Kirby Super Star

"Eight games in one? That sounds like fun! This title introduced Copy Ability hats, which changed Kirby's appearance based on which power he was wielding. This game also gave Kirby the ability to transform an equipped Copy Ability into a Helper, which added a new kind of cooperative play to the mix. A Helper could be either controlled by the game's AI or controlled by a second player, and each type of Helper had its own moves."

- Summary

Kirby Super Star (released in PAL regions as Kirby's Fun Pak and in Japan as Hoshi no Kābī: Super Deluxe, meaning Kirby of the Stars Super Deluxe) is a collection of nine small games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) that was released in Japan on March 21, 1996, and was then later released on September 20, 1996 in North America and on January 23, 1997 in Europe. However, the earliest in-game copyright year is given as 1995. In the Japanese version, it is the only year. This indicates that the Japanese ROM data was completed in 1995 and originally planned for release by the end of that year, but was ultimately pushed back.

Kirby Super Star is one of the most popular games in the series. It is the Kirby title that first introduced Helpers. They are enemies turned to allies, and can be controlled by a computer or a second player. Furthermore, Helpers were used to facilitate the game's two-player simultaneous cooperative play, another first in the Kirby series. According to director Masahiro Sakurai, this feature was added at the request of Shigeru Miyamoto.

This game was also the debut of Kirby's 'hats', different headgear and appearances that come with Copy Abilities. In previous games, Kirby would only change color or wield a weapon, but now abilities (such as the Fire ability granting Kirby a crown of flames or the Yo-Yo ability granting him a backwards baseball cap) have specific hats. The Ability Caps returned in almost every Kirby game that was released after Kirby Super Star to help differentiate between his abilities and to better symbolize them.

Kirby Super Star was remade for the Nintendo DS, titled Kirby Super Star Ultra. The game also saw a re-release on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles. Additionally, it is one of the 21 games packaged with the Super NES Classic Edition system.

Gameplay
Kirby retains all of his signature abilities: inhaling, swallowing, floating, sliding and gains the new ability to block attacks.

Helpers
One of Kirby Super Star's core features is Two Player Cooperative Gameplay - making the entire game multiplayer material. If Kirby has a copy ability, simply pressing the X button triggers a second player "Helper" character to appear in exchange of current ability.

If a second player is not present, the Helper Character is controlled by AI until a second controller is activated by pressing any button. The AI is of a high quality, as even the computer controlled characters can both protect the first player (Kirby) and also venture into area where the first player might not want to go.

HP System
Kirby Super Star was the first Kirby game to feature a continuous HP measurement system, instead of having a discrete number of 'health bars' as seen in earlier games and used in newer titles such as Kirby: Squeak Squad, but this is the only time the HP system was used on such an in-depth scale.

The meters don't give the exact HP Kirby and the second player have. However, it seems Helpers have less default HP than Kirby. Another effect is that most enemies usually require more than one hit to defeat, depending on what ability is used.

The only time attack power can be measured is when fighting the Computer Virus boss, as the message system displays how much damage was dealt to a Computer Virus minion. Based on measurements against (unshielded) Virus' minions, powerful abilities include Stone and Wheelie Rider - when controlled by a second player. Kirby's Hammer throw deals 80 points of damage, while Crash does a one-time 160 points. Performing a Suplex throw and then the Fury Stomp from its moveset right after can do up to 174 points.

Spring Breeze
Spring Breeze is a smaller, updated version of Kirby's Dream Land. King Dedede has stolen the people's food, and four sparkling stars from the people of Dream Land. Kirby must follow the wind of the Spring Breeze to locate the four stars and make his way to Mt. Dedede.

Dyna Blade
Dyna Blade is ruining Dream Land's crops. Kirby must travel to the mountain where she lives and investigate.

Gourmet Race
Race against King Dedede to the finish line in three different levels, while trying to eat more food than him.

The Great Cave Offensive
Kirby journeys through a long, winding system of levels and gathers valuable treasure while seeking the way out.

Revenge of Meta Knight
Meta Knight is attempting to take over Dream Land with his battleship, Halberd. It's up to Kirby to destroy the Halberd and stop Meta Knight's plan.

Milky Way Wishes
The sun and moon are fighting, and it's up to Kirby to awake NOVA to stop the fight.

The Arena
Kirby battles all of the game's Bosses in a continuous streak.

Megaton Punch
Kirby will face an enemy in a contest to deal the biggest cracks into Planet Popstar. If playing with the computer it will be Waddle Dee, Knuckle Joe, then Iron Mam.

Samurai Kirby
The player takes on five opponents in a samurai showdown in this reaction timing sub-game.

Trivia

 * The music for the rest area of The Arena is a remix of the music used in the main room of Mt. Dedede from Kirby's Dream Land.
 * When Kirby Super Star was released on the Wii U eShop in Europe, the version released was not European, but instead North American.
 * In the Music Room in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby Super Star is represented by an image of Kirby in front of a striped background. This resembles the Kirby Super Star Ultra logo.
 * When playing amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits, if the player taps an amiibo product to the Wii U GamePad, there is a chance that he/she will unlock a demo of Kirby Super Star.
 * Concept artwork seems to suggest that four additional Copy Abilities were considered for Kirby Super Star. These were Card, Flower, Rush, and Mantis.
 * Although Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai's favorite Copy Ability is said to be Beam, he has stated in a Twitter post that his favorite abilities in Kirby Super Star are "hand-to-hand" abilities like Fighter and Suplex.
 * The boss theme of this game was remixed as Waddle Tank's theme from the Scope Shot sub-game in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the music that plays during the battle against DX mid-bosses in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, and again as the boss theme for the original Team Kirby Clash.
 * In the commercial from 1996, a kid is brought to a room in a hospital to be examined. The child was in a condition of what the commercial nurses call "Too Much Kirby" (TMK) The condition made the child pink and round like Kirby. The large and round sphere-like-body used in the commercial was not only referencing the body of Kirby, it was also referencing a scene from the movie -the one from 1971- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In the scene, a girl named Violet chews special gum that made her blow up like a blueberry. She then takes the shape of a sphere (just like the kid that took the same shape in the commercial for this game) but instead, she became blue. While this isn't an exact reference from the scene, the sphere-shaped body was still a reference used in this commercial.
 * An in-game reset can be activated by holding L, R, Select and Enter at the same time.
 * Kirby Super Star, despite being intended for an SNES release from the get-go, actually began development on the original NES. This unreleased prototype was used for internal purposes only, as a way of finalizing all the ideas that would go into the final product. This can be seen with the NES sprites for the Yo-Yo and Cutter abilities, which were released to the public over 20 years later in an issue of Famitsu: the sprites shown look nearly identical to their counterparts in the finished product. Director Masahiro Sakurai stated that this type of development style is beneficial to him, as the starting step of finalizing all of a game's ideas via an internal prototype makes the rest of development significantly easier.
 * According to Sakurai, the use of pre-rendered 3D graphics in Kirby Super Star was a direct influence from Rare's massively successful Super Nintendo game Donkey Kong Country. Creating and implementing HAL Laboratory's own 3D graphics significantly extended the development time of Kirby Super Star, which ended up being three years.
 * An additional sub-game with puzzle elements and a horror theme, Kagero Mansion, was originally planned to appear in Kirby Super Star. It never entered development due to time constraints. It was entirely unknown to the public for over 20 years, until Sakurai described it in an interview held to commemorate the release of the Super Nintendo Classic microconsole (which includes Kirby Super Star).