Reviews are in for Kirby and The Forgotten Land, and critics can’t seem to get enough of the adorable pink puffball’s latest Nintendo Switch adventure. Nintendo and developer HAL Laboratory had supposedly kept the development of their newest Kirby project under wraps for about five years before unveiling Kirby and The Forgotten Lands during last September’s Nintendo Direct livestream with a trailer that promised to take the long-running platforming series in a new direction. Kirby and The Forgotten Land’s reveal trailer featured a ruined open-world city not unlike The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and the game’s plot has Kirby exploring the many environments of this new landscape and battling enemies like the claw-wielding feline Clawroline as he tries to rescue the Waddle Dees from the evil Beast Pack.
In the many months leading up to Kirby and The Forgotten Land’s release later this week, Nintendo has been slowly but steadily pulling back the curtains on the game’s many new features. On top of Kirby’s usual ability to copy his enemies’ powers by inhaling them, Kirby and The Forgotten Land adds shooting mechanics and the new Mouthful Mode, which allows Kirby to stretch his balloon-like body over larger objects like cars and take control of them. There is also two-player co-op, with Bandana Dee returning to help Kirby journey through the titular Forgotten Land. Kirby and The Forgotten Land is said to be somewhat darker than past Kirby games as well, as it is the first in the series to receive a “Fear” warning from the Pan European Game Information ratings board.
Kirby and The Forgotten Land’s novel approach to the Kirby formula seems to have paid off, because pre-release reviews for the floating mascot’s latest game have been mostly positive so far. Critics who have spent time with the game are praising it for balancing new innovations with accessibility, noting that there is always a new power-up or alternate form that makes exploring each arena of Kirby and The Forgotten Land's open-world feel different than the last. They also mention the charm and warmth of Kirby and The Forgotten Land’s visuals, especially in the novelty of Mouthful Mode and Kirby’s comical new “Carby” form. However, some reviewers have pointed out that the game can get somewhat repetitive after a while.
Cody Gravelle - 4.5/5 - Screen Rant
"Between the permanently brilliant visuals, the warmth of Waddle Dee Town, the mini-games that pepper the overworld map, and the many variants of Mouthful Mode, Kirby and the Forgotten Land does nearly everything right in bringing Kirby into modern console gaming. It's well worth a look for anyone who wants to put having fun first, and in that sense, it's a game that never fails to bring a smile to its players' faces."
George Foster - 4/5 - TheGamer
"Unless you’re aiming to find every Waddle Dee and complete every secret objective, Kirby and the Forgotten Land won’t challenge you, but it sure as hell will keep you smiling."
Tom Marks - 8/10 - IGN
"Despite the change in perspective, Forgotten Land maintains most of what I love about classic Kirby games – and if the future means more 3D adventures for our hungry pink hero, I’d be more than happy to swallow them up."
Ryan Gilliam - Not Rated - Polygon
"Every time Kirby and the Forgotten Land showed me something new, I loved it. I smiled from ear to ear the first time I watched Kirby become a traffic cone, or throw his gob over a water tower. I loved that opening moment in each new area where I could run around the overworld and get peeks into the new areas I’d be venturing into."
Martin Robinson - Not Rated - Eurogamer
"Like its predecessors, Kirby and the Forgotten Land's an open-armed thing, and now more than ever before it's a game that's for absolutely everyone, the move to 3D platforming perhaps the most significant step forward in the series' history. This is an absolute hug of a game, and quite likely Kirby's best outing yet."
PJ O'Reilly – 9/10 - Nintendo Life
"Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a great big colourful joyride of an adventure for our little pink pal. This first fully three dimensional mainline entry in the franchise is bursting at the seams with fun and inventiveness, managing to transpose everything we know and love about past Kirby games to this all-new arena whilst adding plenty of delightful new aspects as it goes."
Reviewers have also noted that Kirby and The Forgotten Land isn’t very challenging unless players are scanning every nook and cranny of the game world to complete every last secret objective, but that is par for the course when it comes to the Kirby series. Kirby and The Forgotten Land also carries the novelty of being the franchise’s first fully-fledged 3D entry after 2000’s Kirby 64 experimented with a 2.5D perspective, and this is likely the reason why it has the Kirby series's largest file size at a comparatively large 5.8GB.
All that data seems to have been put to good use, as critics are giving Kirby and The Forgotten Land glowing reviews for its colorful charm and unique gameplay. Kirby has wavered in and out of the spotlight over the years, mostly appearing in handheld titles and as a playable character in Super Smash Bros, but Kirby and The Forgotten Land looks to be an exciting return to form for the super-tough pink puff - and players will finally get their chance to float into Kirby’s latest epic yarn when Kirby And The Forgotten Land launches for the Nintendo Switch later this week on March 25.