In spite of everything else revealed at the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, Kirby and the Forgotten Land was arguably the most welcome surprise among them. Although the Kirby franchise hasn't stopped gaining new entries or spinoffs ever since 1992's Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby and the Forgotten Land looks like a return to classic Kirby fun, albeit with a couple of significant twists. Kirby and the Forgotten Land takes the franchise wholly into 3D, for instance. It seems Kirby will be following the lead of his fellow Nintendo platforming star Mario, whose Super Mario series started adding 3D entries a long time ago. In a way, it's surprising that it's taken this long for Kirby to get a wholly 3D entry in the main series.
There's another major twist to Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and it's much more mysterious. The game appears to take place in a post-apocalyptic city of some sort. The Forgotten Land's reveal trailer showed Kirby walking around all sorts of abandoned places, including an overgrown shopping mall and a crumbling skyscraper. Kirby has clearly found himself in a very mysterious place, but it's also not Kirby's first encounter with a post-apocalyptic setting. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards featured an abandoned planet called Shiver Star with some similar themes. Maybe Kirby and the Forgotten Land will lean into The Crystal Shards via its similarity to Shiver Star.
Kirby and the Significance of Shiver Star
Although Shiver Star is only the fifth out of six worlds that Kirby visits in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, it's arguably the most memorable because of how mysterious and ominous it is. Looking at Shiver Star on Kirby 64's level select screen, players might notice that the frozen planet of Shiver Star looks an awful lot like the real Earth; the outlines of Earth's continents are very easy to spot. Notably, in spite of its icy and abandoned state, Shiver Star is full of cityscapes and machines that continue to function in their makers' absence. Official descriptions of Shiver Star even suggest that its residents left the planet because it got too cold.
Much like how Kirby and the Forgotten Land shows Kirby walking through a shopping mall, parts of Shiver Star look an awful lot like a human shopping mall, driving home the point that Shiver Star could be a ruined Earth. In other words, it looks like Kirby and the Forgotten Land will lift The Crystal Shard's idea of Kirby discovering the ruins of human civilization and exploring that idea in greater depth. Shiver Star was only one piece of The Crystal Shards, but now it's found a spiritual heir in Forgotten Land, which puts the Shiver Star experience at the heart of the game.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land's Inheritance
It's worth noting that the post-apocalyptic Shiver Star isn't the only idea that Forgotten Land seems to get from Kirby 64. Notably, Kirby 64 transitioned the Kirby franchise from 2D graphics into 3D graphics, vastly changing the aesthetic of the series. Fittingly, Kirby and the Forgotten Land will be the first Kirby game that's wholly 3D, letting players run around in all directions and totally changing the experience of platforming as Kirby. It seems these two 3D Kirby innovators have a lot in common.
Still, there's a case to be made that Kirby and the Forgotten Land's post-apocalyptic setting is the most important connection to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and the world of Shiver Star. Fans may never know the entire story behind Shiver Star, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land is clearly all about the ruined world that Kirby has discovered. As Kirby explores this strange city and whatever strange buildings or biomes it contains, he'll inevitably brush up against the forces that made the universe forget this land in the first place. Kirby has a notable habit of running into scheming supervillains and cosmic terrors, so just as Shiver Star hints at a grim story of a collapsing world, Kirby and the Forgotten Land could tell a compelling story about a civilization's destruction.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land releases in spring 2022 for Nintendo Switch.