Kirby, the round, pink cosmic horror is back with a new game. In this title for the Nintendo Switch, we have control over Kirby as he absorbs and defeats enemies with ease. Mouthful Mode also adds to the fun — as Kirby becomes a car, truck, and more!
Here, we’ll talk about the puzzle design that makes the colourful world of Kirby and the Forgotten Land a unique spin on the old Kirby formula — specifically, the Treasure Road sections. These are points of interest on the overworld map that players can access once they have the prerequisite copy ability. Each Treasure Road rewards the player with a Rare Stone, a necessary item needed to upgrade copy abilities.
I found myself heading into each one anticipating a challenge — and it wasn’t so much the ability that lended a stage its difficulty, but the level of the ability tested in that stage. I easily breezed through the Chakram Cutter Treasure Road, but the Dragon Fire Treasure Road was a long maze of ice cubes to melt and enemies to defeat. All the while trying to light a ridiculously long fuse for a cannon.
Not only did each of these Treasure Roads come with a specific challenge suited to the copy ability, there was also a timed component which allowed players to test their speedrunning mettle in situations filled with puzzles of all sorts. The Multimouth Treasure Road is a great example of this — Kirby will end up sucking in every single item from the main game, and attempt to traverse the challenge under the time limit. You have to quickly figure out how best to use each Mouthful ability to remove the obstacles blocking your way forward.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a cutesy game about a round little pink creature sucking up enemies, but its level design for the Treasure Roads really stood out to me. It was a combination of being both thinky and challenging one’s reflexes, so I ended up becoming more familiar and adept with each ability as I played.
If you’re hovering around the forgotten land, don’t forget to press A — sometimes you might just find treasure.
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