Kirby's Super Star Stacker

Kirby's Super Star Stacker
Even better than the original Game Boy version.
Genre(s): Puzzle Platform(s): Super Famicom Release: February 1, 1998 (NP) June 25, 1999 (JP) Developer(s): HAL Laboratory Publisher(s): Nintendo Predecessor: Kirby's Star Stacker

Kirby's Star Stacker, originally referred to as Kirby's Super Star Stacker and sometimes transliterated as Kirby no KIRAKIRA KIDS, is a puzzle game of the Kirby series that was released on the Super Famicom in Japan. It was first released in 1998 through the Nintendo Power flash service, but eventually saw a physical release a year later in 1999, being the last Kirby game released on the console.

Story

One starry night, an alien creature named Mr. Star zooms past Dream Land. King Dedede spots him in the air and blasts him with a cannon, causing Mr. Star to split into several pieces and fall to the ground. The principal piece of Mr. Star falls on Kirby's head, as he was out stargazing from a teepee. After learning of his predicament, Kirby and his animal friends help Mr. Star find his pieces again, each of which is kept by a different denizen of Dream Land.

One by one, Kirby and his friends trounce the baddies who were holding Mr. Star's pieces, culminating with King Dedede himself. Once Mr. Star is whole again, he returns back out into space. Shortly after, a witch named Gryll appears from where Mr. Star left to present the final challenge to Kirby.

Why It's Again A Super Star

1. Awesome graphics for a late SNES game released in 1998, 1999 in cartridge format, as it's had a very similar art style to Kirby's Dream Land 3, which was already beautiful. It's as good looking, if not better looking than that said game.
   • The backgrounds are also very good and fit the characters that you have to fight in that game, with them being nicely detailed and colorful.
   • The sprite work is also really good and cute, especially with the Kirby sprite.
   • Unlike the Game Boy version where there's no story mode, this game has one, and it's a very good and fun mode, and it's made this game have an ending, despite being even shorter than Kirby Avalanche, see bad quality #1.
2. Fun gameplay as usual, with it being like its Game Boy counterpart, but it's actually more expanded and even better.
3. The soundtrack is great, like most Kirby games out there, especially the Kind Dedede theme.
4. Unlike a lot of puzzle games out there, it's pretty easy to do chains, and it's quite fun to do them.
5. While the game is very short, it's still had a lot of replay value due to the huge amount of game modes.
6. Cute, and sometimes funny cutscenes, after you beat an opponent, being on par with Kirby's Dream Land 3 cutscene style.
7. In 2023, it's been re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online service, meaning that you can finally play this game outside of Japan, without an emulator on your PC, or mobile phone.

Bad Qualities

1. The game is extremely short, taking at least 20 minutes to beat it, 24 if you haven't died from attempting to fight Gryll.
2. Some of your opponents, most notably King Dedede, are very frustrating to beat, and due to him, or other opponents, you will most likely not have the chance to fight Gryll, depending on your skill.
3. Making this game in 1998, or 1999, is a bit too late for releasing on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and to make matters worse, there weren't any ports of it, like on the Nintendo 64, or the Game Boy Color. As a result, the game never saw a release in North America, or Europe, until it was on the Nintendo Switch Online service in 2023.
4. Some people could find the game boring at times or at least, not as good as Kirby Avalanche.

Trivia

• When Kirby thwacks his opponents in story or vs. mode, he does so with the love-love stick.
• Though the game had not been released outside of Japan, and small parts of Asia, until September 2023, it was nonetheless referenced several times in games that were released internationally before then.
  • Mr. Star, Tick-Tock Jr., and Gryll appear as stickers in Kirby: Planet Robobot, and as character treats in Kirby's Dream Buffet, using their artwork from this game. Gryll also appears as a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, again using artwork from this game, as well as appearing in a stone transformation and a celebration picture in Kirby Star Allies.
  • Two music tracks in this game were re-used in the extra stages of Kirby: Planet Robobot, while Gryll's theme reappears in Kirby Star Allies. A remixed medley of Chef Kawasaki's theme, and Gryll's theme from this game is one of the Battle Royale themes, in Kirby's Dream Buffet.
• In 1998, a game titled Kirby's Super Star Stacker was listed on a page of upcoming SNES releases on Nintendo's American website, suggesting that an international release may have been planned at that point in time.
  • Current English sources—such as Kirby: Planet Robobot, Kirby Art & Style Collection, Kirby's Dream Buffet, and Nintendo Switch Online—refer to the game simply as Kirby's Star Stacker, the same as the Game Boy game. This is because both versions of the game have the same name in Japanese. The official English HAL Laboratory website refers to it as Kirby no KIRAKIRA KIDS, a literal transliteration of its Japanese name.
• This is currently the only Kirby remake to have the exact same Japanese name as its original game.
• This was the final game by HAL Laboratory to use their older HALKEN logo, during the opening title sequence, instead of the HAL Laboratory, or HAL Corporation logos that had since become standardized in the company's other releases. This may have been in recognition of the fact that it was HAL's last Kirby game on Super Famicom. However, it would not be their final Super Famicom release period, which was the boxed cartridge version of Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut, in November of 2000.
• If the player scores high enough in Challenge Mode, Kine is shown drinking out of a long-necked bottle in a tavern or club, the label says「海水」which means, "sea water". This may be one of the few alcohol references in the Kirby series, alongside the illustrations for Mix in Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star. This same scene implies Kirby is drunkenly singing karaoke.

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