In the South Korean release of the game, the character sprites in "Samurai Kirby" are edited to remove Japanese cultural elements. These changes are owed to widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea following a 35-year period from 1910 to 1945 where the Korean peninsula was occupied and culturally assimilated by the Japanese Empire. After this period ended, Japanese cultural imports were banned in South Korea for almost 60 years, and while most restrictions were gradually rescinded by 2004, some remain in place.

Mario, Luigi, Toad and Birdo can be seen on the left side of the arena during the battle with King Dedede in "Spring Breeze."

Scrolling outside of the viewable area via hacking also reveals cameos from Bowser, Princess Peach, and Poppy Bros. Sr. (Peach is still semi-viewable.) This may explain why Peach is fully viewable in the stands during the Dedede battle in Kirby Super Star Ultra.

The enemy and helper Capsule J from the original game was removed from the remake due to an uncanny similarity to Konami's Twinbee.

Kabula tries to attack Kirby by shooting large missiles at him. These missiles bear a striking resemblance to Banzai Bills from the Mario series.

Masked Dedede's theme is based on King Dedede's theme from Kirby's Super Star Stacker.

At the start of the game's intro, there's a small chance that Kirby may wink at the player as he rides his Warp Star instead of smiling, and does a back flip instead of a loop. Other changes in the Alternate Intro includes there being an island in the water that Kirby flies past, and the Star Explosion at the end being bigger than usual.

Two tracks that play in the minigames that weren't in the original SNES game are actually remixes of tracks from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards:

• The "Snack Tracks" theme is a sped up version of the music that plays during the factory levels in Shiver Star.
• The "Rest Room" theme in the "Helper to Hero" minigame is a slower and calmer remix of Ripple Star's level select theme.