Hello and welcome back to this review! There’s only
two (technically three) sub-games to cover for this review. There’s a whole
bunch still to say, so let’s jump right into it!
Revenge
of Meta Knight
Meta Knight, aboard his mighty ship the Halberd, has
decided to launch an assault on Dream Land! Kirby sets out to stop him, no
matter the cost! Kirby lands on the Halberd with the Warp Star and runs through
the main deck, eventually reaching an open area where Meta Knight’s mooks
unleash a large robotic lobster. Of course, Kirby can try to fight it, but the
Halberd takes off before the lobster can be defeated, and Kirby will be thrown
out of the Halberd by the strong gust.
Like other games in this collection, Revenge of Meta
Knight tweaks a few conventions to give the player a unique experience. First
off, the levels are timed, so you just can’t waste your time. Run, run, run
through a level, run like your life depends on it. Second, the game is divided
into levels, but much like Spring Breeze you cannot go back to a previous
level; and levels are separated by quick cutscenes showing the large world and
what happens on it. However, the best addition to the game is the underling talk.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" "Calm down!" "I'll try... WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" |
And they're almost proud of it. |
Make It Attack Its Own Weak Spot. That shouldn't be a strategy heroes use against villains. |
Up there! Right above you! |
Ah, I just love the smell of destroyed airships in the sunset. |
Milky
Way Wishes
The longest sub-game in this collection, Milky Way
Wishes has a complete story and changes completely the way copy abilities work.
See, this time around Kirby is unable to gain copy abilities from enemies;
instead, he has full access to every single ability in the game, at any moment,
through the Start menu or by pressing X in-game and picking an ability with
Left or Right (this is called Copy Essence Deluxe). The problem is that Kirby
needs to find all 19 Copy Abilities in the levels he visits, on trophies
similar to those he could take abilities from in every other sub-game of this
collection.
I've never seen you before, who the heck are you to give orders to Kirby like this? |
Thus, Kirby can explore all the planets around his
solar system; Floria, Aquarius, Skyhigh, Hotbeat, Cavius, Mecheye and Halfmoon,
and even a tiny planet on the map that hides one ability. Every level can be
completed with normal Kirby, but some areas are closed off until you get an
ability that lets you open the way. Of course, you’re invited to revisit all
the worlds to find the remaining abilities. Every world includes a fight with a
boss seen in a previous sub-game, and sometimes it also includes a mini-boss
bonanza. When all these levels are beaten, we access the final level: Nova
itself.
Awww, it had the :3 face before the :3 face was a
thing!
After gathering all seven Stars, Kirby finds Nova and
is about to wish for the Sun and the Moon to stop fighting… but then Marx comes
the Hell out of nowhere, bumps Kirby away and wishes for domination over Planet
Popstar. Ack, I’ve been manipulated by a jester!
….AGAIN!
Marx happens to be the one who caused the Sun and the
Moon to fight, and the one who sent Kirby on this quest, all so he could gain
immense power from Galactic Nova. Well that’s just great. I could say I haven’t
seen it coming, but then again I wouldn’t have seen it coming if suddenly
Mario, Link, Samus, DK and Pikachu had come to Kirby’s help as a group called
the Nintenvengers. So that twist with Marx comes pretty much out of nowhere;
Even Dimentio’s twist was heavily hinted at.
Marx, now almighty, tosses Galactic Nova into Planet
Popstar, and Kirby goes inside Nova to stop its motor. Sadly, it’s not enough,
as the godlike being continues on its course, and so the Sun and the Moon
decide to help each other and push it away from Planet Popstar. Now Kirby has
to battle Marx, in the toughest fight in the whole game! You’ll notice that,
outside of a few differences, Marx has attacks that feel a lot like Tabuu’s in
Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Subspace Emissary, which makes me thing that Masahiro
Sakurai has drawn inspiration for the Subspace Emissary’s final boss from the final
bosses of his Kirby series. Drawn inspiration from, or plagiarized himself? You
make the call!
Marx is finally defeated, and as a result he crashes into Galactic Nova, destroying it. Planet Popstar has been saved, until the
next attack from an interdimensional cosmic monster or a megalomaniacal
citizen. Kirby decides to take some time off and sleep through the next day.
Unless it was actually a dream like the infamous ending to the American Super
Mario Bros 2… oh well, whatever. Completing this mode unlocks…
I really liked this one, definitely ranks up there among my favorite modes of Kirby Super Star. While the plot itself is nothing to write home about, the idea is at least interesting (a tiny citizen of Dream Land wanting more power, and of course Galactic Nova, who is implied not to be the only one - in fact, odds are the people at HAL Laboratory might bring back that part of the Kirby mythos soon... The new gameplay is neat, although it makes the first few minutes of the game pretty difficult, all while making the game almost ridiculously easy when you've found all 19 copy abilities in the levels. All in all, a strong mode.
I really liked this one, definitely ranks up there among my favorite modes of Kirby Super Star. While the plot itself is nothing to write home about, the idea is at least interesting (a tiny citizen of Dream Land wanting more power, and of course Galactic Nova, who is implied not to be the only one - in fact, odds are the people at HAL Laboratory might bring back that part of the Kirby mythos soon... The new gameplay is neat, although it makes the first few minutes of the game pretty difficult, all while making the game almost ridiculously easy when you've found all 19 copy abilities in the levels. All in all, a strong mode.
The
Arena
Whatever you do, do NOT get the Sleep ability! |
Well, that seems to cover everything!
Final
Thoughts
Hey, wait! This isn’t a sub-game, those are my last
words about the whole game! Ignore this sub-header. So, what do I think of this
collection of games?
It. Is. Awesome. I completely understand why this is
considered one of the best Kirby games ever made. Of course, you need to
complete a game in order to unlock another, but the games have a steady
increase in difficulty, starting with the simplistic Spring Breeze, ending with
Milky Way Wishes. There’s a neat selection of abilities here, adding up to 19
(not counting the limited-use ones, like Paint, Cook, Mike or Crash), and just
as many potential Helpers in your quests. Simply changing the idea behind every
sub-game did wonders, as each of them feels unique. None of these games are too
long, though some may seem a bit short (you can probably go through Spring
Breeze in less than 10 minutes, and Gourmet Race is over in barely over 3
minutes). The longest two are, without a doubt, Milky Way Wishes and The Great
Cave Offensive; the former, because you need to complete some levels multiple
times in order to find some abilities, which themselves require other abilities
to retrieve. And the latter because you can beat the game in about 20 minutes
if you don’t care about the treasure chests, but it can take a couple hours to
find everything (and, speaking from experience, I can tell you that some
treasure chests here are in the worst places possible!). Even with a strategy
guide, it’s a tough side-quest. Although, the nods to other video game series
are a neat touch. Hey, Final Fantasy heroes? I heard you needed some
orichalcum? I just found some under Dream Land. Don’t ask.
As I mentioned, every sub-game has a unique feel; the
graphics don’t actually change all that much from a sub-game to another, and
yet every sub-game looks gorgeous. The music is also really awesome. Even
better is the creativity of the many bosses encountered on these adventures;
they range from the small but intelligent Meta Knight to the impressive Dyna
Blade, passing by the Halberd’s main cannons (and its reactor), King Dedede,
Wham Bam Rock and, of course, the final battle against Marx. However, Megaton
Punch and Samurai Kirby, while fun, feel superfluous. They don’t add much to
the collection, although to truly beat this game you need to complete both with
flying colors. (Do note that, of the two, I prefer Megaton Punch.)
Like the Animal Friends before them, the Helpers are a
unique mechanic to play around with Kirby’s Copy Abilities. It’s like every
game tries something new with those, am I right? The Helpers are
distinguishable from their enemy counterparts and can often be of great help
against some enemies and bosses. However, when controlled by an AI, the
situation makes them go from brilliant to dumb as rocks. It all depends on the
current opponent and what it can do. Your Helper will be ultra-useful against,
say, Chameleo Arm (who can disappear) and other bosses who mostly stay on land,
but anything that spends considerable time in the air will screw them over
(like, again, Wham Bam Rock, or good ol’ Kracko). Hell, you need to have the
Helper be used by a second player in order to complete certain puzzles in the
Great Cave Offensive. My final issue with the game is that a Game Over is
almost the same as losing a life; merely a slap on the wrist.
So, not counting Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby, do I
have a quick thing to say about each sub-game?
-Spring Breeze: Short, but that was the point. Still,
why did they have to cut a whole level and a boss from Kirby’s Dream Land?
-Dyna Blade: Basic, but enjoyable.
-Gourmet Race: Challenging, because King Dedede’s AI
is way too fast. But it’s not impossible to win, if you practice a lot. My
least favorite sub-game.
-The Great Cave Offensive: This one plays up the
puzzle aspect of the series, moreso than Milky Way Wishes. I just wished some
parts of it weren’t so grating! How often have I had to defeat that Bonkers in
the upper floors of the Castle to try and access that one stupid chest in the
castle’s basement?
-Revenge of Meta Knight: The best “mooks as
characters” study one could ever do in a 2D platformer, showing the
personalities of those enemies you usually defeat without a second thought, and
expanding on Meta Knight’s motivations and attitude. I mean, such studies are
often done in RPGs (the Paper Mario series comes to mind, with its Goomba
village, its Koopa village, etc.), but it’s still a rare occurrence in a
platform game.
-Milky Way Wishes: I love the concept of Galactic
Nova, that thing looks just awesome. I’m a bit less of a fan of Marx as a
villain, though part of that could be blamed on the very limited story of this
mode, which tried to cram all the info in the intro and before the final
few battles. It’s still my favorite mode in the game, with its unique take on
copy abilities (and I might like to see this concept in a full game someday),
but like with everything else, I know that I can enjoy it despite its flaws.
-The Arena: The toughest mode, for damn good reason. It took me 30 tries, but I managed to beat it once, with a combination of strategy and luck (Gotta use it when I have it!). It is more merciful than most boss endurance modes
in the previous Kirby titles, though, so there’s that.
Well, that covers everything. All in all, Kirby Super
Star is an amazing game and if you haven’t played it, you really should.
Alright, that’s five down, a last one to go from
Kirby’s Dream Collection. I could be tempted to do that last one next Friday,
but I think I will go for a video game movie. Let’s see, I had Ender’s Game but
that one can wait, I have Max Payne but it seems too generic... I can’t review
TRON: Legacy as long as I haven’t seen the original TRON… Oh, I know! Let’s go
with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I’ll probably regret it, but who
cares. A bad adaptation can’t hurt me, right?
this is bad ass man, nice review, dope ass game fr
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