Just like Pokémon fans, Kirby fans didn’t realize until today that they’ve been playing the same game for almost 30 years until today. Let’s take a look at all the Kirby games to date. There’sKirby’s Dream Land, Kirby’s Adventure, Kirby’s Dream Land 2, Kirby Super Star, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Kirby Canvas Curse, Kirby: Squeak Squad, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, Kirby Triple Deluxe, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby: Planet Robobot,and Kirby Star Allies. Notice how not a single one of these games has a Z-Axis? Now let’s take a look at all the Kirby games that use the 3rd dimension. Kirby Air Ride and Kirby’s Blowout Blast. It has been over 30 years since Kirby first started out on the NES and this is the first mainline 3D Kirby game in the entire series. And just to clarify, I have no disrespect towards the other games, in fact, I quite like a lot of them. I think Planet Robobot is probably the best 2D Kirby game to experience right next to Kirby Super Star.
Though these games aren’t for a lot of the turbo gamers out there. These are all easy games, in fact in its initial concept phase, the series was going to be called “Baby’s first video game”. Kirby and the Forgotten Land changes none of what the series is known for. You go level by level as Kirby, inhaling enemies and taking their abilities. It’s a platformer that is incredibly and rarely presents challenge. Though, a welcome edition to the series is the addition of a more difficult mode. I played on the harder difficulty, and now I’m curious what the easy mode must be like since I still feel like there’s rarely a challenge the game presents to me. The main new thing about this game though is the fact that the game is now in 3D. Kirby’s Blowout Blast experimented with the idea of a 3D Kirby game when it was on the 3Ds, but that was just an Eshop exclusive downloadable title that was an expansion of a short minigame from Kirby: Planet Robobot.
This feels a lot more like an actual 3D game as opposed to Blowout Blast feeling nothing more than another top-down high score game. There’s still a level-by-level structure, just like past games, so no. This is not “Kirby Breath of the Wild” or “Kirby Elden Ring” like some were thinking when it was initially revealed. And while the levels are very linear, the addition of collecting various Waddle Dees helps encourage exploration or for players to try different abilities. The level design is top-notch, which almost all 3D games should strive to achieve. The levels help guide players in varying ways such as laying out some of the in-game currency out in a path, showing players where to go or where they can go for secrets. And visually, the game looks great. The only time I’ve really seen frames drop where on enemies that where farther away from me. But that isn’t too big of a deal. The game runs solid and looks beautiful to boot. Never have I seen a dystopian take on (what appears to be, though not confirmed) Earth that’s done in such a vibrant and colorful way. Optional challenges are also scattered throughout the world map, which adds a little extra thing to do.
There’s also the new edition of the “Mouthful Mode” mechanic. I thought this mechanic would be another “nothing mechanic” like that if the “Hypernova” ability from Triple Deluxe or the “Friendship abilities” from Star Allies. But unreality, this feels a lot more like the Robobot armor from Planet Robobot in how it’s implemented into the level designs. A lot of them are really fun to use and actually feel like they add something to the game. Some of the abilities consists of Kirby inhaling cars, stairs, vending machines, boats, lightbulbs, and even more crazy things! But there isn’t really much for me to say on this. Just that it’s a fun new mechanic that gladly doesn’t feel like something they came up with to slap on the back of the box and rarely use in the game.
There’s also the hub area known as “Waddle Dee Town” which is inhabited exclusively by Waddle Dees. When players rescue Waddle Dees either by completing the level or completingdifferent objectives in certain levels, they go to Waddle Dee Town. The town originally starts in ruins, but more and more structures will gradually be unlocked as the player rescues Waddle Dees and progresses through the game. Some structures must be unlocked after players rescue a certain amount of Waddle Dees. One of these structures is Kirby’s house, which requires a total of 50 Waddles Dees to unlock. In Kirby’s house, the player can sleep to regain health, read a book detailing previous entries in the series, look at pictures to view achievements, and display a collection of little figures the player can get from capsules. That’s another thing this game has, capsules. This is a gacha game, where you can unlock figures from either finding capsules in levels or spending in-game currency to randomly pull one via a capsule machine in Waddle Dee Town. Another structure is the Waddle Dee Café, which allows the player to buy an item to hold in reserve in addition to playing a short cooking minigame. The Weapons Shops is a location that let’s players switch which ability they’re currently using as well as craft more enhanced versions of those abilities. These upgrades require both currency and another item known as “Rare Stones” which can be obtained in a variety of ways but most commonly from challenges. There’s also a dummy known as “Mr. Sandbag” in which players can test their abilities on. Waddle Dee-liveries is a building where players can redeem present codes for items. Some of these codes are given out randomly online while some can actually be found around the town. There’s also a Cinema that unlocks right from the start which gives the player the option to view certain cutscenes from the game again. A Colosseum is unlocked after progressing through the game and it features various “cups” that consists of different bosses. Upon completing a cup, the player is rewarded. A fishing pond can be unlocked later which houses a fishing minigame. An Item shop can be unlocked later that works the same way as the Waddle Dee Café does, just instead of selling healing items, it sells items that have varying kinds of effects that players can hold in reserve. There’s a minigame tent that can be unlocked later. A Waddle Dee known as “Wise Waddle Dee” who can give the player statistics of their playthrough and give hints as to where any missing blueprints (which are needed for crafting new items) are. And a corner stage which allows the player to listen to the game’s music, though the player will have to pay for their track list to be expanded if they want to listen to all the songs they have to offer. And that’s Waddle Dee Town.
The game is just overall a very wholesome and very enjoyable experience, from beginning to end. Great soundtrack, nice visuals, and a nice change of pace from the regular 2D side-scrolling Kirby game that is often released. Its pretty fun while still being on the easy side. The previous mainline game, Kirby Star Allies was way to easy to the point where it genuinely affected my enjoyment of the game in addition to having levels with boring and uninteresting designs and feeling like just your average Kirby game. Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a different story though, since that game can completely destroy people’s minds with how the easy game is. Play this game on “Wild Mode” because I can guarantee that the game is still easy even on this difficulty. The dystopian theme helps adds to the visual elements of the levels and the level design is pretty great as it has a nice balance of linearity and exploration.
This game is only worth your time if you’re a Kirby fan or if you suck at video games. If you have no interest in Kirby and want games that actually challenge you, then this game is definitely not for you. But this is still a great game, and I personally enjoyed my time with the game, and I can see myself coming back to this game in a few years to 100% the game again.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
The Squeeble Site 