Kirby's Dream Course (Super Nintendo) Review

Unlike the Mario Golf games, Kirby's Dream Course instead adopts a crazy golf style of play, in which players must putt their way through various different courses, eliminating any enemies and avoiding obstacles along the way. Once all of the enemies in the course have been defeated, the last enemy will turn into a hole and Kirby must be putted into the hole in order for the player to move on to the next course.

Like real golf, the player will be given a par for each hole, which basically gives the player an idea of how many strokes the hole takes to complete. If the player is skilful enough and can eliminate all the enemies, putting Kirby into the hole in one stroke, they will be awarded with a hole in one.

As players progress through the game, they will be able to obtain Kirby's many copy abilities and make use of them to aid him through treacherous terrain, also making it easier to complete the hole in as few hits as possible.

The gameplay mechanics introduced in this game make for an overall unique experience, whilst also not making it seem like just another golf game with Kirby tacked on. By incorporating different mechanics from the pink puffball's platform titles, HAL Laboratory have made this feel like a true Kirby spin-off and not just another title in which Kirby mimics a certain type of game, such as Kirby's Pinball Land.

As the game progresses, courses will become significantly tougher and will require players to use the different techniques they have learned throughout the game. The two main shot types are to make Kirby travel across the ground or to send him flying into the air, but players must also determine the spin and power of the shot by using the handy on-screen guidelines.

At the beginning of each course, players will start off with three lives, with four fruit in each of them. If the player misses an enemy in a shot, one of these fruit will be taken away and once depleted, the player will lose a life. Alternatively, if hitting Kirby out of bounds, a life will also be lost. Additional lives can be added by achieving a hole in one, which may make the game sound easy, but spreading these lives out over the course of eight holes can be quite tricky - especially during the later courses.

After completing a course, players will be presented with a scorecard that shows the results of each hole for that course. Depending on how well they scored, players can be awarded with a bronze, silver or gold medal. Completists will spend a lot of time obtaining every gold medal, since some of the holes rely on complete precision, with hole in ones only being achievable if the player gets the power and trajectory of the shot perfect.

As well as including eight courses, each containing eight holes, the game also contains a multiplayer mode in which two players can battle it out to see who gets the most points in four exclusive courses, named after enemies that appear throughout the Kirby universe.