A simple game designed primarily for young players. In this first outing, Kirby's abilities are simply to inhale enemies and spit them out. The tyrannical King Dedede has stolen all of the food in Dream Land, and it's up to Kirby to take it back!
A step up in scope that lays the groundwork for the rest of the series. Kirby is now depicted in pink for the first time, and his iconic Copy Ability debuts! King Dedede has destroyed the Star Rod, an ancient artifact that controls the Fountain of Dreams and allows the residents of Dream Land to dream. It's Kirby's job to fight Dedede's army and recover the fragments of the Star Rod, restoring the Fountain of Dreams! But once he does so, it is revealed that the evil wizard Nightmare sought for control of the Fountain, and Dedede only destroyed the Star Rod to keep it out of Nightmare's hands. But Kirby is able to use the power of the stars to defeat Nightmare, bringing peace to Dream Land once more!
This remake adds the side mode Meta Knightmare, starring the mysterious figure Meta Knight in a speedrun of the main game. Meta Knight is only allowed one moveset, contrasting Kirby's extensive Copy Abilities. Meta Knightmare doesn't feature any significant alterations to the story, but these side modes will become much more important later on.
Part 1 of the "Dark Matter Trilogy."
The mysterious entity Dark Matter attacks Dream Land, destroying its rainbow bridges and covering the world in darkness. Kirby has to team up with his Animal Friends to defeat the darkness-possessed King Dedede and restore the light!
This game is a collection of multiple game modes, building in difficulty and scale. Also added is the Helper system, allowing Kirby to create a friend out of a Copy Ability to be controlled by the computer or a second player.
"Spring Breeze" is primarily a remake of the first Kirby's Dream Land, taking advantage of the Super Nintendo's graphical capabilities.
"Dyna Blade" introduces a world map and secret levels. In this story Kirby travels across the land to confront the great bird Dyna Blade, who threatens to destroy all the crops in Dream Land - but it is ultimately revealed she was only doing so to feed her young chicks.
"The Great Cave Offensive" is a game mode featuring one giant open level for Kirby to explore, collecting treasures as he goes.
"Revenge of Meta Knight" is a story with a time limit, as Kirby has to stop Meta Knight from taking control of Dream Land. With help from Dyna Blade, Kirby is able to bring down the battleship Halberd and stop Meta Knight's attempted reign!
"Milky Way Wishes" is the final story in the game. The sun and moon are fighting in the sky above Planet Popstar! The jester Marx tasks Kirby with journeying across the galaxy to summon the clockwork star Galactic NOVA and make a wish to stop the fight. Kirby can visit the planets in any order, activating each's Fountain of Dreams. But upon summoning NOVA, Marx reveals he set up the entire scenario so he could wish for ultimate power! Kirby races back to Dream Land to defeat Marx, destroying NOVA in the process.
Kirby Super Star also introduces the Arena, a boss rush mode. This mode will reappear throughout the series, occasionally providing extra hints at the games' lore.
Super Star's DS remake adds a couple new game modes.
"Revenge of the King" is a harder version of Spring Breeze, featuring the debut of King Dedede's "Masked" form.
"Meta Knightmare Ultra" again features Meta Knight, in a speedrun through all of the previous main game modes. Upon reaching NOVA at the end of his journey, he wishes to test his might against the strongest warrior in the galaxy. NOVA obliges and summons the imprisoned warrior Galacta Knight, who will become a major recurring secret boss throughout the series. Meta Knight is able to defeat and seal away his opponent again - assuming this encounter even canonically happened.
Part 2 of the "Dark Matter Trilogy."
Dark Matter once again descends over Planet Popstar. Kirby has to team up with more Animal Friends and the friendly Dark Matter blob Gooey, a second player character with all of Kirby's abilities, to free all the people of Popstar from the darkness's control. Kirby is able to defeat the Dark Matter and its leader Zero with the power of everybody's love, once again restoring light to the planet.
The finale of the "Dark Matter Trilogy."
Kirby's first 3D outing, although still in a side-scrolling environment. Dark Matter sweeps across the galaxy. The queen of planet Ripple Star tasks the fairy Ribbon to take the planet's magic crystal to safety, but she is not fast enough and Dark Matter shatters the crystal. Ribbon falls to Pop Star, where Kirby discovers her and agrees to help recover the crystal shards. Kirby saves his friends from dark possession and the group travels across the galaxy to the heart of darkness. With the power of the restored crystal, Kirby is able to defeat the angelic reborn 0² and end the threat of Dark Matter for good.
This game is the first to feature four-player simultaneous multiplayer. Meta Knight travels into the Mirror World to investigate its sinister reflections, and Dark Meta Knight emerges in his place. Dark Meta Knight attacks Kirby and splits him into four copies, who chase the reflection back into the Dimension Mirror. Dark Meta Knight then traps his light counterpart in the mirror and shatters it, prompting the Kirbies to explore the Mirror World and retrieve the mirror shards to save him. With Meta Knight freed, the Kirbies are able to defeat the impostor and his master Dark Mind, returning to their original world.
A game with smaller scope than previous entries. Kirby's strawberry shortcake is stolen by a gang of mice known as the Squeaks. Kirby chases down the Squeaks and their leader Daroach, facing opposition from Meta Knight for some reason. When Kirby finally beats Meta Knight and Daroach, he discovers that the treasure chest assumed to hold his cake actually contained the ancient evil known as Dark Nebula. Kirby is nevertheless able to defeat this dark entity, and the Squeaks gift him a new slice of shortcake as an apology.
The dimension traveler Magolor crashes in Dream Land, asking Kirby for help to restore his ship and get home. Kirby and his friends travel across Planet Popstar, collecting scattered parts of the Lor Starcutter. Magolor then takes the group to his home planet Halcandra, asking again for their help to defeat the dragon Landia. But as soon as this is accomplished, Magolor reveals he manipulated the group to steal Landia's powerful Master Crown for himself. Kirby has to stop Magolor's universe-conquering ambitions and free him from the dark power of the Master Crown, ultimately banishing him to the depths of Another Dimension.
This remake adds the new mode "Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler." After the main story, a battered Magolor travels through Another Dimension on a journey of redemption. Magolor regains his magic power and fights the monstrous form of the Master Crown, escaping from Another Dimension to set up shop in an alternate world.
The Dreamstalk sprouts from the ground in Dreamland, carrying Kirby and King Dedede into the sky kingdom of Floralia. Dedede is abducted by the mage Taranza, and Kirby travels through the land to save him, along with the other People of the Sky imprisoned by the parasitic Queen Sectonia. Taranza turns Masked Dedede into a puppet to fight Kirby, but loses the battle. Once Sectonia throws him aside, Taranza realizes the queen must be stopped and helps Dedede and Kirby take her down.
Also included is the game mode "Dededetour!," a speedrun similar to Meta Knightmare featuring an alternate story where Dedede explores Floralia instead of Kirby. After reaching the royal palace, he instead encounters the Dimension Mirror. Dedede fights the mirror versions of himself and Meta Knight, and shatters the mirror.
One day while Kirby is napping, Planet Popstar is invaded by the Haltmann Works Company and much of the planet is mechanized. Kirby takes control of the company's Robobot Armor to help him take down the planet-sized mothership, the Access Ark. Along the journey he battles the company's executive assistant Susie and a cyborg converted Meta Knight, before reaching President Haltmann. The company president attempts to use the Ark's supercomputer Star Dream to fight Kirby, but discovers Susie has blocked his control in an attempt to take the computer's power for herself. Unfortunately Star Dream becomes self-aware and takes complete control of Haltmann and the Access Ark, requiring Susie and Meta Knight to help stop the supercomputer from destroying all life in the galaxy. Kirby destroys the reality-warping space station and restores Popstar to its original state.
"Meta Knightmare Returns" is another non-canon speedrun mode, returning Meta Knight to the spotlight. Meta Knight travels through an alternate version of the main story, breaching the Access Ark with little trouble. After he defeats Haltmann, Star Dream recognizes Meta Knight as a potential new administrator. Star Dream summons several powerful adversaries to test Meta Knight's abilities, including clones of several previous invaders of Popstar and the imprisoned warrior Galacta Knight. Meta Knight defeats all of these foes, but Star Dream is ultimately destroyed by Galacta Knight's rage.
Star Allies is a celebration of the Kirby series' 25th anniversary. The main gameplay feature is making enemies into Friends, a revamp of the Helper system from Super Star, also featuring many characters from throughout the series as unique Dream Friends.
In the depths of space, the cult leader Hyness attempts to resurrect his dark god from the Jamba Heart. However, he messes up the ritual and the Heart shatters across the galaxy. Several pieces land on Planet Popstar, infecting its inhabitants with darkness and drawing the attention of Kirby. Kirby of course sets off to free his friends from their dark influence. But as soon as this is accomplished, a Jambastion battleship lands on the planet in search of the Jamba Heart fragments. Kirby and his Friends defeat the three Mage-Sister generals and drive off the invaders, before pursuing them into space. The team travels to multiple planets to hinder the cult's retrieval efforts, before reaching the terminus of Jambandra. Hyness realizes he was unable to retrieve every piece of the Jamba Heart, so he instead sacrifices the Mage-Sisters and himself to awaken the dark god Void Termina, the progenitor of all Dark Matter. Kirby's team battles the god of darkness, making their way inside his body to free the cultists and destroy his heart and soul. With the ultimate force of darkness defeated, all of Kirby's Friends return home to Popstar.
Once the main story is completed, the mode "Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!" is unlocked. This is another speedrun mode, featuring any one of the Friends playing through a version of the main game. Unlike previous similar side modes, the events in Guest Star mode are a canon sequel to the main game. With Void Termina defeated, Hyness attempts to summon one of the ancient heroes who sealed the god away in the first place. Despite falling into Another Dimension, he is successful and Galacta Knight appears to face the heroes. But before he can attack, a mysterious orange butterfly flutters in and absorbs him. Morpho Knight is reborn and attacks the group of Friends. The team successfully defends themselves, and Morpho Knight vanishes into light.
The final story mode, added after a handful of updates, is "Heroes in Another Dimension." Kirby adventures into Another Dimension, putting all of the Dream Friends' abilities to the test. The heroes eventually make their way to Hyness, corrupted by the darkness. The Three Mage-Sisters appear soon after, similarly mindless in pursuit of their leader. Once they are all defeated and cleansed, everyone returns to their home dimension.
The first mainline Kirby entry to be fully 3D. A dimensional portal opens in the sky above Dream Land, sucking all of its inhabitants through to a new world. This dimension was once inhabited by the Ancients, who have left their civilization abandoned and overgrown. In their place the Beast Pack have risen to dominance, who lead the assault on the Dream Landers. The main object of their search is a creature called Elfilin, who asks Kirby for help to drive off the pack and save their prisoners. Kirby and Elfilin travel through the new world, aided by Kirby's new Mouthful Mode to control large objects in his mouth, freeing the captured Waddle Dees who steadily build a town to take refuge in. Kirby eventually finds a feral King Dedede, who manages to capture Elfilin and flee. Kirby gives chase, bringing Dedede back to his senses and venturing into the Lab Discovera. Here he finds the leader of the Beast Pack, Leongar, has been mind controlled by the alien entity Fecto Forgo. Fecto Forgo breaks free of their containment and absorbs many of the beasts, along with Leongar, to chase after Kirby and Elfilin. The amalgam is able to capture Elfilin, restoring them to their original form of Fecto Elfilis. The dimension-warping alien attacks Kirby, intent on universal conquest, but is defeated and Elfilin is forcibly removed from their body again. Fecto Elfilis uses the last of their strength to open a dimensional portal that puts Planet Popstar and the new world on a collision course, but Kirby uses Mouthful Mode to drive a truck into them and Elfilin is able to close the portal between worlds again.
Some time after the main story, the portal between worlds opens again. The Beast Pack's second-in-command Clawroline has been nursing Elfilin back to health, and they need Kirby's help to save Leongar. A rift into the realm of Forgo Dreams has opened up in Waddle Dee Town, and Leongar is trapped somewhere in side. In a similar format to previous side modes, Kirby travels through altered dream versions of the main game's levels. Reaching Leongar at the end of Forgo Dreams, Kirby faces Forgo Soul. But before the alien can attack, they are absorbed by a mysterious orange butterfly and Morpho Knight is reborn. Kirby successfully defeats Morpho Knight and saves Leongar, but Forgo Soul manages to warp away.
Chaos Elfilis flees to Waddle Dee Town's Colosseum, filling it with phantom enemies. Kirby takes on this challenge, defeating Chaos Elfilis and allowing them to merge with Elfilin once more. This time, Elfilin's peaceful personality is in control, and his being is whole.