Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''TO THE STARS!''

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Developed: HAL Laboratory

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Action/Platformer

Release Date: August 28th, 2025

Platforms: Switch 2

*GAME PROVIDED TO ME BY NINTNEDO OF AMERICA

Kirby and the forgotten land plus Star-Crossed World is the latest game on Nintendo Switch 2 to get an additional enhancement and its developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. With three years having passed since little pink boys fun in the sun that graced us all on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo decided its time to bring the squishy guy back, but this time with improvements to how it runs and with brand new content. But were the new upgrades and new levels worth it in order to warrant a re-release? or should that have stayed strictly a Switch 1 only title? Only one wat to find out, so lets poyo!

''WELCOME MY NEW OVERLORD LEADER''

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GAMEPLAY:

Its been three years since the release of Kirby and the forgotten land landed on the original Nintendo Switch, and now its back again with brand new content, upgrades to how it runs and looks and a name that is so long that if I kept repeating it throughout this whole review, I'd need to put on a oxygen tank, so let me just say it one time, then we'll get right down to what the core gameplay involves, for those who havent played the original, then we'll hop into all the new content it offers. Kirby and The Forgotten Land plus Star-Crossed World Nintendo Switch 2 Edition begins with a rift opening up and showing itself to all the inhabitants of Planet Popstar, pulling away all civilians, the Waddle Dees, and even pink man Kirby himself, and sending them to a run down, apocalyptic like setting that has traces of a now extinct great society. Albeit in a more friendly and inviting way with happy music playing and lots of green lush in the environment. My bet is Kirby already knew about Earth's fate in this dimension he was dragged to, and my bet is he ate all of the Earth's food, which lead to all of us perishing from starvation, so he ran off to Planet Popstar to avoid any negative blowback from doing so. Look at him, cute little turd, he knows thats exactly what he did... but aww he's SO cute, I can't stay mad at the little puff ball, even if he did doom the entire race. Kirby no no no! IM NOT FOOD. As your adventure kicks off in this post human world, you will head to environments such as urban areas like grass overran cities, oil platforms, theme parks, hot deserts, chilly mountains, spooky mansions, Jungle getaways - you get it, there's a wide variety of places to venture off too, on top of side content that includes extra bonus stages that unlock after every stage beaten or after you free roam the map and fly around on your warp star to find even more... and that doesn't even include the in game town stuff to do for even more mini game and content fun. Since this is a 3D Kirby action platformer game, you do have more of a variety of exploration and movement than you are normally used to with you picking to choose whether you want to partake in finding everything there is to do in every levels environment and use Mouth Mode to eat water pipes to turn into a huge fat water filled Kirby to wash away enemies, oil, fire or other hazards, eat anything circular shaped to turn into a giant fan who's wind gust can blow windmills to unlock secret passages, push a boat to a destination it needs to go, eat a traffic cone to be able to smash into anything on the ground, whether it be the cement itself, enemies or water pipes and destroy it in one fell swoop, there's just so much variety. Heck, you can even turn into a freaking car and speed your way 100mph through the city, busting through walls like its Fast and The Furious or something. Its okay though if he causes thousands of dollars in damages, he's doing for FAMILY, which in this case is Waddle Dee's, so everyone gets a pass on this one. BEEP BEEP, MOVE IT OR LOSE IT. Although sometimes, I do get carried away running over anyone and everyone I see in my way. Where have I seen this before? hmmm.

If you want to just do something beyond just gawking at the scenery at times, because, well, this game is gorgeous, you can continue exploring each level further by locating hidden and imprisoned Waddle Dees that are trapped in various areas of each stage and requires you to destroy platforms, enter secret rooms, listen for their cries on top of a building, a wall or beneath the ground and save them. Saving them is crucial as they serve very important purposes that will not only allow you to continue the game since in order to take on the boss battles, you need a specific amount of them saved to do so. On top of this, the more you save, the more shops, collectibles, mini games and other key items open up back at your main home hub area known as Waddle Dee Town. In between missions and collecting Waddle Dees, we head on over to Waddle Dee town to see just what abilities we can upgrade that we've acquired, all of which can be updated to be even stronger using Star coin currency and rare stones. So first off, again its essential to observe level environments and search for hints in normal levels to even have shops available to you, that's the last time I'll tell you, you got it!?. Firstly in Waddle town, lets take a look at... what? two player co-op? I don't want to play two player co-op, stop talking to me bro, I work ALONE, SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE. Heading to the first shop in front of you, any blueprints you obtain can be used to give to the Waddle Dee in the weapon store to craft your new abilities which include using a star gun with a wider range, more aggressive bomb throwing, swordsman, disc throwing, giant hammer, underground digging and dragon like fire breath. Ok heck yeah that's the one I definitely want and need, I'll take it! plus its purple too, so that's a major win. We gotta test it out though, so lets uhh... HOW ABOUT YOU?! MWHAHAHA BURN. That's definitely some strong fire, pretty too.. but let's move back to the main game gameplay and we'll come back to Waddle Dee Town in a few minutes for the rest of its content. During main stage missions across 6 areas, besides collecting imprisoned Waddle Dees, each stage includes their own objectives to complete as well that ask you to tear through a level with a specific amount of powers, find a varied number of targets, not use your power abilities to beat a boss fight, beat a level in a specific time frame, defeat certain enemy types, etc. There's quite a few on each level and when completed, give you extra bonus awards that go a long way in helping you on your journey - and the great thing about it, replaying each level is totally possible so you don't have to worry about missing out on any content, should you miss some during your initial run. A game that RESPECTS your time and effort, who would've thought? clearly not the majority of the gaming industry that's for sure, but our pink bundle of joy says ''nope, you WILL be happy. FOREVER... AND NEVER EVER LEAVE''. Uh ok evil demon Kirby, calm down bro, were not leaving... yet at least.

When you're through exploring each level, finding Waddle Dee and finishing all stage objectives, there's still plenty more missions to take on as personal side quests with trials known as Treasure Roads. In Treasure Mode, your goal is to use the selected copy ability that is utilized for that specific course and while you're on a timer, you must get through the course as fast and efficiently as possible. The early stages start off rather simple, mostly beating them within 20 to 30 seconds with relatively no sweat off your back, however once you start hitting mid Area 4 to Area 6's Treasure Road trials, oh boy, they're going to start ticking you off a fair bit, especially when stages tilt with 20 enemies on screen, having to dodge spikes and jump at a controlled speed while fighting enemies, boss rushes where you must fight 2 to 3 mini boss fights in a time limit, digging into the ground with moving platforms, etc, it all gets very intense. Obviously they aren't mandatory to do, but if you find the main game a tad bit too easy, I recommend giving all these a shot for an extra difficulty boost. Now as we head back to Waddle Dee Town, we.. OH. MY. GOD. He's still on fire. To avoid a lawsuit, were moving on. Getting more Waddle Dees allows the town to be expanded a ton, and takes it from a small quaint little village to a pretty big community that has stores to purchase enhancements, become a waiter at a restaurant middle game to hastily serve hungry and thirsty customers, partake in the battle arena for extra rewards to test out your skill, upgrade copy abilities at the forge, obtain your personal residence in town marking it as your new brand new home, and even partake in some leisurely fishing, which you never know what you're going to catch, always a mystery. Its a definitely very fun watching the town gradually grow as you further complete the main story, and having fun using your Star Coins like the old 25 cent machines when were younger to get little capsule toys of all characters in the game. There's really not a lot of bad I can say about the core game because it has a good 8 to 10 hour campaign mode, hours more to collect everything, fun and challenging Treasure Road Trials, plethora of capsules to collect, hundreds of Waddle Dees to find a save, cute atmosphere and only thing really I can say negatively is maybe its a tad bit TOO easy or missing classic power ups like Fighter and Stone. But other than that, no complains, the main game is fantastic and definitely one of the best Kirby games you can get your hands on and ranks right up there with masterful action platformers in the Nintendo library.

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''RUN FREE MY SQUISHY POYO!''

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STAR-CROSSED WORLD:

Arriving now at the brand new content, we have Star-Crossed World. With Forgotten Land enhancing its graphics, improving performance with frame rates, Star Crossed World says, let me add those as well, but also expand the core game a little bit further with new storyline that redefines some of the levels that you are familiar with during the main games campaign mode. Think of this sort of in the vein of something like Bowsers Fury when it was added as DLC for Super Mario 3D World and you're sorta in the same ball park, only with less fart running. Kirby also shares similarities to it by having DLC or an expansion to the main game, well after the original title got released. For example Super Mario 3D World release in 2013 and its DLC counterpart of Bowsers Fury, didnt release till 2021 and likewise holds true for Forgotten Land's release in 2022 and now here in 2025, we get Star Crossed World. But hey, better late than never, right?. OH MY GOD, WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE PUT THE FIRE OUT ON WADDLE DEE. Star Crossed World opens up if you started a brand new game after you have defeated the first main villain gorilla. ''Hmmm... monkey''. Immediately after, a gigantic meteor slams into the sea, creating an entire new land mass and its very own island, and of course, like the curious round pudge he is, obviously Kirby is going to go check it out, cause duh. Venturing over to it you learn that its actually known as the Star Of Darkness and before you can wrap your head around just what in the heck is going on and where it came from, it becomes Close Encounters Of The Third Kind as an astronomer Waddle Dee appears before you. Does he want destruction? world domination? maybe... peace?. Mister Alien Waddle Dee sir, can there be a peace?, ''NO PEACE''. Uh oh, ok KIRBY GET HIM, HURRY. Being that this thing looks like it can contain a world ending event hidden inside, obviously Kirby is chosen to get inside, find out what's going on and defeat whatever threat may be hiding inside, known as Heart Of Darkness, alongside many other sorts of beasts as well. But this time instead of collecting crazy old Waddle Dees, you now collect beings called Starries which boosts the crystalline shield to prevent further disaster. Again, like Waddle Dee in the main game, Starries are also hidden and trapped behind gates, underground, beating gauntlet of enemies and available by completing challenges that remain hidden until you seek them out, allowing for even more experimentation with your powers and new avenues to explore even further than previously, mostly due to some of Kirby's new inhaling powers. One of the things people might not like right off the bat however is the re-using of zones from the base game, offering a revisit to familiar areas, but adding new hazards to each environment, alongside new challenges, new enemies and even new boss types, giving you more reasons to explore this go around than you may have done initially during Forgotten Land.

Moving through levels you will activate stuff called Starry Flower, which create brand new platforms to traverse in the form of crystals, which not only create new paths to explore, but also change the way levels feel and look, even ones you have already beaten in Forgotten Lands, which is nice and doesn't let it be tedious. An additional new mouth in Star Crossed World is a new mouth form that Kirby can use to become a giant spring, which can help you leap to a ridiculous height, and at the same time, allow you slam into the surface of the ground and enemies in the same manner as the traffic cone enabled you, its pretty dang over powered. Star Crossed Worlds offers you a legit 2 to 3 hours of fun and at times it really feels like ideas they wanted to use or want to use for a full on sequel to Forgotten Land, especially when considering a lot of the revamped maps feel brand new at times, with Mouth modes adding even MORE variety to the mix than before with a Pipe that lets Kirby become a tube to roll and ride along crystal themed tracks, in addition to each sub boss getting their own crystal version of themselves, making them more ruthless and intense than ever before, but none coming close to our newest antagonist, Galactal, who is the one behind the targeting of Starries in the fist place. Freaking jerk. WHY ISNT ANYONE PUTTING WADDLE DEE OUT, HELP HIM. Geez, its hard to find good help these days. Galactal is easily the hardest boss in this entire package, no question, his fierce move set and aggression the more you damage him and further removing crystal layers to hasten your defeat of him, its by far the most fun I've had during a Kirby boss fight in many many years.

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''A CRYSTAL CARNIVAL WONDERLAND''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Kirby and the Forgotten Land plus Star Crossed World ends up being a fantastic package with very little negatives to speak on. Forgotten Land by itself is already a terrific achievement for a 3D Kirby title with gorgeous landscapes, large variety of collectibles, Waddle Dees to find, 12 power ups, multitude of mouthful transformations, challenges on every level, bonus stage trials that offer new difficulty with Treasure Road, mini games to partake in via Waddle Dee Town, there's just so much fun to be entertained by. Which of course, not to be outdone by the sheer creativeness that Star Crossed World brings to you with brand new crystal enemy types, new antagonist that keeps you on the edge of your seat, new Starry beings to collect, crystal form platforms that offer more exploration, challenges on every level just like Forgotten Land, new mouthful transformations like high spring jumping, gear rolling up walls, etc etc, its all amazing. There is one get up I think people will have though, pricing. Right now the Switch 2 version outright is $80, which honestly might seem like a steep price, but there's a ton of content here to justify it in my opinion. However if you already own the game on Switch 1, then you can definitely save some money and only pay $20 to upgrade to the Switch 2 version and continue the fun with Star Crossed World, I do not think you'll be disappointed, especially since its one of the most fun Kirby games in its entire franchise. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick say BUY NOW.

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