The Switch 2 is less than a month away, and I’ve been busy barreling through my legacy Switch backlog via my ongoing Road to Nintendo Switch 2 series.
We’ve made some great progress so far with a handful of excellent first-party titles, covering the likes of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and most recently, racing juggernaut Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Odyssey might be my favorite of the bunch, followed closely by Mario Kart.
What’s next? Well, a breezy adventure with lots of personality, and similar in mechanics to Odyssey: Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Although, instead of transforming into enemies and objects by way of a talking, anthropomorphic hat, you inhale your metamorphosis catalysts like the carnivorous pink balloon you are. By the way, has it ever been, you know, settled? What Kirby is, I mean. Living ball of cotton candy? Sentient marshmallow? Nerfed pufferfish? Giddy gumball? Kirby’s incongruity is terrifying, so said someone much wiser than me.
Nintendo and HAL Laboratory have released a surprising number of Kirby games over the years, dating way back to 1992 on the original Game Boy, wherein our hero wasn’t even pink yet, but a ghostly white. I’d wager this was due to the limitations of the archaic Game Boy display, but he’s even white on the box art.
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For the most part, the titles in this long-running platforming franchise are simple to play, easy to enjoy and usually feel aimed at casual players, more so than anything Mario has starred in, I’d argue. In terms of comparison, easy-going Trip World comes to mind, which came out the same year as the original Kirby game and stars a main character that sort of resembles our pink hero, too.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or Kirby: The Last of Us, as I like to call it (it’s strangely post-apocalyptic in its storytelling), follows suit in this tradition of accessible, inviting gameplay. There are challenging moments to be found, however, especially if you want to seek them out through the peripheral bonus areas. Some of the bosses can be a pain as well.
The world is set up like a Mario game, wherein there are overarching maps, and then individual levels situated within these sprawling landscapes. Each stage contains a multitude of hidden creatures called Waddle Dees, and you rescue them by finding the wayward lifeforms by either finding them outright or by completing specific in-level challenges. This would be stuff like beating a boss without getting hit, or finishing a particular area quickly, or collecting items like coffee cups and destroying wanted posters.
As titular Kirby, you explore an abandoned planet filled with dead malls (thinking of Dan Bell here), hollow amusement parks, empty cities and barren desert expanses. It’s an odd, lonely way to set up a Kirby experience, but it’s notably different from anything that came before, and I appreciate that. It can also be strikingly cinematic at times, which is very cool. The setting reminds me of platform-cousin Odyssey’s bizarre focus on real humans in New Donk City.
There was definitely something weird going on inside Nintendo headquarters during this generation, in that they were bringing beloved, cartoonish characters into realistic situations. Quite surreal. Now I want to see Sony bring Ellie and Joel into something that approximates PaRappa the Rapper’s insane, flat, colorful universe. Kick, punch, it’s all in the… cordyceps?
Between beating levels, you can return to an RPG-style hometown hub and see what the Waddle Dee’s are building, play mini-games, upgrade Kirby’s powers, buy health items and procure capsule toys, just like Ryo in Shenmue. Some of the powers are better than others, and I particularly enjoyed using the Gigant sword and musket. Other powers are decidedly annoying to deploy, like the tornado, the ice ability and the dreaded drill. Curse you, drill!
The same could be said of Kirby’s different transformations; the car, the vending machine and and glider are a blast to use, while the stairs (yes, stairs) and traffic cone can be a bit underwhelming. They’re all humorous, though, so it makes up for any cumbersome controls involved. The QTE semi-truck segment toward the end of the game is pretty epic, I must say. It felt like I was playing God of War back in 2005.
Speaking of controls, Forgotten Land feels pretty solid, though not nearly as fluid as Odyssey. I honestly don’t care for Kirby’s floating mechanic at all—it’s too squishy and unpredictable—and he runs rather slowly. I’d much prefer a simple double jump, but that’s not trademark Kirby, so whatever. Also, it’s easy to lose track of him during chaotic scenes, as he sort of blends in with enemies and the environment.
Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a quality platformer that’s very worth playing in 2025. It doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of Super Mario Odyssey, but it’s a ton of fun, and you can play it co-op. Kirby isn’t the most agile character to control, though the game makes up for this drawback with its relentless charm.
Interestingly, Forgotten Land is a game that will be receiving a $20 upgrade for the Switch 2, and the update will come with brand new story content (Star-Crossed World, it’s called), plus improved graphics and framerate to take advantage of the new console’s extra horsepower. Rather pricey for DLC and better visuals/performance, and a bit stingy coming from Nintendo, seeing as Xbox games usually get this sort of performance update for free. It could be worth it, especially with the extra content.
That said, It took me roughly 10 hours to complete Forgotten Land this first time around, and I think I’ll hold off for the Switch 2 upgrade before diving back in and trying to 100% the game. The legacy Switch version still looks nice, but I’m anticipating the welcome hardware boost come June.
Sadly, we’ve come to the end of this edition of Road to Nintendo Switch 2. Tune in next time for a truly wonderful entry…
