Nintendo considered Kirby too round for 3D platform games before developing the Forgotten Land
eurogamer.netNintendo's pink ball Kirby has finally received his first 3D platform game with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
However, until now, the developers struggled with transitioning the character from pixels into three dimensions due to his round shape.
In a developer blog with members of the team, director Tatsuya Kamiyama explains the challenges faced with this new game.
«The first challenge — and we knew this from the start — was that Kirby's character design was not a perfect fit for full 3D gameplay,» he said. «Kirby's silhouette is perfectly round. When you're controlling him from behind, it can be hard to tell which direction he's facing at a glance.»
Perhaps that's one of the reasons Mouthful Mode was implemented — after all, Carby has an easily recognisable shape.
As level designer Yuki Endo says: «From the perspective of creating new gameplay experiences, Mouthful Mode had a kind of intuitive visual appeal for our players.»
Associate producer Kei Ninomiya adds: «It was also appealing to us in terms of visual design. Because it would be in 3D, we imagined seeing Kirby in these bizarre shapes from all kinds of angles.»
The developers made a number of adjustments to ease players into 3D gameplay.
One of these is ensuring that attacks hit enemies, even if the aim is slightly off.
Says Kamiyama: «The game accounts for the player's perspective by tracking the positions of Kirby and the camera. It then maps out a range in which attacks may appear to land. If an attack is within that range, the attack will hit. By doing so, even people who are not so good at 3D action games can attack enemies without any stress.»
The team also implemented a «fuzzy landing» where if the player presses jump too soon before
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