
Earlier this week, we found out Kirby and the Forgotten Land had become the biggest Kirby launch ever in the UK. Now, in related news - the game has been crowned the "biggest" Kirby launch in Japan.
As highlighted in Japan's Famitsu sales charts this week, the new Kirby game managed to take out the top spot as the best-selling release of the week. It's sold 380,060 copies - outperforming titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and even FromSoftware's hit Elden Ring.
Games Data Library has shared an extensive list of all the previous Kirby retail launch sales in Japan, and apparently, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has placed ahead of the 2008 DS title Kirby Super Star Ultra. As also noted in the tweet below, the Forgotten Land is 2022's second-biggest video game launch of the year. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is in front of Kirby, and in third place is Elden Ring.
If you've not taken a look at Kirby's new game yet, there's a free demo you can download from the Switch eShop. Be sure to check out our Nintendo Life review, too. We said it was a grand way to celebrate 30 years of Planet Popstar's finest:
Have you purchased Kirby's new adventure on the Switch yet? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitter.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 63
The cuteness overload is hard to resist.
That’s what happens when you go 3D and on such a successful platform. Amazing what a turnaround Nintendo made from Wii U to Switch
Well deserved, it's a great game!
Not in the least bit surprised the game is just a delight to play.
3D really does garner more interest and push more sales. Game absolutely deserves the success, though. Having a blast with it
I'm surprised at the gap between Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot.
Removed - off-topic
I wonder if they will port Kirby and the Rainbow Curse to switch. That was the first Kirby game I played and It was pretty good.
This game has turned me from a casual fan to a serious one. I was just so impressed with the world’s design and the craftsmanship of each level. Everything is just polished to a shine.
Congrats, HAL. You deserve the success.
The love that core franchises have gotten on the Switch is amazing. Kirby, Zelda, Mario, Samus... they've all gotten benchmark titles on this system.
It's kind of surprising how well this is outperforming Star Allies.
Big title on big system, no surprises here.
Mr. Sakurai would be proud.
Go Kirby well deserved 😊
Truly superb game
It’s very well earned. I hope this game sells many more copies. It’s a wonderful game, and one I would recommend to just about anyone.
Well deserved its amazing, hopefully more 3D Kirby to come now.
Playing it right now, it really is very polished and full of detail and ideas. More so than any previous Kirby game I’ve played.
Well deserved. HAL has finally transitioned in more ways then just 3D. With a title that has greater appeal, greater ambition, and greater numbers. This game is HUGE for the franchise and hopefully a good sign for all new Kirby to come. I can see Kirby sky rocketing in greater popularity beyond his kawaii appeal. I’m seeing all kinds of friends who have not bought a Kirby game in years or ever buy one show interest in the game. Good job, HAL
C’mon guys your killing me I have to wait for anniversary to get it and I’m also trying to avoid spoilers.
Not sure if Kirby sale records are challenging to beat, but the developers deserve it.
We've had so many years of Kirby and Yoshi games that are just pleasant. Good, but nothing special besides a gimmick or art style. Glad to see them give Kirby the push the series needed.
It deserves all the love it's getting. Great game, I have a lot of fun with it
I was going to get this, but after I played the demo, it convinced me not to buy it. I was wrongly under the impression that it was open world. In the demo it seemed more stage based. I don't know, I just felt a bit bored playing it. Now I'm torn with everyone saying it is great, feeling like I'm missing out.
@RendoFonzarelli if you can only enjoy sandbox and open world style platformers then hard to recommend. As someone who very much enjoyed the concentrated platforming and adventuring of more linear games like Mario 3D Land or Galaxy 2, Forgotten Land was still super delightful. If you dislike those mentioned titles tho then, yeah. Don’t get it. You know yourself. I like Open World games sometimes and sometimes I just prefer to get straight to the point. I’m open to either depending on the mood.
Playing through it now.
So gives you a taste for super Mario 3d world 2
Come on Nintendo.
Enjoyed the demo! But this game is not for me eventho its fun to play.
It's the most fun Kirby game I had in the last decade. I didn't enjoy the 3DS entries so much and thought Return to Dreamland and Star Allies were too simple. This is on par with Crystal Shards and Super Star
so happy for my sweet pink ball
Go Pink or go home 🤘
Fantastic game, I wasn’t the biggest Kirby fan but this has been a delight to play, some of the level designs are fantastic and could give Mario a run for his money!
Yeap it's such a great game that I had both the physical and digital version purchased.
i can see Kirby and the Forgotten Land becoming the best selling game of the franchise.
Im gonna be honest, I tried the demo and it didn't grab me but all the power to you Kirby!!!!!
Completed this co-op with my son this week. Great game!
The game's good, no wonder its doing well, even thou i personally would love to see franchises such as this one, Metroid or Starfox do better just on longevity alone, guess we just have Nintendo's inconsistency to blame.
All in all, good game!!
Plenty of switch owners out there that are starved for games to play. It's why it doesn't surprise me when every game that releases tends to be their best performing one yet.
I wondr how the turnaround on investment is panning out. 2D games are so much cheaper to make. So to be able to make as much money on this game they have to sell much more. I think that’s probably more interesting for the company, more than just number of sales. No doubt it’s already a million seller worldwide. But a comparison with the investment costs and winnings with the others would’ve been interesting to see.
Well deserved! Hope this becomes the best selling Kirby game of all time (5 million is a hard number to beat but doable!)
@RendoFonzarelli My initial impressions (after playing world 1) were a bit lukewarm too, but it really keeps getting better. Not repetitive at all, it’s almost as inventive as a 3D Mario game. And I love the extra work they spent on the settings, backgrounds and atmosphere.
@Kimyonaakuma Exactly this. It was sad to see Yoshi and Kirby relegated to b-tier. The games were never horrible, but rarely more than ‘competent’. Fingers crossed that this one will do well enough for Nintendo to stick with the quality approach. They should avoid outsourcing, for starters.
Kirby has always been good. Forgotten Land, however, is great. It's funny, because the core gameplay loop is pretty much the same as any other Kirby title. The presentation and the added third dimension really propel the series to new heights. The whole experience feels very polished.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land had a bigger launch than every 3D Mario game outside of Super Mario Odyssey.
Not surprised since oitnkf all the Kirby games this one launched on the console with the biggest install base. The N64 sales were poor yet kirby still sold very well so if the N64 had the same units sold as the switch then Kirby 64 the crystal shards would of been top
Hopefully the success of this game will inspire Nintendo to make more 3D platformers.
Doesn't seem very surprising to me just based on the simple fact more and more people are getting into gaming every day. So long as we continue to overpopulate the planet, the numbers will go up.
Definitely gonna pick this up once I finish Triangle Strategy, the demo was a lot of fun
@Mikmoomamimocki
If it was any other Nintendo series they’d go in a wacky new direction but this is Kirby the director isn’t going to start saying how Forgotten Land was actually built off of Kirby's Dream Course and how we can look forward to a HD remaster of it and the Untitled Sequel of Kirby and the Forgotten Land which has obvious connections to Dream Course.
@Ladasta HAL has expanded with a portion of the company dedicated to merchandising and art for Kirby. Kirby has been really expanding into cute home, clothes, jewelry, etc goods. I wouldn't be surprised if this helped fund Forgotten Land. HAL just went full Hello Kitty with Kirby.
Thinking about getting this game soon, but at the moment im still tied up with Elden ring and i have a huge backlog on the Switch anyway, ER jumped the queue though, obviously.
@SteamEngenius
If it was that simple the Sonic series wouldn't have peaked sales-wise decades ago.
Awesome game helped by the Switch effect, as most games are selling their best ever numbers on the console.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
@Serpo fantastic contribution
FACT: Nintendo Switch will NOW OUTSELL the DS!
@HammerGalladeBro Well, Robobot was a late 3DS game with the platform already having a quite similar Kirby game on it.
@Hero-of-WiiU Nintendo is a rollercoaster. Far less boring than megacorps like Sony or Microsoft.
@NintendoWife The gigantic Kirby fan might be speaking from me, but I have to disagree - I think most Kirby games were great or even amazing with very few "okay" titles throughout the entire 30-year history of the series.
Yoshi, however, I agree with. Island and Woolly World were fantastic, Story and Crafted World are pretty good, but everyting in between was just okay at best.
@Krisi Fair enough, I admit I haven't played a lot of Kirby. "Epic Yarn" I really liked actually, even though it was a game for babies There was one earlier Kirby game on Switch that came with a demo, is that possible? That one felt very basic and by the numbers. But it's a matter of taste of course.
With Yoshi in particular it's so sad because it started out as a creative explosion by Nintendo's finest. "Story" I missed, but I assume it was still very good, being an in-house development. But all later games were outsourced iirc. And it showed. "Yoshi's Island DS" (Artoon) felt like it was made by someone given a level editor. "Yoshi's New Island" was developed by Arzest, "Woolly World" and "Crafted World" by Good-Feel. "Woolly World" was just boring, didn't bother with Crafted.
Bottom line is: Outsourcing is not something an artist would do with anything they actually care about. Compare it to music - if your favourite band released a new album, but it was made by someone else, what would fans say?
Luckily Nintendo seems to have changed their approach with external companies lately. With "Metroid Dread" they were much more in control themselves, and the latest "Hyrule Warriors" was produced more collaboratively as well.
I'm sad this is the first $59.99 game at my local walmart. Hopefully just a one-off and they go back to $49.99 as normal. Worth it though.
@Krisi That's true, it could also be that more people got Planet Robobot digitally at launch rather than physically.
@NintendoWife Yes, there was a 2D Kirby on Switch before this, and while it was too multiplayer focused for its own good, it did have some great gameplay ideas, looked and sounded good, had tons of fanservice and hidden lore, and it had the absolute best "Arena" the series has ever seen - which might not mean much for most people, but they are one of the high points of Kirby games for me.
As for Woolly World - I think it had great level design, charming visuals, a great soundtrack, and some genuinely fun and creative ideas. My only real gripe was that they kept reusing some bosses. Crafted World was pretty similar, but it was a bit more focused on visuals, while the soundtrack were much inferior, and the level design was a bit less creative as well in my opinion.
And I think it can have some great results if they let other companies handle older IPs. For example, Retro Studios' Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country games are very much well-loved. So is the previously mentioned Kirby's Epic Yarn by Good-Feel. And if you ask me, last year's New Pokémon Snap by Bandai-Namco became easily one of the best Pokémon spinoff games, even though the company did not have much experience with the franchise.
@Krisi Hmmm I can't say I agree on the Good Feel Yoshi games. The soundtracks in particular were, to my ears, grating. I loved the "Epic Yarn" music, which was really unusual being piano only and reminded me of impressionist Satie pieces, almost. The two Yoshi games in contrast are full-on playing the "kids!!" card, with detuned flutes and idiotic simplicity, kinda like advertising does it. But to each their own.
Prime is probably a special case, because it (FPS Metroid) was a product that started with an external company, not one that was outsourced later. But Dread is a great great example, if you'd told me it was developed in Japan I would have believed it. Not so much with the DKC series, where in particular I don't get the love for the soundtrack, but that's just me. I prefer Japanese productions
But back to my point, it's just a bit regrettable if an artist hands their project over to someone else. Spin-Offs, ok (not familiar with the Bandai Pokemon games I'm afraid), but the mainline of games should remain in the original hands.
Great game! We ended up picking this one up sooner than later.
We've finished Kirby's Epic Yarn, Star Allies . . . and my daughter finished Return to Dreamland with one of her friends.
We were ready for another co-op Kirby game.
The demo made it easy for us to try out the game and decide that this game was good to go!
3D definitely brings another dimension to Kirby (LOL), and brings it into the land of Super Mario 3D World.
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