This remake basically rebooted the entire series and for good reason.
The original game stood out for the time as the one installment to feel more like an action game than a platformer, with copy abilities geared more towards combat and a wider range of bosses to use 'em on. The games to follow - Dream Land 3, 64, Amazing Mirror etc - would tone down the copy abilities and shift the series back to platforming and puzzle-solving, but Super Star Ultra brings back the action in a big way. If anything this remake is even more fighty than the original, with all four of the new modes - a harder version of Spring Breeze, a Meta Knight mode, and two alternate Arenas - focus more on the combat than ever before, and to the game's benefit.
Going forward a bit the influence this has had on the following decade or so of Kirby games is clear: Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot, and Star Allies all follow this game's lead, playing similarly and with fleshed-out copy abilities and dynamic bosses keeping the fighting at the forefront. Return to Dream Land in particular, this game's immediate follow-up, even feels like an expanded take on Milky Way Wishes down to the story beats.
While Forgotten Land seems to be the start of a new direction for the franchise, finally moving away from direct responses to Super Star and Super Star Ultra, the influence of this one game can't be ignored and remains an excellent jumping-on point for Kirby as a whole
The original game stood out for the time as the one installment to feel more like an action game than a platformer, with copy abilities geared more towards combat and a wider range of bosses to use 'em on. The games to follow - Dream Land 3, 64, Amazing Mirror etc - would tone down the copy abilities and shift the series back to platforming and puzzle-solving, but Super Star Ultra brings back the action in a big way. If anything this remake is even more fighty than the original, with all four of the new modes - a harder version of Spring Breeze, a Meta Knight mode, and two alternate Arenas - focus more on the combat than ever before, and to the game's benefit.
Going forward a bit the influence this has had on the following decade or so of Kirby games is clear: Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot, and Star Allies all follow this game's lead, playing similarly and with fleshed-out copy abilities and dynamic bosses keeping the fighting at the forefront. Return to Dream Land in particular, this game's immediate follow-up, even feels like an expanded take on Milky Way Wishes down to the story beats.
While Forgotten Land seems to be the start of a new direction for the franchise, finally moving away from direct responses to Super Star and Super Star Ultra, the influence of this one game can't be ignored and remains an excellent jumping-on point for Kirby as a whole