I’ve been meaning to get to Kirby and the Forgotten Land for a long time now, I got the game around the middle of 2023, and it’s currently halfway through July 2024. Only recently have I finally gotten around to playing it, and I’m glad I finally did. The game enamored me in so many ways, and it drove me to try things that I wouldn’t ever consider doing in most other games. I didn’t 100% the game, but I got really close, having 94% completion by the time I was done. Either way, this game was spectacular to play through, and I’m glad I finally got around to it.
I think what ultimately drove me to try and complete as much of the game as I could were the Waddle Dees. In each and every level, there’s a number of Waddle Dee that you have to save, typically around 9-11 Waddle Dee per level. Three Waddle Dee are saved at the end of the level, three Waddle Dee are hidden throughout the level, and three Waddle Dee require doing specific tasks in order to save. That last group of Waddle Dee is what drove me to replay levels over and over, to try and perfect things. It was most noticeable with bosses, where one Waddle Dee always required beating the boss without taking damage, which was always a challenge. Honestly none of the hitless boss challenges were all that hard, the hardest one was the one in 4-4 I believe. But even aside from those challenges, they encourage playing with different copy abilities, finding hidden things in levels, and even things that I never even considered possible. Overall it was a super engaging system that pushed me to play each level to near mastery.
And a similar group of levels are Treasure Road levels. They were short little challenges also based on specific copy abilities or even mouthful mode abilities that Kirby can use. They were just fun challenges that both help you learn what each copy ability does, but test you to see how well you know it. I think what’s nice about Treasure Roads as well is that beating the record times doesn't add to percent completion, only beating the level does. Some of them definitely feel like they’d be frustrating to beat the record time, and the reward for doing so is very minimal.
There aren’t many copy abilities in Forgotten Land. Only about 12 total, however they can be upgraded throughout the game. Much like with the Waddle Dee, the upgrade blueprints for Copy Abilities are scattered through the levels of the game, which further emphasizes going back to master the level. Each upgrade follows the same idea of just making a copy ability stronger, though some in different ways. Sometimes a weapon gets stronger, but also gets slower. Other times only speed will change with an upgrade. To me though, it feels clear that some upgraded copy abilities are just better than others. The sword becomes really powerful especially if you have full health, but I found Dragon Fire (the fully upgraded Fire ability) the most broken. It constantly left lingering damage, which allowed me to keep a safe distance while the boss gets decimated by large chip damage.
Even though there are less Copy Abilities than most Kirby games, it also makes up for it with Mouthful Mode. Mouthful Mode in a way is a unique set of copy abilities, where Kirby uses certain objects, like a vending machine, a traffic cone, and most obviously, a car. These abilities are in a whole just really fun, and allow for some really interesting levels. I remember one where you had to get to the goal in a specific time, and you had to find each and every shortcut to do so. Or there were a few dark levels that you had to use a light bulb in order to light the way.
I think another thing that really gets me is the story of Forgotten Land. It’s hard to describe it really, but the way it sort of builds up to its conclusion is unforgettable to me. That whole final boss level, and every single bit of build-up to the final boss itself is spectacular. And it’s something really interesting knowing that the entire time the game was building up to this, but it was made clear of that until the level began. It’s hard to go into further detail of course, I try to avoid spoiling things, so I can’t really say much more than I already have.
And in a similar vein to that, I can’t say much about them, but I implore you, if you ever play Forgotten Land, please play the postgame. I can’t say much of what it is, as it relies heavily upon the context of the ending of Forgotten Land story-wise. However, the postgame levels are absolutely my favorite segments from the entire game. I nearly missed out on what was my favorite part of Forgotten Land, and I want to ensure people don’t do what I almost did.
I’m always mesmerized by Kirby games, I play them so rarely that I always forget how much I love them. Forgotten Land effortlessly translates the feel of a Kirby game into a 3D environment, and I absolutely adore it. So many of its levels are really unique, and thanks to the specific missions, I felt like I got really good at each level. It’s just such a spectacular game.
