Many of Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s trailers and even the game’s demo focused on two main features: The option to upgrade Kirby’s copy abilities, and Mouthful Mode. Kirby’s upgraded abilities gain new movesets, and Mouthful Mode is brand new to begin with, so there are a lot of new mechanics for players to mess around with. That is where the new Treasure Road stages, which previously have not been featured in trailers, shine.
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Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Treasure Roads
Kirby and the Forgotten Land mainly contains wide open stages, taking full advantage of the game’s new 3D setting. These are full of hidden areas to explore, as well as optional course objectives to complete. That being said, fully completing the objectives in any given stage usually requires focusing on just one or two copy abilities. The Treasure Road stages provide a stark contrast: They are short, bite-sized stages in which Kirby must fully utilize one ability.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Treasure Roads seem like a simple addition, but they are highly creative in execution. In essence, each stage is a short obstacle course that is tailor-made for either Kirby’s copy abilities or Mouthful Mode abilities. These can be unlocked by completing a stage that contains a new ability, or by flying around the game’s world map to uncover them manually.
At first, these Treasure Road challenges seem like fun, side content, just there for completion’s sake. After playing through the first few stages and unlocking Waddle Dee town, their true purpose becomes clear: Kirby receives a Rare Stone upon completing each stage, which is the material used to upgrade the game’s copy abilities. This provides an incentive beyond the satisfaction of finishing a stage, though it is pretty fun to do that to begin with.
Treasure Roads Bring Challenge and Creativity
Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Treasure Road stages are all unique from one another. Kirby’s new Ranger ability, for instance, requires Kirby to shoot at moving targets while on a platform, while the Fire ability’s stage has Kirby light multiple fuses and break boxes that get in the way. As unique as all the stages are, they are still easy to breeze through. That is where the optional goal times come in.
Each Treasure Road stage has a maximum time of three minutes to complete, but a bonus goal time that can get as low as 45 or 30 seconds. These times can get surprisingly strict — defeating six waves of enemies and a mini boss with the Sword ability is suddenly much harder with a one-minute time limit.
One stage in which the timer is particularly frustrating involves a Mouthful Mode ability that will have its name omitted for the sake of spoilers. Just know that solving three sequentially difficult puzzles with a strict timer is not a fun time. The only disappointment here is that fulfilling these times only grants Kirby a handful of extra coins to spend on upgrades and collectables, and these are not in short supply elsewhere — especially with Forgotten Land’s new Wild Mode difficulty.
On top of the added challenge, the Treasure Roads also serve to teach players about Kirby’s abilities. This is helpful because, unlike other Kirby games, Forgotten Land lacks the ability to check all of Kirby’s inputs in the pause menu. One specific stage that comes to mind is that of Kirby’s Ice ability. In it, Kirby must race to the bottom of multiple hills in a short time, avoiding enemies and obstacles on the way. Running down normally is way too slow, but the stage teaches players to mash B to surround Kirby in ice and slide down in no time. This is a nice way for the game to teach players some of Forgotten Land’s deceptively complex controls without feeling too forced.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Treasure Road stages provide an excellent bonus challenge for those seeking it. Playing through the stages is fun on its own, but the real satisfaction comes from completing all the bonus goal times. The reward for completing these stages is too good to pass up as well — Kirby’s upgraded copy abilities are an exciting inclusion. Regardless of how Kirby and the Forgotten Land is played, players are sure to have a smile on their face the whole time.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is available now on Nintendo Switch.
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