Kirby Multiplayer Impressions

With the launch of Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo, I was surprised to see that the games multiplayer mode was also available. So, I quickly snuck my son Lochlan out of bed and downstairs so we could play the three available levels in cooperative mode.

The biggest issue with playing multiplayer games with my kids is that they don’t play the same way I do. I like to explore and make sure I’m looking into everything before moving on, where as they just want to run amok and do whatever. And in some games, this becomes a problem as they run off screen dragging the camera with them, even when they are the second player. There are always two ways around this – either allow the screen to dynamically split as one player moves away from another (ala the LEGO games) or focusing the gameplay on player 1.

Kirby goes with the latter approach, focusing the game entirely on Kirby and forcing whomever is playing as Bandana Waddle Dee to stick with Kirby or turn into a bubble and be brought back. And this approach was amazing as it allowed me to explore as much as I wanted, dragging or stopping Lochlan whenever I wanted to move on or hang back.

While I was hoping that this would be more like Super Mario Odyssey, and I cannot pretend that I wasn’t a bit disappointed to see that this game was built around worlds and levels. That being said, I’m having a blast with the demo, and while I’m going to tire out of these levels soon, I cannot wait to get my hands on the full game at launch!

Are you picking up Kirby and the Forgotten Land? Are you looking forward to playing another Kirby title? Let us know on Twitter!