REVIEW: Kirby's Dream Course 1994 SNES
	By: HAL Type: Golf/Puzzle Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Hard

 
This is a strange twist on console golf games. Kirby is the ball, and each "hole" or level is a floating board on which some enemies are positioned. The idea is to kill all the enemies by hitting them with your ball in as few shots as possible. See, each shot costs Kirby hit points. If you take too long or fail to regularly refill Kirby's life ( By killing baddies. ), he'll die. The last remaining baddie turns into the hole, which doubles up as the level's exit. Plus, there are some nasty obstacles that require special power-ups or some severe flexing of the brain to get past quickly. Sounds bizarre, but after a bit of getting used to it, it works more or less well. More or less, because at some points, you don't seem completely in control of what's going on, leaving you to instead rely on blind luck to pull off terribly precise shots.

There is lots to do, plenty of different courses to play, and getting a good score rewards you with medals. Trouble is, if you want to even stand a remote chance of scoring well, you'll need pin-point precision and a good deal of dumb luck. It often gets frustrating, because it doesn't always seem to be completely your own fault when you mess up. Still, there's a compelling urge to keep trying, just once more.

There's also a VS mode, with four extra courses to annoy a fellow player on, but alas it doesn't work all that well, simply because of the "randomness"of the game, and because you get to be a bit too nasty to each other, and once one player has gained an advantage, it's almost impossible for the other to catch up again.

It's really difficult to decide whether to love or hate this game. Is it challenging or frustrating? Cleverly original or just a wierd, and not very good idea for a game? Because of this, I can't whole-heartedly recommend it, but I must admit that there are many good things in this large and tricky game. If you spot this in a bargain bin, you could do a lot worse than picking it up, especially if you're an avid Kirby lover. Just remember, this is a "love it or loathe it" affair, not for everyone to enjoy. I don't know, maybe the target audience are schizophrenic gamers - Toasty79%

Key to the reviewing system]

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