The Sun and Moon around Popstar are fighting. Kirby must travel to various planets and defeat the bosses there to reach NOVA, a giant machine, hoping that he will stop the fighting.
Unlike the other platform games, Kirby can't copy the abilities of enemies he inhales (except for the limited-use abilities, like Crash or Cook); instead, he collects "Deluxe Ability Pedestals." These are items with abilities on them that, once in Kirby's possession, can be recalled at will.
The abilities that can be found are:
Before you go anywhere, head for the little yellow/greenish star next to what looks like a meteor.
You’ll see plenty of TACs in this place. Continue right. Enter the door and continue right. Puff up immediately before you enter the door to avoid losing a life. Now you can enter the door. You’ll see the Copy ability’s Copy Essence Deluxe. Grab it and hitch a ride on the Warp Star.
(The "meteor" is Cavious, and you can go here anytime, although it is easy to miss because it is so small.)
This stage is very odd. Most of the doors in the first part change the seasons, either making it harder or easier to go on in the level. Head in the Seasonal Door until it’s Winter and head left back to the beginning. Enter the hidden door for the Ice ability. Head back to the Seasonal Door and keep reentering until it’s Fall. Head left, and half the tree blocking your path will be gone. Continue right until you reach a pond with another Seasonal Door. Head in until it’s Winter. Use the ice ability to break the ice and enter the door underneath. You’ll find the Fighter ability.
Exit, and head right. You’ll come across a frozen waterfall. Break it with a fighter punch and continue right. Go past the tree and enter until it’s Summer. Head left into the tree and pick up the Cutter ability. Head right to another Seasonal Door. Enter once and come out in Fall. Go to the other side of the tree and enter the boss door.
Most of the attacks are the same as Whispy’s. There is an attack where the twins will have parts of their trunk fly from one twin to the other, and Worm thingies come down with the apples. After you kill the first twin, the other one will start spinning around, and Gordos, worms, and a ton of apples will fall down on you. Both range and Melee attacks are good on these two. Grab the Planet’s star and get moving.
Enter the door. Continue right until you see two glunks and three Bomb blocks. Blow the middle one, go down past the Gordo and blow that bomb block. Continue right. In a pool next a Sir Kibble is a bomb block. Blow it for a secret door. Inside is the Parasol power. Exit, and continue right. You’ll come across a fuse. Unfortunately you don’t have a power that can light it yet, so you'll have to come back later.
Enter the door. You’ll show up in a pool with a lot of air pockets. Continue right, and avoid the Gordo moving up and down. Along the way there’ll be a drop. Continue left. Also, you’ll come across an upwards shaft. Puff up to make quick work of it. Enter the door and head for the platform in the middle of the room. Enter the door on that platform. Continue right. You’ll find a bunch of blocks that implode when you attack them. Continue left and you’ll fight another boss.
Jukid’ll try to grab you, stomp on you, shoot energy balls at you, but shouldn’t be much trouble. Finish off Jukid for the Sword power.
Exit the way you came in. Go down to the right and you’ll find the door to the next room. Go down, down, and up to find the beam ability. Enter the door and go down, down, and down. Climb into the room but do not enter the door. Go right. Climb up the next room. Go right into the food. Go down, right then up. If you see a hallway, then you’ve done it. Go all the way to the right, and enter the door.
A large, red whale with a pipe in his mouth and a lucky red handkerchief. His main attacks are somewhat centered on moving back and forth on the platforms in different ways, once as a saw, once as a spinning jump sort of thing, and sometimes faced towards the wall, using his blowhole to drop debris. He’ll also jump back and forth from side to side. Sometimes he’ll jump from the background at the dock, creating a gigantic Tidal wave and sending a bunch of rock debris down from the ceiling. Range attacks work better on him mainly because he’s always on the move. Grab the star and head to the galaxy map.
A second version of this boss appears later on in The Great Cave Offensive, palette-swapped with a blue scheme.
Enter the door. Head right. Once you get to a windy part, you’ll see a star block and a passage upward. Use the Fighter ability’s up B power to enter the door in the passage. Grab the Jet ability. Exit, go down and continue right. When you see a fuse, Turn away from it, charge up your Jet, turn around so the business end is facing the fuse and let go. The fuse will light and Kirby will propel forward, killing the Chilly. Quickly as possible, enter the cannon.
You’ll end up in the Wheel ability’s room. Grab it, exit and continue right. Enter the door. You’ll now go through a series of rooms with three doors in them. Ignore the poppy Bros. Senior you may see and just enter the doors. Enter the left one first. Enter the next left one. Ignore the Poppy Bros and enter the door on the right. Enter the door in the middle. Grab the Wing ability. Exit, go right. Go to the middle, duck down, and grab the Invincibility Lollipop. Go right, and to the middle. You’ll face a familiar cloud with a gigantic eyeball.
Either Kracko Jr.’s dad as the name implies, or an angry souped up Kracko Jr. His attacks include dropping rain on you, using two beams that swirl around him, dropping Waddle Doos, and swooping around. He’ll also swoop close to the ground and use a lightning attack. Whenever he drops a Waddle Doo, that’s a chance to use the sword thrust move. Use both Range and Melee attacks on this boss. Grab the star.
Now that you have Jet, backtrack to Aquarius and light the fuse connected to the cannon.
Go down, and then right, puff along slowly to avoid burns. Continue up and allow the cannon to shoot you away. Go back slightly and blow the Bomb block. Go up and grab the Invincibility Lollipop. Go down to the new lava stream, and enter. Your invincible body will let you climb up and enter the door. Go up the shaft and enter the door. Grab the Fire ability, then enter the door. Go right, then enter the door. You’ll appear in a mine cart hallway. Go right until you see some breakable blocks in the ceiling. Use your Wing ability to simply fly through them. Enter the door for a boss.
A beetle with an attitude. When its jaws are facing outwards, that means he’s going to try to grab you. Avoid those. He’ll also make some babies appear in midair and try to have them attack you. He also tries to fly and land on you. Range attacks are more effective on him, since he’s always moving.
Kill him, grab the Suplex ability, and leave. Go right and enter the door. Go to the right. Enter the cannon and let it shoot you to the boss door.
You fought this boss once before. It’s the boss of the Old Tower in the Great Cave Offensive. It will try to roll over you like Phan-Phan, swallow you, and spit you at a wall. It’ll also attach itself to the wall, turn invisible, and either attack you with its claws or spit three paintballs into the air. Switch to Copy and analyse the balls for the paint ability. Use it to make Chameleo Arm not able to turn invisible anymore. Kick his butt with Range attacks.
Grab the Star for the end of this level.
Enter the door. You’ll end up in a big room with lots of passageways. You’ll also fight a lot of bosses in this room. Go right, descend, go right, ascend, go right, fight Chef Kawasaki.
An orange guy with an apron and a chef’s hat. An easy enough boss. Usually tries to either jump on you, or throw plates at you. Occasionally, he’ll grab you with a pan and try to cook you. When you see a pan in his hand, float to the top of the screen. Since he rarely moves, both Range and Melee attacks are good on him.
Go right, fight Poppy Bros. Senior.
He’ll occasionally throw bombs at you and jump about on his oversized feet. When he jumps backward, that means he’s going to jump forward, so either get out of the way or duck. He’ll also slide tackle you, so jump over him when he tries that.
Grab the Bomb ability, go right, go down, go left, go down, go right, go down, go right, fight Bonkers.
Bonkers looks like a pink chipmunk kind of thing with a big hammer. His attacks include the usual mindless mini boss jumping, and attacking you with his hammer. Occasionally, he’ll throw those annoying explosive nut things at you. Avoid those. Use Melee attacks, because Bonkers likes to stay still and plan out his attacks.
Grab the Hammer ability, slap the stump, get the life, move right. Go down, go all the way to the left.
A beetle with an attitude. When its jaws are facing outwards, that means he’s going to try to grab you. Avoid those. He’ll also make some babies appear in midair and try to have them attack you. He also tries to fly and land on you. Range attacks are more effective on him, since he’s always moving.
Enter the door. Go up to the top of the room, blow up the Bomb Block, go all the way up. Detonate the switch and follow the waterfall all the way to the bottom right. Enter the door and grab the Stone ability. Exit, grab the Invincibility Lollipop if necessary, and go up and to the right. Descend twice and enter the Boss Door.
Do you remember the boss of the Garden area in The Great Cave Offensive? He’ll attack in many different ways using one of his hands. He’ll try pounding, slamming, he’ll also try to grab you and squeeze you. Whenever he comes out pointing at the wall opposite of him, that means he’s going to drop rocks. He’ll also drop the little rocks that make up his hands. Since he’s always moving his hands, you’ll want to use Range attacks. It will take forever to kill him. Trying melee attacks will be ineffective, so don’t try it. He's now a pushover if you use the Hammer ability ( + ).
Grab the star and return to the map.
Enter the door. Go right until you see a Bomb block. Detonate it, and break the breakable block. Grab the life, exit, and go right. Enter the cannon, and puff after you hit the wall. Detonate the bomb block and enter the door. Go right, but stay upwards. Enter the door in the windy passage. Now, you're going to cheat a little. A shaft with an updraft is on the left side, and an elevator shaft is on the right going downwards past a couple Gims. Pick the Stone ability out of all your abilities, and use it right above the left shaft. You’ll fall all the way down.
Enter the door and grab the Yo-Yo ability. Exit, and let the left shaft carry you back up. Exit, go right, and down, and continue right. Go up the passageway and switch to the Wing ability. Stand at the beginning of the shaft and shoot a feather at the bottom switch. Head up, run over the above switch, run, hit the bottom switch with the feather, go up, and keep running. Enter the door. Head for the elevator. Ascend all the way to the top. Head left and fight a boss.
Iron Mam has very basic attacks. She’ll either try to slam her round fists into you, or slam her tiny body into you. Sometimes she’ll try to grab you. Melee attacks work the best on this boss, mainly because it stays still so much.
Grab the Plasma ability and head right. Charge all the way up, and let fly at the Bomb block. Grab the lives and head back to the elevator. Descend one level, and head right, where you’ll face another Bonkers.
After you’ve killed Bonkers (again), enter the boss door.
Select controller:
Heavy Lobster likes to leap around a lot. He’ll also try to ram into you with a running attack. He’ll also make a miniature Heavy Lobster that will slam into you and blow up. When his claw opens up, he’ll either make one of those mini Heavy Lobster, or he’ll make a little blob of paint, or he’ll shoot out a gigantic ray of fire. When he ducks and a couple puffs of smoke come out, he’ll try to ram at you at high speed.
Puff up to the top to avoid that. Get rid of your ability and swallow the paint thing to get the special Paint ability (which would have been a decent ability in Canvas Curse) and use it on Heavy Lobster. A decent amount of damage will come out of him, along with a palette change. In addition to this, you will 'blind' it, causing it's attacks to become more erratic (since it can't 'see' you, it doesn't always aim attacks at you and it tends to walk backwards a lot). This can be helpful, though it also makes it harder to judge what he will do next. Afterwards, just spit the mini Lobsters back at him. Hold down until Kirby ducks, and you’ll shoot out a big beam.
After you’ve made scrap metal of Heavy Lobster, grab the star.
Enter the door, and head right, until you see a Warp Star. Break the blocks next to it and grab the Warp Star. You’ll bypass a decent portion of the room. Enter the door. Grab a mine cart and go all the way until you reach a wall. Go up, then go right until you see a Star block. Break it, and enter a door. Grab the Mirror ability. Exit, and go all the way to the right. Enter and grab the Warp Star. On the way you’ll see a life. That’s a reward for doing the last perilous section on foot. You shouldn’t need it, because if you did everything in the guide, you should only need one more ability, and have around nine lives or so.
An orange guy with an apron and a chef’s hat. An easy enough boss. Usually tries to either jump on you, or throw plates at you. Occasionally, he’ll grab you with a pan and try to cook you. When you see a pan in his hand, float to the top of the screen. Since he rarely moves, both Range and Melee attacks are good on him.
Iron Mam has very basic attacks. She’ll either try to slam her round fists into you, or slam her tiny body into you. Sometimes she’ll try to grab you. Melee attacks work the best on this boss, mainly because it stays still so much.
After you’ve taken care of those two, enter the door and ascend. Around the middle, you’ll see a bomb block and a door. You know what to do. Grab the Ninja ability. Exit, and ascend to the boss door.
A bit different than the last fight in the G.C.O. There are new mini bosses this time.
You can use either of the following strategies against all three:
Grab the star. It’s time to go talk to the comet.
Kirby spreads out the stars and the comet is summoned. Kirby is about to tell the comet to do something about the sun and moon when the clown guy from the beginning of the mode swoops in. Marx had tricked you into summoning the comet so he could control Pop Star. The comet has no choice but to help him. Marx transforms. His eyes grow Buggy, and he grows two odd looking wing things. The new dictator of Pop Star flies to his newly controlled planet. Nova follows to give him further assistance. Kirby, helpless and stranded in space sees the stars he rescued earlier transform into a Starship. Kirby gives chase, being the only one to stop Marx’s mad plan.
Fly over to Nova, who is being buffered by the Sun and Moon. Apparently they made up while you were in space. Enter Nova.
You’ll now control a Gradius sort of mini-game. Press any button to shoot stars at incoming fighters. Keep going until the screen changes.
The boss of this minigame. Shoot the little reactor looking things and they’ll blow up. There are about 6. After you’ve killed about half of them, Nova will get smart and run the columns in reverse. Not much a problem. Predict when the reactors show up and you’ll be finished in no time.
Kirby will fly out of Nova and head towards his once free planet.
Use either Sword, Hammer, or Stone (invincibility; 6-8 hits) for this battle. Marx has quite a few attacks. He uses a Cutter ability, a plasma ability (he’ll come in facing the wall on the bottom of the screen and shoot many Plasma arrows). He also has a Beam ability (comes in from the side and shoots a beam out of his mouth). When he splits in half, a black hole will appear. Marx will also fly off screen and plant seeds. Guard with when he does this to avoid getting hurt. After the vines come up, a yellow circle will appear in the ground, telling you where Marx will come out of the ground. When his cheeks expand, he’s going to drop a freeze bomb or use his Beam ability.
After Marx has been dealt a little too much damage, he’ll fly up and collide with Nova, destroying them both. Kirby will fly home, for a much-needed nap.
Now that all the food's back, Dedede isn’t the bigger gourmet, Dyna Blade’s not stealing crops, Meta Knight's battleship is under the sea, and one of the worst looking final bosses ever seen in a Kirby game (except for Dark Matter and Void Termina) is done with, Kirby deserves some rest. Just sit back and watch the credits.