In the months leading up to its release, Kirby and the Forgotten Land saw plenty of excitement from fans as the pink puffball geared up for his first fully 3D adventure. Between new features like the game's "Mouthful Mode" allowing Kirby to take on huge transformations into cars and vending machines and new gameplay mechanics with the upgradable hub area in Waddle Dee Town, Kirby's newest outing has seen positive reception from both long-time fans of the series and newcomers alike, success that reportedly has translated into the game's sales numbers.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land's long-awaited release marked several firsts for the franchise celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. Forgotten Land was the first fully 3D main-series game for the character, with 3D environments previously being limited to spin-offs or overworld maps, while also introducing new copy abilities like the Ranger and Drill tailor-made for the game's 3D perspective. Kirby and the Forgotten Land set out to bring the franchise to new frontiers, and now Famitsu reported Forgotten Land was the best-selling game in its release week.
Famitsu's weekly software sales report posted Thursday shows Kirby topping its release week class in Japan with Kirby and the Forgotten Land selling a total of 380,000 copies in its first week. Famitsu's data from the March 21 to March 27 week shows Forgotten Land followed by a Nintendo staple in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, fresh off the launch of the first Booster Course Pass releases, and January's Pokemon Legends: Arceus following not far behind at third. Other recent games like Elden Ring, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin also finished in the Top 10.
While sales numbers for other regions will likely be slower to release, HAL Laboratory and Nintendo have spared no expense in celebrating Kirby's 30th anniversary with the official anniversary date coming late next month, marking three decades since Kirby's Dream Land first released for the Game Boy. Kirby social media channels previously announced the "Kirby 30th Anniversary Music Fest" online concert for August of this year, and Nintendo has previously confirmed several other anniversary projects to come throughout the course of the year.
With the success of Kirby's first fully 3D outing, many fans have turned their attentions towards the future of the franchise. HAL Laboratory's Shinya Kumazaki has stated in the past that the future of Kirby may not necessarily be a full shift to 3D games, with the developer instead looking at ways to innovate on the time-tested Kirby formula in future games. Forgotten Land saw Nintendo and HAL Laboratory taking a big step outside the traditional Kirby formula and early sales are showing the gamble has paid off.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is available now for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Famitsu