Kirby and the Forgotten Land Preview

I have been playing the Kirby game franchise since I was a child. I received Kirby’s Dream Land for the original Game Boy, and I instantly fell in love. The hero of the game was a pink ball with cute eyes and a huge appetite. Kirby was able to copy the abilities of any enemy he came across by inhaling, and then swallowing them; this gave him weapons and magic abilities that he could use against the other foes he encountered.

Fast forward 30 years and Kirby has a new game coming out just in time for the 30th anniversary of the franchise. On the 25th March 2022, Kirby and the Forgotten Land will be released; this is also the first 3D Kirby game in the main series as the previous instalments were in a 2D platforming style. In this title, Kirby can run and explore anywhere in the levels, giving the game an open-world feeling reminiscent of Super Mario Odyssey.

In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, we see Kirby washing up on the shore of a mysterious island; there are buildings that have long been abandoned by some type of civilisation, which has now been taken over by Waddle Dees and numerous other baddies familiar to the franchise. Suddenly, a gang of animals known as the Beast Pack start kidnapping all the Waddle Dees that call this place home. It is up to Kirby to use his copy abilities to defeat the members of this gang and get everyone back home where they belong.

Everything you would expect to see in a Kirby game is here; Kirby still has a huge appetite and will inhale anything that’s sitting around, including all the enemies. The baddies you are familiar with are also present, and you can still copy all their abilities, but there are a few new additions to this title. One of the biggest is a new ability called Mouthful Mode. With this power, Kirby isn’t transforming into something new when the object is too large to swallow, like a car or a vending machine, but will instead stretch around them. It sounds incredibly creepy but still manages to look super cute. Each item that Kirby uses the ability on will give a special kind of attack: when he eats a vending machine, you can spit out soda cans at the enemies; the large pylon lets him do a ground pound attack with the tip of the cone, breaking apart cracked cement; and the car lets Kirby drive around like a maniac, bashing into enemies and obstacles. 

The demo for the game has three different stages available for players to check out by themselves or with a friend in Co-op Mode. In multiplayer, player one takes on the role of Kirby, and player two is a Waddle Dee armed with a spear. Chances are if you are playing with someone else it will be a fight to decide who will get to be Kirby, but the Waddle Dee is no slouch, he’s still a ton of fun to play with and if Kirby steals a car you can jump on top and catch a ride. 

The visuals in the demo looked great, the areas that you explore in the world are bright and colourful like you would expect from a Kirby game, and have a ton of personality to them — like when star coins appear when you touch a tulip, which adds an extra magical touch to the game. All the enemies look cute yet fierce at the same time, especially the little fire puppies, they will not hesitate to chase after you. The large enemies you fight in the boss battle are very impressive; not only do they look cool, but when you do an attack — like using your freeze ability — you see ice forming right on the boss’ fur. It’s great to see that the developers paid attention to that, it really adds to the battle!

I can’t wait to explore the rest of this mysterious world and take down all the members of the Beast Pack gang. If the full game is anything like the demo, we are sure to be in for a great adventure mixed with an overdose of cuteness! I will never get tired of seeing Kirby using his new Mouthful Mode ability when he tries to shove oversized objects into his mouth.