I'm marking this as Mastered because fuck the figures, I literally did everything else, and I really don't feel like sitting by those stupid gotcha machines for a couple hours just to get some baubles. It counts, I swear (don't hate me).
I've loved Kirby since I was young. Nightmare in Dreamland on the GBA was my jam, and I think I must've beat it over a dozen times over the years. The novelty of the copy abilities when I was little slowly evolved into an appreciation for the game's design and the fun I had finding all its hidden secrets and beating its final secret boss.
So it's no surprise that I really liked Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It takes so many elements from Nightmare in Dreamland that weren't always greatly executed in later entries, and beautifully realizes them in a full 3D game. Like Nightmare in Dreamland, I had a blast combing every level for its secrets, finding all the hidden goodies, and rescuing all the imprisoned Waddle Dees while also just enjoying the main content as well (fuck the figures though).
It helps too that the game does an excellent job making all this feel rewarding. The Waddle Dee town that serves as your home base becomes frequently more populated as you rescue more Waddle Dees and reach certain points in the story. I loved being able to hop back to town (which the game makes very easy to do anytime and anywhere in the overworld) to see what new stand or minigame had been stood up. The variety of side activities to do here was surprisingly varied as well, and I had fun with most of them (Tilt and Roll can tilt and roll itself off a bridge with those motion controls). The development of the town alongside other goodies like pictures on the walls of Kirby's home and special figures (fuck the regular ones though) really made me feel like I was doing something relatively productive with all the different optional content I was completing.
What this game also excels at is utilizing the full novelty of Kirby's copy ability. Yes, there are less regular abilities overall than in most Kirby games, but the devs got around this by adding the ability to upgrade your abilities! Now your Sword ability can be upgraded to add more combos, Cutter can have its projectiles bounce off walls, Fire has a longer range and further burn status effects, etc. These abilities in their base state are already well utilized in how they interact with puzzles, the environment, and combat, but these upgrades add further utility, variety, and just fun by expanding Kirby's arsenal as you acquire these upgrades.
In addition to the regular abilities though, are special Bigmouth abilities. Kirby can now stretch himself real wide to partially suck up things like Cars, vending machines, traffic cones, and more! These abilities, which are usually relegated to limited parts of the levels added even more variety to what you'll be doing just within the levels. Some of these are a bit one note, but are still fun to use regardless. Others get much more varied use, and the team got really creative later on (without spoiling anything, the "shape" of the object becomes important which was a super cool twist I wasn't expecting).
Where these abilities shined the most though, were the boss battles. The bosses in these games are seriously excellent. They're not all difficult (though they get MUCH harder in the post game content), they are consistently fun. Now in full 3D, I love how the developers gave each boss varied movesets that force the player to really learn each boss and dodge, run, or block accordingly before taking advantage of openings to attack. As memey as it is to say these days, it feels slightly Dark Soulsian though it really is just a 3D implementation and evolution of elements already present in the 2D Kirby games. In 3D though, it feels so much more dynamic. Bosses have wonderful designs, excellent animations that look cool while also properly communicating to the player, and each one has a great toolset to deal with the variety of abilities you the player could possibly bring. I loved replaying and rematching the bosses with different abilities as I tried to go for their optional missions and seeing how I had to change my strategy for each boss based on if I was using a short-range ability like Sword, Hammer, or Needle versus using longer range options like Fire, Ranger, or Cutter. As I alluded to above as well, the post-game bosses, which I won't spoil here, do actually get to a fairly challenging level. I died a few times on a secret boss in particular, and being able to learn, strategize, and overcome these tougher challenges was all the more rewarding.
This curve of difficulty can be applied to the main levels as well. Most in the main game won't be much of a challenge for anyone experienced with games, though that doesn't hinder the fun of exploring and conquering each level for the aforementioned awards. These do ramp up in the post-game but still aren't anything ridiculously formidable. The biggest challenges I found in the level design came from Treasure Roads, side levels that give you a specific, time-gated challenge with a single ability. A few of these gave me quite the run for my money, requiring me to try multiple times to hit that Target Time for an extra 50 coins. A couple were just annoying (anything Bomb related was a pain to get through as the implementation of that ability's moveset doesn't really allow for clean, consistent use for a speed run style challenge) and the combat trials particularly got a bit stale (oh boyo, beat these enemies and mini-bosses in a strict amount of time), but most were very creative and fun to beat.
All of this is wrapped up in a presentation that overall can be summarized as fine. The graphics are inoffensive if unexceptional, and they're mostly helped along by the bizarre but engaging post-apocalyptic theme running throughout the game. The game runs very smoothly, so technically it's sound outside of a bit of a short draw distance which sees enemies off in the distance looking a little low fps in their movements. The UI and art design is expectedly well done with simple, colorful designs that match perfectly with the vibe of a Kirby game while providing a mostly smooth user experience. My only UX gripe would be with the item shops, where you have to restart the dialogue every time you buy a single item. This makes buying multiple items at a time, like say buying a Maxim Tomato to heal now and one to use later, a bit tedious, but it's a minor complaint. Animations are charming and lively, giving a comforting warmth to the game as a whole, and music is well done, even if the main theme motif is a bit overused with not enough variation. There isn't much of a story though you can find some interesting lore in the figures (but really, fuck the figures), and without spoiling anything, this game does the usual Kirby twist very very well and even carries it over nicely into the post-game content.
Overall, this game isn't anything revolutionary. It doesn't necessarily do anything particularly inspired for an action platformer. However, what it does do well is execute on what a Kirby game should be. This is easily one of the best Kirby games, at least from what I've played, and if you're a fan or just interested in the series, I highly recommend it. It's very short if you just blast through the main story, but if you go for even some of the additional content, it really does provided a full, rewarding experience.
I've loved Kirby since I was young. Nightmare in Dreamland on the GBA was my jam, and I think I must've beat it over a dozen times over the years. The novelty of the copy abilities when I was little slowly evolved into an appreciation for the game's design and the fun I had finding all its hidden secrets and beating its final secret boss.
So it's no surprise that I really liked Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It takes so many elements from Nightmare in Dreamland that weren't always greatly executed in later entries, and beautifully realizes them in a full 3D game. Like Nightmare in Dreamland, I had a blast combing every level for its secrets, finding all the hidden goodies, and rescuing all the imprisoned Waddle Dees while also just enjoying the main content as well (fuck the figures though).
It helps too that the game does an excellent job making all this feel rewarding. The Waddle Dee town that serves as your home base becomes frequently more populated as you rescue more Waddle Dees and reach certain points in the story. I loved being able to hop back to town (which the game makes very easy to do anytime and anywhere in the overworld) to see what new stand or minigame had been stood up. The variety of side activities to do here was surprisingly varied as well, and I had fun with most of them (Tilt and Roll can tilt and roll itself off a bridge with those motion controls). The development of the town alongside other goodies like pictures on the walls of Kirby's home and special figures (fuck the regular ones though) really made me feel like I was doing something relatively productive with all the different optional content I was completing.
What this game also excels at is utilizing the full novelty of Kirby's copy ability. Yes, there are less regular abilities overall than in most Kirby games, but the devs got around this by adding the ability to upgrade your abilities! Now your Sword ability can be upgraded to add more combos, Cutter can have its projectiles bounce off walls, Fire has a longer range and further burn status effects, etc. These abilities in their base state are already well utilized in how they interact with puzzles, the environment, and combat, but these upgrades add further utility, variety, and just fun by expanding Kirby's arsenal as you acquire these upgrades.
In addition to the regular abilities though, are special Bigmouth abilities. Kirby can now stretch himself real wide to partially suck up things like Cars, vending machines, traffic cones, and more! These abilities, which are usually relegated to limited parts of the levels added even more variety to what you'll be doing just within the levels. Some of these are a bit one note, but are still fun to use regardless. Others get much more varied use, and the team got really creative later on (without spoiling anything, the "shape" of the object becomes important which was a super cool twist I wasn't expecting).
Where these abilities shined the most though, were the boss battles. The bosses in these games are seriously excellent. They're not all difficult (though they get MUCH harder in the post game content), they are consistently fun. Now in full 3D, I love how the developers gave each boss varied movesets that force the player to really learn each boss and dodge, run, or block accordingly before taking advantage of openings to attack. As memey as it is to say these days, it feels slightly Dark Soulsian though it really is just a 3D implementation and evolution of elements already present in the 2D Kirby games. In 3D though, it feels so much more dynamic. Bosses have wonderful designs, excellent animations that look cool while also properly communicating to the player, and each one has a great toolset to deal with the variety of abilities you the player could possibly bring. I loved replaying and rematching the bosses with different abilities as I tried to go for their optional missions and seeing how I had to change my strategy for each boss based on if I was using a short-range ability like Sword, Hammer, or Needle versus using longer range options like Fire, Ranger, or Cutter. As I alluded to above as well, the post-game bosses, which I won't spoil here, do actually get to a fairly challenging level. I died a few times on a secret boss in particular, and being able to learn, strategize, and overcome these tougher challenges was all the more rewarding.
This curve of difficulty can be applied to the main levels as well. Most in the main game won't be much of a challenge for anyone experienced with games, though that doesn't hinder the fun of exploring and conquering each level for the aforementioned awards. These do ramp up in the post-game but still aren't anything ridiculously formidable. The biggest challenges I found in the level design came from Treasure Roads, side levels that give you a specific, time-gated challenge with a single ability. A few of these gave me quite the run for my money, requiring me to try multiple times to hit that Target Time for an extra 50 coins. A couple were just annoying (anything Bomb related was a pain to get through as the implementation of that ability's moveset doesn't really allow for clean, consistent use for a speed run style challenge) and the combat trials particularly got a bit stale (oh boyo, beat these enemies and mini-bosses in a strict amount of time), but most were very creative and fun to beat.
All of this is wrapped up in a presentation that overall can be summarized as fine. The graphics are inoffensive if unexceptional, and they're mostly helped along by the bizarre but engaging post-apocalyptic theme running throughout the game. The game runs very smoothly, so technically it's sound outside of a bit of a short draw distance which sees enemies off in the distance looking a little low fps in their movements. The UI and art design is expectedly well done with simple, colorful designs that match perfectly with the vibe of a Kirby game while providing a mostly smooth user experience. My only UX gripe would be with the item shops, where you have to restart the dialogue every time you buy a single item. This makes buying multiple items at a time, like say buying a Maxim Tomato to heal now and one to use later, a bit tedious, but it's a minor complaint. Animations are charming and lively, giving a comforting warmth to the game as a whole, and music is well done, even if the main theme motif is a bit overused with not enough variation. There isn't much of a story though you can find some interesting lore in the figures (but really, fuck the figures), and without spoiling anything, this game does the usual Kirby twist very very well and even carries it over nicely into the post-game content.
Overall, this game isn't anything revolutionary. It doesn't necessarily do anything particularly inspired for an action platformer. However, what it does do well is execute on what a Kirby game should be. This is easily one of the best Kirby games, at least from what I've played, and if you're a fan or just interested in the series, I highly recommend it. It's very short if you just blast through the main story, but if you go for even some of the additional content, it really does provided a full, rewarding experience.