Ah yes, welcome to Foutune Cookie, where fate decides a game for me to talk to you about. Why is it called Foutune Cookie you ask? Because I use the Backloggery's Fourtune Cookie option, a progam that picks one of my games at random, to pick a game for me to talk about. I'll talk about the Backloggery in a day or two, but now, Kirby Super Star Ultra.
Before we discuss Kirby Super Star Ultra, henforth to be refered to as KSSU, it must be noted that I have never played the original game, Kirby Super Star. I had no attatchment to the game, which I belive many people do. I say this because out of all of the handheld Kirby games I've played enough to form an opninion on, this is my least favorite.
Now, I use the term "Least Favorite" lightly, because by no means is this a bad game. I just feel it's a little lackluster is all. Perhaps my viewpoint is afflicted by expecting too much from it, because it is a remake of a game, and if I had to judge the original based soley of this game, I'd have to give it major credit for how much variety and magnitude was put into the game. But nowadays, well, the sheer size of the game isn't as impressive. And much of the additional content added looks larger than it is.
Okay, let me explain how the game works. KSSU gives you modes to play, early one you're given a few and as you complete them you get more modes until you eventually unlock them all. One of the problems with these modes is that a lot of them "based" off each other. Revenge of the King is a harder version of Spring Breeze, Meta Kightmare Ultra is basically the main games with Meta Knight instead of Kirby, meaning your playing the entire game with a beefed up sword ability. Begining to see a pattern here?
But there's certainly much more to this game than these negitive points I have with it. Many of the main features of the game are creative ideas that are fun to try out. The Great Cave Offense is a pretty fun twist on Kirby with a Metriod/Zelda-esque them of finding treausers using certain abilities in what's basically a maze, though the maze is sort of funneled in a large circle to keep you from getting hopelessly lost. There's also Milky Way wishes which has you collect powerups throughout the course of the title and once you collect them you can use them at your leasure, the challenge being that you can't take powers from the enemies around you and are stuck with what you have collected. Unfortunatly, once you get about half of the abilities and the sense of being nearly indestructable since you'll never lose a power because it can be resommoed at will, things get a little dull as you try to find those last powers that really wouldn't be that helpful compared to the aresenal you have now.
The Areana is a fun place to battle all the bosses with limited health refills. This is probably the most challenging part of the game because, let's face it, platforming is pretty negligable when you can fly infinatly. Then you get to the True Arena where you fight stronger versions of the bosses, which I have yet to beat. There's also the Helper to Hero mode where you do The Arena but instead you fight with one ability throughout the entire thing. However, this mode is indentical to The Arena outside of this and after about one or two playthoughs you'll probably feel a sense of repeditaveness and may give up unless you're the competionist type.
Have I failed to mention the Helpers yet? Well I should, because they are absouletly without a doubt... kinda cool. The AI on these guys is about as good as you'd expect, and they can be helpful. They'll do extra damage to that boss and you can use them as a backup abilty in case you lost the one you were using. But be wary, cause if you want to snag an ability from an enemy you'll have to work fast or your helper will destory them in a beserk fit of rage! Or at least fight as he's programed too.
What is more than kinda cool is the multiplayer. Oh yes, it's been around before Yarn and Return to Dreanland. However, unlike those you're going to want to play with someone who has their own copy of the game. I say "want" instead of "need" because technically you can play multiplayer without two copies of the game, but you can only play on one DS, which means your friend is going to have to look at your screen while pushing buttons on their own DS, and you can only play on Spring Breeze, which is basically the KSSU's tutorial mode, which is really short.
However, if you DO have two copies of the game, well, things get interesting. You can now play any part of the game with a freind standing in as a helper. ANY. PART. There is no limit to this whatsoever. The partner plays as a helper, so you'll have to summon them yourself, but after that? Smooth sailing. There is nothing more fun to do with this game then boot it up with a freind and wail on enemies with your newfound co-op skillz. It also helps you with harder sections of the game and is really, just a great time.
Anthing else I have to say about the game is pretty small. I like the new boss in Milky Way Wishes for Meta Knight, but I'm still confused why he blew up the Haleberd. Gourment Race is fun but really short. I like some of the continuity established within the game, like the return of one of Dynablade after you help her. The cutscenes are pretty cool and can be epic. I love the Masked Dedede theme. I think Kirby's a little to big and bulky and he controls a little clunky compared to the other handeld games I've played.
All in all, that's pretty much Kirby Super Star Ultra. If you were a fan of the original, then you'd probably love this one too. It's definatly a good starting point for a newer Kirby fan as well, as this shows you the basics while still providing newance within the title. If you have a freind with the game you'll definatly have a blast playing it with them. To me, the test of time has weared on this game a bit, but it's still good and worthy of the Kirby name.
Now if you'll excuse me, it has become tommorow as I wrote this, so I'll put hyperlinks in here at a later date.
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