Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)

Replaying this game reminded me that the worst part about 100% completion wasn't having to redo levels multiple times if a hidden mission went over your head, or having to finish the level again if you now have everything(which I still have problems with both base game and Star Crossed World), or the grinding for 100% gacha pods,

it's the last board of this.

Kirby is Moses in the new DLC.

Switch 2 version is night and day. Obviously better frame rates, but Kirby is anti-aliased. Therefore, Kirby is rounder. Round Kirby is always good. Easily a better upgrade pack than Jamboree's pack. Kirby's DLC isn't separate from the base game so the base game gets those visual upgrades as well unlike Jamboree. I have never played Forgotten Land on my Switch though until we got closer to the pack 's release, I emulated it at launch to 100% completion, so I have to play the base game in order to unlock all the levels.

Finally got to the end credits! Spent around 15 hours completing it but it felt like a lifetime as I managed to make it last several months by just doing a few levels per week.

Really enjoyed it and intrigued by the post game stuff. Definitely inspired to check out all the previous Kirby stuff. Only played All Stars up until now. Will write a review to reflect on Forgotten Land sometime soon hopefully.

Onto Luigis Mansion now which is a first for me. Really enjoying exploring some Nintendo classic IPs that I've somehow missed growing up.

Loving my time with this so far! I've only played the Kirby Super Star game on the SNES before this, so wasn't really sure what to expect. It feels pretty true to form though and I really like how you can upgrade your pickups which adds some focus to the game. There seems to be a lot of objectives in each level actually to work towards which I'm enjoying.

I don't usually care for collectibles or upgrading everything to the max, but there's something about how Kirby can swallow and absorb enemies powers that I find really satisfying and now I just wanna upgrade and collect everything to do with it. The collectible figures in little kinder egg pods is a neat feature too.

I was pretty lukewarm on this game at first, but I found it growing on me the more I played. I ended up getting "100%" (menu says 100%, but it isn't a true 100%) and I think I'd place it within my top 3 games in the series.

Pros

• This instantly feels like the Kirby game that was given the biggest budget. Game looks, sounds, and feels great. Forgotten Lands makes Kirby's transition to 3D feel seemless.
• I really enjoy upgrading abilities. This game is probably the best in the series with progression and making the player feel stronger.
• I found the missions fun. It was a fun incentive to replay levels to explore all that they had to offer. It is also nowhere near as tedious as Yoshi's Crafted World. In Forgotten Lands, you could do multiple missions at once and complete them on a first run. The mission objectives were also mostly things that players would naturally try to complete on their own while exploring levels anyway.

Cons

• This game performs well for the most part, so when it doesn't it really stands out. Enemies and objects that aren't in the immediate area move at 5 FPS and it's really jarring to see for a game that's so polished. The weird thing is that the 3D is more reminiscent of Mario 3D World than Odyssey, so I figured it would be less intensive to have everything moving normally at the same frame rate when the world isn't open. It really shows the limitations with the Switch hardware.
• The multiplayer is weaker than Return to Dreamland and Star Allies. The second player is stuck playing as Waddle Dee, which seems like a lesser experience than playing as a second Kirby. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because the Switch would struggle having 2 Kirby's on screen at once and having to render their different abilities.

Even though this is in my top 3 Kirby games, I don't know if I'd want Kirby to continue in this direction. It's great that it broke the mold when a lot of Kirby games started to feel samey, but I think I just like having familiarity. I'm also just a bigger fan of 2D than I am of 3D anyway. I'd like it if they occasionally went to 3D, but I don't think I want this to completely replace the 2D games.

Edit: Wanted to mention this, but wasn't sure where to talk about it. I think it's neat that they kept the hover, but they made it so it isn't completely overpowered. Although there's guarding, dodge rolling, and item boosts which are all really really powerful.