Games, Gaming, Nintendo, Reviews

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch) Review – A Mouthful of Enjoyment

Sahil Lala

23rd March 2022

Kirby is one of Nintendo’s most loved characters and it’s been a while since he’s had a chance to save the world again.

Kirby Fighters 2 released in 2020 and was the last title in the franchise to heavily feature our circular pink hero albeit in a more multiplayer focused game.

Now in 2022 we have a full-fledged platforming adventure in the form of Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Nintendo fans are in for a treat.

The Forgotten Land

In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, players will take on the role of the titular character once again. This time, Kirby gets sucked into an alternate world and strange things are afoot. Waddle Dees have gone missing and have been imprisoned by beasts.

It’s up to you to save the day by adventuring through numerous levels and rescuing the Waddle Dees.

Kirby befriends a mystical creature known as Elfilin and players will soon be adventuring through various levels in an overarching game world that’s been split into thematic sections.

If you’ve played any of the main series Mario games, or more specifically Super Mario 3D World recently, this will immediately seem familiar to you. Thankfully though, Kirby’s adventure features a lot of mechanics which are uniquely Kirby and sets itself apart from it’s Nintendo kin.

Once players are brought up to speed with the game’s controls, you’ll slowly be introduced to the new “Copy Abilities” as you suck up enemies and unlock them. Numerous tried and trusted fan favourite copy abilities are back along with brand new ones which really enhance the gameplay.

Mouthful Mode

Also new in Kirby and the Forgotten Land is his ability to use “Mouthful Mode”. As ridiculous as the name sounds, it’s super useful for Kirby to use this ability in levels as it helps him traverse regions he otherwise would struggle to get through.

Mouthful Mode comes in numerous forms with Kirby taking on the shape of whatever it is he sucks up into his mouth.

You can transform into a car, a staircase, a vending machine, a water tank and much much more throughout the game and it’s great seeing how these forms have been worked into puzzles to solve while platforming. For example, there’s a particular level where you have to suck up a giant circular pipe and thanks to Mouthful Mode letting you take on its shape, you can roll down a hill with ease.

It’s hilarious to see this in action and Nintendo have managed to capture the essence of fun here with Mouthful Mode throughout the game.

As you adventure through the various levels in the game world, Kirby will rescue Waddle Dees. These Waddle Dees will then be returned to a vacant plot of land where Waddle Dee Town will be established.

The more Waddle Dees you rescue, the more the town gets developed. This progression system gradually works its way up introducing new buildings and additional gameplay mechanics to the game as you rescue Waddle Dees. Kirby will eventually unlock a building where a Waddle Dee craftsman will be able to use blueprints to help you upgrade your copy abilities.

Finding blueprints and gathering the required resources to upgrade your copy abilities will become essential to progressing throughout the game and racking up the highest rating possible in levels.

Each level in Kirby and the Forgotten Land features numerous bonus objectives to complete as well as many hidden Waddle Dees to rescue in addition to the standard bunch that’s found at the end of the level.

This ensures that players will have a lot of replayability available since they will want to go back to levels to find all the hidden Waddle Dees and complete the bonus objectives.

Some of the bonus objectives are easily completed while playing through levels the first time around but others are quite despicable in that they are hard to do unless you specifically try to do them.

In additional to the standard levels, there are boss levels too. These fights are great with each boss making use of special attacks and attack patterns which you will have to learn to avoid. Some levels also include mini-bosses so this isn’t just limited to the final levels in a particular world.

Completionists Rejoice

One of the most challenging yet amazingly satisfying aspects of the game are the hidden Treasure Roads. These are time trial challenges dedicated to one of the copy abilities or to Kirby’s standard form in which you will have to platform your way through short levels.

These are quite challenging and beating the target times will require quite a few practice runs for some of them.

The only drawback is that it’s quite annoying not being able to instantly restart a Treasure Road after completing it and failing to reach the target time. Completionists, however, will still have a field day with this game since there’s so much to collect and do in it.

Speaking of which, there’s also a figurine collection in-game which players will definitely want to complete.

Figures can be found in levels or can be earned through using the “Gotcha Machine” back at Waddle Dee town. Thankfully there’s no real world microtransaction purchases involved with that though so gamers can rest assured, there aren’t any predatory practices here.

Once you have a figurine, you can choose to display them in Kirby’s house back at Waddle Dee town. This is a nice touch and gives players some form of customisation which they’ll certainly enjoy.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land can also be played co-op with a 2nd player simply taking on the role of the Bandana Waddle Dee that’s found in Waddle Dee town. Playing the game cooperatively can unfortunately only be done locally and not online.

However, the co-op mode is all kinds of fun when playing with friends or a family member, especially given the game’s whimsical nature.

Much of the level design in Kirby and the Forgotten Land is excellent with plenty of variation between levels. The thematic designs for levels means that you’ll be facing off against various environmental hazards as you platform your way through the world and there’s some truly well-thought out puzzles to solve in some levels.

Nintendo have also incorporated Kirby’s abilities incredibly well into the game in a way that doesn’t frustrate you or annoy you. For example, you can generally find the ability you require quite easily.

Early levels for example make use of the Fire copy ability to light fuses or lamps and there would typically be a fire enemy nearby which you can simply suck up to copy. Mouthful Mode items are just as great too and there are many instances where they are so much fun to use.

The soundtrack of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is excellent with an extremely catchy set of themes that play throughout the game.

The Treasure Road theme is perfectly suited to the high-speed high-stakes nature of those levels and the sound effects implemented in the game are on-point, especially for Mouthful Mode and the copy abilities.