Surprise! A Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo is out today with co-op, and based on what we’ve played, it’s worth checking out

destructoid.com:

“A Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo is coming to the eShop today” is just the phrase I needed to hear right now. And having played a bit of the game so far, I’m happy with how it’s turning out.

You’ll get to see the very light and lightning-quick setup of Kirby getting whisked away to the titular Forgotten Land after being sucked into a black hole on his homeworld of Planet Popstar: then it’s off to the races. Upon booting up the three-level demo (full stages with secrets in tow, and a boss fight), you’re greeted with a prompt: wild mode (normal difficulty), or spring breeze mode (you get more heath, and according to a Nintendo spokesperson, you can “play through the game at your leisure”).

The demo showcases Kirby and a Bandana Waddle Dee (with the classic spear), who can cooperate via two-player local co-op (Player 1 is always Kirby, and Player 2 is always Bandana Waddle Dee). While co-op technically opens up after the 10-ish minute tutorial in the core game, in the demo, you can play it immediately as Kirby enters the extremely Crash Bandicoot 1-esque beach intro zone. A Nintendo spokesperson stresses that co-op is local only, in case you were wondering.

As far as copy abilities go, the demo gives us tried and true access to powers like sword, cutter, ice, and bomb. Bandana Waddle Dee doesn’t use copy abilities, and adopts more of a sidekick format. It wields a spear which it can use to poke people, or fly around with a helicopter move that rains spears below it. If it dies, it comes back after a timer (which doubles as its health bar) ticks up. Just like classic Kirby games you can “share” health via bumping up against one another and high-fiving.

Kirby is the real star here of course. There’s a full dodge suite