I've been on a bit of a falling block puzzle kick in recent years. Panel De Pon has made me realize the sheer depth of these type of games and their addicting nature.

Kirby's Super Star Stacker is a clever little game within the genre. It's twist on a falling block game is unique: animal buddies from DreamLand 2 and 3 act as the colors you'd find in games like Puyo, but there's also a neutral block with the Star Blocks. These Star Blocks act as a buffer between the pairs of animal buddies, and you can score a line as long as two of the same animal buddies are on the opposing sides, be it horizontal or vertical. This makes for a bit of a learning curve with trying to wrap your head around where you can create a combo or not. On the same coin though, this also means creating chains of combos can happen much easier than you may realize. Leave it to Kirby to make an approachable yet gratifying puzzle game.

There's multiple modes, my favorite being more of a puzzle mode where your goal is to eliminate King Dee Dee Dee's health. There's a story mode as well, but it rarely if ever poses a challenge. The most challenging part of this game more has to do with the freeness of the controls, and fighting to place pieces where you'd like them to be. Older falling block games all seem to have this simple game feel problem, but this makes appreciating the game more a fair bit challenging. The presentation helps smooth out any kind of slight against the game, however: gorgeous pixel art reminiscent of water colors and hand painted portraits, taking DreamLand 3's aesthestic and just running with it.

I really liked this game, but I would be remised if I were to say I'd find myself replaying the game in comparison to other falling block games. Tetris is king and Panel De Pon is queen, I'm afraid, but that doesn't mean there's not room at the table for Super Star Stacker.

The least awful of the stupid Kirby spinoff getting a remake? Sure, why not.

It’s Kirby’s Star Stacker, but Super. Yep, not much else to say about this one, it’s the gameboy game but with new features and revamped graphics, just like what you’d except out of a remake of a Puzzle game.

I guess go play that one over the original Gameboy version, but why would you play that in the first place? There’s just better alternatives.

Not bad, the singleplayer mode is a bit of mind numbing fun and the multiplayer is ok. However, the inability to deflect attacks makes the game a bit annoying, and I’ve played with both bots and real people. It lacks a sense of urgency and need to match something, taking away the thrill of games Panel De Pon and Puyo Puyo, and it’s methods of chaining felt more like slamming down blocks and praying.

However, it’s not bad for some fun and the visuals/ost are both really nice, but that’s just a given for Kirby games. You’re likely better off playing Panepon instead.

Ich glaube das Spiel ist vor allem was für Leute, die sonst nie groß Spiele in der Art spielen. Durch die wenigen Blocktypen ist es sehr einfach Ketten zu bauen, auch wenn man es nicht beabsichtigt, sodass man schnell ein Erfolgserlebnis hat.
Allerdings ist es glaube ich nicht für Leute wie mich. Und das liegt jetzt nicht daran dass es Baby's First Puzzle Game ist, das ist bei einem Kirby-Spiel zu erwarten. Ich spiel ja auch gerne einfachere Plattformer, da ich das als entspannend empfinde. Das Problem für mich hier ist, dass ich Puzzlespiele immer so lange spiele, bis ich abschmiere. Und das passiert mir hier nicht. Ich hab heute bis zur Maximalpunktzahl gespielt, worauf mich das Spiel abgewürgt hat. Ich hab jetzt zusammen über fünf Stunden Material von einer Session (die ich dann Switch mehrfach pauseieren konnte), wie ich dieses Spiel spiele, und ich hab nicht alles aufgenommen. Irgendwann wird dieses Spiel dann einfach nur noch ermüdend, und man spielt es so halb im Autopilot, während man sich dabei YouTube-Essays anhört, weil es anders nicht mehr geht. Und ich weiß dass das albern klingt dass man dann überhaupt noch spielt, aber das Ding ist dass ich halt so lange spielen will bis ich abschmiere um wirklich zu wissen wie gut ich bin. Ich will mich da messen. Und wenn man mit dem Ansatz daran geht und ein wenig Ahnung von solchen Spielen hat, ist das hier nix für einen. Wenn man sich das Genre ansehen will, oder man nicht schauen will wie weit man es schafft, dann kann ichs empfehlen, ist ein süßes Spiel. Aber ansonsten nicht.

Played on SNES actually, I got the game cart and modded my system.

Super adorable game that has such wonderful spritework, it's literally just a better version of Kirby Star Stacker. Getting to Grill is a little obtuse but beating her felt nice. The music is also great, it's a little known fact the Masked Dedede theme is based on his theme here. If only I could read the story though...maybe if I actually do learn to read Japanese I can revisit it...

Was it worth $250 and then the $130 I spent on the SNES, meaning I paid $380 to play this game?
Heck yeah it was it's Kirby!

KIrby's Super Star Stacker is a very simple puzzle game where you link at least two animals of the same kind either vertically or horizontally as long as they are all the same or are a normal block. While the actual concept of this gameplay is simple, the actual combo system of Super Star Stacker is the meat on the bone. Combos are pretty much the only way you are able to do damage, and while it's certainly possible to get big combos with little attention, largely the game can't be beat on pure blind combos. This ends up making Super Star Stacker far more versus oriented over some of it's other puzzle game likes but not for the better. Arguably, Star Stacker is kinda boring without it's combo system, and it's further distanced from the usual make by the game trying to add more after your initial combo. It's certainly neat that sometimes after a two combo the game can position you into an undeserved 10 combo by constantly throwing boxes at your board, but it certainly doesn't feel earned.

While I certainly don't want to belittle this game, the truth of the matter is that it's nicer to look at than play. A lot of the story cutscenes are really cute, the animations of characters attacking each other give some added flavor, the menus are done nicely, the sound effects feel good, and the OST is certainly a pop. Sadly, these are all things that don't help Star Stacker's gameplay in a meaningful way, and largely it just feels like a rather half baked game compared to other puzzle games. While I certainly don't think there is no joy to be had, it really just boils down to "there are better puzzle games out there"; hell what probably hurts this game most is that there are better KIRBY PUZZLE games out there. This game is neat for a first run, but just don't expect much.