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    Kirby: Super Star Ultra

    Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Sep 29, 2008

    Kirby Super Star Ultra is an enhanced remake of the SNES game Kirby Super Star.

    canuckeh's Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo DS) review

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    Kirby comes out of the closet!

    Kirby Super Star Ultra : An “expanded” edition of the Super Nintendo pseudo-compilation, Kirby Super Star.

    Story : Actually, Kirby Super Star is a series of smaller adventures, each one based on either saving the world or saving food. I’m not going to criticize a story aimed at kids of being uninspired so it is what it is. This Nintendo DS version adds computer-generated cutscenes in spots to tell the stories, and while I like this addition for “Revenge of Meta-Knight” as a means of documenting its’ series of events, for the most part the cutscenes did nothing for me. On top of that, the cutscenes feature the same MIDI music and sound effects of the 16-bit original and the combination doesn’t mesh well together.

    Odds are that if you’ve been gaming for a significantly long time, then you’ve probably made gay jokes about Kirby. Maybe it was when the first Game Boy games were released and you made a joke or two about his tendency to suck things up and swallow, but those jokes feel too juvenile, too easy. Besides, at the time, it was a clever and outside-the-box gameplay mechanic, a fresh take on the mascot platformer of the day. Then we got Kirby games on consoles capable of producing colour, and we came to realize that Kirby was intended to be coloured pink. A little flamboyant but at least it was different, and you can’t blame the guy for being born the colour that he was. Besides, I’m sure it’s not an issue that bothered too many people, as most wrestling fans associate pink with either highly skilled technical wrestlers or burly men with lengthy goatees. And perhaps there may have been a joke or two when Kirby started absorbing his enemy’s powers, like the fire creature giving Kirby flaming abilities or the stone power that made Kirby hard.

    Kirby Super Star gives grounds to all kinds of suspicions of Kirby’s affection for the not-quite fairer sex.

    One of the distinguishing features of Kirby Super Star is the ability to play two player co-op. Kirby just need to devour an enemy to take its power, press a button and before you know it, you’ve summoned an ally. That can either be controlled by a dim-witted AI partner that likes to die a lot or by another player.

    As an aside, I tend to think that the concept of “multi-cart multiplayer”, that is a multiplayer mode on any handheld game that requires both players to possess the system and a copy of the game itself, can straight piss off. It’s already hard enough getting together with a friend who has a DS, let alone asking for said friend to buy the same game. The “single-cart” alternative to this for Kirby Super Star on the DS is to allow the second player to use his system as a controller while he observes the action from player 1’s screen. Considering how small the screen on the system is to begin with, this feature can only slightly less piss off….but still piss off nonetheless.

    Back to tabloid accusations. This is the first time in years that I had played through Kirby Super Star from beginning to end, and thus I had completely forgotten about Kirby’s experimental phase, and how Kirby would often break into a romantic kiss with his partner.

    These public displays of affection seem to occur as a means of regenerating the partner’s health bar. They also only seem to occur only after Kirby picked up some food to recover his health. So not only is Kirby fond of Knuckle Joe’s sweet embrace, but he’s kinky in the regards that he likes to pass food along through an oral exchange. And these make out sessions can occur as frequently as there are bits of food on the ground so if there’s 5 apples on a bush, it’s possible for Kirby to get some Waddle Dee dong five times in a row.

    Back to the game, the original Kirby Super Star was a collection of ten-odd smaller games, each about half an hour long. The quality of these games varies and you’ll probably consider only three of them to be actual GAMES that measure up. “Spring Breeze” is meant to be an easy campaign meant to break new players in and that’s fine, except the second game, “Dynablade” isn’t exactly any stiffer in terms of difficulty. “Gourmet Race” is essentially a mini-game sidescrolling race to collect as much fruit before you reach the finish line, fun for a few minutes but there’s only the one big level to race and thus the experience finishes prematurely. “Revenge of Meta-Knight” is the first actual adventure of notice, the gimmick being that Kirby and his sexmate must penetrate Meta-Knight’s ship and leave a white splash of destruction over the madman’s plans. “The Great Cave Offensive” adds a treasure-hunting gimmick and asks the player to scour every dark alleyway and inside every closet for hidden secrets. “Milky Way Wishes” isn’t a nickname for oral sex, but rather the original game’s final adventure, which differentiates itself from the other games in that you can collect the actual powers as items instead of absorb them by putting things in Kirby’s mouth. There’s also an Arena mode that pits you against all the bosses in one giant gang bang battle. Finally, there’s a couple of mini-games that don’t really add much, other than seeing Kirby characters get freaky and dress up like they were in feudal Japan.

    Kirby Super Star Ultra, the Nintendo DS version, embodies a trend that I hope Nintendo stopped a long time ago – the handheld re-release. Nintendo used to be in the habit of taking older games and “updating” them George Lucas-style for their handhelds, simplifying challenging levels, adding voicework that was completely out of place and throwing in assorted mini-games that no one really cared for. I was hoping that the advent of the Wii Virtual Console would end the farce that was the Super Mario Advance franchise and its kind but here we are…

    Kirby Super Star Ultra claims to add 6 new games, but that’s a lie. I’d consider it being honest if it said 1 and a half, maybe. “Revenge of the King” is the one actual new adventure, a new campaign filled with new enemies, though most of them are just redrawn versions of the old enemies, akin to them being in drag, and thus this new mode doesn’t leave much for one to be excited about. The next set of new games break into the biggest failing with this new edition of Kirby Super Star. “Meta-Nightmare Ultra” is essentially most of the game’s levels replayed from the perspective of Meta-Knight, an overpowered version of the knight power-up, with the ability to heal and use an area-sweeping super attack. The novelty of the new character wears thin, though, and being that most of these campaigns are already pitting you against similar challenges and many of the same enemies, bosses and especially mid-bosses, this gets a bit tiresome by the end. “Helper to Hero” is essentially the Arena, except you play as one of Kirby’s many, many penis pals, whom don’t really differentiate too much from just plain playing as Kirby with superpowers anyways. Finally, “True Arena” pits the player against the redrawn new enemies from the new campaigns, most of which aren’t quite different from their original versions. The original Kirby Super Star had a small repetition issue in this regard, but the problem of sleeping with the same enemy is amplified with great volume in this new game.

    I hope it’s not homophobic to give this game a terrible score. Kirby Super Star Ultra isn’t a bad game, and maybe the episodic format lends itself better to handheld play sessions. But I would’ve much rather have seen this game released on the Wii Virtual Console, at a quarter of the price with none of these needless add-ons and the ability to play two player co-op on the one console on a big screen that sits on a table and not the shaky hands of your angry partner. This used to be heralded as one of the best Kirby games around, but nowadays I would go on a limb and call this new edition the worst Kirby game on the DS, in comparison to the underrated but TERRIBLY NAMED “Kirby Squeak Squad” and the more original “Kirby Canvas Curse”, a game where you must grip Kirby as a pink ball.

    Pros : ….you’ll have a gay ol’ time?

    Cons : The new tacked-on mini-games added to the DS version are lame, even by the standards of tacked-on mini-games.

    3 ½ stars

    As of recently, I’d developed a newfound heterosexual affection for the Kirby games. There really aren’t too many games like them in terms of gameplay mechanics and it’s a wonder why you don’t see too many games try to knock off the power-stealing gimmick.

    Other reviews for Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo DS)

      Kissing in a Kirby game? Count me in! 0

      Ok, well, not really, but now that I have your attention, Kirby Super Star Ultra is a great addition to the Kirby franchise and to the library of anyone who likes a good platformer/action game. Kirby Super Star Ultra is actually an omnibus of different smaller games. You've got games like Spring Breeze which are typical Kirby fare of travelling through different levels, copying abilities from enemies, and defeating bosses. On the other hand, you also have games with unique objectves, like beatin...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

      Kirby Super Star Ultra 0

      Kirby Super Star Ultra is an upgrade of a Super Nintendo game with improved graphics and more content. The original was already loaded with stuff to do, so the kart is fairly packed to the brim with activities. It's really a collection of games, including a few touchscreen-based competitive modes but mostly focused on an interesting mix of takes on the normal Kirby gameplay. Kirby runs, jumps, floats around, and can absorb 19 different powers from various enemies that occupy the levels. T...

      0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

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