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All those times HAL tried to make 3D Kirby finally pay off, and they pay off spectacularly.
| Developers | HAL Laboratory, Vanpool |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Releases | 2022-03-25 |
| 2025-08-28 (Expansion) | |
| Systems | Nintendo Switch |
| Nintendo Switch 2 (Expansion) | |
| Played On | Both |
| (Unless specified, anything mentioned in this review applies to both the base game and the expansion content.) |
If you didn’t know, Kirby has had a bit of history attempting 3D games. The GameCube almost featured a 3D Kirby game, but the development was scrapped fairly quickly. Later on, the 3DS got the first actual 3D Kirby titles, though they were much simpler than any true Kirby adventure. Getting the full 3D experience was a long time coming, especially when the Switch continued to get primarily 2D experiences.
Seeing the original release of Forgotten Land those 5 years ago was magical, watching all of their previous work finally come to fruition. And after all this time, it’s still insane to me how much they nailed Kirby’s first 3D experience. It manages to translate all the best parts of Kirby into a new dimension, creating a wonderful experience and a solid new step for the franchise.
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Less Abilities, But a Fuller Experience
One big question in this new kind of Kirby game was how copy abilities would be handled, and I believe they picked the best route. There are way less abilities than past titles, and all of their movesets are way simpler than before. No massive lists of commands, and each ability has less overall coverage as a result. But I think that works to the game’s advantage, and is overall way more fun. In this game, every ability has a distinct identity with unique pros and cons. You can’t just pick one to do everything, and you HAVE to try many of them out to finish everything in the game. In combat, you really have to consider the tradeoffs between them to find your best ones, especially when it’s Arena time. Plus, since they’re all so different, and no single ability can do everything, switching between them is encouraged as you’re casually playing through the game. Even if you aren’t trying to do everything, it’s nice to just decide to put away the fire and throw the cutter blades around for a while.
Additionally, the 3D environments really work with these simpler movesets. I can see that being out of necessity when it would be really complicated to perform a lot of the old inputs in 3D, but it also ends up working well as the environments and puzzles flesh out the abilities naturally. New movement and aiming options in 3D go a long way on their own to make abilities more fun. My favorite example of this is Needle; it’s conceptually the same, but now you can just roll around and roll around and roll around and-
Even with less copy abilities, the game provides enough to keep them interesting and round out your skillset. Ability upgrades are introduced to the core Kirby games, for example. While they don’t completely change movesets, they add just enough to encourage experimenting with all of the abilities further. Having the extra visual flair as you go is really fun as well, watching your attacks get flashier as you progress farther and farther into the Forgotten Land.
The Mouthful Mode transformations also add good variety without halting the game’s pacing. Compared to other “game-specific” abilities, this one is my favorite for how flexible they can be with it. There are a lot of different transformations, that each provide something different on their own. And they can be used in a variety of ways, for big cinematic set pieces or for complex puzzles. The versatility is well appreciated, more than past games with abilities that boiled down to “press button, clear screen”. I hope they return in the future, as I would imagine there’s a lot more potential with new transformations to try. Plus, this is actively baked into Kirby’s lore now, so it’d make a lot of sense to return.
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A Beautiful Land to Explore
The levels also translate incredibly well into the new dimension, allowing HAL to do what they do best in level design. The primary goal, saving Waddle Dees, is presented in so many ways. They can be lodged into the tightest corners of the world, hidden behind clever puzzles, and so on. And you have to have a sharp eye to find all of them, with some secret rooms hidden behind alley ways and through small gaps you may not think recognize at first. It’s a lot of fun finding all of them, along with other collectibles like the gacha figures, since you’re always finding new ways to obtain them.
It also helps that the setting is utilized effectively, feeding back into the puzzles and secrets. You’re exploring a very-much-abandoned civilization full of malls, cities, theme parks, and other major remains of a society long gone. Many of the puzzles utilize the context of these settings really nicely, and it makes them even more fun to explore as you’re doing things like finding your way through mall mazes and the like.
This setting is honestly one of the best ones that the Kirby series has made, beyond the great puzzles. It gives a sense of wonder as you get to know about this now-abandoned place, learning about its people and culture through the details in the world. And you get plenty of time to wonder, what could have happened to this place to see everyone just… disappear? It adds a lot to this story, providing equal parts whimsy and uncertainty about what you’ll see next.
Without going too far into things, I adore how much this story is both its own thing and a response to established ideas in the past, especially working with major lore points made since Return to Dream Land. I’m incredibly interested to see how this game will feed into future games’ stories, and how they may work back into Pop Star and Dream Land if we do return there for the next adventures. Forgotten Land truly set up a new era for Kirby’s story, and I’m excited to see where this ends up leading them.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land really marks a new era for Kirby as a whole, and at a much-needed time as well. After years of the previous 2D formula, it was time for a shakeup, and this game is exactly what we needed. It pushed the boundaries of what Kirby could do and be, created a very fun and packed world to explore, and set up a wonderful base for the future of the franchise. It took a LOT of cooking at HAL to get to this game, and that cooking did not disappoint in the slightest.
Also, Waddle Dees are baby, please let us be friends with them forever please.
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A Star-Crossed Expansion
The Star-Crossed World is an additional side story that adds a decent chunk of new things to do in this game, for Switch 2 owners. It’s not a system-seller by any means, as it really is just extra content and not an entirely new thing. But if you have a Switch 2 for other reasons, it’s worth looking into.
The primary addition here is a series of new levels that focus on crystal gimmicks, along with new Mouthful Modes to play with. Some of the levels are remixes of old ones, but some take you through new paths and are more wholly unique. The crystal that shapes and reshapes many areas adds a lot of new depth to these levels, layering them on top of each other in ways that wasn’t really explored in the original game. I really enjoy the variety of these stages on top of the usual environmental storytelling, even though there are a lot of retreads into old stages. This also provides some additional world-building provided in the new threat you’re facing. It’s nothing super substantial, but it fits in well with what the base game gives us.
As I mentioned, if you don’t already have a Switch 2 then don’t worry about this expansion; it’s not enough to justify buying an entirely new console, and the base game already has more than enough to do. However, if you already have a Switch 2, it’s worth a look whether you’re trying Forgotten Land for the first time or coming back to it after its initial release.