Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Kirby's Switch Odyssey

When I saw Nintendo Life place Kirby and the Forgotten Land on top of their Best Kirby Games Of All Time list, I thought either they were joking or recency bias was at it again, but after finally having laid eyes on the Forgotten Land myself, I don’t think they were far off. I almost slept on it since the first Kirby Switch game was nothing special. In case that wasn’t clear: Kirby’s first true 3D adventure is very much worth checking out.

During the Nintendo 64 era, HAL already attempted to convert the Kirby formula to 3D, but what we got instead was a watered-down 2.5D Pandemonium-like game. The 3DS entries are rendered in 3D but the playfield remains in 2D. The Forgotten Land is the first game in which Kirby can move around freely like Mario can since his N64 entry from 1996. That in itself doesn’t make this entry particularly special—at most interesting—as publishers have churned out 3D platform/action adventure games like crazy.

What does make this game special is the scenery—the forgotten part which heavily borrows from Super Mario Odyssey’s world building mechanics—topped with your expected Kirby sauce with unexpected twists. The most obvious one is the one advertised in all trailers and screenshots: Kirby can now not just inhale enemies and copy their abilities, but also swallow cars, tires, vending machines, stairs, archways, and even lightbulbs. This so-called “mouth mode” is sporadically used as Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s unique gimmick, and it works well.

During certain stages in the game, this mouth mode radically alters the gameplay, suddenly turning Forgotten Land into a racing, match-the-shapes puzzle, flying, or even shoot-em-up game. I highly enjoyed these changes of pace that reminded me of some of the Looney Tunes sections. They never last too long either, turning Kirby back into Kirby on time to further explore this overgrown land. The whole game doesn’t outstay its welcome, clocking in under 10 hours without tackling the plethora of post-game content for those who want more.

The traditional copy abilities now can be powered up twice, turning a Sword into a Giant Sword, a Meta Knight Sword, and something even more secret. The Kirby wiki lists 101 copy abilities across all games, of which “only” 15 make it to Forgotten Land, yet these 15 can all be updated at most three times. After beating the game, you can even boost their attack power. They all are effortlessly translated into the freedom of movement 3D space, which is probably why some were picked and others were left behind.

As you rescue Waddle Dees in each stage, Waddle Dee Town that acts as the central resting ground gets slowly rebuilt, unlocking arena modes, shops to refill health or provide temporary attack/defence boosts, and more. As expected from a Kirby game, the post-game content is amazing: there’s hundreds of collectible figurines to hunt down, there’s a semi-secret post-game world that doesn’t mess around to wade through, there’s all the copy ability upgrade recipes to find, and more. Suffice to say, if you want this adventure to last for a long time, it will.

What I liked the most, however, wasn’t any of that: it was that Odyssey-esque abandoned landscaping of that forgotten land. Instead of your typical boring ice world, you’re served a chilly suburban world where you’ll have to battle your way across a giant steel bridge or find Waddle Dees in a dark cathedral. Instead of your typical boring volcano world (yes indeed, the last one), you’re served a mixture of fireballs, scorched heat, industrious plants, and cogs turned crazy. These changes to the scenery feel like a much-needed breath of fresh air after being forced to play through your typical green, water, sand, fire, and ice worlds. This combined with mouth mode made Kirby and the Forgotten Land a hoot to play from start to finish.

If you worry about playing this Kirby entry with your kids, don’t worry, it’s still very easy, even the (end) bosses are total pushovers. Until you start exploring the post-game stages, that is. And that’s fine: at heart, Kirby is a game I pick up and want to play to get relaxed. Kirby is and (hopefully) always will be synonymous for low-key. Tight platforming tension belongs to Celeste, not to Kirby. Extremely precise 3D jumps and elaborate platforming tricks belong to Mario, not Kirby. If you scoff at the thought of playing a Kirby game, Forgotten Land will not change your mind, even though the scenery might come across as more “mature”.

There’s still an opportunity to play along in co-op mode, but I felt that this game might not be as well-suited for that task as say 2018’s Kirby Star Allies or 2023’s Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, both also available on the Switch. If you were to ask me which of these three Kirby games you should play, I’d say as a single player experience Forgotten Land but as co-op Return to Dream Land Deluxe.

Kirby’s near-impeccable transition to 3D does come with a few albeit minor downsides. In earlier Game Boy titles, you could fly as high as you wanted to (or, later, when the limit as in Kirby’s breath faltered), while here, as not to cheese your way through most tougher 3D platforming sections, Kirby seems to be only able to temporarily float a few feet above ground. This ain’t no Spyro adventure. Also, the hand-holding during instructions can get irritating. For example, in all dialog boxes, you have to wait three seconds before you can press A to zap them away, even though you’ve seen that text over and over again.

But compared to the grand scene of things, these are only minor nit-bits, and Kirby fans such as myself cannot rate this game anything less than amazing. HAL Laboratory’s continuous showcase of creativity, even after the more than tenth Kirby title, is not just commendable: it’s still superb to experience.

Don’t sleep on The Forgotten Land, like I (almost) did. Whether it will be able to bump Super Star Ultra from the top is another matter.