Star

Stars are a recurring motif throughout the Kirby series, especially the yellow five-pointed star. They represent Kirby himself, since the Japanese titles for the Kirby's Dream Land trilogy and Kirby: Right Back at Ya! are simply Hoshi no Kābī, literally translating to "Kirby of the Stars". Against Nova in Kirby Super Star and its remake, Kirby's Starship is formed from stars themselves.

Stars are a common decoration on most things related to Kirby and objects common in the series, for example, Kirby's Warp Star, Pop Star, King Dedede's Hammer, and Star Blocks, and they have a prominent role in gameplay.

Collectible
Stars are collectibles introduced in Kirby's Dream Land 2. Whenever Kirby has collected enough, he gets a 1UP. Every time Kirby collects one, a gauge at the bottom of the screen fills up. It takes a varying number of stars before Kirby is granted the 1UP. Getting large numbers of them are possible in the Goal games of Kirby 64 and Kirby: Canvas Curse, so the numbers are scaled up.

In Kirby's Dream Land 3, stars are collected in pieces, and since each piece is worth 1/5th of a star, essentially Kirby needs to find 30 individual pieces before being granted a 1UP.

In Kirby 64, stars come in several different denominations: Yellow stars are worth one point, red ones are worth three, green ones five, and blue ones ten. Blue ones are only found in place of Crystal Shards already found when repeating a previously-cleared level. When facing a Boss, the star gauge is replaced by a health gauge representing the boss's health, and becomes red instead of yellow.

In Kirby's Epic Yarn, since no vitality system is in play, the Star Bead is worth 100 beads instead.

Projectile
Upon performing the Inhale, the Kirby has a choice to either swallow the object in his mouth or spit it back out i.e. the Star Spit attack. Should he decide to spit it out, the object, regardless of what it was, becomes a star projectile. If Kirby inhaled more than one object at once, the resulting star is much more powerful, and can go through enemies and hit larger ones more than once. In Kirby: Squeak Squad, such stars can be manually made using Bubble on ability-neutral enemies and combining the bubbles within the Copy Palette.

Star projectiles in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards have a different appearance to the five-pointed yellow variety in every other game. Instead of spitting objects out as stars, Kirby spits out the object as it is. When lifted above Kirby's head, however, enemies turn into stars; the ones which give Copy Abilities give 5-pointed stars with the color of the Copy Ability, while ability-neutral ones give white, 4-pointed stars with a ring around it. If two enemies are inhaled simultaneously and one is ability-neutral and one is not, the resultant star has a light texture of the color representing the Copy Ability. If two power-giving enemies are swallowed at the same time, the star will have the color of the Copy Ability, have eight points and two rings around it.

Ability Star
Should Kirby be using a Copy Ability and take (enough) damage, the Ability will be lost in the form of the Ability Star. This star is very fragile and does not survive very long outside of Kirby, and bounces about the stage, but can be re-inhaled if Kirby gets to it in time. Should it be lost in water, it will float slowly upwards towards the surface. It disappears as soon as it touches Spikes or Lava.

Star Seal
Main article: Star Seal

The Star Seals are items in Kirby: Squeak Squad which unlocks the sealed door at the end of Ice Island leading to Secret Sea and to Meta Knight. Each are found in a different Treasure chest, and the ones containing a Star Seal glow brightly with an aura.

Sparkling Star
Main article: Sparkling Star

The five Sparkling Stars are key collectible items in Kirby's Dream Land and in Spring Breeze. They are recovered from King Dedede's minions in each level and allow Kirby to return all of the stolen food back to everyone on Pop Star.