I don’t know about you all, but when Nintendo announced “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” back in September, I was over the moon excited. I’ve always been a big fan of the franchise, playing games like “Kirby’s Return to Dreamland” and “Kirby: Planet Robobot” so to see Nintendo and HAL Laboratory giving love to one of their fan favorite franchises really made me happy. Before buying the game on release date, I was worried how the new 3D mechanic would be implemented, since the Kirby games have always been 2D, but that didn’t stop me from purchasing it and I’m glad I did.

“Kirby and the Forgotten Land” was a definite breath of fresh air for the franchise as its predecessor, “Kirby Star Allies”, was met with lots of criticism over a lack of fun gameplay and story elements. Personally I thought the game wasn’t too too bad, but that’s besides the point. HAL Laboratory saw where they went wrong and fixed it ten fold.

Story-wise, “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” was pretty good. However, I didn’t quite understand it until the final boss battle where the game finally explained what exactly was happening. At the very beginning, Kirby and all the Waddle Dees get transported to this new world where the said Waddle Dees are being captured by a group (that the game never mentions the name of until you unlock something that’s completely optional) and it’s up to the player to rescue them all. That’s a pretty boring incentive in my opinion. Granted, I’ve always been a big Japanese Role-Playing-Game (JRPG) fan and those games almost always have huge and complex stories to follow, but I feel like a simple “go save your friends” is overused, especially by Nintendo. Once the player reaches the end, however, the story gets intense and heart-pounding very fast. Even with the addition of Elfilin, Kirby’s new companion that helps him traverse the land, the whole pacing of the story felt off and I wish that the story was explained throughout the game rather than having it all dumped on the player at the very end.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a masterpiece. Every minute of exploring the levels, I had such a blast. The game encourages the player to go off the beaten path to look for coins, toy capsules for collecting in-game items or the illustrious “Hidden Waddle Dees”, which I absolutely loved. Normally in any kind of open-world game, I check everywhere for hidden items, so to see a game encourage that really made me want to explore even farther. Another crucial detail to the game are the copy abilities. Kirby can use different movesets, like ones based around fire, water, air or even crazier ones like hammer, sword and even sleeping. It’s been a staple mechanic in the franchise and to see it get more love with the addition of upgrading them is incredible. An ability can be evolved up to three times to get new moves within that moveset or to get more powerful and I think it’s a great idea. You can tell HAL Laboratory put a lot of time and effort to make sure their new levels and abilities were top notch and they did just that.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the best part of the entire game… Mouthful Mode! Ever since Kirby got sucked into this new world, he’s earned the ability to eat inanimate objects and become them. When Nintendo first revealed this mechanic in a trailer a few months ago, I couldn’t stop laughing; it looked so ridiculous and so funny that Kirby can literally be a car, a traffic cone or even a water balloon! I think my favorite things he can transform into are definitely the car, the vending machine and the roller coaster. With the car, Kirby can go a lot faster, access secret areas that would otherwise be inaccessible and not have to worry about taking as much damage compared to him being without it. The vending machine is hilarious to see and super useful at the same time, with the cans he shoots out of his mouth being not only helpful at finding hidden areas, but it also heals him. But I can’t forget the best part about the vending machine ability: Kirby literally waddling around. It’s so cute and so funny to see a literal pink vending machine with a face just walking around. The roller coaster is just crazy to use too, as Kirby can rotate the cart 90° to grab items, but he does it so fast that it looks like he’s just slamming onto the side of the track. Mouthful mode was by far my favorite part of the entire game and I hope HAL Laboratory use something similar in the future.

Last but certainly not least on this very long-winded review, it’s the soundtrack! It overall was absolutely a head bopper; all the tracks were just so good! This track, called “Title Screen” is such a great opening theme song! It adds a great guitar rift with awesome other instruments to make it stand out. Another great track is this one, called “Metro on Ice” which adds a whimsical sort of vibe with an upbeat feel to really emphasize the level! One last great track is this one, nicknamed “Burning, Churning Power Plant”. It adds a darker kind of feel with the strong instruments. Kirby games have always had great songs in any kind of factory level and this one is no different! I could go on a whole tangent about how good the entire soundtrack is, but I’ll refrain for now.

Overall, I was absolutely blown away by how this game came out. Out of ten, I would rank it a nine due to the fact that the story feels to me like it was left on the back burner. Even though it’s not a perfect score, I cannot stress enough that this is a must play for any Nintendo Switch fan! If “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” becomes one of your favorite Nintendo games too, thank me later.