Kirby Super Star plays like a standard 16-bit era platforming video game. Kirby can go left, right, up, and down on a plane. Throughout each level, Kirby must avoid several obstacles such as environmental hazards or a variety of enemies who mostly have their own attacks. As opposed to previous games in the series' usage of six health capsules, Kirby Super Star features a health meter. When the health meter is emptied, Kirby will lose one life. If he loses all of his lives, the game ends. It is the first Kirby video game that allows Kirby to perform a fairly wide arsenal of attacks with a single copy ability, as opposed to previous games in the Kirby series such as Kirby's Adventure, which only allowed Kirby to do one thing at a time (with the exception of the UFO power). Oddly, Kirby's Dream Land 3(the next Kirby platform game on the SNES) didn't carry on this aspect of the game; rather, it reverted back to the formula of combining animal friends and single purpose powers that was introduced in Kirby's Dream Land 2. The idea of multiple moves for a single power didn't resurface until Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, which still didn't have the range of moves per power that Kirby Super Star had. Kirby Squeak Squad, though, gave some of the abilities a range equal to this game, along with bringing back the health bar,and also giving some of the abilities the power to mix with others as seen in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
Source: wikipedia.com
