Kirby Super Star Ultra

"Great then, good now."

Only ten years ago, there was a great era of gaming. Hal labs got to enjoy this time period with their Kirby franchise and released several games for both the Gameboy and the SNES. Kirby Dreamland 2, Kirby's Star Stacker, and Kirby's Block ball were all Gameboy games of high caliber. Then there was Kirby's Dreamcourse, Kirby Dreamland 3, and Kirby's Avalanche (Avalanche not making many heads turn). Kirby was having an amazing run with very few games of his not meeting expectations. But there was one game that was released that blew everyone away; Kirby Super Star - Eight games in One. This was a game that held several technical achievements and is a game still held in high regards today.

In a time period where remakes of classic games come at an abundant rate, Kirby finally renews his debut of one of his best games, renamed Kirby Super Star Ultra for the Nintendo DS.

This game brings back what made the game a stunner in the first place; Upwards to twenty unique abilities with movesets - A different action for certain button combinations. This makes the game a different experience for each playthrough. This game offers three new mini-games on top of the original two that all require the touch screen to play.

This game also has four new modes. Revenge of the King. This mode is a throw back to the original Kirby Dreamland, like Spring Breeze. What's different is that the game is reminisce of Kirby Dreamland's Extra mode, meaning that this mode will be more difficult than Spring Breeze. The next mode is Meta-Knight Ultra, which allows you to play as Meta-Knight through all of the original Kirby Super Star modes. You don't gain new abilities, but for every enemy you defeat you gain a currency that can be used to pay for benefits throughout your playthrough. These benefits include recovery of health, speed-up, a knight helper, and the most expensive item is an attack that deals enough damage to even take out some bosses in one hit. The third mode is Helper to Hero, which is the Arena mode for helpers. One can challenge themselves and see if they can make it through thirteen bosses with a single ability. The final mode is the TRUE arena. You go up against the toughest bosses found in that game, including Wam Bam Crystal, and a stronger Marx with new abilities.

This sounds all nice and dandy, but the game doesn't quite fit the bill the original did. The original was a game that seemed to have pushed the SNES to its limits. It was a game that took full advantage of the hardware it was being played on. What does this game do? You gain new sprites, but many of these sprites were recycled from other handheld Kirby games of recent days. The graphics seem washed out, but one can attribute this to it being on a hanheld. The original game also boasted an amazing soundtrack that was mind-blowing for the SNES at the time. Kirby Super Star Ultra doesn't quite push the DS's audio capabilities. Sure, the tracks are mainly as they were for the SNES, but the bass has been ruined and overall the quality is less. One must wonder why this has happened when a game like Arkanoid DS provides an amazing soundtrack with and without headphones.

This game also recycles old concepts and adds a twist. It's nice that they provide the option of playing as Meta-knight throughout Kirby Super Star, but why not put that effort towards making new stages? Providing us with new abilities? Why change some of the treasures?

What you get in the is game is a watered down version of Kirby Super Star with three extra modes, and three new mini-games. If you haven't played the one for the SNES, then get this one. It's a fine substitute, but it's recommended that the SNES game is the game you play.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/08

Game Release: Kirby Super Star Ultra (US, 09/22/08)