According to a recent Japanese magazine leak, Nintendo is working on yet another Kirby game. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s floating pink puffball with an insatiable appetite and a propensity for colourful platforming adventure, and Nintendo has promised lots of special promotions and releases to mark the occasion.
Fans have been marking the occasion in their own unique ways, such as creating homemade LEGO sets based on the original Kirby’s Dream Land and knitting very creepy Kirby dolls out of yarn. For the official gaming front, Kirby And The Forgotten Land, a brand-new Kirby game due to appear on the Nintendo Switch on March 23, looks to mix up the usual Kirby formula in a few fascinating ways. Kirby And The Forgotten Land would put the main mascot in a 3D open-world environment as he journeys to save the Waddle Dees from a new gang of baddies known as the Beast Pack, rather than the typical 2D platforming.
Kirby And The Forgotten Land just received a new video, which showcased some of Kirby’s new powers as well as the return of fan favourite Bandana Waddle Dee as a playable co-op companion. If a recent leak from the Japanese gaming magazine Nintendo Dream is any indicator, there could be more Kirby action on the way. Kirby enthusiast and Twitter user Dededaio just shared a leaked paragraph from Nintendo Dream’s January 2022 edition (via VGC), which promises additional details from Kirby And The Forgotten Land as well as “a new game we didn’t expect,” implying that a brand-new title will be announced soon.
While there’s no way of knowing whether this will be another Kirby game or something completely different, Kirby’s ongoing 30th anniversary plus the fact that this announcement is being teased alongside more Kirby And The Forgotten Land news point to the former. Nintendo has yet another surprise in store. Given that Kirby And The Forgotten Land was purportedly held a secret for five years until being publicly presented during September’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, a Kirby revelation up its sleeve might not be all that surprising.
In the meantime, Kirby appears to be as popular as ever, as The 8-Bit Big Band and Button Masher’s arrangement of the Meta Knight’s Revenge theme was recently nominated for “Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella” at the 2022 Grammys. While it’s unclear whether the new game reveal teased in Nintendo Dream’s latest edition is for a new Kirby game, the timing would seem to match, given that the franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and Kirby And The Forgotten Land is just around the corner. Kirby’s latest adventure will be available to fans in March, with the rest of the year promising more Kirby excitement.