Kirby: Super Star Ultra

   Yes, this is a remake of the SNES classic Kirby’s Super Star, a collection of games all tied together into one homogeneous piece. I would rate Super Star as one of my favorite games of the 16 bit era, so it’s not hard to see I come to this version with a bit of a plus-side mentality. The fact is this is more than just a port that would have been better served on Wii’s Virtual Console. It’s a complete remake.

   At it’s core, everything you loved of the original is there, even if not all at first. What separates this from the original is the dramatically increased presentation and the bucket loads of bonus content. The visuals are amazing, keeping in track with the way the games have been looking since Nightmare in Dreamland hit GBA. The backgrounds are gorgeous and appear to almost be water colorings for the most part. Even the larger enemies have more detail in them, the animations look smoother, and the whole game is just twice as good visually. Also, there are multiple cutscenes that are redone as 3-D (DeDeDe?) movies that are much more interesting to watch. So interesting they gave you a little video player in the options.

   The music might have taken a slight hit given the DS’s audio capabilities, but it’s not by any means bad. What is a nice feature is a sound test mode, but unfortunately it only works when the game is open. I know it’s a weird complaint but games need to allow you to listen to their soundtracks with the DS closed, like Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. It just makes that on the go gaming even better, especially for trekking across campus.

   My only other issue at this point is that the controls were tweaked to match the GBA formula instead of the original, so Y is not suck, B is. A and Y are both jump and X activates your partner. It’s a small complaint in the end and you will get used to it eventually.

   Kirby’s Super Star Ultra features a two-player mode for multi and single card use. The single card only allows you and your buddy to play the three stylus sub-games or Spring Breeze… on one screen. Two DS’s to control, but you both look at one screen. It’s hilariously lame if you ask me, but whatever. I’m not sure how the two-player rolls as I’ve not found anybody else who likes this game and there’s no online. I hope it’s not single-screen, and if player 2 could follow his own character it would eliminate the need to use the callback ability. That would be awesome, allowing player two more freedom to play, plus allowing for races or what have you.

   Considering how Kirby’s Super Star Ultra is super structured, I’m going to go through each individual mode of the game and talk about it real quick. Note that some of this includes game modes that are unlocked so if you’re really uptight about knowing that, or just want to hear my final word, I suggest you hop down to my last paragraph now.

•    Spring Breeze: A remake of the original Kirby’s Dreamland, to some extent. They cut out a few pieces here and there and it’s made infinitely easier by the copy ability. Certainly not difficult, but a great entry if you’ve never played a Kirby game.
•    Dyna Blade: Not really more difficult than Spring Breeze, but what Dyna Blade does is add more hidden things. There’s a weak overworld map that only serves to guide you to the hidden power caches once you’ve found them. Otherwise, they even remove the bosses, so this game is pretty much a breeze.
•    The Great Cave Offensive: Definitely an interesting mode, the point of this is to make it through a series of long levels and discovering all the treasure. As with most games of this nature, yes you can just jet to the end, but finding the treasure is sort of the point.
•    Gourmet Race: Probably the mode you’ll see the least, all you do is race King DeDeDe and try and eat more food. It’s not entirely fun, though I’m unsure if there’s a two-player vs. mode that would make this more interesting.
•    Revenge of Meta Knight: It’s a more classic Kirby romp, but they up the ante by making the game more difficult in general and by slapping you with a time limit. This is likely a favorite for may people.
•    Milky Way Wishes: The Sun and Moon are fighting and Kirby must venture to other planets to help solve the problem. They’ve taken away your copy ability. Now you must find power statues and use them to access powers whenever you want, but only the ones you’ve found. It makes the game harder at first but once you find your favorite, it’s almost easier. Good thing the levels and bosses are pretty up there in difficulty.
•    The Arena: Good ol’ boss-rush mode. It’s certainly a challenge and great for speed-run freaks.
•    Revenge of The King: One of the first new modes, it is essentially a nightmarish remake of Spring Breeze. However the critters are all different, featuring baddies from various other Kirby games and harder versions of all the bosses. They also add the blimp boss from the original Kirby’s Dreamland, and add a castle level for King DeDeDe. Overall this was a great surprise and a pretty fun mode, making up for Spring Breeze’s… well… breeziness.
•    Meta Knightmare Ultra: Ye-hes. This is it, right here. If you played Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland for GBA you might remember the new game plus option of running the game as Meta Knight. Well it’s back: this time you run through Spring Breeze, Dyna Blade, The Great Cave Offensive, Revenge of Meta Knight, and Milky Way Wishes as the masked marauder. They change things up by giving you a power meter that fills with every enemy you down. You can spend the points on various things like a sword-wielding sidekick, a speed-up, or even a full-heal. It’s probably my absolute favorite mode in the game.
•    Helper to Hero: It’s The Arena for the sidekicks. You play as one of the lackey characters, like Knuckle Joe or Gim, and try and knock out 14 straight bosses: including the mysterious new incarnation of Wam Bam Rock. There’s a record for doing it with each of the sidekicks, so there’s plenty to do here.
•    The True Arena: Once you’ve bested every other mode, you can access the most nightmarish Arena ever. You have to face all of the villains in a row from the new game modes, including all of the Revenge bosses, the new end villain for Meta Knightmare, the new incarnation of Wam Bam from Helper to Hero, and a final… most mysterious being.
•    Sub Games: You start off with three new games. Kirby Card Swipe is a combination of memory and fast reflexes as you have a pile of cards on the bottom, and have to match it with the revealed card on top. Kirby on the Draw serves as a tap-to-shoot version of Hogan’s Alley, popping baddies as they pop up for points, while racing other people. Snack Tracks finds Kirby at the end of a conveyor belt of food, and you having to knock rocks and bombs out of his way so he can eat. After a while you unlock the two classic Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby games, so fear not, they still exist.

   A remake of Kirby’s Adventures 2 and 3 would have been much appreciated as a bonus game, but what are you going to do? Hopefully we’ll see the later appear on Virtual Console, and perhaps the former if Game Boy titles are ever mixed in.

   By this point, you know if you like Kirby or not, there's little doubt about it. Numerous gamers have dismissed the Pink Puff's adventures because of the games' childish appearance. What they are clearly missing out on is a fantastic platforming adventure with loads of charm. Anybody who doesn't pick up Kirby's Super Star Ultra is missing out on that and a whole lot more. This is an absolute must have for any fans of Kirby of platforming in general, and it's a great game for on the go. If you're afraid of forking out the $35 for a "port," don't be. There's plenty extra content to justify paying the new price.