarded by zooming around the map between levels.

In between the main levels, there are Treasure Roads. These are ability-based obstacle courses. They are timed, and at the end you’ll be rewarded with a Rare Stone, which are used to evolve Kirby’s abilities. And evolving the abilities unlock more Treasure Roads to earn more Rare Stones to evolve more abilities, and so on. Each of these levels serves a dual purpose. The first is of course to get that Rare Stone. The second is essentially to teach you how to maximize each ability. I learned a lot from these levels!

And let’s not forget Waddle Dee Town. As you rescue the Waddle Dees, they rebuild the hub world, giving Kirby even more to do! You can upgrade your abilities, buy food and powerups, watch unlocked cutscenes, battle in the coliseum, go fishing, get a part-time job, or just take a nap. These aren’t just filler content either. Napping refills Kirby’s health, fishing earns coins, and the mini games have awesome rewards and do contribute toward your completion percentage. Don’t skip out on exploring this tiny town!

I did have to change the controls from the default, because it’s so hard getting use to jumping with A and attacking with B. No other game does this! Luckily, it takes one click to switch to jumping with B and attacking with Y. Much better! Kirby is so easy to control once you have the buttons to your liking! He just doesn’t float as high as I’m use to. There seems to be a limit on how high he can go from his starting point. But if you start from somewhere higher, he can reach even higher places.

Replayability

Obviously, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a game you’ll want to play again! There’s too many secrets for just one playthrough, and you can always switch between Spring-Breeze Mode and Wild Mode. I played on easy despite enjoying Wild Mode in the demo. I just wanted a concrete reason to play it again. Plus, it’s just a fun game and is pretty short, so it’s not too much of a commitment to start it from the beginning again.

I did play all of the levels more than once in order to collect everything. Sure, if you’re super careful you can probably get everything in one go, but there are some things that you only get one shot, otherwise you have to restart the level.

Overall

I loved Kirby and the Forgotten Land! It is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. I know Kirby games tend to be super short and very easy, especially when played on Spring-Breeze Mode, but that’s not a negative. Kirby is just a joy to play. It’s all about fun and exploration rather than challenge. But make no mistake, this game does get challenging even on easy. The difficulty spikes quite a bit during World 5 and the game stops holding your hand for those endless boss battles. The world that unlocks after the credits is also a real challenge, but a fun one.