I was disillusioned by Kirby and the Forgotten Land

First time posting on this sub, hope everyone is having a lovely day!

Going through my backlog, reasons had me start from my Switch, and I chose this game because I had never played a Kirby game before, and I hadn't played a platformer in ages. I had already started going through it twice, but never really picked it up again after the first level until now (third time is the charm).

Wrapped it up in a week, maybe a couple more days, and while the ending was very wholesome and worthwhile, on the way there I quickly realized that I wasn't going through the game because I was having fun or because I wanted to see how it ended, but because I just wanted to get it over with.

The Good

- Very easy to control, which makes it ideal to pick up and play after leaving it idle for extended time spans;

- Having never played a Kirby game before, I liked that you can't use the puff ball to cheese through the platforming, or at least that you can't use it in any obvious way;

- There's lot of good incentives to explore each and every level, and most collectibles are very easy to find if you're being thorough;

- Great storytelling with a very simple story that works just fine with the setting and Kirby's goofy energy in general;

- Late game boss fights and the Treasure Time Targets are fantastic challenges for both your combat skills and your platforming.

The not so good

- There is a great imbalance between the skills you have available to use. I was having a very hard time on the second to last boss, Forgo Leon, until I realized the Ice Blizzard block is an almost perfect block, and from there I just cheesed both that and the final fight of the game;

- Time Targets for Treasure levels don't actually give anything, so they're not worth grinding for unless you want bragging rights;

- You can see the frame drops in the backdrops of several stages, particularly on enemy movement;

Biased opinions

- I found the gameplay to be a touch too simple. On one hand it makes sense considering the game is targeted at children, but on the other other than the final world and final bosses I never really felt challenged at all. In other words, learning curve for this game feels flat and then suddenly becomes a cliff;

- Knowing I missed Waddles Dees and had to redo stages from start to finish to grab them put a dent on my enjoyment. I like hitting all the checkmarks the game gives me to fill, but replaying the stages from start to finish to find that little corned that I overlooked was straight up not fun;

- I almost dropped the game several times because of the previous point, but the ending was worth pushing through.

Final thoughts

If you must have all the collectibles like me before moving on, Kirby and the Forgotten Land can be incredibly frustrating (unless you're using a guide). If you're looking for a solid platformer that can be wrapped up in a couple of days with a touching story and you don't care about saving Waddle Dees, definitely give this a try.

Looking forward to playing one of the GBA Kirby games next!