A remake of Kirby Super Star
Kirby Super Star Ultra for the Nintendo DS re-imagines one of the most beloved Kirby games of all time. The game features new graphics and fully rendered animated cut scenes. With so many adventures waiting to be unlocked, there will never be a dull moment as Kirby runs, floats, copies enemies and uses Helpers to fight King Dedede and Meta Knight. New modes like Revenge of the King and Meta Knight Ultra await, along with classics like The Great Cave Offensive and Milky Way Wishes. On top of the main modes, there are also three new touch-screen-controlled mini-games that can be played with up to three friends via DS Download Play. Not only that, but players can go on Kirby adventures with a friend via local wireless as well.
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Super Star Ultra is a solid remake of a good game. My favourite thing about Ultra is that it feels very "DS-core", despite not even originating as a DS game. The anthology approach just works so much more naturally on a handheld than on a home console, and the bottom screen adds some quality of life improvements that improve the experience. The game also looks a bit better too, and I enjoyed the CG cutscenes. The sound is worse, but that's minor. I'd still stick with the original if I wanted to play multiplayer, but if I ever want to play Super Star in single-player in the future I'll definitely play this version. It's just a straight upgrade.
However, Ultra still keeps the flaws of the original game and in some ways worsens them. My biggest issue is the helpers. Helpers are a cool idea, but they absolutely trivialize the entire game's difficulty, in addition to just being annoying due to spawning in every time you try to discard an ability. Since Kirby games usually give you many different ways to play the game, I find it baffling that they didn't add an option to turn off the helpers. I think that single feature would've made the game SIGNIFICANTLY better.
I am also annoyed by this game's reliance on recycled content. I already disliked this in Super Star, as Milky Way Wishes and the Arena were already mostly recycled content from the game's other modes, but every single one of Ultra's new modes just exacerbates this. Revenge of the King is the only new mode that has any new level design, but is essentially just a harder Spring Breeze. Helper to Hero and the True Arena are just more Arenas. And... Meta Knightmare... what a horrible mode. I think the concept of Meta Knightmare's gameplay loop is interesting, but playing through every previous mode in the game as Meta Knight is not it. It's just lazy padding using nothing more than recycled content. It's even more annoying since that means we're playing through Great Cave Offensive, Revenge of Meta Knight, and Milky Way Wishes all over again but this time without the gimmicks that made them unique. Just a thoroughly boring mode through and through. I really don't think Ultra is as much of an improvement over Super Star as most people seem to think, because the new modes just aren't that good or interesting.
Gotta say though, Masked Dedede and Galacta Knight are fantastic. Gotta give Ultra credit for that.