While we won’t know for sure how this installment will shake out until we get our hands on it, here’s everything we know about Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Leaking just hours before the announcement at the Nintendo Direct in September 2021, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is officially the next installment in the long line of games starring this adorable round pink puffball. Kirby’s last adventure also came to Switch in 2018 in the form of Kirby: Star Allies, which was an amazing package for casual and hardcore gamers alike. There was also the fighting game spinoff game Kirby Fighters 2, but now Kirby is making his triumphant return in his traditional platforming genre, although with a major twist. Kirby has always been a lighthearted, more casual experience on the surface. He’s a cute character who stars in games where it’s either very difficult, or sometimes impossible, to actually die. His primary mechanic of sucking up enemies to either launch as projectiles or steal their powers is addicting and makes his gameplay always evolving. At the same time, there’s a clear undercurrent of maturity in some games, and optional challenges that can push back on the player’s skills. While we won’t know for sure how this installment will shake out until we get our hands on it, here’s everything we do know about Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Nintendo announced in January 2022 that we will be playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land in just a few short months when it launches on March 25, 2022. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is coming exclusively to the Nintendo Switch. This should come as no surprise, as Kirby has always been one of Nintendo’s exclusive series, despite developer HAL Laboratory technically not being owned by Nintendo. Kirby is just as closely tied to Nintendo as Mario and Zelda are at this point, so any fans of his games would already know they would need to pick up a Switch to play his latest game. The announcement trailer for Kirby and the Forgotten Land doesn’t exactly have the tone you might expect from a Kirby game. It opens on a ruined city that nature has begun to reclaim. We see abandoned malls, streets, and buildings before finding Kirby waking up on a beach, apparently confused about his whereabouts before venturing into this abandoned metropolis.
