On the 5th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo announced a demo for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The demo lets you play three levels taken from an early section of the game and also lets you try out upgraded versions of copy abilities starting with your second playthrough of the demo. This game is most notable for being the first mainline Kirby to be in full 3D.
How did Kirby transition to 3D?
A lot of game series that started out in 2D made the move to 3D over 20 years ago, so a 3D Kirby game is a long time coming. Luckily for Kirby, his transition seems to have gone much more smoothly than that of many other traditionally 2D series.
Kirby has always been one of the simpler characters to control, and that has carried over into his 3D incarnation. Apart from losing his ability to run (you run by default now) and the ability to summon AI partners, Kirby plays almost exactly like he did in Kirby Super Star on the SNES over 25 years ago. Luckily that was a great game that definitely still holds up in the control department.
Instead of only moving left and right on a D-pad, now you use an analog stick and can go in any direction. Pushing down to crouch is now replaced with pushing a shoulder button, as was established by Mario. There is one area that doesn’t control similarly to other Kirby games at all, though.
Mouthful Mode
Taking another note from Mario, Kirby can now take the form of random objects in the world by wrapping his mouth around them. In-game it looks a lot less disturbing than it sounds. These play almost exactly like the capture mechanic from Super Mario Odyssey did with its more advanced captures.
When using this ability Kirby can move around freely, has one special function button, and can turn into regular Kirby again at any time. The few opportunities to use this ability in the demo were all interesting and made for unique experiences that justified the use and existence of the mechanic. If HAL Laboratory keeps taking notes from Super Mario Odyssey there should be some great and memorable moments involving this mechanic in the full game.
AAA Kirby
Kirby has never been a high budget game. He has always been a second tier Nintendo series, behind series like Mario and Zelda, and that is reflected in the budget of the games. Kirby and the Forgotten Land totally changes that.
This is easily one of the best looking Nintendo Switch games out there. The 30 FPS frame rate which some obvious and reproducible drops in a couple places is pretty much the only complaint one could have. The environments are detailed and extremely varied, and the resolution is definitely high enough to look good. The pre-rendered cutscenes that play throughout the demo look fantastic, too.
Play the Demo
Whether or not you know you are going to buy the game yet, you should try the demo. If you are on the fence you will probably enjoy playing the demo and even if you don’t it is quite short. If you already know you will buy the game you should still beat the demo to unlock something in the full game. Kirby and the Forgotten Land comes out on March 25th, 2022.
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