Kirby Super Star

Hey now, "8 games in one!?" What is this, some sort of proto-Mario Party? Eh, no. Not really. Not at all, in fact. Have a seat. We have a lot to discuss.

Kirby Super Star is a beloved SNES game, routinely appearing on "Top 20" lists for the system. Friend of the blog and one-time contributor B-Town, a Kirby enthusiast, considers it one of his all time favorite games. And until last night it'd been one of the biggest blind spots in my own SNES experience. So I fired it up on my Wii - still slowly making my way through Kirby's Dream Collection - and sat down expecting to experience six to eight different minigame-type experiences.

Ha! Why would I do such a thing?

There are six "games" within Kirby Super Star and two minigames, alright, but the six games all run on the exact same engine and only one of them manages to be noticeably different from the other five and the two minigames are truly minuscule - like 1-2-Switch level microgames. Let's break it down.

Spring Breeze

It's the first game in the collection! Okay, this is classic Kirby - a platformer with all the familiar elements and enemies and wait a second, this feels so familiar. Oh, hey - that's because this game sis just a simplified remake of Kirby's Dream Land, which took me less than an hour to beat a year or two ago, and this remake's done in, no joke, twenty-five minutes. Cool, fine, a nice little appetizer. What's next?

Dyna Blade

Oh, okay. This... is more of the same thing. Some levels, some bosses, a neat little sotry, and the exact same gameplay. Took another half hour. No biggie.

Gourmet Race

Here's the lone really "different" game in the bunch - and it's also far and away the shortest and slightest. In this one you race against King Dedede across three different levels, collecting food as you go. Race? Yes, race! With the exact same mechanics present in the rest of the game - run, Kirby, run! And fly. Fly, but quickly! And run!

The Great Cave Offensive

This is something much bigger and more sprawling than either Spring Breeze or Dyna Blade - it's a straight up Metroidvania-style Kirby game! That said, it's still a Kirby game in which you absorb powers, traverse levels, and fight bosses. And it's not a true Metroidvania in the sense of there being any significant backtracking or powering up before revisiting old areas. Even something as minor as occasional health bar increases could have gone a long way here. Oh well!

Revenge of Meta Knight

Oh hey, it's... yeah, it's more platforming adventures with Kirby. This one's five or six more levels. But there's a twist! The twist is that each level has a time limit. A time limit I never once came even close to hitting. Yeah, yeah, Kirby games are for children and all, but still. Why bother?

Milky Way Wishes

The last game in the collection is the biggest one and it's - you guessed it - more of the same. The catch here is an interesting one, however - Kirby doesn't copy enemies' abilities by inhaling them this time around; rather, he collects "copy essences" throughout the game that become permanent selectable options for the rest of the game. Kind of like Mega Man. But you know where this would have been awesome? Back in the Great Cave Offensive, that Metroidvania-style game. Here it just felt like a wrinkle for the sake of a wrinkle; there it might have made sense thematically!

Samurai Kirby

Oh, right. The microgames. Okay, in this one you wait for a "draw!" or a "go!" and the instant it appears you press a button. It's quick draw. That's all it is. There's nothing else to it. I'm reiterating this in order to take up some space; I'm not underplaying the insignificance of this game, which i should point out can be played against either the CPU (talk about an unfair advantage) or a human opponent. But no, for real, that's all this is.

Megaton Punch

Compared to the last game this one's complex as hell. Also can be played against a human opponent or the CPU. Here the objective is to punch a bigger crack through Planet Popstar than the other guy. There are three parts. In the first, a meter slowly fills up. Press A when it's full! Second, two sets of crosshairs drift apart and back toward each other. Press A when the overlap! Finally, a pendulum-like thing goes back and forth across a center circle. Press A when it's in the circle! And that's it. I played this nine times (no idea why) and never lost to the CPU. It's basically the kicking meter in a Madden game. Or maybe the free throw meter in a basketball game. That's all!

So yeah - Kirby Super Star was a total mixed bag. "Eight" games (six), and the only highlight was one that didn't even exist - I'm referring of course to the hypothetical and theoretical Great Cave Offensive with the permanent power-up mechanic from Milky Way Wishes. I really expected more diversity here. Oh well! The music was pretty good, I guess.