It's an inevitable fact that, with every popular franchise, there's going to be spinoffs some time or another. Kirby, so far, has gotten Kirby's Air Ride, a GameCube racing game with a troubled development history, Kirby's Pinball Land, which explains itself quite well, and various puzzlers and doodads like that. Kirby's Dream Course for the SNES ended up taking Kirby to the golf courses. Using his Copy Abilities to his advantage, his goal is to beat all of the courses that Dream Land has to offer. A while back it was released on the Wii's Virtual Console for 800 Wii Points...Releasing it before Kirby platformers like Dream Land 3 is one thing, but releasing what could just be the worst Kirby game to date is another.
Gameplay: 6/10
Kirby and golf are 2 things that shouldn't be mixed. First, the golf side of things - It's a pretty basic idea, you just try to get the ball oOr in this case, a completely round Kirby) in to the hole. Dream Course, however, requires you to defeat enemies on the field to open up the hole. Waddle Dees, Kabus, and Rockies, among other populate the courses. Once you destroy all enemies but one, that last enemy will disintegrate and turn into the hole. That is when you can go for it. The more Kirby-esque side is surprisingly what got this score down a fair bit. Copy Abilities were adapted into the game, and you can get them by defeating an enemy that possesses that ability. Some abilities are helpful for control and strategy, but an equal amount of them are just gimmicky. Probably the most helpful ability is Rock; if Kirby is in the air he can use the Rock ability to just plummet straight down. This can help prevent the common event that you hit the ball too far. Parasol and Needle work similarly, which puts both of them up there with the better abilities in the game. But then there are ones that do quite the opposite, giving you much less control. Fireball is made a very extreme and risky ability; it gives Kirby a big speed boost when rolling around. It sounds a lot more helpful then it is, because there's a good chance you'll fly right off the course or into some sort of terrain hazard. Tornado was also dumbed-down... It's hard to describe what it does, but it's really quite basic and it might be a bad ability to use if there are no walls around.
One of the most dislikeable features in the game is the Tomatoes mechanic. When Kirby starts a course, he has 4 Tomatoes on him. Every time he takes a turn, he'll lose one Tomato. Additionally, if he hits spikes or anything of the sort, he'll lose a Tomato as well. If you run out of Tomatoes, you lose one of your lives. Thankfully, every time you defeat an enemy, you get a Tomato. Oh, and this lives system, it's just as bad. In the case that you run out of lives, of course, you'll have to restart; and this is quite common in the later courses considering how many turns it may take to get into the hole.
Determining how
hard you want to hit the ball is as simple as stopping a gauge. When you
press A while facing the direction you want the ball to go in, one gauge
appears that you have to stop, and then another. I'm not totally sure which
gauge does what, but it's a safe assumption that the second one is for
how far the ball will fly. My problem with all this... is WHEN the ball
flies. It's really quite unpredictable. I've had numerous times where the
ball went very high but for a very short distance, almost completely vertical.
Then after it landed and bounced, it went very far whilst staying pretty
close to the ground, which brings me to question the game's physics.
Graphics: 8.8/10
Probably the best
part of the game. Kirby's Dream Course takes on an isometric view, or in
simpler terms, something of a third-person view. Many courses in the game
are coated in a lovely checkerboard pattern, alongside pretty textures
and neat sprites. Character models- well, in particular, the enemies, now
they're good as well, but a lot of them seem oddly shaped or strangely
colored. Whispy Woods, for example, looks sort of cheesy from the small
amount of leaves on his head. Waddle Dees look sort of ugly as well...
They just do. The same applies for Chillies and UFOs. I have to give praise
to the Flamers, however, for having a more detailed and distinctive appearance
than they've had before.
Music and Sound Effects: 7.4/10
Common Kirby compositions; you hear remix after remix, but with a few originals in between. This is one of those so-so soundtracks, with nothing too notable except for a few catchy themes. Of course, golfing, or sports games overall, haven't usually been known for their music. Nintendo seems to have a mastery with music, though, and have still made Kirby's Dream Course sound nice. One of the few advantages of Kirby being mixed with golf is that he takes his musical style with him. While some tracks may not be beautiful or catchy, they certainly aren't dull. And the music is quite varied as well, which is where most of these 7.4 points came from.
A few particular
musical scores to note before we move on- a certain piece called "Castles
of Cake" is cute. Very cute. So cute that it makes me feel sort of bad
for giving this game a mediocre score. Another track, "The Tricky Stuff",
is a very nice remix of a familiar Kirby's Adventure theme. And it seems
to play on a lot of the tedious levels, so when I'm dealing with the forehead-slappingly
annoying setup, I at least have something good to listen to.
Length and Difficulty:
4.3/10
(NOTE: I score
this category on how much I liked the difficulty, a 4.3 does not mean it
is easy.)
Oh ho ho, here's something you'd never expect from a Kirby game - this game is not too easy, but rather much too difficult! See, with all these awkward course designs and strange physics, you'll find yourself rolling off cliffs or into a Gordo time and time again. If you don't end up restarting the game in these situations, you'll probably end up outright losing. The course designs in particular are controversial. They are much too gimmicky, as well as much too hazardous. Spikes- when these things come in a large group, Kirby could end up just bouncing along the sharp traps, ultimately robbing him of his 4 Tomatoes. A certain Fire ability-based level is really what made me hate spikes. And water - sheesh, it has so much pressure. When you land in a body of water, learn to expect a wasted Tomato or 2; by this, I mean that when you're in the water, it's not easy getting out. Kirby will not travel far under the pressure of the water, so you can't make your shots as high; and in a sinking situation, high shots are what you need the most. Plus, even if you use the Ice ability to freeze the water, if you don't make it across the frozen water in time, it just melts, taking you down into its depths. And speaking of Copy Abilities...
The necessity
of using these abilities apparently caused the developers to expect more
out of you. The level setup and enemy placement is too kooky for you to
get around without using an ability. And abilities. as I believe I mentioned
before, can hurt you just as much as they help you. Fire is very reckless,
Tornado is too random, etc. Like Kirby Canvas Curse, this game would have
been just fine without Copy Abilities. But UNlike said game, this one would
also have been better without them.
Replay Value: 5/10
Once I beat the game, I knew there were gonna be some extra courses involved in his game. I could go and explore some new environments, but I didn't. I just put down the controller, put the game's data on my SD Card, and rested myself after long days of tedious gameplay. Really, with how boring and annoying the game is, I lost motivation to play it again. It's good to have some extra courses, but those are the things I would want LEAST. Couldn't they just have given you a club upgrade, a mini-game or two... Not even normal golf courses would suffice? Apparently not. Look, when you take to those extra courses, really, what have you won? A potential few hours of lost time is what I would've gotten, personally.
Disliking this
game as I do, I thought my friends or sister would not forgive me if I
subjected them to the multiplayer, although, critics and fans do speak
of a pretty good 2-Player mode that I assume would add replay value for
those who like the game.
Fun Factor!: 5/10
Have you not gotten the idea? This game is just as boring as it is tedious, and overall is cumbersome to play - a chore, if you will. Despite the cute music and very nice graphics, the game has yet to get a giggle or even a little smirk out of me. What its gotten me so far: grit teeth, a red forehead, and 800 Wii Points down the drain. Maybe I'm being a little overly-dramatic though, for the game DOES deserve some praise.
Despite how annoying
it is, Kirby's Dream Course has some fairly addictive gameplay. How else
would I have mustered up the motivation to beat it? I don't know what it
is, but there's just something that always draws you back to the game.
This occurs in a similar way to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
A game I dislike for it's insane and completely inexcusable difficulty
level. I beat that game as well, even though I didn't like it and could've
just quit. It's all about addiction.
Overall: 54/100
Most would say this title belongs to Kirby Air Ride; I, on the other hand, deem Kirby's Dream Course to be the worst Kirby game ever made. And given my lack of bad games, Dream Course can be dubbed as one of the worst games I own on any system or in any genre. Though fun at times, probably even more so in multiplayer, Dream Course ultimately ends up as a disgrace to one of the greatest and most underrated franchises ever created. Despite this game getting reviews around the positive 7/10 range, I'm not going to recommend it.
Your 800 Wii Points are best spent elsewhere. And you know how I expressed frustration about this game being released before Dream Land 3? Well, it was released as I was writing this Review, so why not spend your Wii Points on that? An awesome platformer like that would surely be a better choice than the grotesque, gimmicky game of golf known as Kirby's Dream Course.
... So this is what it's like giving a negative Review?
Neat.
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