Kirby's Star Stacker (Super Famicom)

Kirby's Star Stacker Japanese box art for Kirby's Star Stacker. Details Developer(s) HAL Laboratory Publisher(s) Nintendo Release date(s) Super Famicom February 1, 1998 (NP) June 25, 1999 (package) Virtual Console (Wii) January 5, 2010 Virtual Console (Wii U) May 8, 2013 Virtual Console (New 3DS) November 28, 2016 SNES: Nintendo Switch Online July 22, 2022 September 5, 2023 September 6, 2023 September 6, 2023 Platform(s) Super Famicom, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U, New Nintendo 3DS), Nintendo Switch (SNES: Nintendo Switch Online) Supported languages Japanese

Game chronology ← Kirby's Dream Land 3 Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards →

On affiliated sites StrategyWiki Walkthrough

This article is about the Super Famicom version. For the Game Boy version, see Kirby's Star Stacker (Game Boy).

Kirby's Star Stacker (originally referred to as Kirby's Super Star Stacker and sometimes transliterated as Kirby no KIRAKIRA KIDS) is a puzzle game of the Kirby series that was released on the Super Famicom in Japan. It was first released in 1998 through the Nintendo Power flash service, but eventually saw a physical release a year later in 1999, being the last Kirby game released on the console. It is an enhanced remake of Kirby's Star Stacker for the Game Boy. It was later ported to the Virtual Console for Wii, Wii U, and New Nintendo 3DS in Japan only, and on Nintendo Switch Online worldwide, with the latter being its first international release (though it is only available in Japanese).

Story

One starry night, an alien creature named Mr. Star zooms past Dream Land. King Dedede spots him in the air and blasts him with a cannon, causing Mr. Star to split into several pieces and fall to the ground. The principal piece of Mr. Star falls on Kirby's head, as he was out stargazing from a teepee. After learning of his predicament, Kirby and his Animal Friends help Mr. Star find his pieces again, each of which is kept by a different denizen of Dream Land.

One-by-one, Kirby and his friends trounce the baddies who were holding Mr. Star's pieces, culminating with King Dedede himself. Once Mr. Star is whole again, he returns back out into space. Shortly after, a witch named Gryll appears from where Mr. Star left to present the final challenge to Kirby.

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  Mr. Star passes by Planet Popstar.

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  King Dedede blasts Mr. Star.

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  Mr. Star hits Kirby's head.

Gameplay

Kirby and Lovely face off in the Story Mode.

Gameplay of the Time Attack mode.

Due to being a remake of the Game Boy original, Kirby's Star Stacker plays largely the same way. The player is given a game board which fills up with various types of blocks that fall from above in a similar manner to Tetris. The main objective is to clear these blocks by lining them up in the correct ways. The main method of doing this is by placing two of the same type of "Friend Block" (resembling Kirby's Animal Friends Rick, Kine, and Coo) in-between one or more Star Blocks. The number of Star Blocks removed then determines how many "stars" Kirby has "stacked", which is the main scoring mechanic in the game. Blocks fall in pairs with random types inset, which can be steered using the Control Pad until they land on the blocks below, whereupon they break apart if one side is still hanging over an empty space. In addition to the above blocks, there are also two other types: Hard Blocks and Bomb Blocks. Hard Blocks can be turned into Star Blocks when sandwiched between two matching Friend Blocks, and placing a Bomb Block between two Friend Blocks will remove all blocks on the same row.

In order to achieve greater numbers of star points, Chains have to be utilized; if destroying a group of blocks leads to a chain reaction of other groups being destroyed, this counts as a Chain. Every Chain that is achieved causes a group of stars to fall into gaps between blocks and be added to the star point counter, their number starting at two but increasing with each Chain, up to a maximum of twelve. If these stars end up sandwiched between Friend Blocks when they land, they turn into Star Blocks, causing another group of blocks to be destroyed and the combo to continue; stars that land in positions where it would not be beneficial for them to transform into blocks simply disappear.

Depending on the game mode being played, there may be additional rules and conditions, but generally speaking, the player can continue to place down blocks so long as the two middlemost columns are still open at the top, and new rows of blocks will continually appear from below, pushing the others up. If either of the two middlemost columns reaches all the way to the top of the screen, the game is over.

Modes

The games modes menu.

In the game there are 5 modes, as follows:

• Challenge - An endless mode in which the objective is to gain as many stars as possible before the middle stack of blocks touches the top of the screen. The player can choose between four difficulties: Normal, Hard, Super Hard, and Insane. Insane is unlocked by stacking 1000 stars or more in any of the lower difficulties. No matter which difficulty is selected, as the player progresses, blocks start to appear faster and the music changes. Unlike the Game Boy version, the mode automatically ends if the player hits the maximum score of 9999.
• Round Clear - This mode involves completing multiple rounds, by collecting a set number of Stars. Much like Challenge Mode, there are four difficulties to be selected: Normal, Hard, Super Hard and Insane. Insane can only be played after clearing the previous three difficulties. In this mode, King Dedede sits on the right side of the screen and is responsible for making the new block rows appear. The objective is to reduce his "HP" to zero in each round by stacking stars.
• Story - The main mode of the game, pitting Kirby against a preset number of opponents with specific difficulty levels. The objective is to force the opponent's board to fill up before the player's does. When either the player or the opponent scores chains, the corresponding character will attack the other's character, which has the effect of making more block rows appear on the other's board.
• VS - A multiplayer mode for two players. Similar in gameplay to Story Mode, but with two human players competing. In this mode, players can choose between playing a single round, a best-two-out-of-three, or a best-three-out-of-five. Each player can choose their own difficulty out of Normal, Hard, Super Hard, and Insane, the last of which is unlocked by winning 30 matches. Players can also choose to play as Kirby or any of the opponents in Story Mode, with Gryll being available after beating them in Story Mode, though this is merely cosmetic.
• Time Attack - As many Stars as possible must be collected within a 3-minute time limit. Like in the other modes, the player can choose between the four difficulties Normal, Hard, Super Hard, and Insane. Insane is unlocked by stacking 150 stars or more in any of the lower difficulties. In this mode, Tick-Tock Jr. sits on the right side of the screen and is responsible for making the new block rows appear.

Story Mode details

The Story mode stages are accessible from a map.

Story Mode is the most prominent new feature in this game when compared to the Game Boy original. In this mode, Kirby faces off against an opponent, and they each get their own separate board to drop blocks in. The goal here is to prevent Kirby's board from filling up, while also causing the opponent's board to fill. To that end, the player will need to systematically remove blocks from the board as they fall down by lining them up correctly. This can be done by having an unbroken line of Star Blocks in-between two Animal Friend blocks of the same type, or by simply lining up two of the same type of Animal Friend together. If a large number of blocks are removed at once and/or a chain of block removals is caused, Kirby will be able to cause his opponent's board to start filling with blocks from the bottom-up, and vice versa.

There are two difficulty modes for Story Mode, those being "Amateur" and "Professional". The difficulty chosen determines the speed and skill level of the CPU opponents. There are a total of eight opponents to face in the Story Mode, which are fought in sequence. The last of these - Gryll - can only be faced if all prior opponents were defeated without losing a single time. The official web guide for the game makes it a point to mention that if the player prematurely pauses a given round in order to restart, that will not count as a loss.

Opponents

The following are details on each opponent in the Story Mode:

Opponents in Kirby's Star Stacker
Opponent	Difficulty	Notes
Waddle Dee	Normal (both difficulties)	Waddle Dee attacks Kirby using a parasol when getting chains. The board layout starts out with all three bottom rows filled with Star Blocks, with the bottommost rows being Friend Blocks.
Poppy Bros. Jr.	Normal (both difficulties)	Poppy Bros. Jr. throws bombs at Kirby when getting chains. The board layout is rather similar to that of Waddle Dee's but with three more Star Blocks added to the rightmost three lanes.
Lovely	Normal (Amateur) Hard (Professional)	Lovely attacks Kirby by hitting him with her head when getting chains. The board layout starts off in a staircase-based pattern.
Knuckle Joe	Hard (both difficulties)	Knuckle Joe attacks Kirby by kicking him when getting chains. The board layout starts off similarly to Poppy Bros. Jr. but there are more blocks within the leftmost columns. This round introduces Bomb Blocks, which can occassionally spawn from new rows when attacked.
Chef Kawasaki	Hard (Amateur) Super Hard (Professional)	Chef Kawasaki attacks Kirby using his frying pan when getting chains. This round introduces Hard Blocks, with a few in the starting layout.
Meta Knight	Super Hard (both difficulties)	Meta Knight attacks Kirby using his sword when getting chains. The board layout is more complex with more Hard Blocks within the initial layout.
King Dedede	Super Hard (Amateur) Insane (Professional)	King Dedede attacks Kirby using his hammer when getting chains. This round features a great deal of Hard Blocks, especially at the start. Completing this round triggers the end credits.
Gryll	Super Hard (Amateur) Insane (Professional)	Gryll attacks Kirby using a broomstick when getting chains. This round features a great deal of Hard Blocks, especially at the start. It can only be played after the credits if all previous rounds were cleared without a loss.

Staff

The following is a list of staff who have worked on the Super Famicom version of Kirby's Star Stacker:

Staff of the Super Famicom version of Kirby's Star Stacker
Position	Developer(s)
Director	Hitoshi Yamagami
Chief Programmer	Katsuhiro Sakoda
Programmer	Yasuyuki Nagashima Hiroaki Suga
Chief Designer	Kazu Ozawa
Designer	Shigeru Hashiguchi Michiko Takahashi Shinya Sano Tadashi Hashigura
Sound Composer	Jun Ishikawa Hirokazu Ando
Illustrator	Tetsuya Notoya
Special Thanks	Satoshi Ishida Chieko Obikawa Takahiro Harata Super Mario Club HAL Debug Team Ryuki Karaoka
Producer	Hiroaki Suga
Chief Producer	Satoru Iwata
General Manager	Takehiro Izushi
Executive Producer	Hiroshi Yamauchi
NINTENDO HAL Laboratory, INC.

Nintendo Switch Online description

Join Kirby as he stacks the falling stars with help from his friends!

Watch out for King Dedede. He is out to stop you! With a few quick moves and some well-timed strategy, you can quickly outwit him and move on to the next challenging level with a little help from Rick, Kine, and Coo, who look like a hamster, fish, and owl, respectively. Blocks rain down from above while whole lines appear from below with relentless regularity. Simply sandwich the stars between Kirby's pals, and you'll soon be on your way to earning a high score in pure puzzle fun!

(This is a modified version of the description used for the Game Boy version on the Nintendo eShop and My Nintendo Store, with a few lines adjusted. Most notably, "Rick the Hamster, Kine the Sunfish, and Coo the Owl" was altered to "Rick, Kine, and Coo, who look like a hamster, fish, and owl, respectively," which matches a similar change made to the Nintendo Switch Online description of Kirby's Dream Land 2.)

Trivia

• When Kirby thwacks his opponents in Story or VS Mode, he does so with the Love-Love Stick.
• Though the game had not been released outside of Japan and small parts of Asia until September 2023, it was nonetheless referenced several times in games that were released internationally before then.
  • Mr. Star, Tick-Tock Jr., and Gryll appear as stickers in Kirby: Planet Robobot, and as Character Treats in Kirby's Dream Buffet, using their artwork from this game. Gryll also appears as a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (again using artwork from this game), as well as appearing in a Stone transformation and a Celebration Picture in Kirby Star Allies.
  • Two music tracks in this game were re-used in the extra stages of Kirby: Planet Robobot, while Gryll's theme reappears in Kirby Star Allies. A remixed medley of Chef Kawasaki's theme and Gryll's theme from this game is one of the Battle Royale themes in Kirby's Dream Buffet.
• In 1998, a game titled Kirby's Super Star Stacker was listed on a page of upcoming SNES releases on Nintendo's American website, suggesting that an international release may have been planned at that point in time.
  • Current English sources—such as Kirby: Planet Robobot, Kirby Art & Style Collection, Kirby's Dream Buffet, and Nintendo Switch Online—refer to the game simply as Kirby's Star Stacker, the same as the Game Boy game. This is because both versions of the game have the same name in Japanese. The official English HAL Laboratory website refers to it as Kirby no KIRAKIRA KIDS, a literal transliteration of its Japanese name.

Gallery

Main article: Kirby's Star Stacker (Super Famicom)/gallery

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  Logo

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  Back of the boxart

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  Title screen

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  Alternate title screen

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	カービィのきらきらきっず Kābyi no Kirakira Kizzu	Kirby's Sparkling Kids
Chinese	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
Dutch	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
French	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
German	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
Italian	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
Korean	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
Portuguese	Kirby's Star Stacker	-
Spanish	Kirby's Star Stacker	-

External links

• Official Japanese website
• Kirby's Star Stacker (Super Famicom) on Kirby Informer