Kirby Superstar

I feel able to review this game because I've played through it in its entirety at least 3 times. I love it. There's something about power stealing that just draws me. It's there in the Megaman games too. However, the way that this game does it kind of floors me. It has several games in it, and though power stealing is in all (most) of them (not the minigames), it's represented differently in every single one.

Truthfully, this game has many games in it. They all play similarly, control wise, but they all present them differently. Spring Breeze is what you think of when you hear Kirby. It plays how most Kirby games do. Dynablade has levels. You can go to whichever level you like and carry powers between them. The Great Cave Offensive is one long expansive world with only doorways between areas. There are boss fights and checkpoints, but no over world map. If you want to get back to the beginning, then you have to play through it until the end, or start a new game. Revenge of Meta Knight plays like a Mario game, in that every level has a timer that you race against. Then lastly, my favorite game in the collection is Milky Way Wishes. You can pick any power at any point, but only once you collect the statue for that power. I think this is the best way to put powers into a game, since you can play whatever you want whenever you want. This is how most Megaman games operate, which is why I'm a fan of those as well. Though, I've been liking Megaman Zero more and more these days. I think that I just enjoy having multiple different ways to kill people at my disposal.

I also liked how Kirby Superstar allowed co-op in a game that used to be built for only one person. Your helper would take on the presence of one of the enemies of the power he was using. This meant that helpers using the plasma power don't have to touch the ground. They could fly wherever they like. Also, the wheel helper could actually be ridden by Kirby. This interaction added something to SNES 2 player games that I hadn't seen before Kirby Superstar. Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3 were all great games, but they failed to provide the second player with anything to do while they waited for the first player to die. Kirby Superstar also provided a way for the second player to catch up to the first without things like the bubble in the recent New Super Mario Bros. The bubble worked out, but sometimes I found it easier to ignore than and let it find me, rather than going out and grabbing it myself. The recall feature in Kirby Superstar was much easier to use. It also came out over 10 years earlier... Games don't always progress as time goes on.

Another great thing that Kirby did was that it had very brightly colored maps. Some people don't like this, but I personally found many Donkey Kong Country stages to be very dark. However, Donkey Kong Country did have very beautiful graphics. Also, for those of you who think bright or light colors are bad, please play Yoshi's Island. This game was full of pastels, but the detail put into every single stage really shows that impressionist painters deserve much more credit than they are often given. Pastels and surrealistic shapes can also be incredibly detailed and shiny. I use the term shiny here to mean very nice to look at, rather than having a high spectral reflection value. I know that isn't really the definition, but I like it none the less.

Regardless, back to Kirby Superstar. This is one of my all time favorite Kirby games. It even has one of the best selection of powers. The only one that I can think of that has more powers is Kirby 64, but most of those powers seemed to be filler, rather than fun to use. I think they were running out of ideas on how to use those power combos at some point. Though I do really like the curling iron power. Ice and stone are not particularly fun alone, but together they make a ridiculously strong power. I think there should be more power combination games. I enjoy those.

So to sum it up, this is a great game. I've loved it enough to play through it multiple times, and still have the original cartridge. This makes me feel less bad in downloading ROMs to play on my laptop. If you can get a (legal) hold of this game, then I strongly suggest trying it out. I've enjoyed it on every single play through. It's even one of the few platformers that becomes more fun with friends. (In my opinion, NSMB did not become more fun with friends. At least, it wasn't because of the game that it was more fun, but because of having the friends around, which I could have with a single player game too.)