Kirby and the Forgotten Land review: This is not a Mario clone

By Rob Leane

Published: Wednesday, 23 March 2022 at 12:00 am

4.0 out of 5 star rating

There’s a major new Nintendo Switch game arriving on the scene this week, with Kirby and the Forgotten Land getting its release this Friday, much to the pleasure of the hungry pink blob’s fans.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (or Kirby as the Lost World as I keep calling it by accident) looks on paper like a 3D platformer in the vein of Super Mario Odyssey, which remains one of the best Nintendo Switch games in our books. That comparison is particularly easy to make when you consider that Kirby – just like Mario in Odyssey – is able to take on the powers of lots of his enemies, although Kirby inhales his foes while Mario just throws hats at them.

However, you could argue that platforming isn’t really the focus here. Kirby can float in the air at pretty much any point, so carefully timing your jumps between platforms is rarely your true goal in the Forgotten Land. Instead, the game simply wants you to have fun, try different things and explore its many nooks and crannies. And it’s in that playfulness and exploration that the game really shines.

After a brief opening cut scene that sees Kirby transported to a post-apocalyptic world (albeit a very bloodless one, this being a game for kids), the player is quickly introduced to the major new gameplay mechanic – Kirby now has something called Mouthful Mode, where he can try to eat large items and temporarily gain their abilities. For example, Kirby can fit a whole car in his mouth and drive around for a few minutes making the most of the vehicle’s speed and destructive power.

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Kirby using his Mouthful Mode on a car.
Nintendo

Kirby can also inhale smaller enemies to gain their abilities (this is the Copy Ability that returning fans with recognise). For example, if you suck up a sword-wielding foe, you can then use that little sword yourself. There are loads of skills like this to pick up and swap between, and you can upgrade them all to beef up their powers.

Using these skills, you will work your way through a series of colourful environments as you try to rescue little creatures called Waddle-Dees and overcome some boss battles. These bouts start off very simple, but they do get more challenging as you go, requiring some thought to overcome. Nothing on the level of those gruelling Elden Ring bosses, of course, but that’s hardly a fair comparison (although it was a bit jarring to jump from one to the other).

There’s an impressive amount of choice here, and players can choose which abilities they want to take into levels and battles. Plus, you can team up with a friend for two-player co-op, so you could mix and match your abilities to complement your friend’s play-style, if you so wish. The levels are built in such a way that multiple approaches are valid, which works really nicely.

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Kirby using the fire ability in a boss fight.
Nintendo

While the levels in Mario Odyssey often felt like mini open worlds, levels in Kirby and the Forgotten Land are more linear and traditional-feeling, although they do have lots of hidden areas for players to stumble into. Each level has a few little side-objectives, too, giving you some motivation to try levels multiple times as you try to perfect them.

The more you play, the more you’ll come to admire the level design, which offers regular curveballs to check if you’ve been paying attention. For example, there are a few racing track segments where you have to use your Mouthful Mode skill to race a half-eaten car around a little course against a timer. Little mix-ups to the formula that help to keep things fresh.

The graphics and the story are as simple and basic as you would expect from one of Nintendo’s kid-friendly titles (we’d still love to see a Nintendo Switch Pro that could move beyond that cartoonish feel), but there’s an impressively detailed feel baked into the overall world itself. For example, each level you complete will unlock a little challenge area that you can visit if you fancy taking a break from the main campaign.

Completing these little side-tasks (one of the first ones involves bowling using bombs against a timer) will reward you with the resource you need to upgrade your various abilities, which is done in the little hub world you visit between levels. As you progress through levels and rescue Kirby’s little friends, you will also unlock new buildings to visit in that hub world, some of which house their own little mini-games and stories.

On paper this game may look simple, then, like a shallow imitation of Mario Odyssey. But it’s actually a surprisingly deep offering that Nintendo fans are bound to enjoy. It takes a while for the game to offer any real challenge (especially to grown-up players), but there’s an innocent sort of fun to be had in working out each level, saving your little friends and gradually gaining better and more varied skills to use on your enemies.

And here’s the most important thing to stress: Kirby and the Forgotten Land is fun. It’s full of silly little moments and unique ideas that will make you raise a wry smile, and there are even a few references to previous adventures that long-term Kirby fans will enjoy. Whether you’ve been following this adorable pink blob for a while, or even if you only know Kirby from Super Smash Bros Ultimate, we’d recommend that you pick up this game. Whether or not you’ve got a friend or a family member to play the co-op mode with, we think you’ll have a good time with this one.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land launches 25th April for Nintendo Switch.