The earliest possible candidate for what we might consider Modern Kirby. Also, by no coincidence, Shinya Kumazaki's directorial debut. I wouldn't really get Kumazaki's vision for the series until Triple Deluxe, but in retrospect you can see the template for it laid bare here, grafted into the framework of Kirby Super Star.
I think I'm fonder of the game these days, but without the context of the games after it, it's easy to expect more from this package. The original game is largely untouched (though with the Nightmare in Dream Land aesthetic over the original game's, and pre-rendered CGI cutscenes over spritework), but much of this release's marketing touted four additional game modes. I definitely remember being charmed but not over the moon for these modes. Revenge of the King is a long-delayed punchline, finally giving Spring Breeze an equivalent to its source material's Extra Mode (with the surprise return of long-lost boss Kabula, to boot!). Meta Knightmare Ultra is a speedrunning mode, a revival of and expansion upon the bonus mode from Kirby's last remake. Helper to Hero is essentially a themed Arena, with the gimmick being that the player is restricted to a single ability (specifically through the context of a player 2's moveset). And True Arena is the Arena for the new bosses.
These are cute, but I definitely was expecting something more unique on launch. I didn't know about the rejected "haunted house" concept from the original Super Star, but I was hoping to see something like that here, offering something fundamentally new instead of a remix. I also sort of think tacking a speedrun mode onto Super Star specifically takes away some of the original game's magic; condensing Great Cave Offensive into a single sprint past everything, and striping Revenge of Meta Knight of its dialogue, removes a ton of those modes' tone and identity.
Finally, the True Arena is kind of a let-down! I actually think Super Star's base Arena is one of my very favorites in the series, since it emphasizes JUST how much content is stuffed into the game. No bosses are recycled in Super Star's regular modes until Milky Way Wishes (save Whispy Woods, but that's only in service of a fakeout with Twin Woods), so there's this sense in the original game that all these adventures are wholly unique experiences, with Milky Way Wishes serving as a reunion tour. Suddenly seeing, say, Heart of Nova, Dyna Blade, and Reactor Core juxtaposed together really makes it feel like you're running through several games' worth of bosses. Base Arena in Super Star Ultra was neutered to high hell by adding extra baby tomatoes to replace Maxim Tomatoes, but it's an understandable sacrifice if there's a True Arena in the awnings.
But True Arena only includes the bosses from the new modes! That's barely anything! Just feels like a boss rush of Revenge of the King, with Wham Bam Jewel, Galacta Knight, and Marx Soul grafted on. I like these fights, and this arena is definitely still a challenge (there's an embarrassing VOD of me struggling against it for 5 hours before finally getting so angry that I almost fainted), but I wish it captured that sense of scale that the original game's did.
Ah, but I'm being harsh on Revenge of the King. Even at the time I very much appreciated the pay-off it represented, suddenly bringing back and highlighting character after character from the original. Masked Dedede is a great fight, and I love the character beat that it makes for the bully king, marking the final point he (of his own volition) really tried to make a grand stand against Kirby. This is the starting point for his long character arc, and that strangely melancholic but hopeful note it ends on is a mere promise of things to come.
I've thought a lot about whether I prefer Super Star or Super Star Ultra, the original or its remake. I think, if you're of a certain age or had a certain set of formational experiences, there's no question about which one. But for me... I think it's a question of measuring the intentionality of what Super Star was going for versus what its remake was going for. Funnily enough, I think Super Star Ultra, like its predecessor, is a game that exists not in the present, but in "past" and "future" - but for wholly different reasons. Super Star was an experiment, pulling everything leading up to it together while going in a radically different direction, one that the rest of its series wouldn't recognize for a long time after. Super Star Ultra is much more confident in the wave it's about to make, assured in the template for the series to come, and pulls very pointedly from its past to make a very certain statement.
In my case, I do think I prefer the original's hopeful gamble over the remake's called shots. Both are good, and I respect both for different reasons, but one means more to me than the other. Still, if this is the mode by which you experienced Super Star, you probably had a pretty good time of it.
I think I'm fonder of the game these days, but without the context of the games after it, it's easy to expect more from this package. The original game is largely untouched (though with the Nightmare in Dream Land aesthetic over the original game's, and pre-rendered CGI cutscenes over spritework), but much of this release's marketing touted four additional game modes. I definitely remember being charmed but not over the moon for these modes. Revenge of the King is a long-delayed punchline, finally giving Spring Breeze an equivalent to its source material's Extra Mode (with the surprise return of long-lost boss Kabula, to boot!). Meta Knightmare Ultra is a speedrunning mode, a revival of and expansion upon the bonus mode from Kirby's last remake. Helper to Hero is essentially a themed Arena, with the gimmick being that the player is restricted to a single ability (specifically through the context of a player 2's moveset). And True Arena is the Arena for the new bosses.
These are cute, but I definitely was expecting something more unique on launch. I didn't know about the rejected "haunted house" concept from the original Super Star, but I was hoping to see something like that here, offering something fundamentally new instead of a remix. I also sort of think tacking a speedrun mode onto Super Star specifically takes away some of the original game's magic; condensing Great Cave Offensive into a single sprint past everything, and striping Revenge of Meta Knight of its dialogue, removes a ton of those modes' tone and identity.
Finally, the True Arena is kind of a let-down! I actually think Super Star's base Arena is one of my very favorites in the series, since it emphasizes JUST how much content is stuffed into the game. No bosses are recycled in Super Star's regular modes until Milky Way Wishes (save Whispy Woods, but that's only in service of a fakeout with Twin Woods), so there's this sense in the original game that all these adventures are wholly unique experiences, with Milky Way Wishes serving as a reunion tour. Suddenly seeing, say, Heart of Nova, Dyna Blade, and Reactor Core juxtaposed together really makes it feel like you're running through several games' worth of bosses. Base Arena in Super Star Ultra was neutered to high hell by adding extra baby tomatoes to replace Maxim Tomatoes, but it's an understandable sacrifice if there's a True Arena in the awnings.
But True Arena only includes the bosses from the new modes! That's barely anything! Just feels like a boss rush of Revenge of the King, with Wham Bam Jewel, Galacta Knight, and Marx Soul grafted on. I like these fights, and this arena is definitely still a challenge (there's an embarrassing VOD of me struggling against it for 5 hours before finally getting so angry that I almost fainted), but I wish it captured that sense of scale that the original game's did.
Ah, but I'm being harsh on Revenge of the King. Even at the time I very much appreciated the pay-off it represented, suddenly bringing back and highlighting character after character from the original. Masked Dedede is a great fight, and I love the character beat that it makes for the bully king, marking the final point he (of his own volition) really tried to make a grand stand against Kirby. This is the starting point for his long character arc, and that strangely melancholic but hopeful note it ends on is a mere promise of things to come.
I've thought a lot about whether I prefer Super Star or Super Star Ultra, the original or its remake. I think, if you're of a certain age or had a certain set of formational experiences, there's no question about which one. But for me... I think it's a question of measuring the intentionality of what Super Star was going for versus what its remake was going for. Funnily enough, I think Super Star Ultra, like its predecessor, is a game that exists not in the present, but in "past" and "future" - but for wholly different reasons. Super Star was an experiment, pulling everything leading up to it together while going in a radically different direction, one that the rest of its series wouldn't recognize for a long time after. Super Star Ultra is much more confident in the wave it's about to make, assured in the template for the series to come, and pulls very pointedly from its past to make a very certain statement.
In my case, I do think I prefer the original's hopeful gamble over the remake's called shots. Both are good, and I respect both for different reasons, but one means more to me than the other. Still, if this is the mode by which you experienced Super Star, you probably had a pretty good time of it.