SPOILERS FOR KIRBY AND THE FORGOTTEN LAND
Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. It’s time again for what’s quickly becoming a monthly blog. But I swear I’m trying to put these out on a weekly basis. I was actually getting some momentum with writing and then I got sick with a cold and it all fell apart again. Not trying to give excuses. However, I’m trying to rebuild that momentum going into the summer. Spring is here fully and the summer is slowly creeping in. It’s kind of strange that we are getting close to the halfway mark for 2022. Time goes by too fast.
Anyway I want to talk about a video game I played recently about a Pink Puffball saving the world. But before I do that, I want to quickly talk about the pieces I’ve recently published. On April 17th, I published a Weekly Blog talking about “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzzanne Collins. This is the recently published prequel to The Hunger Games Trilogy. I really loved the Hunger Games when it was published and I decided to check out this prequel. I’d highly recommend you checking out the blog to get my entire review on the book, but the short version is that I liked the book but didn’t love it. If you are a huge fan of the Hunger Games Trilogy, I’d recommend reading it. However, if those books aren’t your cup of tea, then I’d skip this book. On Wednesday, April 27th, I published a Poem titled “Old Arguments.” This is a Poem about relationships and break-ups and living with regrets. Sometimes people will just replay old conversations and arguments on repeat, wondering what they should have said. On Friday, April 29th, I published the latest chapter of my Dungeons and Dragons inspired series “Answer The Call Part 2 (D&D).” The group of adventurers has made their way to Augendale and are staying for the night. Grace has slipped away from the group because she has had some trouble sleeping. While she is walking around the town with Shadow, the black blink dog, she hears a sound coming from inside a temple. Grace then goes to investigate the sound. Inside she finds a Dwarvish man named Gruemar who seems to have a personal grudge against the temple and they have an interesting conversation about good people, bad people, and the call of adventure. Finally, on Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 I wrote a Haiku titled “Emerald Eyes.” This one doesn’t really have a deeper meaning. It’s just about beautiful green eyes and how they light up a room. If you missed out on that or any of the other pieces I’ve published in the past couple weeks, I recommend you check them out.
Now let’s talk about Kirby. Kirby, Kirby, Kirby. He’s the star of the show. (Sorry, that’s a reference to the Kirby cartoon I watched as a kid called Kirby: Right Back At Ya which in retrospect is kind of a strange name for a Kirby cartoon.) About a month and a half ago Nintendo and HAL Laboratory published a new Kirby game. This new game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. This game is Kirby’s first foray into being a truly three dimensional platformer. Which you think Kirby being 3D would be a selling point in 1996, not 2022, but here we are. Kirby has made it to a whole new dimension. So how was this endeavor? Did it reach levels of other Nintendo franchises that had a big jump forward on the Switch like Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, or Pokemon Legends Arceus? Well, the short answer is no but kind of. Let me get a bit deeper into it.
I’ve played a few Kirby games on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS including Kirby Triple Deluxe and Kirby Squeak Squad. I haven’t played a ton of games, but the ones I have played have been pretty good. When I heard a new Kirby game was coming to the Switch I was very excited for it. I was hoping for a Mario Odyssey esque-game with an open world where you can take on challenges in any order. However this game is not on that scale. I would compare Kirby and the Forgotten Land to Super Mario 3D World. It’s a series of three dimensional levels with an overworld that you travel between. Each level has its main objection which is to free the Waddle Dees at the end, but there are also other hidden areas or side missions that unlock even more Waddle Dees. Freeing more of these little guys unlocks the boss levels at the end of the world. This functions very similar to how green stars work in Super Mario 3D World. Along the way there are also mini-levels which focus on Kirby’s power-ups. In this game there are abilities Kirby can gain from absorbing enemies. This includes classics like Cutter, Fire, Sword, and Sleep. This game also lets you upgrade these abilities. Through playing Fire becomes Volcano FIre and then Dragon Fire. Each ability is stronger than the last. I know that some people were disappointed that there wasn’t a wide variety of powers, but I feel like the idea of having basic powers and then being able to upgrade helps make the powers seem more numerous. There’s also the edition of the mouth-full mode. This is similar to traditional power-ups but mouthful mode lets Kirby absorb mechanical and artificial objects like a car, traffic cone, pop machine, and lightbulb. This lets Kirby temporarily use these objects to fight enemies, transerves the world, and explore the levels. These are very goofy but are a lot of fun and the best levels were ones where I got to use many of these abilities in tandem to solve puzzles and rescue Waddle Dees.
Other than that, this game is pretty similar to other Kirby games. Float around, absorb enemies, eat food, and kill god. Oh sorry, I might have jumped the gun there. Let me quickly talk about the plot of the game. Kirby games usually have a story that starts with Kirby getting a piece of cake stolen from them and ends with some sort of universal calamity being eaten by Kirby. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a bit different. It starts with a huge portal opening in the sky and sucking in Kirby and the other citizens in Dream Land. Kirby ends up in a strange world which looks like an Earth-like metropolis that has become overgrown with foliage. Beasts are running around capturing Waddle Dees and a chinchilla-like creature named Elfilin. Kirby rescues Elfilin and they team up to save the rest of the Waddle Dees. Through an adventure through places like the coastland, a theme park, a frozen tundra, a volcano and so much more, Kirby eventually finds himself in an advanced lab. Here he learns that there is a legendary creature which has the ability to create rifts in time and space. The creature was experimented upon until a terrible accident happened and the creature was put into suspended animation. Elfilin is a small part of this creature and it is using its immense power to control the beasts and capute Elfilin. Once it becomes its complete form, it opens a rift between the two worlds. Kirby fights the creature and defeats it by ramming a semi-truck into it. Kirby saves Elfilin and the two become great friends. So yeah the plot of this game is pretty light until you get to the last level and it really ramps up.
So what are my thoughts on Kirby and the Forgotten Land? Well overall I really enjoyed it. It was a pretty quick game and even in its harder mode, the game was pretty easy. A few of the later boss fights took several times to beat, but I think it is a game that anyone could enjoy. This may be the first Kirby game for many people and I think it’s a great game to start with. If you are on the fence about getting this game, I’d say that it’s worth it. Just don’t expect a Mario Odyssey or a Breath of the Wild. I hope that the team behind this game takes Kirby in 3D and eventually gets to the place where it’s on par with these other massive Nintendo IP’s. For now, I’ll finish by saying that Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a good game and a very enjoyable game. A solid 8 out of 10.
Thank you so much for reading that Weekly Blog all about Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the game. If you liked this Weekly Blog, I’d appreciate you giving it a Like. I’d also love to know your thoughts about Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Have you played it? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Feel free to share your thoughts down below in the comments. Lastly I’d really appreciate it if you Follow me here on WordPress. It’s the best way to stay informed on the pieces I publish as I publish them. Following me on WordPress will put the stuff I write in your reader’s feed. It also helps me get my stuff out to more and more people. I’m trying to create a creative and positive space on the internet and all the support I get from readers new and old help make that happen. I really appreciate all the love and support and when people from all over the world read the stuff I write, it makes my day, week, month, and year.
Thank you again for your support and I hope you have a wonderful day!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s official Nintendo webpage.
https://kirbyandtheforgottenland.nintendo.com/
Allen The Writer 
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