The Sky Is No Longer The Limit

Kirby and the Forgotten Land was Nintendo’s roundest mascot’s first mainline foray into a fully 3D world, and it’s a strong contender for my favorite Kirby game of all time. It turns out, however, that it was only the beginning. At the very end of September’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed Kirby and the World Beyond, a new entry that embraces 3D even more, with open level design and an intriguing narrative twist.

The trailer begins with wide shots of a bright green field with unnaturally circular arches in the background, sort of like giant grassy doughnuts. The landscape is accented with trees with spherical bunches of leaves, and in the distance, a couple of mountain-sized mounds of branches with slow-spinning propellers made of leaves. It feels very “Nintendo,” but before Kirby appeared, most viewers, myself included, guessed it might be a new Mario game. Those suspicions went out the window with the third shot, however, which shows a plain white dome-shaped house with Kirby’s iconic Warp Star out front.