My review of Kirby’s Dream Land 2 was literally a sentence long, but that’s only because the original review was lost. That game is good, but it’s definitely the worst out of the Kirby games I’ve played and reviewed so far. Now, it’s time for me to cover a fan favourite installment in this series, which is Kirby Super Star. Will this game top Kirby’s Adventure? You’re about to find out in this review!
Kirby Super Star opens with a smooth, colourful, and energetic opening animation where Kirby rides on a Warp Star while amazing music plays in the background. Moments later, the title screen appears. This game already looks fantastic and it’s only just begun. Now, this game actually consists of numerous sub-games. I’ll start with Spring Breeze.
When you begin playing Spring Breeze, you are greeted with a tutorial. A text box has you practice inhaling enemies, jumping, moving around, flying, and more. It’s not too long and it’s quite helpful for newcomers. Then, you are placed in Green Greens. I just wanna say that the artwork for this stage and this game in general is absolutely phenomenal. Everything looks infinitely more detailed and lively. Also, if you’re using a copy ability, enemies aren’t killed in one hit. That’s pretty neat I guess. Something that the tutorial doesn’t tell you is that you can give up your current copy ability to gain a helper. For example, if you give up the Beam ability, a Waddle Doo will be your helper. Helpers are really useful as they can make clearing areas of enemies and beating bosses much easier. You can even make your helper disappear get your copy ability back, which is super neat. Anyway, the level design of Green Greens is mostly horizontal and empty, but there are some moments where the gameplay goes vertical. The mini-boss and Whispy Woods are basically the same as they are in Kirby’s Dream Land, but I’m fine with that.
Float Islands is the second stage of Spring Breeze. You start off in a beach-like area before quickly moving to a tight cave. Then, you fight Mr. Frosty, which is nice. After getting on a Warp Star, you fly to a castle before fighting Lololo and Lalala. One thing that’s pretty interesting about the rematch with Lololo and Lalala is that one of the two twins will occasionally push a Gordo instead of a block. This is a neat way to make the battle harder as it is automatically much easier than its Kirby’s Dream Land counterpart due to the addition of copy abilities. Bubbly Clouds is the penultimate stage of Spring Breeze and it’s the best. There is much more of a focus on vertical gameplay, it has wonderful music/artwork, and the Kracko fight isn’t bad in the slightest. In fact, it’s pretty good. If you’re using a copy ability, it’s a thousand times easier and better than all of the other battles with Kracko, and if you’re not, it’s still better as the fight isn’t as slow and repetitive as its counterparts in the previous few Kirby games.
Mt. Dedede doesn’t have you fight all of the previous stages’ bosses, which is nice. Instead, you go straight to fighting King Dedede. Again, this Dedede fight is way less repetitive and slow as the one in Kirby’s Dream Land, which instantly makes it better. On top of that, you can use copy abilities, which makes this fight way easier and faster. After a cute remake of the cutscene after Dedede’s defeat in Kirby’s Dream Land, the credits roll. Overall, this sub-game is quite good. If it was a standalone game, I’d give it 4 stars. Honestly, my biggest issue with it is that it’s way too short. It’s only 4 stages and each stage is quite short. Other than that, though, I like this sub-game. Now, the next sub-game I’ll be talking about is Dyna Blade. Unlike Spring Breeze, this sub-game is very original. Is it very good, though?
Dyna Blade’s tutorial teaches you about copy abilities, helpers, guarding, sliding, and more. I just wanna say that the way these tutorials present the information they’re giving is super cool and interesting. Anyway, Peanut Plains, which is the first stage of Dyna Blade, consists of mostly vertical gameplay as you make your way up numerous slopes and climb down platforms. At the end of this stage, you fight Chef Kawasaki. I can’t really talk about him that much since my helper and I beat him in seconds with our copy abilities. However, he does have a cute design. Mallow Castle is the second stage of Dyna Blade and it features more horizontal gameplay. During this stage, you fight the Meta-Knights, which is very nice as I like the Meta-Knights quite a lot. Near the end, you also have a rematch with Bonkers. He’s basically the same as he is in Kirby’s Adventure except for the fact that he throws multiple coconuts at you instead of one. That’s pretty nice of him since it gives you more to inhale and spit back.
Cocoa Cave is the third stage of Dyna Blade and it’s crazy. You go from a rocky cave to an outside area that contains wind and from a lava-filled cave to an ice-filled cave. There’s a segment where you must fly while avoiding magma and it’s quite cool. After riding a Warp Star, you have a rematch with Bugzzy. It’s nothing special, but it is nice to see a lot of old mini-bosses returning. Also, I just wanna say that the Suplex ability’s attacks look absolutely vicious. The animations are super smooth and it seems very painful for the enemy that is being attacked. Kirby’s fighting prowess shouldn’t be underestimated, folks. Anyway, Candy Mountain is the penultimate stage of Dyna Blade. The stage mostly consists of you climbing platforms. I think that this sub-game really loves vertical level design. Anyway, at the end, you have to fight Mr. Frosty, Bonkers, and Twin Poppy Bros. Senior. Yes, that is the name of the Green Greens mini-boss. It’s a pretty cool callback to Mt. Dedede in Kirby’s Dream Land.
The battle with Dyna Blade is actually super cool. You start the stage by going up a long slope until you go through a door. Then, you must pick one copy ability to use against Dyna Blade before going through another door. After that, you are placed on a platform just before Dyna Blade swoops in from behind. Dyna Blade will shoot blue fireballs at you from her mouth, try to grab you with her claws, fly towards you, and jump. When Dyna Blade jumps, large stars will appear. You must inhale these large stars before spitting them back at the giant bird. This fight is way less repetitive and boring than it should be. Dyna Blade’s unpredictability combined with the stress of having to avoid her swift and fast attacks makes this battle fun and tense. The ending shows Kirby finding out about Dyna Blade’s starving children before feeding them with Whispy Woods’ apples. Overall, Dyna Blade has a very original concept very good execution. If this was a standalone game, it would get 4.5 stars from me. It’s actually pretty great.
The next sub-game in Kirby Super Star I’ll be discussing is The Great Cave Offensive, which is an insane experience. The goal of this sub-game is to find 60 treasure chests. Ways to find them range from breaking blocks to doing complex puzzles. Along the way, there will be some mini-bosses. For example, you have to fight Bonkers at one point. However, you can kill him in seconds by breaking some blocks that right under him. Breaking those blocks will make Bonkers fall into a bottomless pit. There is so much to do in this sub-game. Sometimes, you can even ride a cart. In this sub-game, you can either focus on collecting treasure or fighting enemies and beating mini-bosses. Above all else, TGCO is an exploration-focused experience. I could talk about each section of this sub-game, but that would mean writing many paragraphs. If TGCO was a standalone game, it’d get 4 stars from me. My two biggest complaints are that it can get really confusing at times and that if you don’t find something interesting for a while, it can become a bit boring. The former is the reason why I couldn’t finish TGCO.
The next sub-game in Kirby Super Star I will be talking about is Samurai Kirby. It’s honestly very simple. Basically, you will be face to face with a random opponent. Suddenly, an exclamation mark will appear. When this happens, you must press any button as fast as possible to win. It’s a nice little minigame, but it’s also nothing too special. If it was a standalone game, I’d give it 3 stars. Now, I’ll be discussing the sub-game known as Megaton Punch. Just like Samurai Kirby, it’s very simple. You have to time a few of things correctly to perform a stronger punch than your opponent. It’s a neat challenge, but it doesn’t require that much skill. I’d give it 2.5 stars if it was a standalone game. Gourmet Race is the next sub-game I’ll be discussing and it’s very interesting. Basically, you will race King Dedede in numerous different areas. You must eat more food than him and get to the goal before he does. As you progress through each stage, the gameplay becomes more complex and difficult. It’s honestly a very cool and unique sub-game and, if it was a standalone game, it’d get 3.5 stars from me. I just wish there were more stages.
Revenge of Meta-Knight is the penultimate sub-game in Kirby Super Star and it’s very cool. Just so you know, you have a specific amount of time to complete each segment. You start off on the Halberg before being thrown to Grape Garden by Heavy Lobster. Then, you fight Twin Woods, which are basically two Whispy Woods. They’re super easy to beat if you have a copy ability. After that, you are thrown to Candy Mountain where Dyna Blade carries you back to the Halberg. After fighting the Meta-Knights, Jukid, and Poppy Bros. Senior, you have a battle with Combo Cannon. An arm will try to grab you and drop bombs on you, the upper turret will fire large cannonballs, and the lower turret will blast you with a laser. You must hit the upper turret repeatedly to win.
After defeating Combo Cannon, you have to avoid bottomless pits while zooming through enemies. Then, you must fight Mr. Frosty. After that, you must go into a hole in the wall and get through the maintenance ducts. When you get out of said maintenance ducts, you encounter Heavy Lobster. The first section of your fight with him has you running away from him. This is an auto-scrolling segment, so you must try not to get caught between the side of the screen and a block/killed by Heavy Lobster. After being chased for a while, you climb up some platforms before actually fighting Heavy Lobster, who will jump a few times, zoom towards you, shoot fire at you, and launch little versions of himself at you. You must inhale these little lobster robots and spit them back at Heavy Lobster repeatedly to defeat him.
After beating Heavy Lobster, you land on the back of the Halberg. You must make your way down while avoiding enemies. Then, you are placed on the base of the ship, which has a lot of wind. The wind is forcing you to go left, so you must move in the direction of the wind while avoiding bottomless pits and enemies. After that, there is an extremely hard segment. Basically, you must press buttons that will open yellow gates temporarily. Then, you have to go through these gates as fast as possible. It took me extremely long to finish this segment and I’m not that big of a fan of it. Following that difficult segment, you head to the Reactor. There are multiple things trying to stop you from destroying the Reactor, such as blocks that will shoot fire at you, a cannon that will launch two fireballs at you, and a blue turret that will shoot lasers at you. You must make the aforementioned lasers hit the Reactor repeatedly to destroy it.
After the destruction of the Reactor, the Meta-Knights try to kill Kirby one last time. After they fail, you have a rematch with Meta-Knight himself. Of course, you must fight him with a sword. Meta-Knight will turn into a small tornado, jump high before slamming his sword into the ground, use his sword to create a large tornado, and zoom towards you before swinging his sword. After defeating Meta-Knight, you must ride a Wheelie and go as fast as you can to get off of the Halberg before the 50 second timer reaches 0. All the while, Meta-Knight will be trying to stop you. There will also be bottomless pits and blocks in your way. If you manage to survive, you have officially beaten ROMK. Overall, this sub-game is basically perfect. I adore the darker and more serious tone as it is very unique and cool. I also think the gameplay is nearly flawless. The dialogue throughout the sub-game really makes you feel bad for Meta-Knight and his crew. I’d give ROMK 5 stars if it was a standalone game. Now, I unfortunately did not finish TGCO, so I wasn’t able to play Milky Way Wishes.
Overall, Kirby Super Star is actually amazing. It does contain some below average stuff, but when this game is at its peak, it’s absolutely fantastic. I give Kirby Super Star 4.5 stars, which shows that it is better than Kirby Adventure. Thanks for reading this review, and I’ll see you when I do Kirby’s Dream Land 3. Bye!
Kirby Super Star opens with a smooth, colourful, and energetic opening animation where Kirby rides on a Warp Star while amazing music plays in the background. Moments later, the title screen appears. This game already looks fantastic and it’s only just begun. Now, this game actually consists of numerous sub-games. I’ll start with Spring Breeze.
When you begin playing Spring Breeze, you are greeted with a tutorial. A text box has you practice inhaling enemies, jumping, moving around, flying, and more. It’s not too long and it’s quite helpful for newcomers. Then, you are placed in Green Greens. I just wanna say that the artwork for this stage and this game in general is absolutely phenomenal. Everything looks infinitely more detailed and lively. Also, if you’re using a copy ability, enemies aren’t killed in one hit. That’s pretty neat I guess. Something that the tutorial doesn’t tell you is that you can give up your current copy ability to gain a helper. For example, if you give up the Beam ability, a Waddle Doo will be your helper. Helpers are really useful as they can make clearing areas of enemies and beating bosses much easier. You can even make your helper disappear get your copy ability back, which is super neat. Anyway, the level design of Green Greens is mostly horizontal and empty, but there are some moments where the gameplay goes vertical. The mini-boss and Whispy Woods are basically the same as they are in Kirby’s Dream Land, but I’m fine with that.
Float Islands is the second stage of Spring Breeze. You start off in a beach-like area before quickly moving to a tight cave. Then, you fight Mr. Frosty, which is nice. After getting on a Warp Star, you fly to a castle before fighting Lololo and Lalala. One thing that’s pretty interesting about the rematch with Lololo and Lalala is that one of the two twins will occasionally push a Gordo instead of a block. This is a neat way to make the battle harder as it is automatically much easier than its Kirby’s Dream Land counterpart due to the addition of copy abilities. Bubbly Clouds is the penultimate stage of Spring Breeze and it’s the best. There is much more of a focus on vertical gameplay, it has wonderful music/artwork, and the Kracko fight isn’t bad in the slightest. In fact, it’s pretty good. If you’re using a copy ability, it’s a thousand times easier and better than all of the other battles with Kracko, and if you’re not, it’s still better as the fight isn’t as slow and repetitive as its counterparts in the previous few Kirby games.
Mt. Dedede doesn’t have you fight all of the previous stages’ bosses, which is nice. Instead, you go straight to fighting King Dedede. Again, this Dedede fight is way less repetitive and slow as the one in Kirby’s Dream Land, which instantly makes it better. On top of that, you can use copy abilities, which makes this fight way easier and faster. After a cute remake of the cutscene after Dedede’s defeat in Kirby’s Dream Land, the credits roll. Overall, this sub-game is quite good. If it was a standalone game, I’d give it 4 stars. Honestly, my biggest issue with it is that it’s way too short. It’s only 4 stages and each stage is quite short. Other than that, though, I like this sub-game. Now, the next sub-game I’ll be talking about is Dyna Blade. Unlike Spring Breeze, this sub-game is very original. Is it very good, though?
Dyna Blade’s tutorial teaches you about copy abilities, helpers, guarding, sliding, and more. I just wanna say that the way these tutorials present the information they’re giving is super cool and interesting. Anyway, Peanut Plains, which is the first stage of Dyna Blade, consists of mostly vertical gameplay as you make your way up numerous slopes and climb down platforms. At the end of this stage, you fight Chef Kawasaki. I can’t really talk about him that much since my helper and I beat him in seconds with our copy abilities. However, he does have a cute design. Mallow Castle is the second stage of Dyna Blade and it features more horizontal gameplay. During this stage, you fight the Meta-Knights, which is very nice as I like the Meta-Knights quite a lot. Near the end, you also have a rematch with Bonkers. He’s basically the same as he is in Kirby’s Adventure except for the fact that he throws multiple coconuts at you instead of one. That’s pretty nice of him since it gives you more to inhale and spit back.
Cocoa Cave is the third stage of Dyna Blade and it’s crazy. You go from a rocky cave to an outside area that contains wind and from a lava-filled cave to an ice-filled cave. There’s a segment where you must fly while avoiding magma and it’s quite cool. After riding a Warp Star, you have a rematch with Bugzzy. It’s nothing special, but it is nice to see a lot of old mini-bosses returning. Also, I just wanna say that the Suplex ability’s attacks look absolutely vicious. The animations are super smooth and it seems very painful for the enemy that is being attacked. Kirby’s fighting prowess shouldn’t be underestimated, folks. Anyway, Candy Mountain is the penultimate stage of Dyna Blade. The stage mostly consists of you climbing platforms. I think that this sub-game really loves vertical level design. Anyway, at the end, you have to fight Mr. Frosty, Bonkers, and Twin Poppy Bros. Senior. Yes, that is the name of the Green Greens mini-boss. It’s a pretty cool callback to Mt. Dedede in Kirby’s Dream Land.
The battle with Dyna Blade is actually super cool. You start the stage by going up a long slope until you go through a door. Then, you must pick one copy ability to use against Dyna Blade before going through another door. After that, you are placed on a platform just before Dyna Blade swoops in from behind. Dyna Blade will shoot blue fireballs at you from her mouth, try to grab you with her claws, fly towards you, and jump. When Dyna Blade jumps, large stars will appear. You must inhale these large stars before spitting them back at the giant bird. This fight is way less repetitive and boring than it should be. Dyna Blade’s unpredictability combined with the stress of having to avoid her swift and fast attacks makes this battle fun and tense. The ending shows Kirby finding out about Dyna Blade’s starving children before feeding them with Whispy Woods’ apples. Overall, Dyna Blade has a very original concept very good execution. If this was a standalone game, it would get 4.5 stars from me. It’s actually pretty great.
The next sub-game in Kirby Super Star I’ll be discussing is The Great Cave Offensive, which is an insane experience. The goal of this sub-game is to find 60 treasure chests. Ways to find them range from breaking blocks to doing complex puzzles. Along the way, there will be some mini-bosses. For example, you have to fight Bonkers at one point. However, you can kill him in seconds by breaking some blocks that right under him. Breaking those blocks will make Bonkers fall into a bottomless pit. There is so much to do in this sub-game. Sometimes, you can even ride a cart. In this sub-game, you can either focus on collecting treasure or fighting enemies and beating mini-bosses. Above all else, TGCO is an exploration-focused experience. I could talk about each section of this sub-game, but that would mean writing many paragraphs. If TGCO was a standalone game, it’d get 4 stars from me. My two biggest complaints are that it can get really confusing at times and that if you don’t find something interesting for a while, it can become a bit boring. The former is the reason why I couldn’t finish TGCO.
The next sub-game in Kirby Super Star I will be talking about is Samurai Kirby. It’s honestly very simple. Basically, you will be face to face with a random opponent. Suddenly, an exclamation mark will appear. When this happens, you must press any button as fast as possible to win. It’s a nice little minigame, but it’s also nothing too special. If it was a standalone game, I’d give it 3 stars. Now, I’ll be discussing the sub-game known as Megaton Punch. Just like Samurai Kirby, it’s very simple. You have to time a few of things correctly to perform a stronger punch than your opponent. It’s a neat challenge, but it doesn’t require that much skill. I’d give it 2.5 stars if it was a standalone game. Gourmet Race is the next sub-game I’ll be discussing and it’s very interesting. Basically, you will race King Dedede in numerous different areas. You must eat more food than him and get to the goal before he does. As you progress through each stage, the gameplay becomes more complex and difficult. It’s honestly a very cool and unique sub-game and, if it was a standalone game, it’d get 3.5 stars from me. I just wish there were more stages.
Revenge of Meta-Knight is the penultimate sub-game in Kirby Super Star and it’s very cool. Just so you know, you have a specific amount of time to complete each segment. You start off on the Halberg before being thrown to Grape Garden by Heavy Lobster. Then, you fight Twin Woods, which are basically two Whispy Woods. They’re super easy to beat if you have a copy ability. After that, you are thrown to Candy Mountain where Dyna Blade carries you back to the Halberg. After fighting the Meta-Knights, Jukid, and Poppy Bros. Senior, you have a battle with Combo Cannon. An arm will try to grab you and drop bombs on you, the upper turret will fire large cannonballs, and the lower turret will blast you with a laser. You must hit the upper turret repeatedly to win.
After defeating Combo Cannon, you have to avoid bottomless pits while zooming through enemies. Then, you must fight Mr. Frosty. After that, you must go into a hole in the wall and get through the maintenance ducts. When you get out of said maintenance ducts, you encounter Heavy Lobster. The first section of your fight with him has you running away from him. This is an auto-scrolling segment, so you must try not to get caught between the side of the screen and a block/killed by Heavy Lobster. After being chased for a while, you climb up some platforms before actually fighting Heavy Lobster, who will jump a few times, zoom towards you, shoot fire at you, and launch little versions of himself at you. You must inhale these little lobster robots and spit them back at Heavy Lobster repeatedly to defeat him.
After beating Heavy Lobster, you land on the back of the Halberg. You must make your way down while avoiding enemies. Then, you are placed on the base of the ship, which has a lot of wind. The wind is forcing you to go left, so you must move in the direction of the wind while avoiding bottomless pits and enemies. After that, there is an extremely hard segment. Basically, you must press buttons that will open yellow gates temporarily. Then, you have to go through these gates as fast as possible. It took me extremely long to finish this segment and I’m not that big of a fan of it. Following that difficult segment, you head to the Reactor. There are multiple things trying to stop you from destroying the Reactor, such as blocks that will shoot fire at you, a cannon that will launch two fireballs at you, and a blue turret that will shoot lasers at you. You must make the aforementioned lasers hit the Reactor repeatedly to destroy it.
After the destruction of the Reactor, the Meta-Knights try to kill Kirby one last time. After they fail, you have a rematch with Meta-Knight himself. Of course, you must fight him with a sword. Meta-Knight will turn into a small tornado, jump high before slamming his sword into the ground, use his sword to create a large tornado, and zoom towards you before swinging his sword. After defeating Meta-Knight, you must ride a Wheelie and go as fast as you can to get off of the Halberg before the 50 second timer reaches 0. All the while, Meta-Knight will be trying to stop you. There will also be bottomless pits and blocks in your way. If you manage to survive, you have officially beaten ROMK. Overall, this sub-game is basically perfect. I adore the darker and more serious tone as it is very unique and cool. I also think the gameplay is nearly flawless. The dialogue throughout the sub-game really makes you feel bad for Meta-Knight and his crew. I’d give ROMK 5 stars if it was a standalone game. Now, I unfortunately did not finish TGCO, so I wasn’t able to play Milky Way Wishes.
Overall, Kirby Super Star is actually amazing. It does contain some below average stuff, but when this game is at its peak, it’s absolutely fantastic. I give Kirby Super Star 4.5 stars, which shows that it is better than Kirby Adventure. Thanks for reading this review, and I’ll see you when I do Kirby’s Dream Land 3. Bye!