I've brought up Kirby Super Star in many of my Kirby reviews as being the best of HAL's mascot and a game that really shows what he can do. But I have a confession to make; I've never played Kirby Super Star. I had decided to trust the many people who deemed it the best of Kirby. But that's why I was so excited when I heard about Kirby Super Star Ultra - a remake of the SNES classic with more than just a few new features. Let's see if this really IS the best Kirby game ever.
1 thing to note first: Kirby Super Star
Ultra is divided into 5 different games that will be unlocked as you proceed,
so in order to efficiently cover all the gameplay elements, this Review
will contain more spoilers than I usually put in but some things will be
left anonymous.
Storyline: 7.9/10
Spring Breeze
One night in Dream Land, King Dedede
and his gang of Waddle Dees, Waddle Doos, and Tacs steal all of the food
in Dream Land while everyone is asleep. The King takes the food back to
his castle atop Mt. Dedede. The next morning, Kirby finds out what happened
and hops on his Warp Star to reclaim the stolen food.
Since Spring Breeze is pretty much
a remake of Kirby's Dream Land, it's necessary that it uses the story from
said game, but still isn't that impressive, just another rather shallow
tale of theft.
Gourmet Race
Kirby is floating to the top of a hill
with thoughts of the food at the top of it. After he gets there, he falls
asleep for a while to regain his energy. Just then, King Dedede steps forward
and chomps down on a few foods, as he had climbed the hill as well. He
challenges Kirby to a "Gourmet Race" to see who can get the most food and
who has the most determination to do so.
I gotta say, it's a tad cheesy. King Dedede could've just eaten all the foods on the hill himself, and the whole thing just seems about as shallow as Breeze.
Dyna Blade
Kirby is sleeping by a tree in a field
with 2 flower-like enemies called Lovelies nearby. While he's dormant,
a monstrous being rips through Dream Land, destroying all the crops among
other things in a short time. The nearby tree drops an apple on Kirby to
wake him up, and he sees that the tree has been sliced down and the Lovelies’
petals ripped away. This is the work of Dyna Blade, a huge, armored bird
that Kirby sets out to defeat. But surely there must be a reason why she
destroyed the crops...
It's better than Spring Breeze's story for sure, but still sort of unoriginal and happens so suddenly with not much explanation the story until the ending.
Great Cave Offensive
Kirby is walking innocently through
a field when he accidentally falls down a deep hole, falling into a large
cave. When he wakes up, he sees where he has fallen into:a big, maze-like
cave filled with dangerous enemies. But... it's also filled with valuable
treasure. So Kirby has 2 goals:escape, and find as much treasure as possible.
This is the weakest story out of the bunch. Sure, I can't come up with much of a story for this game either, but... sually when there's a big, gaping whole in the ground, most people would tend to avoid it.
Revenge of Meta Knight
Meta Knight has his eyes set on conquering
Dream Land and ending its lazy lifestyle. How is he gonna do it? With a
large, flying ship called the Halberd. With him, he has a crew consisting
of Captain Vul, who is presumably second-in-command, an Ax Knight, a Mace
Knight, and an unnamed Waddle Dee with a sailor cap commonly referred to
as Sailor Waddle Dee. Kirby doesn't plan on letting Meta Knight get his
way so easily, so he boards the Halberd and attempts to destroy it in time
before it's too late.
One of the better stories of the game, but I have some confusion here. The title is Revenge of Meta Knight, but who exactly is he getting revenge on? Maybe Kirby, but he pretty much wants to just get him off the ship and continue with his plans, that doesn't sound much like revenge. And exactly why is Meta Knight so sinister all of a sudden? Normally he's not like this; he fights Kirby, but he's not evil. He does say he wants to end Dream Land's lazy lifestyle, but a huge battleship probably isn't the best way to do so.
Milky Way Wishes
In the year of "???" as the game says,
the sun and moon of Pop Star fought and fought and just wouldn't stop.
Their bumping and bashing each other around the sky made for an awkward
scenario of switching from night to day within seconds. Kirby and a few
Dream Landers watch the celestial clash, not knowing what started the fight
or what could end it. Just then, a little pink guy named Marx with a jester
hat who balances atop a ball comes on to the scene. He tells Kirby of a
comet called Nova at the end of the galaxy, and that whoever summoned this
comet would get one wish. But it's harder than that, to summon Nova, Kirby
has to collect power from all of the different planets around Pop Star.
And that's just what he does as he hops on the Warp Star to fly through
space and visit the surrounding planet.
While still a bit on the shallow side, this is probably the best story in the game. That's thanks to the unexpected plot twist at the end of the game, which really puts more emphasis on one of the most well-received characters in the Kirby franchise.
All together, I'm giving the storyline
a score of 7.9/10, for while there are a wide variety of stories you can
tell they weren't exactly the main focus of the game and are much lacking
in depth.
Gameplay: 9.3/10
Kirby Super Star Ultra has one very good concept to it; in terms of speaking, it's 15 games in one. 15 extremely short games combined to make one game that's still short, but wholly satisfying. Each of these games has a unique gameplay gimmick, but I should cover the elements applied to all the games. Kirby, as always, can run, jump, float, and use Copy Abilities; and while none of the abilities are technically new, it IS a remake, so I'll give a few examples of the powers that originated in Kirby Super Star: the oft-used Bomb, which allows Kirby to throw bombs at enemies and place them where he desires; Yo-yo, one of my favorite abilities, allows Kirby to attack enemies using various moves with a long-range yo-yo; Mirror, another fan favorite, lets Kirby deflect the attacks of enemies back at them and create duplicates of himself to attack; and Ninja, an ability that lets Kirby throw knives, cling to walls, and use other cunning abilities that take skill and patience to use. Those are just a few of the abilities, other new ones like Jet, Wing, and Plasma await you. Multiple ability commands also originated here, and that's very important for giving a lot more use to the Copy Abilities. It definitely was a good idea back then and is still a good idea now.
But the major innovation of the game is the Helper system. When Kirby has an ability, you can press X and he can trade in that ability for something else: the enemy he inhaled to get that ability will now fight alongside Kirby. At first I was a little disinterested by this, because when I was playing Kirby Squeak Squad and used an ability that allowed you to possess enemies, I found that all of them were very slow, very weak, and had poor reaction times. I thought this would be the same with the Helpers in Kirby Super Star Ultra, but they function MUCH better. They're pretty much like Kirby, just with the ability he gave up.
Speaking of Helpers, these guys are usually CPU controlled. But let me introduce you to one of the most liked features of the game. If you get another player that has a copy of the game, you can enter the 2P co-op mode and the second player can control the Helper. At the moment, none of my friends have the game so I haven't been able to get much of a taste of this feature yet. But my online peers have claimed large amounts of entertainment with their siblings and friends using it. The co-op mode is sort of a step back from the original, however, because it's not as accessible. In the 16-bit original, the second player could just pick up another controller and start playing. In Super Star Ultra, the second player needs both another DS and another game card, and you have to go through all that DS Download Play stuff. But as I'll bring up again in later parts of this Review, this is the DS's fault, not the game's.
Let's cover the sub-games individually now, shall we?
Spring Breeze
Spring Breeze is, indeed, a remake
of Kirby's Dream Land. As such, the level design is the same, though Castle
Lololo has been taken out for some reason. In Dream Land, Kirby hadn't
yet been able to use Copy Abilities. Fortunately, Spring Breeze is updated
with Kirby Super Star Ultra's gameplay. This is actually pretty much a
gimmick-free game with not much to speak of.
Gourmet Race
I really wouldn't consider this a platforming
game as much as I would consider it a mini-game, but the game classifies
it as such so I will give it its own section. Gourmet Race is a unique
form of platforming racer. Your objective is to race against Dedede to
the goal while eating as much food as you can. So what’s more important,
eating more food or getting to the goal first? Well, getting to the goal
is like eating a bunch of food. For each course that you beat Dedede, you
get an additional 30 foods that can be of great help. You race through
3 different courses: Pumpkin Grand, Corn Hall, and Onion Garden. Onion
Garden is by far the most notable, due to its many different routes and
the use of Copy Abilities.
Dyna Blade
This one works quite similarly to Spring
Breeze, only it's not a remake of Dream Land, it's an original. There are
4 levels in the game, but you don't just suddenly transition from one to
another after beating one like in Spring Breeze. Dyna Blade incorporates
an overworld map, possibly to make room for the secret levels embedded
in hidden areas in the game.
Great Cave Offensive
Ah, now HERE's something unique. This
one plays similar to Kirby and The Amazing Mirror, and is a big maze. Well,
it is sort of divided up into 4 mazes, actually. For each maze, there is
a set of treasures to be found, each with their own value in gold. You'll
need to collect enough valuable treasures to move to the next floor; but
before so, you'll need to fight a boss. This is definitely one of the highlights
of the game, in fact, it is probably just under the next one I'll mention
that I like the most in terms of gameplay. And that is...
Revenge of Meta Knight
Probably the most famous out of all
the games. In this one, you board the Halberd and try to destroy it, but
you have a certain time limit in each area. If you don't complete that
area within the given time, you'll lose a life. This really doesn't make
much of a difference, as you get plenty of time to complete the areas and
I haven't died once because of the timer. The thing I really liked about
it... well, I don't know, I just did. I do know that I like how the crew
comments throughout the destruction of the Halberd, it can be quite humorous
at points. Love that Sailor Waddle Dee.
Milky Way Wishes
This one, like Dyna Blade, uses an
overworld map. Kirby is traveling through space to collect power so he
can summon Nova, so he has to stop on different planets to get the power
from them after going through a level. Kirby has most of his usual moves,
except his trademark move, Copy Abilities! So as a substitute, he can use
Copy Essences Deluxe. Not the catchiest name, I know, but they are quite
useful. Once you get a Copy Essence for a certain ability, you can use
it limitlessly. Just select that one via touch screen or pause menu, and
you'll get it. So even if you lose that power, you can easily just get
it again without having to go after the ability star, and it allows you
to summon helpers more freely. This is surely a good feature, and this
game could have placed up there with my favorites if the level designs
were better and if the bosses weren't just palette swaps of previous bosses.
A 9.3 for this one because again, I
just love the whole concept of multiple games in one. It offers so many
more gameplay features while still maintaining a formula for all of them,
to copy enemy abilities and use Helpers to your advantage.
Graphics: 8.9/10
Not as detailed and shaded as Canvas
Curses's graphics, but not the GBA-esque graphics that Squeak Squad had
either. It leans more towards Canvas Curse, however, because of one thing:
3D animated cutscenes. And I have to say, I liked these a lot more than
I planned to. It's good to see all our favorite Kirby characters in 3D,
not just the ones we saw in Kirby 64 and the Smash Bros. series, but others
like Marx, Nova, and the Revenge of Meta Knight crew. They are quite a
sight indeed, but the real in-game action doesn't look as good. Though
I'm glad they didn't use the too-small model for Kirby they used in Amazing
Mirror and Squeak Squad, it doesn't have the detail and shading that Canvas
Curse had.
Music and Sound Effects: 9.2/10
Arguably one of the best Kirby soundtracks to date. Though I never played the original Super Star, I did take a great interest in it, and that includes listening to its music on MP3 sites. Of course, the music has been slightly changed here to fit the DS's sound chip, and there are some new songs put in here, yes, quite a few. The sound chip doesn't make much of the music sound too different than it originally did, but there are 2 examples I have of songs that sound worse and songs that sound better. For the worse, it has to be the Halberd theme. That theme has become very well-known among Kirby fans, and I liked it too, but I'm just not really fond of this one. It sounds more upbeat and somewhat out of place. For the better, even if just a little, is Meta Knight's battle theme. The little bleeps and bloops added in give it a bit of a techno feel, and even if it doesn't suit Meta Knight as well I still like it better.
Songs in general I like, hmmm... I'll
start with my favorite song, just note that my opinion on the songs in
the game is constantly shifting. At the moment, I have to say it's the
Revenge of Meta Knight Ending. It's kind of a Western-sounding theme with
mixed messages of sadness and victory. The final boss of Milky Way Wishes,
I was very impressed by. It's gotten a bit old since I've listened to it
a lot, but it’s still exceptional. And while the main Halberd theme wasn't
so good, that particular theme only plays for the first half of Revenge
of Meta Knight. The last half replaces that theme with a much better and
more epic one. With all this great music, the Sound Test mode might be
the one that I access the most now.
Controls: 9.6/10
Ah jeeze, I hate having to come up with
stuff to talk about for this section. Well, as for the matter of basic
moving around, the controls are very solid, near identical to most Kirby
games in the past. Some trouble comes into the picture when you have certain
abilities, though. The multiple ability commands are an excellent feature,
but all the button schemes might be a little inaccurate. Take Yo-Yo for
example, its most unique move is the Gazer Spiral, with makes Kirby plant
his yo-yo on the ground and launch himself into the air to cause high damage.
The command for this move is to hold down, then quickly press up and B.
Quite a few times I've ended up only doing an upwards yo-yo swing. This
is just one example, but it's the one that's affected me most often.
Length and Difficulty: 7.3/10
The criteria for beating this game might
be confusing to fans. Some may consider beating Milky Way Wishes as beating
the game, some might consider beating every platforming adventure to be
beating the game. I'm gonna have to go with that second one. This is, indeed,
one of Kirby's longer games but still on the short side. It is easy as
well, perhaps due to some certain abilities that one might classify as
cheap or broken. Mirror, while a useful ability, can be abused quite easily,
as it can guard you against nearly any projectile and make you take little
to no damage from direct attacks. Hammer can be rather overpowered in this
game; its Flame Smash attack, while slow, is extremely strong, not to mention
its normal attacks are quite fast, unlike how they usually are. Furthermore,
you don't lose your ability when you take damage like in most Kirby games,
it'll take a few hits to knock it out. It makes the game less frustrating,
but would've added a little more challenge.
Replay Value: 8.2/10
Pretty much the only sidequest in Kirby Super Star was The Arena, a mode for the run-of-the-mill boss rush mode, which rewarded you with the Sound Test mode once beaten. 'Twas definitely a problem. Super Star Ultra has not only the Arena, but 2 variations of it. They come late in the game and I won't give too much away, but let's just say they aren't too different from the normal Arena. All have 10+ bosses, a set amount of Maxim Tomatoes, and can all be beaten easily with a certain defensive yet strong ability. I have to say, Boss Rushes as the reward for 100% completion of Kirby games is getting stale now.
Though the Arena wasn't actually the ONLY sidequest, it was the most relevant one, though there are a few more. There are 3 in particular to mention: 1st, finding the 2 secret areas in Dyna Blade. This isn't as hard as it sounds, as there are switches hidden in the levels that will unveil these levels, both of which I accidentally came across on my first playthrough. On the big upside, finding all 60 treasures in the Great Cave Offensive is gonna be a lot more difficult even though some of them are only guarded by brain-dead easy puzzles, while some you might get so frustrated trying to get that you need to go search for an online guide. Last up is collecting all the Copy Essences Deluxe in Milky Way Wishes. Most of the planets have 3 of them hidden around, and a few of them have 2. One notable Copy Essence is the one for the almost-useless ability called Copy, which is hidden on its own, tiny planet.
Once all this is completed and you've
beaten all the Arena variations, that's considered 100% and you'll have
unlocked a few cutscenes. But even with 100%, 1 sidequest still awaits,
but it involves... doing many things very similar to each other some 20
times, provided you are successful.
Fun Factor!: 8.8/10
Mmmm, I gotta stop being so very merciful on this category. That starts now. Kirby Super Star Ultra, yes, it's a fun and lighthearted game. Some modes are more fun than others, however...
Spring Breeze
If you've ever played Kirby's Dream
Land before, this mode will feel kind of dull due to the fact that it's
just a remake of the game with updated gameplay and graphics. I'm aware,
though, that it is quite an old game so I don't think many people here
would have it. If you haven't played it, good for you, this mode's gonna
be more fun. But even so, doesn't it feel a bit too... simplistic?
Dyna Blade
I dig the secret levels that let you
grab an ability and go, but honestly, there's not enough levels in here
to keep me from classifying this as one of the more dull modes in the game.
It's good and dandy the first few times around but after touring the levels
for a while whilst wracking up your high score, you can just feel the mode
age in the palm of your hands.
Gourmet Race
Well it's a pretty good concept here
and it's obviously the most fast-paced platforming mode in the game. It's
too bad that a lack of stages keeps it from being a great platforming racer.
While I do love the Onion Garden stage, the past 2 could use some revamping,
especially the first stage, Pumpkin Grand, which is far too simple and
linear to make me look forward to racing on it.
Great Cave Offensive
Here's where the game kicks off. You're
lost, you've got dozens of treasures to collect, and you're pretty confused
- Great! Collecting treasures usually isn't as tedious as it might sound.
Traveling around is another story, as it can take a pretty long time as
there are no warps or anything, so you just have to hike to your destination.
Revenge of Meta Knight
Revenge is definitely one of the highlights
of the game. In fact, it is my favorite mode and I would consider it the
highlight. It's hard to prevent a game revolving around just one dungeon
from feeling boring or claustrophobic, but Revenge of Meta Knight just
pulls it off so well. The dialogue between the crew, their eyes set on
destroying Kirby, is quite amusing. Each time there's a discussion or debate
amongst the group, it's touched with a loving sense of humor, even if only
briefly.
Milky Way Wishes
Copy Essences Deluxe pack a lot of
convenience into this mode. You can get any ability you want at any time,
summon that ability's helper any time, and get the ability back any time.
Provided you find the Essence, anyway, and when you do it's a nice sense
of accomplishment knowing that the ability is permanently at your command,
even if it's one you never use often. Milky Way Wishes is really a nice
place to try out, practice, and master all the different abilities that
you want. Though as I said before, level design isn't as impressive as
I had really hoped. I liked only about half the levels, but that's still
enough to keep me hooked.
Overall: 94/100
So IS this the best Kirby game ever?
I'm still making up my mind on that, actually, but I'm positive that Kirby
Super Star Ultra is a strong competitor. The only one that might beat it
is Kirby 64, which, although I gave it an 88, I've recently grown very
fond of. But keep in mind that even though I might prefer Kirby 64, this
is still one of the best platformers I've ever played. As such, this can
go under the category of must-haves. And must-haves are games that the
DS has very few of, and therefore I'm gonna go so far as to call this the
best DS game yet. Don't buy Super Star Ultra because I recommended it to
you, no, buy Super Star Ultra because it's incredible.
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