For our first retro review, we’ll travel time back to 1995. A time when I was ditching kindergarten to lose myself in my SNES. And when I wasn’t throwing barrels at Kremlings, I was usually playing Kirby’s Dream Course. You play as Kirby, and knock yourself around various courses while running into enemies in as few shots as possible. With every shot, you lose one of your four health…erm, tomatoes, while every enemy you run into restores one. When only one enemy remains, it transforms into a hole, which you have to land in. You know, like golf. Things start off pretty simple, but eventually you have to utilize a number of tricks such as adjusting your spin to complete the courses without losing a life. And, of course, there are powers. Some enemies, like tornadoes, wheels, and UFO’s give you their powers when you run into them, putting an interesting spin on a game which is still technically a golf game. The single player offered eight courses with eight holes each, plus there was a two-player competitive mode. Which was mostly the same, but defeated enemies left stars that players could swipe from each other. 

While certainly not the best Kirby game, this is one that I think more people should have played. The course design is nice, the controls are simple, and getting a gold medal on every hole is challenging enough to be entertaining. I’d give it four warp stars out of five.