This is an interesting case: In 1998, two years after the Nintendo 64 was released in Japan, Nintendo created a remake of Kirby's Star Stacker for the SNES, originally a Gameboy game from 1997, which means it was just a year old at that point. The game was, and still is, exclusive to Japan, probably because Nintendo realized it wasn't worth spending money translating and releasing overseas a product in a console that was falling into obscurity in the midst of the war between the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

However, thanks to preservationists and fans that use their skills to do translations, people all around the world can play AND understand this game without learning a complex language or spending hundred of dollars importing a console just to circumvent the region lock and buy this in the Virtual Console from Wii U/3Ds, which will be closed in 2023, meaning that the only way to get this legally after 2023 is getting the original Super Famicom cartridge, as it isn't available in the SNES Online service of Nintendo Switch even in Japan.

Thanks to Romhacking I was able to enjoy the game without knowing Japanese.

And it's a shame that this game is so hard to get, as it is actually pretty fun and a huge improvement over the original Gameboy version. Not only you have the obvious graphical improvement, but a new Story Mode with funny cutscenes, a much more enjoyable Round Clear mode, with a better difficulty curve that avoids the main problem of the original mode (the first 50 levels being extremely easy and the rest of them extremely hard and frustrating), and even the soundtrack is catchy and memorable, especially the King Dedede theme, which was later remixed in Kirby Super Star Ultra.

Of course, the main gameplay is still the same: You have to connect Animal Friends in order to get stars while avoiding getting the middle rows filled, similar to Tetris and Dr. Mario, but the main difference is the level design and presentation: The art style is as charming as it was in Kirby's Dream Land 3, completing levels get you nice illustrations with themes that you wouldn't expect from a Nintendo game, like Kirby and the Animal Friends drinking in a bar; and the levels are a lot more entertaining, as there are considerably less cases where you can complete them in a single combo, or get stuck in one for hours.

My only complaint is that some of the final levels in the Round Clear mode can feel unfair, as you have to be perfect at the same time that blocks fall so fast that you can't even move them in the row you want, and if you lose in the final boss of the Story Mode you have to defeat the penultimate level again just to try again, something that feels like a waste of time, but at least you can use Save States to avoid that if you are playing on the Virtual Console or through emulation.

In conclusion, this is easily one of the best Kirby spin-offs ever released, full of charm and fun modes that surpass the original Gameboy version in every aspect, so it's a shame you can only get it legally in Japan or spending large amounts of money in imported products. Thankfully we have preservationists and skilled fans that keep these hidden gems available for everybody!

Tenth Kirby game ever released and the sixth spin-off the franchise, this is also the last time Kirby was on the first Game Boy console, as later games were released for the Game Boy Color or the Game Boy Advance. This time, Hal Laboratory created an interesting and unique puzzle with Kirby's Star Stacker.

The gameplay is a twist on games such as Puyo Puyo or Tetris, as you have to connect at least two blocks of the same type (based on the Animal Friends from Kirby's Dream Land 2) in order to delete them, but you also have the star blocks, which can help to connect two blocks even if there is a gap between them. On later levels and difficulties there are also bombs and steel blocks that add more variety to the multiple modes you can play.

These modes are Round clear, where you have to stack a set number of Stars in order to defeat the levels and the closest thing to a Story Mode, Vs. mode, where you play against another player via the Game Link Cable until one of you get a game over, Time Attack, where you stack as many Stars as possible under a three minutes limit, with each difficulty being faster than the previous one, and Challenge, which works the same way, except there isn't a time limit.

Also, it's worth mentioning that in Round clear and Challenge you unlock a cute illustration if you manage to complete a difficulty or get a high score, which is pretty much the only incentive to do it.

I say it's the only incentive to do it because, to be honest, I didn't find the game fun. The difficulty modes are extremely unbalanced, so much that in the default ones (Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Super Hard) you don't have to make an effort, as the game itself sometimes tells you where to put a block if you want to get a really long combo that will complete the level as soon as it starts, but in the Insane mode, that you unlock completing the other ones, is the total opposite, as most levels start with the screen almost full, meaning that a single mistake will make you lose, but sometimes the blocks the game gives you are so useless that you can't do anything with them, except trying the level again.

This is also a really long game, with a total of 106 levels just on the Round Clear mode, but the gameplay gets boring after a while, and if you get stuck in a really hard level during the insane mode, which includes 50 of the 106 levels, you will probably be more frustrated than amused, something that you wouldn't expect from a Kirby game. By the way, the other modes don't add anything substancial to the gameplay, so after completing Round clear I doubt you'll want to try them, unless you really liked the game, which is understandable.

In conclusion, this is my least favorite Kirby videogame for the moment, but I wouldn't call it a bad game, as the gameplay can be entertaining in small dosis, it is satisfying completing a level where you were stuck for hours and some people will enjoy trying to get high scores in Time attack and Challenge, so I definitely recommend playing it if you like games like Tetris, Puyo Puyo or Dr. Mario.

This review consists of the Game Boy version of Kirby's Star Stacker!

Kirby's Star Stacker is an intriguing concept, a fun little puzzle game that sells itself off the brand of its titular pink puffball. While the idea is sound, the stage/difficulty execution is all over the place and makes it a little difficult to enjoy.

The game is plotless (no story here!) and consists of falling pairs blocks that usually consist of star blocks, Kirby's friends (Rick the hamster, Coo the owl, Kine the fish) and some special blocks such as bombs and tougher blocks. When matching a pair of matching friend blocks with stars sandwiched in between, the player is able to score points. When the blocks reach the top of the middle two columns the game is over, so some careful rotating and matching has to be done to make sure the game doesn't reach that point.

There are a handful of difficulty modes - a vs mode, an endless challenge mode for score, a time attack mode, and set stages where the player must get a certain number of stars on a set layout. The main meat of the game is in those set stages, which vary from very easy (to the point where the game will show you the answer instead of let you figure it out, which is kind of annoying) to insanely difficult where fifty stages of fast and cramped block falling will demand the player spend several minutes attempting to get hundreds of stars.

There are some interesting, even puzzle-like layouts within the game and getting the hang of rotating blocks in a tough situation to line up combos for additional stars can be satisfying. As the stages get more fiendish there are even desperate tactics that come in handy like intentionally stacking blocks above the top screen so only one ends up falling and letting columns outside the middle stack higher. That said, I could never get a handle on when blocks would start falling really fast and given the Gameboy's small screen estate there were a lot of instances where blocks would fall too fast for me to be able to put them into place in tight spots. The star requirements for a lot of the latter stages also involve clearing dozens more stars even after the initial layout is cleared, which can make stages feel like a slog.

That said, Kirby's Star Stacker has some potential for greatness, even if the limitations of the device and the questionable difficulty curve can make this tough to love. Here's hoping the SNES remake does a little better!