Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star (Kirb Your Enthusiasm)

Kirby’s Super Star! What really needs to be said? It’s an absolute classic of Kirby, with enhanced powers and eight games (three of which are minigames, but I digress). Often considered one of the best Kirby’s, this little gem for the Super Nintendo is now up to bat. Technically we should have done this before Kirby’s Dreamland 3, but I promised Blue we would do that one before this one. Speaking of which; special guest star and ex-boyfriend Blue is here! Say hello to Blue, he’s a good dude. He’s been training since last time we met, and has recently beat Celeste, which I only bring up because he typically only plays 4X games. I will try not to be too harsh to him as we do our best to make our way through Kirby. He’s never played it before, I have, lets do this!

As usual, Monday and Friday upload schedule for this. No real need to say it but no spoilers just in case, and try to keep discussion to the game at hand. With that said, let us kirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [1] Spring

Video Length: 17:48

The first little game we find ourselves in is Spring Breeze, a copy-ability having remake of the first Kirby- though sans Kabula and the SHMUP section, sadly. And also sans the boss refight, which is less sad to see go. Not much to say, beyond the fact that jeez I’m a little mean to poor Blue here sometimes ooops. Got that residual Halo energies leaking in. But all in all, we had a good time, and hope you do too!

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Hope you’re hungry for some netplay reduced minigames, cause it is time for a Kirb!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [2] Food, Blade, and Fist

Video Length: 15:10

In this episode, Blue and I take on Gourmet Race, Megaton Punch, and Samurai Kirby, the three minigames of the Super Star multi-pack. The weakest of the games in this package, they’re still pretty alright, even with netplay induced frame issues leading to… less than stellar results. I swear, I’m not usually this bad at Gourmet Race! It doesn’t help that, in order to sell the speed of it, Gourmet Race has genuinely very weird physics to it, with Kirby’s speed being increased by a ton, which sometimes leads to some weird moments.

That all being said, still good. Gourmet Race has some of the best music in Kirby, and the style of Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby are really cool. They may be small, but they’re still good additions, and worth showing off. That being said, hope you all enjoyed! We’ll see all next time.

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Bird noises abound, it’s Kirby time!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [3] Bird, Singular

Video Length: 15:34

In this episode, we begin Dynablade! The first really substantial, new mode for Super Star. This one has a level based world map, complete with two(2) secret exit like unlockables! We cover the first half of Dynablade in this one, taking down the first two levels and Iron Ma’am, the sole miniboss of this campaign. We also of course unlock the path to the first of two copy ability houses, allowing you to do, as the Dynablade description says, master the abilities. It’s really cool honestly, and calls back to the much, much smaller Power Museums of the other Kirby games.

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It is time to face Dynablade herself!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [4] Birds, Plural

Video Length: 21:53

We take out the last two stages of Dynablade, unlock the second power room, and face off against Dynablade herself. I also make it clear I’m going to uh, do a redemption run and also show off the Super Star Ultra additions at the end of Super Star proper, so prepare for those as well!

Dynablade is honestly a rather fun mode. It is, effectively, the style of gameplay modern Kirby players are familiar with (level based, occassional secrets, power rooms) but a little more standard. Not as open as typical Kirby is, no collectables, and really only two bosses to contend with, Iron Ma’am and Dynablade herself. Still, a nice little proof of concept of how a Kirby game could work in the future! I like it, a fair bit. I hope you all did as well.

(as an aside Youtube is being a putz with this one so it is uploading fairly slowly, just posting this in advance).

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Oops feeling physically unwell so I almost forgot to post today’s Kirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [5] Sub-Tree

Video Length: 17:36

We begin the Great Cave Offensive! An adorable and honestly wonderful treasure hunting adventure with some ever so slight Metroidvania style to it. The first area is Sub-Tree, and it has a fair amount of treasure, some from video games, some from movies, and some just existent as concepts. All in all, a really good start to this mode. The boss of Sub-Tree is the unfortunately named Fatty whale, who is honestly just an adorable whale guy. He doesn’t mean any harm he’s just rollin’ around doing whale stuff. Come on Kirby, leave the guy alone.

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Oh hey… more Kirby.

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [6] Crystal

Video Length: 24:32

In this episode we tackle Crystal, which I believe to be the shortest of the areas in Great Cave Offensive? It’s basically only three rooms, but with some pretty decent timing based puzzles to get treasures. And as you can see… at least one of these said puzzles is quite dangerous. I won’t go too deep in on it.

The boss of Crystal is the rather cool and much beloved Computer Virus, which shows that you can make a boss entirely dependent on waiting and holding the guard button really well liked if you make it super stylish. Mechanically this boss isn’t good at all, but the presentation is so spot on literally no one minds. It’s really cool, actually. But that’s it for today, hope you all enjoyed, we’ll see you all next time.

(also on the very slight chance no one knows, the Falcon Helmet belongs to Captain Falcon, from F-Zero and Smash Bros).

Oh good, I’m not the only one who mixes up Mario & Wario and Wario’s Woods.

Also yes, that is indeed a dangerous treasure. Nintendo probably didn’t intend to nearly kill the player with laughter, but it certainly helped keep you from getting that coin.

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The cave beckons…

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [7] Like Two Thirds of Old Tower

Video Length: 22:06

In which we tackle the largest area in Great Cave Offense, the Old Tower! I likely could have fit the entire session into this one, but I decided better safe than sorry. So only MOST of it. What can I say, it’s a long one! Hope you all enjoy!

Due to some changes in structure at work, this’ll be the last LATE video!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [8] Cave Tower, The Last Two Rooms

Video Length: 19:34

And this is why we cut the video where we did. Hey, like I said, this is the hardest part of Great Cave Offensive… and if we’re being honest the hardest part of Kirby Super Star. In my opinion, anyway.

There’s also a boss here, showcasing the final new power in this one; Paint! Paint is only accessible in two boss fights, are single use explosion moves, and they recolour the boss on use! Arm… got repainted to green, unfortunately, so that doesn’t get shown off.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! See you all next time for the… potential finish of the GCO.

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It is time… to finish the offensive!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [9] Garden

Video Length: 35:33

And so we finish us off with the Garden Area, the final zone of the GCO. A little tricky, but nothing as rough as the Old Tower in my opinion. It finishes with Wham Bam Rock, a boss that… is kind of poorly designed ooops moving on.

I feel like Great Cave Offensive is honestly really fun. The treasure hunting, exploratory style is great since it really emphasizes the puzzle element that Kirby games tend to have. It’s fairly linear, sadly, but the branches from each hub are fairly deep. It’s a clear inspiration for future Kirby’s, primarily Amazing Mirror.

With treasures collected, and cave escaped, it is time… for the hardest challenge in this game, in my opinion. But that’ll be next time. Hope you all enjoyed, we’ll see you all Monday with… Revenge of Metaknight.

Ah yes, Wham Bam Rock. The real reason this mode is called the Great Cave Offensive. Turning down the racism in his design in the remake is, actually, one of the more important changes of Ultra.

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A subtler thing they also do is change the markings on the wall that show Wham Bam Rock (in his pretty racist design) with :chuckle: Kirby faces, which is kinda cute. Way better.

Lag plus lack of co-ordination times recording at a late hour means uh… this is a toughie.

Zod Plays: Kirby Super Star [10] MetaKnight’s Revengeanceing

Video Length: 36:54

In this exciting episode, we take on MetaKnight’s Revenge! A rather hard marathon of a game where each section is timed, and everything is a notch or two harder than usual. A really fun game mode, minor the fact that we’re not very good at it. Oops! Still quite a lot of fun though! Also very clearly the inspiration for the Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland’s Metaknightmare mode.

Next time, however; the mode everyone says is the best! Hope you all enjoyed, we’ll see you then.

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And so begins Milky Way Wishes!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [11] Windy Forest

Video Length: 13:24

Milky Way Wishes is the sort of… lets say capstone, of Kirby Super Star. It is the biggest deviation from standard Kirby formula, introducing a “choose which level you start with” mechanic as well as changing up how powers work completely. It is an interesting experiment, and also features some of the series most devious puzzles. So much so, I almost always forget one or two of them, so there’ll be a bit of clean up work before the end. Hope you enjoy!

Koirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [12] Wet Volcano


Video Length: 23:39

In this episode, we take on Aqualiss and Hotbeat, my two personal least favorite of these planets. They’re just kind of annoying obstacles that I’ve never really been a fan of; water puzzles and damage floors. Still, we do a decent job of it all things considered… at least I like to believe that, haha.

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I’m back from the hospital and ready for Kirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [13] Cave of Robots

Video Length: 20:48

In this episode we take down Cavios and Mecheye, two of the trickier planets to deal with. It takes a bit to shake off the rust after my month long death spiral and week in the hospital, but we’ve got this!


So! Here’s an additional thing; Saturday, June 12, at 12:30 MDT, I will be streaming Super Mario Sunshine to help fund my top surgery! I hope to see you all there.

You can find me HERE if you want to participate.

Koirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [14] Oh Hi Marx

Video Length: 23:28

In this episode, we clear the final planet, get the last remaining power, and head off to Galactic Nova to save the day… except, le giga gasp! Marx was evil the whole time and this was just a trick. How rude! This leads to the shmup section all Kirby’s have, and then the rather brutal Marx boss fight, which is SUPER cool.

And so, as Marx exploded, King Dedede breathed a sigh of relief, the threat of a Waddle Dee worker revolution now ended.

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Koirby!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star [15] [FINALE] Arena Disrespector

Video Length: 24:37

In this exciting episode, we finish off the final challenge, Arena! We also um… went into the Arena way more confident in our abilities than our performance shows. Oops!

With that done, Super Star comes to a close… is what I would say, if I wasn’t going to go beyond! Join us next time for… Kirby Super Star Ultra! We’ve gotta show off the new stuff there, obviously!

It’s time to go beyond. PLUSULTRA!

Zodi Plays: Kirby Super Star Ultra [1] Dedede’s Revengence


Video Length: 32:25

In this episode, we step into what could be called Spring Breeze Hard Mode. It’s Revenge of the King, probably my favorite mode of the new modes in Ultra! We show off a bit about what makes Ultra different from the original, and then head off to beat up all of that nasty ole penguin’s friends, who are rip-roaring for revenge!

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