Play Kirby Super Star Online
Release year: 1996 | Players: 1 player | Developed by HAL Laboratory
Here, at My Emulator Online, you can play Kirby Super Star for the SNES console online, directly in your browser, for free. We offer more Kirby, Nintendo and Platform games so you can enjoy playing similar titles on our website. Why don’t you try?
Game review
Playing a game is like wrapping yourself up in a warm, familiar blanket on a cold winters’ night – comfortable, friendly, and joyous enough to ward off all stress brought about by the storm outside. Kirby Super Star for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System absolutely fits into this cosy, pink mould, and continues to stand as one of the brightest spots in this Nintendo icon’s storied history.
Kirby Super Star released in 1996, right at the end of the 16-bit era. Although more ground-breaking technology had either already been released or was soon to hit store shelves, this SNES swan song doesn’t compromise in the slightest on being run on yesterday’s hardware. Indeed, from the moment you see Kirby euphorically zipping along a grassy field on a shiny gold star, you know you are in for an adventure that will throw everything at you to put a smile on your face.
And try everything it does, as Kirby Super Star is technically a compilation of nine separate, yet related, games. Six of these games are unlocked from the very start, with the other two becoming available after completing certain tasks. Some are essentially full-length traditional Kirby games, while others are simple mini-games that you jump in and out from for just a handful of minutes at a time. Regardless of their individual scope, the sheer variety on offer here continues to impress and ensures that there will almost be certainly something for every type of Kirby player.
Starting off with the more conventional, you have Spring Breeze, which is an abbreviated remake of the original Kirby’s Dreamland. The visuals have obviously been enhanced thanks to the Super Nintendo’s superior hardware, and Kirby’s trademark copy abilities have also been included (after being absent from the original Gameboy game).
A personal favourite of mine is The Great cave Offensive, which plays like the Kirby metroidvania game nobody really knew they wanted until this came out. In this mode, Kirby explores a large, interconnected cave map collection 60 different treasures, some of which pay a cheeky nod to other Nintendo games. It’s a delightfully well-executed concept, and one that I wish contemporary Kirby developers would re-explore with new games.
The largest game in Kirby Super Star is Milky Way Wishes, which sees Kirby jump from planet to planet as he goes toe-to-toe with the evil-jester Marx. On the complete other end of the scale you have Samurai Kirby, which will only ever occupy you for about two minutes at a time as you try to cut down your opponent with a well-timed button press before they inevitably get you.
In terms of controls, Kirby Super Star has already perfected movement and feel of our favourite pink sphere in a 2D space. The difficulty across the different games is easy enough to grasp for younger and newer gamers, without being insultingly easy for more experienced players.
And of course, one of the great benefits of releasing so late into a console’s lifecycle is that Kirby Super Star can take full advantage of the SNES’ hardware capabilities. The visuals and audio are some of the crispest that the system has to offer and have barely aged a day since they first lit up television screens in 1996.
And that sentiment sums up everything that continues to make Kirby Super Star so special over two decades later. Despite all of its different ideas and modes and genres, the overall package never buckles under the weight of its own ambition and instead soars upon a wave of giddy fun that you never want to come down from.
