Games Time Forgot – Kirby Super Star

August 13, 2010

Ah, who can forget the old Super Nintendo? For many of us gamers, including myself, the successor to Nintendo’s original console was one of the first opportunities we had to play video games outside of the average arcade. For its massive library of games, and quality titles at that, the SNES is regarded by many as the most successful console of gaming’s 4th generation. However, for every game in the SNES library that remains in the memory of every gamer, such as the Super Mario series and the original Final Fantasy games, there is another game that shared in its quality but doesn’t have the attention it deserves. One of those games I speak of is the 1996 title “Kirby Super Star”, the subject of today’s “Games Time Forgot”.

Kirby Super Star was released over in Japan on July 31, 1995. It arrived in the states in September of 1996.

Games Time Forgot: Kirby Super Star

The folks at the HAL Laboratory must have taken some serious drugs when first thinking up the idea for this game. After all, Kirby Super Star isn’t just one platforming game, but seven! Not only that, but to go along with the main 7 games of this release, the game also had a bonus 8th game upon completion and multiple mini games that you can by yourself or against a couple of friends. This Kirby title is different from many of its other counterparts in the idea that many of the platforming activities just begged for co-op play, something that was pretty amazing for its time. I can remember many a time where my brother and I would spend hour upon hour playing through the same game multiple times. There is just something about the Kirby series that makes you want to play its games over and over again, and the fact you could play with a friend added an extra bit of flavor to the mix each time you played.

Destroying a tree with a friend was never this fun in real life. I mean, who doesn't love blasting beams and throwing bombs?

As for the seven games in the Kirby Super Star library, it should be noted that while the powers and battle system were the same in any game you started up, each game had its own particular story, style, and gameplay mechanics. Here are a few examples — the first game you play in Kirby Super Star is called “Spring Breeze”, and is a remake of the original Kirby’s Dream Land for the Game Boy. This game is a straight forward four level platformer and is the perfect tutorial for any new Kirby player. How about a game called “The Great Cave Offensive”, where the goal of the game is to collect 60 different treasures throughout the land while advancing Kirby through the story. Or possibly you wanted to travel through space in “Milkyway Wishes”, where you could not gain powers through swallowing enemies, so instead you set out to find all of Kirby’s different powers in order to copy them for his use. It didn’t matter which game you chose to play, because you were going to get some new gameplay action regardless. So in the case of Kirby Super Star, having 7 unique games was not the product of simply quantity, but also of quality.

One title, 8 different games. The box art claims it, and the gameplay certainly backs up that claim.

Every great game usually also comes with an equally great soundtrack. Kirby Super Star was no different, as it had one of the most underrated soundtrack of the SNES era created by composer Jun Ishikawa. Each game had a unique soundtrack while each of them remained true to the Kirby Franchise. After all, when you think of Kirby music, you think of happy, bouncy music — and even in its darker games, Kirby Super Star does not move away from that main core. While I would suggest you pick up the entire OST, there are a couple of songs I will make mention of here. These few songs are the best example of the music this game has to offer:

Green Greens from “Spring Breeze”

The Great Cave Offensive Theme

Ending Credits

There are so many reasons why this game is one of the best on the console, and that is saying quite a bit considering how great the SNES library was. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with the Kirby genre of games — this is a title that even 15 years after its original release has plenty of fun left to be had. Plus, if you can’t find a copy of the original, you can also pick up the fantastic port of this game, “Kirby Super Star Ultra”, which was released on the Nintendo DS back in 2008. The port added some new gameplay to the mix as well, even adding in a game where you can play as Kirby’s villain, Meta Knight, and get deeper into his background. I would suggest picking up the port highly, as it is in many ways better than the original.

Kirby Super Star Ultra - This port may very well be better than the original, and also sits as one of the best games on the DS even on its own.

Have any of you ever played Kirby Super Star? If you haven’t, would you be possibly interested in giving a try? Feel free to discuss in the comments, and be sure to stay tuned for my next edition of “Games Time Forgot”. Until then, thanks again for reading, fellow MvG viewers!

Comments

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

NAME*
 
EMAIL*

Your email address will not be published.

  1. TheFraudulent

    I used to play this over at a friends house, it brings so many memories back…wish I had my own snes. Definitely one of my top 10 childhood games!