4.5/5 ★ – JetDusk's review of Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

So, having completed this game, I would say it’s pretty up there as one of my favorite Kirby games. From what I can tell, most of the soundtrack consists of new songs rather than it mostly being remixes, and they’re all pretty good. The visuals are a treat as usual, and the environments are unique. They do fall into the trap of “Starter world, Water World, Fire, Ice”, that kind of thing, but they have pretty good environment design to make up for it. The story was also really interesting once you get into the cutscenes toward the end, as well as the lore the figures provide. For the first (kind of) 3D Kirby game, they were able to translate his 2D gameplay quite well. The powers were adapted to still be effective for the most part, and the inhale now just automatically copies powers without having to push down, a smart choice. Mouthful Mode is a good idea that was used effectively, and it’s charming watching Kirby get stuck trying to eat a car. The bosses were pretty fun if not pretty easy for the most part, the most challenge comes from not getting hit by them once for their Waddle Dee objective. The biggest problem with the game is collecting everything. If you just play the game, I’m certain you’ll get everything you need just to finish the story. However, to get every waddle dee you need to finish secret objectives in every level, and this can get tedious. They do tell you what to look for after you clear a stage, but it’s only one of them, and that still didn’t help much with more than a few. Luckily for Treasure Road, you don’t need to meet the time for 100%, so I would recommend ignoring it especially for one in particular involving a long fuse. You barely have enough time even with perfection, plus you need to know you can speed up the fuse by holding B in the Cannon, which I didn’t know for 30 minutes of attempts. After you beat the main game, there is a post-game, and that also has a collection problem. There are 300 more things to find in 6 levels, but you only need 250. While that doesn’t mean you have to get them all, the way I see it if your getting more than 2/3rds of everything, may as well get the rest. Besides, you need them all for a figure, so they are REQUIRED for 100% completion. The figures themselves are cute but annoying. Thankfully there’s a Waddle Dee after you finish the final Colosseum battle that will trade rare stones for any missing figure you need, so at least it can be guaranteed beyond hoping the gacha gods bless you. The quickest way is grinding the first colosseum battle for rare stones, so that was a bit of a grind at the end. I really like this game, I recommend it for everyone, and you should at least finish all the story segments. The last important thing you’ll do would be the last coliseum battle, and while it’s tough, it’s totally doable if you remember to dodge roll (hold block, R1 or L1, and move in a direction). 100% is a bit too annoying for me to recommend to others, so just do it if your comfortable grinding a bit or dutifully searching for every lost Waddle Dee. I still want more 2D Kirby, but I hope we get plenty more 3D Kirby as well in the future.