The Kirby series has been one of the most beloved platformers for decades. The little pink Star Warrior puffball has made his way into fans’ hearts with ease, and most of the games with his name on them tend to be very fun with hardly any stress, especially for friends playing co-op together. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is no different, and even touts a special hard mode for veteran vans who seek a bit more of a challenge. Even still, there are a few adjustments that may change how even the oldest Kirby fan plays the latest game.
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The History of Kirby Games
Kirby has been one of Nintendo’s most iconic IPs since 1992. During that time, the franchise has released thirty-five titles. Each of them have given fans plenty of new and interesting challenges, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land marks the first proper 3D title. The franchise decided to make a big splash, it seems, as Kirby’s first adventure outside 2D platforming is an open-world title with plenty of mysteries to find and solve.
Not even Kirby’s big Nintendo 64 title, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, was a 3D adventure. Despite the three-dimensional graphics, it still served as a 2D platformer like all the others. Just like the games that came before it and after it, however, bottomless pits were seen as an instant death if players happened to mistime their jumps and fall into one. While some Kirby titles subvert the usual trends the series has, the use of bottomless pits in the franchise has become a reflex for many fans. When they see a pit in a Kirby game, their instinct is to usually avoid it.
Where Kirby and the Forgotten Land Changes Things
However, despite the standard thought process with bottomless pits in Kirby games being that they need to be avoided at all costs, Forgotten Land decided to change that. Falling into a pit like the one found during the Point of Arrival course in the game’s demo only depletes a third of players’ health. Those that manage to fall into the bottomless pit a second or third time will find that doing so leads to even less of Kirby’s health being lost. Players will instead simply take the hit and be spawned back near the same ledge fans fell off of, and be allowed to try again without much fuss.
There’s no change to how bottomless pits affect players between Spring-Breeze Mode and Wild Mode, as well. Wild Mode also lets fans roll into pits and get back up afterward with no trouble. In order for fans to die from bottomless pits, they could need to fall into the hole more than fives times to find Kirby completely without health, and even then, players would simply be spawned back to the last checkpoint and allowed to keep going.
While there are plenty of fans that will need to learn that careening off ledges by accident no longer means losing a life and progress, this chance makes perfect sense with how Kirby and the Forgotten Land operates. Since the game has wide-open spaces and takes inspiration from similar titles such as Pokemon Legends: Arceus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it decided to get rid of the usual life system seen in Kirby games as well. Perhaps removing health was the best way to handle punishing players in a similar manner without the system in place.
With a world as big as the one in Forgotten Land to explore, there are plenty of other elements that make sense with this decision that is sure to challenge players plenty without instantly dying to bottomless pits. Perhaps the game still holds some surprises regarding enemies and bosses, and Wild Mode will only make those challenges even tougher. In that regard, perhaps the 2D platforming veteran Kirby fans may be at an advantage, as avoiding these pits out of habit may end up saving plenty of their health in the long run.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land will launch on Nintendo Switch on March 25.
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