Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Review #94: Kirby Super Star Ultra

 A whole lot of Kirby in one!
  Kirby Super Star was a very popular SNES Kirby game that held many "sub-games" instead of one big Kirby adventure. And now(Actually, a couple of years ago), Nintendo decided to port it to the DS, adding Ultra to the title, and a couple of new extras.
 In the original game there was no real story to the game, besides a short, simple description of each activity, but now we get 3D cutscenes that kinda tie everything together, very loosely mind you. They are heavily compressed, but they look kinda neat, still, they add nothing to the overall experience.
 There are a total of 15 different "Sub-Games", 5 of them are minigames(Three which use the new Touch Screen capabilities). The other ten behave more like Kirby games but with specific conditions or goals. You get The Arena, in which you fight all the bosses, The Great Cave Offensive that focuses on the exploration aspect that Kirby games usually include, but instead of opening up new levels, you find hidden items, Dyna Blade which behaves like a normal Kirby game, without the exploration or The Revenge of Meta Knight that has many timed stages. Basically, they are all Kirby games that focus on different elements of your usual Kirby games, so to speak. It's an interesting take to say the least, and while none of the activities lasts too long, you can pick what you want, want to play as Meta Knight? You can do it. Wanna have fun exploring? Pick The Great Cave Offensive, want something more frantic? Revenge of Meta Knight it is.
 Gameplay is just as every other Kirby game, you eat enemies and gain their powers, if they have one. Each power has a nice variety of skills, so that's pretty nice, and exclusive to Super Star Ultra, you can create an AI-Helper(Or player, if you are playing in Multiplayer) from the power you currently have. The game is, overall, pretty easy, but there's plenty of replay value, Kirby is just fun to play, plus there's plenty of optional goals in some of the games. Plus, the unlockable True Arena isn't easy at all.
 The game received a graphical overhaul, most sprites were replaced by their GBA counterparts(Not a bad thing, they were really pretty) and some new ones were created. The end result is a much more visually pleasing game than the SNES version, colors are brighter and Kirby is rounder. On the sound front, you'll come across plenty of familiar tunes and a couple of new ones, and while I'd hardly call them classics, they can get quite catchy.
 Kirby Super Star Ultra is a fine little game to have on the go, but truth be told, I'd take a normal Kirby game over this one any day of the week.
 7.5 out of 10

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