The Great Cave Offensive

"Explore an ancient cave and recover the 60 treasures hidden there, then make it back to the surface safely. Think of the value of each treasure in gold as your score."

- Instruction manual description

The Great Cave Offensive is a sub-game in Kirby Super Star and its remake, Kirby Super Star Ultra.

In this sub-game's intro, Kirby is seen taking a walk- but he accidentally falls through a hole. He ventures through what seems to be a cave, and must escape. Throughout the sub-game, he has the option of collecting Treasure Chest items. Each treasure has a value in Gold, which is also the player's score. 100G (100 gold) is equivalent to 1 USD - this is found in the Dime and 100-Dollar Coin items, which are worth 10G and 10,000G, respectively. The Great Cave Offensive's more adventure-based layout makes it somewhat unique within the classic Kirby series.

In the sub-game Meta Knightmare Ultra, every piece of food disappears, and every Maxim Tomato and Treasure Chest is replaced with food. Areas that do not lead to the mine cart are also removed.

Gameplay
As Kirby, the player walks through an environment that resembles a cave. There are a total of sixty treasures strewn throughout the cave. There are Save Cottages in every region which contain a pad to Kirby's progress, and special rooms before a boss fights which contain Copy Essences and a Maxim Tomato. The player traverses the regions in sequence; a forested area (Sub-Tree Area), a lake (Crystal Area), a castle (Old Tower), and a garden (Garden Area). Most are guarded by a boss - the bosses are unique to this game (including the Active-Battle System-based computer boss called Computer Virus).

The four areas are:
 * Sub-Tree Area - Boss: Fatty Whale
 * Crystal Area - Boss: Computer Virus
 * Old Tower - Boss: Chameleo Arm
 * Garden Area - Final Boss: Wham Bam Rock

Treasures
Gathering treasure is the main objective and the source of difficulty in The Great Cave Offensive. In general, more treasures are hidden in obscure places and are more difficult to obtain in later regions, while the hidden treasures are worth more in Gold. Many of the treasures make references to other notable franchises through their appearance or names.

In the Super Smash Bros. series
The Great Cave Offensive appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. All four sections of the cave form a stage. The Sub-Tree Area is at the top, the Crystal Area is to the right, the Old Tower is in the bottom middle, and the Garden Area is in the bottom left. This stage features Treasure Chests, mine carts, cannons, and Danger Zones, which can instantly KO players with more than 100% damage. Treasure Chests can be broken and will drop items. Players can ride and dismount from mine carts, using them to attack other players. The cannons act as they do in Kirby Super Star/Kirby Super Star Ultra: they continuously rotate in eight directions, and players who enter can be shot out by pressing a button. However, not every angle is preferable, as firing straight down will result in a self-destruct.

Both The Great Cave Offensive and its Ω form can be played in 8-Player Smash.

Trivia

 * The Old Tower is fully optional. The player does not need to fight Chameleo Arm, even if he/she chooses to enter the Old Tower.
 * The song that plays in the Save Cottages is a remix of the second part of the Float Islands theme. This remix was also re-recorded as the All-Star Mode Rest Area music in Super Smash Bros. Melee. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, the song is also used for the rest areas in the arenas.
 * Commas were added to the gold values in Kirby Super Star Ultra.
 * In Kirby Super Star Ultra, the new treasures have different values, but the total value of all the treasures is still 9999990G.
 * If the player completes the game without collecting a single treasure, during the ending sequence, "You didn't find even one treasure..." will appear instead.
 * According to the original Japanese manual, the name of the great cave is "Majirute" (マジルテ).
 * Before Nintendo formally announced the inclusion of The Great Cave Offensive stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the company's Facebook page leaked an image and teaser description of it. On October 5, 2014, Nintendo posted a weekly wrap-up highlighting the biggest updates announced in the last seven days—among these was an image of Kirby and Pikachu riding in a mine cart. This image was never revealed prior to the post.