Kirby Super Star was developed by HAL Laboratory and was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on September 20th, 1996. In Europe this game is known as Kirby's Fun Pack and in Japan it is called Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe. The game was met with great reviews and is considered to be one of the best games on the system. The story varies depending on which of the games you are playing, so for this blog I'll be looking at each of the games individually, but first I'll touch on the game as a whole.
Graphically, the game looks great. In fact, it looks really, really good. The colors are very bright and just scream that the game is a Kirby game. The backgrounds are generally simple, but that's nothing new for this series. The enemies all look great and Kirby's various abilities look great as well. My only complaint about the visuals is that they at times are too good for the SNES and too much going on will cause the game to slow down. This doesn't happen frequently, but it does happen from time to time and my guess would be that it is the result of too many big sprites on the screen doing different things at the same time. Despite the slowdowns, the game remains the best looking Kirby game made up till this point and is very visually appealing.
In the sound department, the game delivers as well as Kirby games always deliver. So that means that it does extremely well. Kirby Super Star is host to a ton of different tunes that stretch across all of it's game modes. Many of the tracks are remastered tracks from previous Kirby games, including Kirby's Dreamland. Even though there are many repeats, Kirby Super Star also has a bunch of new tunes that all sound great. Other than the music, the sounds are spot on. Kirby makes a little squeaking noise when he's hit which fits the character perfectly as we previously had no idea what he would sound like if struck. One could only expect a little puff ball to squeak right? All of the abilities have different sounds, enemies all sound different, and classic sounds such as the 1-up sound make a grand return.
Lastly, the gameplay is great. The game plays in a similar manner to Kirby's Adventure, but it is expanded upon. In Kirby's Adventure Kirby was able to eat enemies and steal their power. That ability was brought into Kirby's Dreamland 2, but took a small step back to make it work on the Game Boy. Now it is back, bigger, and better than ever. There are a massive twenty five different powerups to use in this game. In addition to the powerups, Kirby can make use of helpers. Kirby can spawn a friendly version of the enemy that gave him his current power. In the process, Kirby will lose the power, but he will be able to get another. Both Kirby and his helper, along with all of their enemies, have an HP bar for life. When a helper loses all of it's health it will start to blow up. Kirby can save his buddy by either transforming it into an edible item and then re-spawn it at full health. If Kirby wants to switch his helper up he can toss his current power to his partner. The partner will transform into a friendly version of whatever enemy Kirby got the power from. The best thing about this partner system is that a second player can actually control the helper, this makes Kirby Super Star the first to have two players on screen at the same time in a Kirby game.
As far as the controls go, they are more complicated than previous installments in the series, but still not difficult to get used to. The biggest changes revolve around the partner system. Eating, jumping, floating, etc are all similar to how they have been in previous games. Kirby controls great and I've never had any issues controlling the little guy. The only time the gameplay suffers a bit is when the slowdowns I mentioned before occur. Again, it's not like it's a constant thing, but it is present and it is a bit of an issue. With all of that out of the way lets take a look at the different game modes.
Spring Breeze is the first game mode that the game wants you to play. It is by far the easiest and is designed to get the player familiar with the gameplay. All in all, Spring Breeze is basically a remake of the original Kirby's Dreamland. Considering the original game is on the Game Boy, the remade game looks incredible. That being said Castle Lolo (level 2) and Float Islands (level 3) have been merged together and the boss of Float Islands, Kabula, has been removed. Another difference in this mode compared to the Game Boy game is at Castle Dedede. In the Game Boy game Kirby must face each of the previous four bosses again. In Kirby Super Star, the only thing Kirby has to fight is King Dedede himself. The plot is the same that it was in the original game. King Dedede has stolen all the food from the citizens of Dreamland for himself. It is up to Kirby to save the day and rescue all the food and in turn, the citizens of Dreamland.
Dynablade is the first all new game in this pack of games. Dynablade, a giant robotic looking bird, has been attacking the crops of Dreamland. It is up to Kirby to put an end to the angry bird's wrath. The game consists of four main levels and a fight with Dynablade. In a similar fashion to Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins on Game Boy, the maps has hidden areas to discover. In total, Dynablade has six levels and the fight against Dynablade. Dynablade is a step up difficulty wise from Spring Breeze, but until you fight Dynablade itself, there's nothing overly difficult about the game mode.
The Great Cave Offensive is the third game in this collection of games. This game is much larger than both Spring Breeze and Dynablade. In this game Kirby explores a vast cave system to discover all kinds of treasures. There are sixty treasures in all to find and some of the treasures are massive references to other games such as the triforce from the Legend of Zelda series. The way this game plays breaks from the tradition of side scrolling Kirby games and takes on a Super Metroid style. You can go where you want, when you want in your search for treasure. That's about it for the story here though. Kirby basically just felt the need to search through a cave for all kinds of treasure. It's a lot of fun, but lacks any kind of plot unlike many of the other games in this series.
Of all the games in this game pack, Revenge of Metaknight is by far my favorite. The story of this game is that Metaknight and his crew aboard his flagship, the Halberd, are out to conquer the world. Kirby must infiltrate the Halberd and destroy it before it can be used to do any damage. What makes this game mode unique is that each stage has a time limit. This gives the game a sense of urgency that really hasn't been seen in a Kirby game (outside of the DS version of the game) since. In addition to the faster paced action, dialogue between Metaknight and his crew will be popping up on the bottom of the screen. As you go through the game the communication becomes much much more frantic. You can literally sense the fear of the crewman as Kirby gets closer and closer to disabling the ship. On a side note, the music that plays during this mode does nothing but add to the urgent atmosphere that can easily be felt.
The next game mode is a race mode. In Gourmet Race you race King Dedede through three levels while eating as much food as you can. Your goal is to win the race and out eat the king. There is nothing much worth mentioning beyond that. You'll run, jump, and fly around all while trying to stuff your face. The biggest thing that really came out of this mode is the music that plays on the first track. It has been remade in many other Kirby games and also plays in the Super Smash Brothers series quite a bit as well.
The biggest game mode in the pack that is Kirby Super Star is Milkyway Wishes. In Milkyway Wishes Kirby searches to quell the fighting between the sun and moon of planet Popstar. Kirby is greeted by a strange creature known as Marx who sends Kirby on a quest to restore a comet/clock named NOVA who can grant any wish. In addition to being the lengthiest game on the cartridge, it also has the most interesting gameplay aspect. Kirby is not able to copy enemy abilities in this game mode by eating them. Rather, Kirby gains copy abilities by locating items scattered throughout the levels. Once he finds a power, it is his to keep and select whenever the player wants. It's a pretty neat idea to be able to have all the abilities at your disposal whenever you need them. Other than that though, Milkway Wishes is more of the same fun that has been seen in the other game modes.
The final real challenge in this game is The Arena. In this game mode Kirby simply faces off against all of the bosses in the game in a row. The mode is very similar to All Star Mode in the Super Smash Brothers series. Between rounds Kirby has access to five maximum tomatoes that will restore his health and he also will have access to two random copy powers. The Arena takes everything you've learned about all the games' bosses and challenges you to a one life endurance marathon. It's tough, but rewarding when you finish it.
The last two games are considered sub-games on the cartridge. They are basically little minigames. Samurai Kirby is a timing game where the first person to press a button when the signal is given is the winner. It tests your reflexes pretty well and it's rapidly becomes more difficult. Lastly is another timing based game called Megaton Punch. In this game you need to press the right buttons at the right time to punch a massive crack into the planet. Have better timing than your opponent and you'll win.
All in all I would rate Kirby Super Star a stellar 9 out of 10 keeping in mind that I am not comparing this game to the DS remake. With the exception of the occasional random slowdown, the game really doesn't have any real flaws. The game modes are all fun, have unique challenges, sound great, and look stellar. Could some have been a bit longer? Sure, but at the same time game length has always been an issue with Kirby games. They, for whatever reason, just don't last as long as say Super Mario games of the time. Kirby Super Star is one of my favorite games in the series. It did get remade on the DS, which eventually I'll be taking a look at, but the nostalgia of the original is a hard thing to ignore. It's a great looking game on the Super Nintendo and a major, major player in the Kirby series.
Thanks for reading as always! For the next game in the Kirby series I'll be taking a look at the spin off called Kirby's Block Ball. The game came out before Kirby Super Star, but I really wanted to do Super Star first. Before I visit that though, there are other things I want to do. First on that list is a review of one of the first Disney games I ever played. This game is called Goof Troop and it is on the Super Nintendo. Before that though I'll be doing a sort of announcement blog that will basically have my plan for the late summer/fall months within. Stay tuned cause there is plenty more blogging to come!
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