Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Star-Crossed World Expansion Is a Nice – If Inessential – Reminder of Why It’s the Best Kirby Game

I never quite know how I feel about Kirby. Like the character himself, who I obviously love and would fight for, but I'm a bit less sold when it actually comes to the games. Don't get me wrong, the majority of them all are solid, with the odd one like Planet Robobot or Nightmare in Dreamland being elite, but they are usually some of the easiest games ever made.

However, Kirby and the Forgotten Land compels me. At its core it is still a very easy game, but somehow it absolutely nails turning into a 3D game, and frankly I'm not that bothered about the series going back to its 2D roots any time soon. While it's not exactly a new game, the briefly titled Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Nintendo Switch 2 + Star-Crossed World is a nice reason to return.

At its core, Star-Crossed World is simply a DLC level pack for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, albeit exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade. However, the catch is that these levels are actually remixed versions of existing levels from the base game. This is fine for me, someone who hasn't played that base game since it first released in 2022, but I can imagine it's a touch tedious if you're playing for the first time on Switch 2.

Some of these are great remixes, mind you. The highlight has to be Fallen Star Beach, which has the water parting almost biblically and freezing along the sides of the area, thus allowing Kirby to walk on the seafloor instead of having to swing around. Meanwhile, Crossing Wondaria remixes Wondaria Remains and lets you run across the rollercoaster tracks of the game's lovely carnival area.

Star-Crossed World features 12 levels and will only take you a couple of hours to actually beat. However, this expansion also adds new arena challenges that, contrary to what I said at the start, are NUTS when it comes to difficulty. You'll be facing a gauntlet of some of the hardest bosses in the game back-to-back with limited health items available. Once you beat that, your big reward is an even harder version of that exact same gauntlet.

Ultimately however, the best part of Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Nintendo Switch 2 + Star-Crossed World is the fact that it's simply the best version of the best Kirby game. Some of the base game's same annoyances remain - the hidden goals that require you to do a full replay if you miss one, etc. - yet it looks gorgeous on Switch 2 and runs great. So there's not much more you could ask for there.

I'm not sure Star-Crossed World alone is worth the £16/$20 upgrade fee. That said, if you can get the Switch 2 Edition for a decent price on its own and haven't played the base game yet, it gets my full recommendation.