Thanks to all the work HAL Laboratory has put into refreshing the franchise,Kirby and the Forgotten Landis already a star of the Switch in 2022. It’s the first fully 3DKirbygame, but that’s far from its only innovation.Kirby and the Forgotten Landincludes difficulty options, and it enhances combat by giving Kirby’s Copy Abilities evolutions that diversify combat throughout the game. It also introduces a mechanic called Mouthful Mode, where Kirby swallows a large object and gains special properties based on the object.Kirby and the Forgotten Landis littered with objects that Kirby can make use of to manipulate his environment.Mouthful Mode is definitely a creative part of the game that contributes a lot, but it isn’t a perfect feature.Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s co-op is pretty limited thanks in large part to Mouthful Modes, which bendForgotten Land’s level design and gameplay in some major ways. The feature’s creativity comes with some costs, and that’s something HAL Laboratory needs to learn from. While it would be great to see Mouthful Mode return in a futureKirbygame, it’ll need to be streamlined in some serious ways so that it doesn’t get in the way ofother importantKirbyfeatures.RELATED:Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Ending Explained
Mouthful Mode’s Pros and Cons
There’s no doubt that Mouthful Mode deserves a lot of praise. Many ofKirby and the Forgotten Land’s most inventive puzzles make use of Mouthful Mode.Kirbyfans will find themselves fitting into holes in walls with the help of specific modes, dodging a lit fuse while moving a Mouthful Mode object into position, and much more. HAL Laboratory has clearly put a lot of thought into howeach and every Mouthful Modecan uniquely impactForgotten Land’s levels, and it pays off. It doesn’t hurt that Mouthful Modes help to mix up combat once in a while too.
Unfortunately, Mouthful Mode has a serious impact onForgotten Land’s co-op. While a singleplayer Kirby completing puzzles in Mouthful Mode is fun, there’s no practical way thatKirby and the Forgotten Landcould let multiple Kirbys run around its levels as cars, pipes, staircases, and more. The levels would have to be far bigger and more open to accommodate that. This means thatKirby and the Forgotten Land’s second playeris just Bandana Waddle Dee, but even then, the second player often gets attached to Kirby during a Mouthful Mode, meaning they have to sit and wait for the mode to pass. In other words, Mouthful Mode has a bad habit stifling the second player’s ability to play the game.
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Mouthful Mode’s Future in Kirby
The mechanic may be imperfect, but that doesn’t mean HAL should scrap it. If it takes another pass at Mouthful Mode in anotherKirbygame, then it’ll just have to change how it affects other players. For instance, maybe Kirby will have smaller Mouthful Modes in the future that don’t affect other players and are meant for solving small-scale puzzles rather than large ones. Alternatively,the nextKirbygamecould have open-plan levels that allow multiple players to all use Mouthful Mode at once. That level of freedom and cooperation could be a lot of fun.
Mouthful Mode certainly has potential to grow in theKirbyseries. There are lots of object types and shapes thatKirby and the Forgotten Landdidn’t find a use for yet. The feature has an uncertain future for the time being, though; HAL says3D isn’t necessarilyKirby’s future, which suggests thatForgotten Landisn’t the franchise’s new blueprint overall. The next game may prioritize new features over reworks onForgotten Land’s ideas. Still, it would be great to see HAL take a second pass at Mouthful Mode, improving on its strengths and polishing its flaws.
Kirby and the Forgotten Landis available now for Nintendo Switch.
