Kirby Super Star Ultra

Kirby Super Star Ultra
Also known as: Hoshi no Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe (JP) Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: November 6, 2008 Released in US: September 22, 2008 Released in EU: September 18, 2009 Released in AU: November 27, 2008 Released in KR: November 13, 2008 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a bugs page

Kirby Super Star Ultra is a remake of Kirby Super Star, with improved graphics and new Sub-Games.

To do: Find a cheat code to get into the debug room. Document the USA kiosk demo and Korean version

Sub-Pages

Bugs

Unused Rooms

There are at least four unused rooms in this game.

Room 70

This "room" consists of nothing but some garbage data... and water. It has no background, and the music that plays is a track used in "Gourmet Race" Stage 1. The room's ID is between Trial Room #2 of "Dyna Blade" and the first level of "Gourmet Race".

Room 74

A leftover from Kirby Super Star. Decorations got changed, but the general layout is mostly the same as before. It was supposed to act as an ending sequence to The Great Cave Offensive, just like it does in the original game, but Ultra uses a cutscene to accomplish this. This room has no background, unlike the original game, but the music that plays there didn't get changed. Judging by the room's ID, it's placed right before the intro room in The Great Cave Offensive.

Room 197

This room, just like the previous one, is a leftover from the original game. It actually has a background this time!... but not music. In the original game, this room acts as a cutscene in "Revenge of Meta Knight" when Kirby becomes a Wheelie Rider, but this game uses a cutscene to accomplish this. Judging by the room's ID, it's placed right after the Meta Knight battle and before the Halberd escape sequence.

These two rooms might have been used before the cutscenes were made.

Debug Room (Room 547)

This room was created most likely to test various terrains Kirby can encounter within the game, including sloped tiles, switch platforms, a cannon, bomb blocks, and water currents. And, you probably guessed it, this room has no background, and the music that plays here is a track used in "Spring Breeze" Stage 1! It's also worth noting that this room is the last room in the game, judging by its ID, and for some reason all 3 tutorial rooms are placed right before it, with the IDs of 544, 545, and 546 respectively.

The doors are fully functional - if Kirby enters the first door near the starting point, he exits from another one in a slope area; if Kirby enters the second door, he exits from nothing in an area with transparent star blocks; if Kirby enters the third door, he exits from another one near a water current room. All doors near these areas, including the one on the top-right, will lead Kirby back to the starting point if entered.

The cannon is actually fake - it doesn't take you anywhere! Instead it just self-destructs. These types of cannons are seen in some areas in the retail game.

(Source: h2643)

Unused Level Features

Green Greens Room 1

In the first stage of Spring Breeze, Green Greens, there's an entrance coded (marked pink in the screenshot) nearby a Warp Star that can't be entered in normal play. Through hacking you can enter it.

The entrance leads to the room that you'd normally get to by riding on said Warp Star. The developers most likely put it there for testing purposes before the Warp Star sprite was finished - even judging by the room's ID (1), it's safe to say this is the first level made for the game!

This entrance is also present in the Metaknightmare Ultra version, which serves the exact same purpose.

Halberd Stage 6

After Kirby destroys the Halberd's left wing and flies back to the ship, he lands in a room where he has to enter a giant hole in the wall behind to progress.

There are 9 entrances, but only the first two rows from below can be entered (marked green). The highest row is intentionally set to not be enterable (marked pink), as it probably would be weird seeing Kirby enter a wall. Entrances marked pink warp Kirby to the exact same location as the enterable ones, if entered.

Said entrances are also present in the Metaknightmare Ultra version, which serve the exact same purpose.

Tutorial Rooms

Each tutorial room (except for one in The Great Cave Offensive, the tutorial there takes place in a cave) have a trigger (marked pink in the screenshot) that change the tile it's on to one of the unseen ceiling tiles mentioned in the section below... for some odd reason.

Because the trigger never actually triggers, you can't see both the trigger and an unseen tile in action. The tutorial rooms are located in The True Arena.

(Source: h2643)

Unused Level Tiles

All Tilesets

Every single tileset in the game has at least one dummy tile, which almost always acts randomly. One time it can spawn wind effect, other times it can act as another tile, or just be a decoration. It doesn't have a specific graphic, either - it grabs random pieces from the tileset's tiles and puts them together.

Tutorial Rooms

All tutorial rooms (except for one in The Great Cave Offensive, again) have unseen ceiling tiles at the top. Because the camera is locked in place, it's impossible to see them normally. There are a whole 12 tiles that go unseen because of this.

Halberd

For some reason, most if not all tilesets used for the Halberd, including the version in Milky Way Wishes, have weird unused tiles. Not only do they look weird, they have many, many duplicates of each other spread all over the tilesets!

Twin Woods Arenas

Same thing here: almost every battle against Twin Woods uses tilesets that have many duplicates of this one tile, which consists of just 9 small white crosses. (Black background added for visibility, actual tile background color is transparent.)

Revenge of Meta Knight Island's Cave

And here. There's an unused weird yellow tile in the tileset that has many duplicates of itself.

Fatty Whale Arena

...and here. There's an unused tile that only exists in Metaknightmare Ultra's version of the Fatty Whale boss room in The Great Cave Offensive.

Marx Soul's Arena

The tileset used in the secret final boss arena has some unfitting tiles, including wind tiles and a water tile. This time the developers didn't make graphics for them.

There are many tiles like this in other tilesets.

Debug Room

Full Debug Room map.

Even though the tileset for the debug room is unique, it actually has a lot of unused tiles too, unsurprisingly. The picture on the left shows what the unused tiles are, and the picture on the right shows what tiles are actually used in the debug room.

(Source: h2643)

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	America	Europe	Korea

The Press Start text has a translation into katakana above it that was removed outside of Japan. The European version (curiously not retitled "Kirby's Fun Pak Ultra") changes the copyright date from 1996-2008 to 1996-2009, which also applies to the subgames.

Food

Like Kirby Super Star, the differences in the food items between the Japanese and international versions are retained in this game.

Dive Bomb Glitch

In the Japanese version it is possible to perform a glitch that lets you fly upwards or downwards at tremendous speed, after doing a Dive Bomb and canceling when near an object that puts you in a large amount of hitstun. This glitch does not work on the international versions.

More info on this glitch can be found here.

The Great Cave Offensive

The international versions add a Sir Kibble to the room where you can find the Bandana and Seasons Heart treasures. Since the Cutter ability is required to collect the latter, this addition significantly cuts down on the backtracking required if the player enters the room without the ability.

Japan	International

Revenge of Meta Knight

America	Europe
My flying fortress, the Halberd, will now rule over all of Dream Land.	Our flying fortress, the Halberd, will now rule over all of Dream Land.

One of Captain Vul's lines in Chapter 2 was slightly changed in the European version, making him seem less egotistical. Since Japanese is a pro-drop language, both lines are valid translations of the original script, though the American version is closer to the original Super Star translation ("I'll conquer Dream Land with the Halberd!")

Revenge of the King

In the Japanese version, the last two stages have altered names.

Japan	International
STAGE 4　THE SKY OVER Mt. DEDEDE	STAGE 4　MT. DEDEDE SKY
LAST STAGE　REVENGE OF DEDEDE	FINAL STAGE　THE REVENGE

Meta Knightmare Ultra

In the Japanese version, Meta Knight can use his abilities in save rooms. His abilities are disabled in save rooms in all other versions.

(Source: Sample)

Samurai Kirby

In the South Korean version, various changes are made to remove references to Japanese culture. This is owed to the fact that the Korean peninsula was occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1910 to 1945, with the colonial era's policies of cultural erasure resulting in lasting anti-Japanese sentiment in Korean society and a nearly 60-year ban on Japanese cultural imports. Most parts of the ban were lifted by 2004, but some remain in place. Some of the changes made include the following:

International	South Korea

Kirby and his opponents are redesigned to use their base designs rather than the feudal Japanese getups seen in all other regions. This also extends to the close-ups that appear at the start of every match. Since Kirby, Wheelie, and Dedede's outfits are not visible in the original sprites, they go unchanged.

International	South Korea

The scrolls that appear on screen to show the results of a match are directly modified to replace the Japanese text with a Korean translation, rather than using subtitles like other international versions.

Internal Project Name

According to the game's sound archive, the project's internal name is "sdx plus". Various songs are also headed with "DDX". Both names derive from proposed subtitles for the remake (スーパーデラックス"プラス" Super Deluxe Plus and スーパーデラックス・デラックス Super Deluxe Deluxe); the original Kirby Super Star was "Kirby Super Deluxe" in Japanese, and the remake's final Japanese name is "Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe".

(Source: Nintendo Online Magazine)