Kirby and the Forgotten Land Preview – A big mouthful of 3D platforming

Kirby has been in a lot of games over the years. Ever since his 1992 debut, barely a year has gone by without a big new adventure or some kind of spin-off game starring the voracious pink ball, and he’s even had a starring role as the one Nintendo character to survive and fight back in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate story mode. So it might surprise you that Kirby and the Forgotten Land is his first 3D game.

Sure, Kirby games have had 3D graphics since the N64, but where Mario and Link pioneered the jump to fully 3D action, Kirby’s main games stuck with side-scrolling platforming. So, how does the big-eyed ball handle the jump to full 3D?

Having been sucked through a portal, Kirby washes up on a post-apocalyptic world known as The Forgotten Land, with the native Waddle Dees and other creatures having been captured by The Beast Pack. Kirby has to adventure across this world to rescue the Waddle Dees with the help of new character Elfilin, to rebuild their town, and ultimately defeat The Beast Pack.

Kirby’s transition to 3D is pretty much effortless, with the gameplay style having a fair bit in common with the Mario 3D World style of gameplay. The camera is high up in the sky, looking down on the world where Kirby gets to run and jump around freely. It’s a gameplay choice that really helps facilitate the co-op play that is available all the way through the game.

As you would expect, Kirby’s most iconic abilities are completely intact for this game. Leap up into the sky and he’ll gently float down, or you can keep tapping the jump button to stay aloft for longer. And when faced with any kind of danger or obstacle, you better believe that Kirby’s just going to open his mouth wide and inhale whatever it is that’s before him, before spitting it back out in an attack. That includes inhaling enemies and then consuming them to gain their abilities.

There’s plenty of battling to do against different enemies, whether it’s waving a sword at them and pulling off spin attacks, throwing bombs, or just blasting an endless fury of fire like a sentient flamethrower. At certain points, levels can lock you into a battle arena, facing off against waves of enemies to clear them.

Bandana Waddle Dee, one of the series’ staple co-op characters, can also lend a hand. He turns up with his traditional spear, having a set of special attacks that work close up and at range, able to compliment whatever abilities Kirby currently has. Kirby’s always at the centre of the action, so player 2 has to stick nearby or they’ll get teleported back to the screen.

Then there’s Mouthful Mode, the big new feature (outside of the whole 3D thing). It turns out that there are actually some things that are too big for Kirby to swallow, but that doesn’t mean he can’t try. Whether it’s a rust-bucket of a car, a vending machine, a water tower or a comically large traffic cone, Kirby will open as wide as possible and stuff as much of it as possible into his face. He might not be able to eat them entirely, but he can still control or move around with them in various ways. It’s always funny to see how HAL has stretched Kirby around these objects.

As the car, you can then drive around, boost and jump to blaze a trail through the levels; as a vending machine or water tower, Kirby can wiggle them around to open up new passageways or reveal secrets; As the cone, Kirby gets an ability to jump pointy bit down to the ground and smash through weak parts of the floor. That last one comes in particularly handy when faced with ‘Tortuilding’ enemies.

The first world that we got to explore was heavy with its The Last of Us vibes – though really just any reclaimed post-apocalyptic city – as Kirby set foot in abandoned shopping malls and the like. It’s an unexpected shift, that’s for sure, but the visual styling works surprisingly well to fit with the Kirby aesthetic. Each level has multiple objectives to complete in order to rescue all of its Waddle Dees, from finding hidden Waddle Dees to hunting out specific items and interacting with things.

The more Waddle Dees you rescue, the faster that Waddle Dee Town rebuilds, opening up some minigames to play. There’s also upgrades for Kirby’s consumed abilities that you can buy, such as turning the regular Fire hat into a Volcano Fire hat that lets you just spew lava everywhere, all day and every day. It’s great.

From playing the opening of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, it almost feels like HAL Laboratory has been making 3D Kirby games for decades. The gameplay feels intuitive, the art direction works surprisingly well, and there’s a fun new gimmick with Mouthful Mode that I’m really looking forward to seeing how silly it can get. With the game out later this month, I’m looking forward to diving deeper into Kirby’s boldest adventure yet.

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• Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/03/03/kirby-and-the-forgotten-land-gameplay-preview-3d/