It has been difficult to forecast Nintendo’s “game + add-on” rereleases just by looking at that label. While the more recent Super Mario Party made its way onto Switch 2 with the Jamboree TV expansion, which was both identical to the original game and completely different in a few strange ways, Super Mario 3D World made its leap to Switch 1 with Bowser’s Fury, which was essentially a brand-new game. It is now Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s time, and its Star-Crossed World add-on is a Kirby-sized breath of fresh air just because it is so simple to explain: it is simply a standard, modestly-sized DLC.
Although it may be presented as an improvement, this little set of entertaining new levels is really just a decent reason to spend a few hours back on the warp star, even though there isn’t much to it overall.
First, let’s avoid tedious business talk: Star-Crossed World can only be accessed by upgrading your Switch 1 edition of Kirby and the Forgotten Land to the Switch 2 Edition (which also includes some appreciated but unnecessary performance improvements) for $20 or by purchasing a brand-new Switch 2 version for $80. Although the Switch 2 upgrades cannot be obtained without it, you could also purchase the $60 Switch 1 version and forego the extra content.
Star-Crossed World skillfully incorporates a brief backstory into the current Forgotten Land campaign. A mystery meteor crashes into the ocean, scattering blue crystal fragments across the map as soon as you finish the first world (or as soon as you load it up if you have a save beyond that). As a Waddle Dee with a stylish beret sends you out to gather the “Starries” that have been strewn all over the place to reseal the terrible creature within the meteor that is predicted to wipe out all life, the story—which isn’t the reason you’re here at all—is surprisingly thin. You know, typical Kirby fare.
Practically speaking, this means that the map now has 12 new “Starry Stages,” two in each of the six main game worlds. With the addition of crystal flowers that change the scenery when you touch them, these appropriate themes and locales are from the levels they are adjacent to. New challenges, enemies, and even amazing background music have been added. These stages are almost entirely new, and the few times you do return to certain locations, like the fantastic mall level or the thrilling amusement park, it feels entertainingly referential rather than like a cheap rehash. At first, I was worried that these stages would just be remixes, but that turned out not to be the case.
In terms of the 12 new Starry Stages, there aren’t many misses.
These dozen dungeons are filled with smart tweaks on classic mechanics and plenty of intriguing new ones to keep your head engaged. There aren’t many misses. I had to jump across moving platforms that were approaching the screen in one particularly memorable scene, desperately attempting to figure out the best way to get to the next one before being pushed off the edge. Another takes you on a roller coaster ride where you have to divulge more bits of the game in real time, revisiting the ridiculous “pipe” Mouthful Mode metamorphosis.
Although they actually unlock in tandem with the main story, none of them put up much of a fight because this is a Kirby game, but they are all a little harder than the rest of Forbidden Land, which makes them a pleasant extra “post-game” option to keep you going.
Speaking of mouthful changes, Star-Crossed World introduces three new ones: a sign that effectively converts Kirby into a sled for a few fast-paced downhill stretches, a spring that allows you to bounce high and then slam down hard, and a gear that lets you roll along walls. They are all employed to good advantage, which leads to some creative new puzzle ideas. I found it especially interesting that you have to propel yourself between different wall parts as the gear, which is a little more mechanically complex than I anticipated for such a basic object.
There is more than a little gas left in the tanks, as evidenced by the clever reworking of many of the previous changes. For example, the classic traffic cone is given several portions. There is a brief portion where you have to leave your steps on a moving conveyor belt and leap up somewhere else to finish a task before it falls off a ledge. This is one of the creative uses of the stairs metamorphosis, which in the main game I felt was, well, rather dumb. Nice!
Regretfully, Kirby’s more conventional changes received less attention; none of the current set has been upgraded, nor are there any new ones. More significantly, if you have already defeated Forgotten Land and are revisiting this DLC years later, like I did, then some of the more powerful foes may be a little too simple to defeat if you have a fully equipped toolkit. A charged-up strike from a fully improved copy ability can trivialize that otherwise interesting encounter right away. One new enemy type in particular functions as a fun little repeating miniboss, calling down meteors that you must evade while you break away progressive levels of crystal armor to defeat them.
Similarly, Star-Crossed World’s shortcomings are more about what it doesn’t do than what it does. I spent roughly three hours doing everything here, and even while the stages are excellent, there isn’t much of an actual expansion beyond that. Even with the new Mouthful options, there are no boss fights in those 12 levels, no new Treasure Road bonus stages (which were a major highlight of the original), and not much has changed in your Waddle Dee village, though there is a little bit more to see outside of the Starry Stages that I am unable to discuss here. When I discovered that the new star-based currency you acquire could only be used to unlock a fresh set of gacha figurines, even that became quite boring.
Like the base game, I didn’t generally finish all 12 stages with every collectible on my first try, so there are still plenty of surprises for me to discover. It’s not like there is nothing valuable here, and it’s not like I completed all 12 stages immediately. When you contrast Star-Crossed World with everything already available, however, it feels like a drop in the bucket. That one afternoon of new platforming is pretty much the whole deal, even though the levels it adds are fantastic.
Additionally, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’s modifications don’t offer anything to attract you. The only update that truly caught my attention was the removal of distant NPCs moving at absurdly slow frame rates. Don’t get me wrong, the improved resolution and frame rate are appreciated, and everything looks good, but it wasn’t that horrible to start. The bar for how much better Forgotten Land could look without a more significant redesign wasn’t too high in my opinion because the game was already so stylized and didn’t have any of the actual performance problems that other Switch 1 games were able to resolve with the Switch 2 update.
Verdict
Three years later, Kirby and the Forgotten Land remains a fantastic platformer, and the Star-Crossed World DLC included with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition adds a few more hilarious levels, but that’s about it. It’s 12 levels rank in the top half of the list overall, thanks to a few amusing Mouthful Mode changes, fascinating new adversaries, and creative ideas, but aside from that, it feels more like a DLC level pack that invites you to return for a weekend than a true expansion. It doesn’t feel like an update that will ensnare you like one of Kirby’s mouthfuls, but it’s enjoyable enough that it’s quite easy to suggest to anyone who has been hankering after more Forgotten Land since finishing it.
