“Kirby and the Forgotten Land” is the foray into proper 3-D gameplay that the series deserved since 2001! The Kirby franchise has only ever gone ankle-deep into the metaphorical pool of 3-D gameplay with experimentation back when the GameCube was brand new, so to see these ideas finally come to fruition brings a special kind of joy to the hearts of Kirby fans everywhere. This game is a brilliant interpretation of the modern Kirby formula transitioned into a 3-D environment.
The game’s most impressive feat comes from the high graphical quality that it manages to achieve, especially for the series’ first step into 3-D gameplay. Gloriously detailed cutscenes appear throughout the game, and the in-game graphics also show a high level of graphical fidelity. Furthermore, the fact that the gameplay can so easily shift to 3-D with little to no sacrifices made to the quality of the presentation is nothing short of astounding.
However, the oddly slow framerate takes away from the graphical prowess. The cutscenes and certain parts of the gameplay run at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second (FPS), opposed to the rest of the gameplay running at 30 FPS. The difference between 60 FPS and 30 FPS is barely noticeable, but it stands out to those who have an eye for it as a curiosity of the game’s programming. Noticeably, this seems to be a recurring problem that the developers run into when it comes to Kirby games on the Switch, as “Kirby Star Allies” suffered from a similar issue.
As for the gameplay, it seamlessly transitions the modern 2-D formula of the previous games, with minimal sacrifice. It stands out just how similar the gameplay is to the modern Kirby games, but just placed in a 3-D environment. The only thing that doesn’t easily move over to a 3-D environment is Kirby’s Copy Abilities. They lack the diverse movesets that they had back in games like “Star Allies,” and I can’t figure out why. Even if the transition from 2-D to 3-D prevents the developers from using controller inputs used in previous games, they could simply assign these missing moves to precise inputs, like pressing buttons in a specific order.
Thankfully, the Copy Abilities get enhanced along with several other gameplay elements that integrate perfectly into the modern Kirby formula instead of clashing with it. Copy Abilities can get upgraded throughout the game, allowing for more diversity in the somewhat limited initial movesets available to the player. In addition, “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” also hides collectibles everywhere. As a veteran of the Kirby series myself, I’m usually on the ball when it comes to the hidden collectibles, but even I had trouble finding some of them!
The game also introduces Mouthful Mode, a way for Kirby to use certain objects to his advantage. Unlike previous one-time gimmicks introduced into the Kirby series that shift the focus of the gameplay away from Kirby, Mouthful Mode enhances the gameplay rather than takes away from it. The player has much more freedom to do whatever they want to do with Mouthful Mode as opposed to other gimmicks in the Kirby series, as the objects Kirby can use in Mouthful Mode have great movement capabilities and won’t immediately vanish if the player decides to leave said object behind for a bit.
All in all, I give “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” a 9/10!
