Kirby and the Forgotten Land

I went in expecting a safe, breezy spin-off designed to fill a release-window gap. What I got instead was one of the tightest 3D platformers Nintendo has published in years - and I say that as someone who has played enough of these to be properly cynical about the genre. The setup drops Kirby into a post-human world overgrown with jungle and nostalgia: crumbling shopping malls, flooded amusement parks, a haunted metro station. The setting does real work here. It gives every stage its own atmosphere without abandoning the series' signature cheerfulness, and the tension between cute and quietly melancholic is one of the better tricks HAL Laboratory has pulled off. Progress is structured around rescuing Waddle Dees hidden across each stage, and the ones you save come home to Waddle Dee Town - a hub settlement that gradually unlocks shops, upgrade services, and ability-evolution options. It is a simple loop, but it gives you a reason to actually hunt for secrets rather than bulldoze through to the next level. The Copy abilities return - sword, fire, ice, hammer, a new Ranger class for ranged combat, and a Drill ability that lets you tunnel under enemies. The roster is smaller than in past entries, and veterans will notice the absence of staples like Stone and Fighter. That is a fair complaint. The compensation is Mouthful Mode, the game's headline trick: Kirby inhales objects far too large for any rational biology, stretching grotesquely around cars, vending machines, traffic cones, and small aircraft. Each transformation has its own control scheme and its own puzzle logic - driving a car through concrete walls, spitting soda cans at enemies as a vending machine, gliding across wide gaps as an inflated cone. It sounds like a gimmick, and the first time it appears it reads exactly like one. Then the game keeps finding new ways to use it, and by the halfway point it has earned its place. The 3D perspective also makes the standard Copy abilities feel more expressive than in any prior entry, with puzzles that require you to think about ability range and positioning in three dimensions rather than on a flat plane. Difficulty is the one area where the game will genuinely divide people. Two modes are available: Wild Mode sits at a normal Nintendo-platformer level of challenge, while Spring-Breeze Mode drops health pickups everywhere for a near-frictionless run. Neither mode will trouble anyone who has finished a Souls game in the last six months. The optional Treasure Road challenges, which are timed ability-specific speedrun stages, add a harder layer for completionists - but the main campaign is tuned for accessibility first. For local co-op, a second player picks up the spear-wielding Bandana Waddle Dee, which works smoothly and keeps both players genuinely involved rather than relegating one person to a hovering cursor. If there is a game to hand to someone who wants to understand why Nintendo platformers still matter, this is close to a current answer. It is not reinventing anything, it is not challenging adult players at a systemic level, and the camera occasionally works against you in tight sections. But almost everything it attempts, it executes well - and Mouthful Mode is the kind of surprise that makes reviewing games worthwhile.

Alex · Scout Team

Catch-all

Be the first to comment on Kirby and the Forgotten Land.