I will admit up front that I am not the world’s greatest Kirby fan. Aside from about 20 minutes playing Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush on the Wii U, I’ve spent almost no time with the character. Perhaps not the best starting point for a review of their latest starring role, but there we go. In fact the most experience I’ve had with any form of Kirby is the General from 1985 action classic Commando. But I digress. With very little preamble we jump into the story as a vortex pulls Kirby away from Planet Popstar and into a strange, abandoned world that is altogether much less welcoming. Essentially this is what The Last Of Us would look like if tinted by Nintendo’s Kirby-shaped glasses. To get home, Kirby has to find the Waddle Dees (erm… wut?) who have been kidnapped by the Beast Pack. Across each level Kirby has a number of tasks to complete, one of which being the rescue of the er, Waddle Dees. You know, they remind me of Kowl, the flying owl/koala/butterfly hybrid from She-Ra. Anyway, that’s a separate point… Others include things like lighting all of the lanterns within a level, or finding secret rooms. Each of these contributes towards achieving a 100% completion score. Interestingly this is the first time Kirby has appeared in 3D. It doesn’t show from playing, as each level feels well designed and simple to navigate. It’s the same level of attention to detail and quality that we’ve seen previously from the likes of Yoshi’s Crafted World and essentially all of the Mario games in the Switch era. At the same time, the levels are hardly complicated and tackling the bad guys is a relatively straightforward affair. Food is freely dotted around to refill your health, and more often than not there is an environmental assist waiting for you somewhere nearby. There’s very little that isn’t clearly signposted (sparkling objects and/or a trail of coins are normally a good indication about where to go) and it’s almost impossible to get stuck and not progress. With that said, your progress could potentially be hampered by not rescuing enough Waddle Dees to take on each zone’s boss level. They’re also needed if you want to unlock features in Waddle Dee Town, your home base. Then again, there’s so much to see, do and collect – like 256 “gotcha” figures – if you’re a completionist there’s potentially a few dozen hours of gameplay awaiting you to get absolutely everything – including the post-game levels. The most fun comes from figuring out which enemy abilities you can copy by inhaling various bad guys throughout. Want to wave a sword around? Just breathe in one of those chaps waving them about. Need to crack through a broken segment of flooring? Inhale that thar traffic cone and get to stomping away. Other abilities include driving around certain levels by inhaling a car, or becoming a huge set of stairs. You know, whatever helps get you through the day. These copy abilities can be expanded or enhanced by unlocking blueprints and again, as noted before, help push you towards a 100% completion rate. As an added bonus there is the option for a bit of co-op platforming available should the mood take you. I didn’t test it for this review, however it seems that while it’s good a second player has the option to drop in and drop out, player two has a very limited skill set. It seems that they are really just there for a certificate of participation rather than making a significant contribution. On a more positive note, there’s the Treasure Roads, an optional feature if you’re just here for the story. These are special challenge levels that give you a special star on completion, and extra money if you beat the target time. And yes, you’ve guessed it, completing these Treasure Roads contributes to your overall 100% score (but thankfully, it’s not a requirement to beat the target time on each level as part of this). Forgotten Land is not a game that would ordinarily be near the top of my list of things to play. More fool me, because it’s a charming game that lends itself to play in small doses. In other words, an ideal release for the Switch. Where it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in its visual appeal and relatively stress-free approach. Maybe I should go back and give that Wii U game another go after all…

Summary

It’s not the most complicated platformer out there, nor the most difficult, but Forgotten Land has an easy going charm that is hard to dislike.

7/10