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KIRBY'S DREAM COURSE Company: Hal/Nintendo Released: February 1995 Genre: Sports (Golf) Graphics: 8.5 Control: 8.5 Sound/Music: 7.5 Storyline: 6.0 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 SUPER-NES.COM

The Super Nintendo didn't have any shortages of Kirby games, that's for sure. And while most were really good games, I didn't have high hopes for this one when I first read it was in development. Kirby and miniature golf didn't seem like a winning combination to me at the time. I can admit when I'm wrong, and what I thought was just another ordinary grab in the clearance bin at Toys R' Us turned out to be a really fun and enjoyable game that has become one of the most regularly-played games I have for my Super NES system. The majority of the courses are basically brightly-colored checkerboard golf courses strewn with tons of Kirby's enemies and quite a few hazards for your little pink guy to run into. If you've ever played any of the Kirby games, and if you haven't you need to get in the boat and get off the island you're on, you'll know what this game looks like. It's over-the-top pastel color scheme will be instantly familiar to any Kirby fan. There's a nice amount of vibrancy and detail on all of the courses, but where you'll notice some nice graphical touches is in the backgrounds that hover far below the courses. They're all beautifully colored and show way more detail than you'll ever see on the actual checkerboard golf courses. This is, after all a golf game of sorts, so it's surprising the amount of graphical detail we do see. Overall Hal did a nice job bringing the miniature golf style courses into the Kirby world. It's Kirby music. There I said it. Most of the tracks, and there aren't a lot of them, sound like tunes you would expect to hear in a Kirby game. Upbeat, catchy, and melodic for the most part. Problem is, they're all very short music tracks which means they reapeat. And then they repeat some more. And then they go and repeat even more. You get the picture. Although the tunes are good, they're not going to sound that good after you've heard the same track repeated over and over again for the gizillionth time. Hal really should have made the tunes longer and added a little more variation in the tracks because I can only listen to the music in this game for about 30 minutes and then I have to turn down the volume. The sound effects aren't too bad actually, although there's not a lot to them. Mostly a bunch of thumps, water splashing, and silly noises when different things happen to Kirby on the course. Once again, though, it is a golf sim so most of the emphasis isn't on the sound anyway. This is the one area of the game that really surprised me. I was expecting just a basic "putt Kirby around" type of gameplay. Not only do you have the standard putting move, but you can also launch kirby into the air on your putt while placing different spins on him which effects which direction he moves in after he's landed. Believe me you're gonna have to get this control method down if you expect to get through any of the courses beyond the first one. You can also roll Kirby onto a glowing pad on each hole which will allow Kirby certain special ablities, depending on which power up he runs into. Some of these include: Fire, which allows Kirby to turn into a ball of fire and burn things in his path that would otherwise be immune, Freeze, which lets Kirby freeze things he touches like water, and also Parasol, which let's Kirby hold onto a parasol that will allow him to slowly parachute down when he falls over edges. There are quite a few more of these special ablities to use throughout the game and mastering these is very important if you ever have any plans of beating the game. I couldn't write this review and not at least mention that this game is not an easy game by any means. Don't let the cute look of the game fool you. Once you've gotten past the first two levels the game begins to pick up difficulty quite rapidly. In fact, some of the later courses in this game are downright hard. Prepare to spend some serious time getting used to the feel of playing this game if you want to have any hopes of beating all of the courses. As I said, this game really surprised me when I bought it. It's extremely playable, got a great look to it, and best of all it's got our little pink puffy friend Kirby in it. Masterfully designed mini-golf courses and carefully placed hazards and enemies all come together to form a game that's as brutally challenging as it is fun to play. Kirby fans and non-fans alike need to give this game a whirl. I think you'll find it quite a bit more fun than the concept would lead you to think. This is defiantely not just a lame attempt to capitalize on the Kirby name, and is more fun than even some of the Kirby side-scrollers themselves.