Kirby's Fun Pak

First off the bat is the Spring Breeze title. The story behind the title requests Kirby to help the people of Dream Land get there food back that was stolen before everyone starves. The story is as minimal as a few short lines stating the above, unfortunately the game follows suit with minimal content and length. The game features four stages, which took exactly 9 minutes to complete. The length of the game is nearly as poor as the difficulty; never would one expect to defeat an endgame boss in 4 hits, a few seconds and without a scratch.

Graphically the game is well presented with a bright cheerful atmosphere, the characters themselves being also of a cute nature (nothing beats a cute pink blob smashing another cute blob in the face with a stick). The game features fast frantic gameplay fuelled by a large amount of action on the screen at all times and fast paced music, as your pink blobby self you have the ability of sucking up enemies, from there you can either turn the enemies into your partner or use there techniques and powers as Kirby. This system works well adding variation to the gameplay as you find a characters style which you favour for yourself and a partner.

 

After completing the first title so fast I moved onto Gourmet Race which is even simpler than the Spring Breeze, race to the end of the course and beat your time. Alternatively you can race the interesting amount of courses (three in total, outstanding) available against King Dedede both racing for the finish line and obtaining as many food pickups on the way as possible. With the game providing nothing more than walk, double tap walk to run and jump... be prepared for 5 minutes (at best) trying to catch up with a overweight penguin that is once again extremely easy to defeat.

Graphics, sound and presentation is identical to the previous title as well as the same control scheme. There is little more that can be noted about such a short and easy game.

Dynablade follows identical style to Spring Breeze in all aspects but thankfully includes one more stage and more enemies to defeat or consume. Each level provides a slightly more difficult experience requiring a full 20 minutes before I had fully completed all stages and a boss battle that required two attempts to pass. However this is still very little in comparison to other platform games on the same console, and although the title is just one of many to choose from, that is no excuse to provide such short and unfulfilling experiences as these. The more titles I progress through the more I am disappointed knowing the chance of a worthy title is decreasing.

 

The last major title The Great Cave Offensive provides the best experience out of the set requiring you to obtain 60 hidden treasures throughout a world similar to the levels previously, now only continual through endless doors and mazes. The game will no doubt require several runs to obtain all the treasures as often by completing tasks in the incorrect order you can block off treasures ahead. Without this one case the game would feature near to no replay value. Once again as expected the graphics, sound and presentation is identical as before.

The two other minor titles have clearly been thrown in to make the game look like there is a wealth of content provided, when however these two titles especially hold no entertainment whatsoever. Megaton Punch has you pressing a button with good timing for 3 pathetically short easy rounds whereas Samurai Kirby is a matter of pressing one button presented before the opponent. These modes do offer a choice of two players but with what is provided, the game should not be shipped stating the game offers "two player support".

 

There are three additional games that can be unlocked as you complete the original titles. These include Revenge of Meta-Knight, Milky Way Wishes and The Arena. The first two titles follow a similar style as featured in Dynablade and Spring Breeze. Meta-Knight features an additional timed environment and entertaining story with the enemies conversations posted for your entertainment at the bottom of the screen with comedic moments such as "Oh Noes, that's my hidden tomatoes" and "Oh golly gee gosh". Unlike the other titles, Milky Way Wishes has Kirby needing to obtain "Deluxe Ability Pedestals" instead of simply copying abilities from enemies. The new technique allows Kirby to, when in position, change between abilities at will. The final title The Arena works as a time attack endurance challenge where you must survive nineteen rounds against enemies, often multiple. These unlockable titles are a welcome addition to a lacking overall package, Revenge of Meta-Knight being the best of the three.

Overall the game provides short bursts of entertainment value with good clean graphics, great audio quality and track. Unfortunately all titles are extremely short and Kirby Super Star can easily be completed within 1 hour leaving only high scores and time trails as little replay value. The mini-games provided are enjoyable but far too short to provide a worthwhile experience and overall purchase; the game would have been a large improvement if one of the good titles such as Spring Breeze or Meta-Knight was to be a full length title split into well designed levels.