Kirby Super Star
A compilation of seven games and two minigames.
Kirby Super Star, released as Kirby's Fun Pak in PAL regions, is a 1996 anthology platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is part of the Kirby series and was advertised as a compilation featuring eight games: seven short subsections and two minigames. An enhanced remake titled Kirby Super Star Ultra was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008 and 2009.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- HAL Laboratory
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Director
- Masahiro Sakurai
- Producer
- Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
- Artist
- Tsuyoshi Wakayama
- Programmer
- Shigenobu Kasai
- Composer
- Jun Ishikawa
- Series
- Kirby
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Kirby Super Star is a side-scrolling platformer where players guide the pink hero through levels, dodging enemies and hazards. Kirby can move in several ways: walking, running, jumping, swimming, crouching, and sliding. He can also inhale foes or objects and spit them out as projectiles. By inflating himself, he can fly for a short time, but during flight he cannot attack or use abilities, only releasing a weak puff of air. Eating certain enemies grants copy abilities, letting Kirby adopt the traits of whatever he swallowed. A new addition in this game is the guard move, which blocks weak attacks. When Kirby has a copy ability, he can summon a Helper—an AI or second-player character that can float indefinitely but is limited to the ability it was created from. The player can change the Helper’s form or turn it back into a power-up if needed. Both Kirby and his Helper lose health when hit. If the Helper runs out of health, Kirby has a brief window to give it a new power before it vanishes. If Kirby loses all his health, the player loses a life. Health is restored by eating food scattered through stages, and losing all lives means a game over. The game is divided into seven smaller games—six main ones and one extra—plus two minigames. Most share the same basic mechanics but have unique stories and goals. Some games must be unlocked by completing others. Spring Breeze is a shortened remake of the first Kirby game, where King Dedede steals all the food. Dyna Blade tasks Kirby with stopping a giant bird that is ruining the crops, across four levels with two secret areas and a moving mini-boss.
Development
Kirby Super Star was a Super Nintendo game made in Japan by HAL Laboratory, with series creator Masahiro Sakurai as its director. This was the third Kirby game he directed. Even though it came out on the SNES, its prototype was built for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Sakurai said that prototype was nearly finished and used just for internal testing, with some of Kirby’s animations looking almost the same in the final version. Having the game run on an internal build helped Sakurai try out ideas more easily. HAL’s president, Satoru Iwata, was not very involved and let Sakurai handle the development. Sakurai planned the game around three main ideas: two-player cooperative play, fighting-game-style actions, and an omnibus format. The co-op feature came from a request by Shigeru Miyamoto. Sakurai and Iwata went to Kyoto, where Miyamoto said he wanted a cooperative side-scrolling platformer, something rare at the time. Miyamoto had long wanted to make a co-op Super Mario game but couldn’t because that series was too fast; he only managed it with New Super Mario Bros. Wii in 2009. Since Kirby games are slower, Miyamoto thought it would work. Sakurai then thought of having one main player and a second player assisting, which led to the Helper system, a way to help less experienced players.
Release
Kirby Super Star hit store shelves near the end of the SNES's life, arriving just three months before the Nintendo 64 launched. Nintendo put it out in Japan on March 21, 1996, followed by North America on September 20, 1996, and Europe on January 23, 1997. The game goes by Kirby of the Stars: Super Deluxe in Japan and Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe. Its Japanese box art was made to look like a Paulownia wooden box, a concept from Itoi. Since expensive sake and silverware often come in such boxes in Japan, the team felt this packaging would signal that the game was something special. Sakurai noted the cover seems unrelated to the game itself but praised Itoi's idea, saying it captured the heart of Kirby Super Star. The title saw rereleases on the Wii Virtual Console (Japan in October 2009, the West in May 2010) and the Wii U Virtual Console (worldwide in May 2013). It also appeared in the 2012 Wii compilation Kirby's Dream Collection and on the Super NES Classic Edition. On December 12, 2019, it joined the Super Nintendo Entertainment System app on Nintendo's Classics service. A special version with secret modes already unlocked came out on June 9, 2022.
Legacy
Kirby Super Star got a full remake called Kirby Super Star Ultra for the series' 15th anniversary. That version kept every mode from the original while adding four major new ones, plus better graphics and full-motion video cutscenes. It launched in North America on September 22, 2008, and was a hit with critics and buyers, selling nearly three million copies globally. Tunes from the original game have been reused in other titles, like the Super Smash Bros. series, which included a new take on the Gourmet Race theme as Kirby's theme in the Nintendo 64 game. Meta Knight's ship, the Halberd, later showed up in games such as Kirby: Squeak Squad, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Kirby: Planet Robobot, and the Super Smash Bros. series. A stage based on The Great Cave Offensive appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, one of the largest arenas in the game, supporting eight players and featuring Danger Zones that instantly KO fighters above 100% damage. It returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In 2021, Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman arranged "Meta Knight's Revenge" for The 8-Bit Big Band, winning a Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella.
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