Kirby Sucks at Level Replays in The Forgotten Land

I gotta give him credit. Kirby is such comfort food for someone who likes mascot platforming games. And in every Nintendo-adjacent platformer, there are two grand schemas: one for anyone who plays their first video game, and one for those who complete video games religiously. I’m always here for both, but unfortunately, the latter is not always as enjoyable as the former, yet without both, it doesn’t feel like I’m getting the whole package.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a prime example of this imbalance, and the Star-Crossed World expansion, which builds on top of existing environments, highlights it further. Every level has objectives to finish it and collect hidden “starries”, but then just as in the main game, there are 3 additional objectives that aren’t revealed until I finish the level or discover them by the whim of curiosity or accident. This is one crime Rockstar Games never admits to: giving me a challenging objective doesn’t provide me with more fun, it provides with a checkmark obligation. At least older Assassin’s Creed games let me know in advance how to achieve full synchronization, so if I failed it, I was the one obsessive-compulsive enough to replay.

In this Kirby, levels are designed to be one-hit wonders. They delight from start to finish with secrets, surprises and Mouthfuls, but the fun is just not there on the second try. The flow drags as they’re often deliberately long with no effective way to speedrun. Still, unless I complete the objectives, I feel like I’m not playing the game for the followers, I’m playing the game for the initiated. The approach would make sense if it was the old casual Game Boy Kirby, but with the final boss that is so-so (meaning that it gives me both Sonic and Souls vibes at the same time), it’s out of the question: it’s a collect-a-thon platformer made with followers in mind but not in execution.