Kirby Super Star

Kirby Super Star
Also known as: Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe (JP), Kirby's Fun Pak (EU/AU) Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: March 21, 1996 Released in US: September 20, 1996 Released in EU: January 23, 1997 Released in AU: 1997 This game has unused areas. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page This game has a Data Crystal page

Kirby Super Star makes Kirby's Adventure look like Kirby's Dream Land.

It was later remade as Kirby Super Star Ultra on the Nintendo DS, which updated the graphics and added a bunch of new modes.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Notes

Unused Graphics Graphics never seen in normal play.

Unused Enemy Palettes Most enemies have three different palettes, but a good chunk of them are never used.

Debug Features

To do: See if there is anything else per the Talk page.

Sprite Viewer

Entering a room with Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 00740B01 enabled (all versions) will activate a sprite test mode, showing both Kirby and the helper in the middle of the screen and allowing you to cycle through all of their sprites.

The following buttons can be used on Controller 1 to manipulate Kirby's sprite:

• A/B - Cycle back/forward one frame at a time.
• X/Y - Cycle back/forward through frames continuously.
• L/R - Cycle through frames for the Ability Cap only.
• D-Pad - Moves the Ability Cap one pixel at a time, or continuously if Start is also being held.
• Select - Cycles to the next ability.
• Start - Pauses (without displaying the ability info screen), and also toggles displaying the Ability Cap behind or in front of Kirby.

Likewise, Controller 2 can be used for the helper's sprite:

• A/B/X/Y - Cycle through sprites the same as for Kirby.
• D-Pad - Moves the helper around the screen.
• Select - Cycles to the next helper.

Note that enemies will still be active, and if an enemy (or its attack) collides with the helper (and probably also Kirby) they will go back to being playable as normal with the selected ability.

Also, having the code enabled prior to entering a room will cause some anomalies with the way Kirby's sprite is displayed, due to the game thinking the sprite test has already been activated - namely, Kirby will always appear to be facing the same direction, and the "idle" frame of the Ability Cap will be drawn directly centered on Kirby's sprite, instead of ever being given its correct frame and position.

There is no apparent way to activate or deactivate this other than enabling the code and entering a room, or taking damage or restarting the game.

VRAM Viewer

Another minor debug feature exists, allowing you to view the current contents of VRAM. Notably, this feature is designed to be booted directly into — it performs a nearly full system initialization, excluding the existing contents of video and palette memory.

The following Game Genie or Pro Action Replay (PAR) codes can be used to enter this screen by pressing L + R + Select + Start:

• GG: 8389-0FA7 2889-04D7 (US) or 918E-D467 288E-D4A7 (JP)
• PAR: 00BD57BE 00BD58DB (US) or 00BCFA56 00BCFBDB (JP)

The following controls are available on this screen:

• Up/Down - Scroll the currently-visible VRAM page.
• A/B - Cycle through available VRAM pages.
• L/R/X/Y - Cycle through available palettes.

If this screen is activated during gameplay, there will be a visible screen split due to the status bar IRQ never being disabled. This will allow you to only scroll the portion of the screen above where the status bar was.

Resetting the SNES is the only way out of this screen.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Rooms

A few of the game's many, many rooms are never used. Game Genie or Pro Action Replay (PAR) codes will change the first door in Green Greens to exit to the appropriate room, unless noted otherwise.

None of these rooms are present in Super Star Ultra.

Room 11C

GG code FA44-53AD DF44-5EDD
PAR code F0212B1C F0212C01
A completely empty room using the Green Greens theme. The Peanut Plains music track plays here.

Room 120

GG code 4D44-53AD DF44-5EDD
PAR code F0212B20 F0212C01
An unused quick tutorial room. Based on its placement by ID, this would be a quick tutorial for Spring Breeze. The actual quick tutorial used for Spring Breeze is the same as the one used for Dyna Blade.

According to the game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, Spring Breeze originally didn't feature copy abilities, which would've necessitated a different tutorial (likely focused exclusively on inhaling and spitting enemies out), so this might be a leftover from that period.

Room 12A

GG code 62BC-EED4 EEB8-EE64
PAR code F09BAC8D F09BBEFF
(used for the first door in Cocoa Cave)

Unused bonus cannon room. This should be used after the Iron Mam battle on the main map. It's placed directly before the Iron Mam battle room, just as the other bonus cannon rooms are placed before the first actual room of a level. Presumably a door with a room warp ID of FF7F would lead to this room, but there's no room in the level data to place a door warp.

Since this room is never accessed the way it's intended, the object graphics are loaded incorrectly. To fix this, beat a level in Dyna Blade first, then immediately go to Cocoa Cave and enter the door. This will fix the object graphics, though the bonus cannon will not use the proper yellow palette.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Stage Oddities

A couple rooms in Revenge of Meta Knight have various oddities in normally inaccessible areas. Similar content may exist in other rooms as well.

Chapter 1

Hidden from view in the first room of the stage is a solitary Wheelie on a ledge. It's positioned right above where Kirby's Warp Star crashes. Stranger still is that this is the only Wheelie in that room. Its behavior is set to charge at Kirby when he gets too close.

On his Warp Star rampage, Kirby never moves close enough to the Wheelie to activate it. Even if he did, the Warp Star goes too fast for the Wheelie to catch up. In Super Star Ultra, the camera allows Kirby to fly up and reach the Wheelie enemy.

Use Game Genie code BCC4-1CAD and enter the first door in Green Greens. You'll be able to move around freely in the left side of the room. Also, if you die in the first room of Level 1, the screen boundary doesn't activate, allowing you to fly and get the Wheelie enemy.

Chapter 5

Another enemy that's hidden in normal play. This Waddle Doo is never activated, as the camera never scrolls far enough to the right.

Further to the right are some tiles that don't appear anywhere else in the game. They even have the correct properties, sloped and everything! Perhaps there was supposed to be a Maxim Tomato or 1-Up or something down this path. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, both Waddle Doo and these unique slopes are removed from the level entirely. The slopes got replaced with more generic ones.

Game Genie code 84C4-1CAD D7C7-166D will place you on the right side of the Laser Ball wall. Just take the first door in Green Greens.

Chapter 8

In the room after the Meta Knight battle, there's a door that can't be entered in normal play. The player doesn't have any control over Kirby at this point. However, through hacking you can enter the door, and it actually works!

In this room's level data, there's a specific warp coded for that door. The warp goes to...the same room, slightly below the normal spawn point. This might have been put in for testing purposes in case the Wheelie helper failed to spawn. The entrance was removed in Kirby Super Star Ultra, and the room got unused.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Level Tiles

To do: Search for unused metatiles in the remaining tilesets.

Tiles that are unused. Self-explanatory, really.

Wooded Hollow

A gigantic amount of tiles for the Wooded Hollow tileset go unused. There are four rooms in the game that use this tileset, and they're all mostly flat with no platforms at all! Spikes, bomb blocks, even regular blocks are never used in those rooms.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Room Palettes

Game Genie codes are provided where applicable.

Palette 69

An unused wavy grass palette with sort of an autumnal sunset look. Use Game Genie code 1BCD-1CDD to set this palette to the first room of Green Greens.

Palette 93

Palette 90	Palette 93

A dark version of Palette 90. Light and dark palettes are only used in three places: the lit and unlit candle rooms in the Old Tower area of The Great Cave Offensive, and for Kracko's lightning attack. Both candle rooms use the light and dark blue ruins palettes, so this never gets used. Game Genie code BD25-18AA B726-16DA will enable this palette in the lit candle room.

Palette 94

Palette 91	Palette 94

Same as above, but with a green color scheme. Game Genie code BFA0-3BAE B0A0-3CDE will enable this palette in the unlit candle room.

Palette 95

This would presumably be used for a dark room too, but there's no corresponding bright palette in the game.

Palette AB

A brighter version of the dark cloud palette that's used in the game. Game Genie code C827-4CDE sets Bubbly Clouds' first room to use this palette.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Regional Differences

A throng of graphical changes were made between the Japanese and international versions of the game, some involving the abject terror that is Japanese food.

Title Screen

Japan	US	Europe

Compared to the Japanese logo, the US and European logos have a darker coloration, lack the blue outline and look noticeably more compressed, the European logo moreso. The dots in the background had to be adjusted for each logo, and the bars around the copyright info ended up changing color with each version due to sharing their palette with the logo.

The European logo also has pretty blatant cutoff around Kirby's feet due to not updating the graphic from the Super Star logo to fit the shape of the Fun Pak letters.

Food

12 of the food items were altered from the Japanese version. The foods at the top are Japanese, the ones at the bottom are from the other releases. You probably figured that out on your own. This change is retained in Super Star Ultra.

Tutorial

Japan	International

The Shoshinsha mark (a Japanese symbol used for newbies/new drivers) was replaced by good ol' Kirby elsewhere. As the tutorial icon consists of two halves that are "slammed" together, the driving symbol makes more sense than cutting poor Kirby in half.

Super Star Ultra uses two halves of a whole Kirby in all versions.

Controller

Japan	US	Europe

All three versions use their respective SNES controller design for the tutorials, with the US controller gaining a bit of extra detail. Oddly, the European version's tutorial text wasn't changed from the US version, so it still refers to the controller having purple buttons.

Spring Breeze

To do: rip

Like in the original game, the sign Kirby holds up at the end of the credits was changed, reading "つづく" ("to be continued") in the Japanese version and... "NEXT" in the international version.

Samurai Kirby

Japan	International

There are animated weeds in the foreground in the Japanese version. These were cut down in order to fit the larger English text. Super Star Ultra (whose version of the minigame is ported straight from the original, graphics and all) features them in all versions.

Gourmet Race

Japan	International

After completing a round, the text "clear time" is written in the Japanese version. This was changed to just "time" in the international versions.

Final Credits

Japan	International

In the Japanese version, the credits for Milky Way Wishes have a banner that reads まいど (maido, "thanks" in the Kansai dialect) next to one of the Kirby graphics. This was removed in the international versions of both this game and Super Star Ultra. The graphic's return appearances in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby: Triple Deluxe are left intact in most regions, except for the Korean versions, which replace it with Korean text.

Japan	International

In addition, the "and more..." text at the end was changed to "There's more...". This change isn't present in Super Star Ultra, likely due to its credits being an FMV.

The Arena Logo Animation

Japan	International

In the Japanese version, the title text for The Arena "explodes" onto the logo as it fades in. This was removed in other versions, and the international logo appears to be pre-rendered as opposed to hand drawn.

Computer Virus Battle

Japan	US/Europe

The Computer Virus boss was originally known as Battle Windows in the Japanese version. The Japanese name is more accurate to the boss' appearance; perhaps they thought western players might have confused it as jab against Microsoft. This change was kept for Super Star Ultra.

Japan	International
DARK NIGHT	EVIL KNIGHT

The Evil Knight's name was changed. You can probably guess why.

Japan-Only Glitches

All of the following glitches work only on the Japanese version and were fixed in international versions. Each one requires you to press two opposing directions on the controller at the same time, which is only possible if the controller is either very worn or poorly designed.

• As Jet Kirby, do a semi-charged or fully-charged boost in midair. Pressing Up + Down while flying sends Kirby flying diagonally. If he bumps into a wall after a semi-charged boost while holding Up + Down, Kirby will bounce skyward very fast.
• As Fire Kirby, do a running boost in midair. Pressing Up + Down causes Kirby to zip downward very fast, passing through floors.
• As Plasma Kirby, holding Left + Right and pressing Up charges to the maximum immediately, allowing you to fire fully-charged shots right away.
• As Yo-Yo Kirby, pressing Up + Down + Y in midair causes Kirby to disappear forever. If you do this with a helper, the game acts as if the helper doesn't exist.
• Pressing Up + Down on a ladder crashes the game.

Revisional Differences

To do: There are some revisional differences between the original Japanese ROMs documented here.

Later releases of the game (Virtual Console, SNES Classic Edition, Nintendo Switch Online) reduced the flashing lights that appears when bosses use certain attacks (i.e. Marx's laser), defeating a boss, or when Kirby loses a life, as part of Nintendo's newer policies in order to avoid causing epileptic seizures.

Error Message

Wrong Controller

Comes up at boot if anything other than a regular SNES controller is plugged into either controller port.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Region Lockout

Comes up at boot if an American/Japanese cartridge is being played on a European/Australian console (or vice versa).