SNES Review 152: Kirby's Dream Course

I remember showing my daughter a Kirby animated series when she was younger and the theme song starting with something on the lines of Kirby Kirby Kirby he is the star of the show, Kirby Kirby Kirby is the name you all know, the truth is though as adorable as the little pink cuddly ball is he has always sort of lived in Mario's shadow. The thing is though that Kirby is an interesting little character whose looks and abilities kind of lend him well to various different kinds of games.

Over the years the little pink ones roundness has allowed him to stand in for a pinball in Kirby's Pinball Land, to be a ball in Kirby's Block Ball. And to tilt and tumble all over the place in the motion-controlled aptly named Kirby: Tilt 'n' Tumble and, here, in this game what does Kirby stand in for well he stands in for a golf ball. You see this is something Kirby has going for him with his squishy roundness in a Mario Golf game you'd just see Mario knocking a ball around but here in Kirby's Dream Course you get to see his royal pinkness being the ball.

If I had to tell someone about this game in a nutshell as quickly as possible then I would basically describe it as being a miniature golf game with a Kirby theme. One of the things which makes this interesting for a SNES game is that it is presented in a three-quarter isometric perspective. The courses are rendered on checker-board style grids and are filled with the standard enemies you would see in Kirby's platformers. I have to admit that I have a certain warmness for sports based titles that throw interesting characters in to the mix, give me a PGA tour golf or a Fifa and I will probably mentally half turn off playing it but throw some interesting characters and crazy powers in a sports title and I will be all over it, my favourite sports titles have been things like the NeoGeo 2020 Baseball with robots in it and Mario Strikers Charged, I guess the less real it is the more on board I can get with it. I guess this is reflected in the fact there a bunch of golf games on the SNES and this is only the second one I have reviewed and heck the first one I reviewed featured a golf playing robot.

OK so basically you hit poor little Kirby like a golf ball with the aim being to send him crashing into every single one of the enemies on the field once you have hit everyone of them bar one then the final bad guy will basically turn in the hole, get Kirby into the hole and congratulations thats a level done, but its a golf style game so just managing it eventually is not good enough nope you will be given a target number of hits and the idea is to come under par.

OK so at least at first the basics are just like any standard normal golf game choose the direction your going to hit the ball, how much power your going to put into your shot, where abouts your going to hit the ball, will you hit it dead on or will you try to give it a little bit of spin or chip it up. Then you go and absorb powers from Kirby's foes such as a parasol. There are ten abilities all of them are clones of powers from Kirby enemies and they are here to try and help you get around the course and if you really want to do well your going to have to learn how to use each and every one of them. You get the aforementioned parasol which helps you float down to the ground, a high jump which helps you jump a stone power which halts your movement instantly at the press of a button, a wheel which makes you shoot off like a rocket.

I think the game has a great concept, and Kirby is a great little character and there is a lot to the game, there are eight different courses to unlock each containing eight holes there's also a two-player mode which you can either have someone enjoy with you or suffer through with you depending on your and there thoughts on the game. In honesty I enjoyed it more in two player mode probably because my player two swore at it and cursed it just as much as I did and that made it both a little more fun and a little more bearable.

If I did a lets play of this game it would pretty much just be a video of me complaining and running through all of the cusses and venom that finds its way to the tip of my tongue. I cant really call this game a bad game, there are things I like about it but it just drives me blooming crazy, sure I do have a bit of fun with it but I also never feel that far away from rage quitting and telling Kirby to take a hike.

Kirby's Dream Course is probably one of his least known games, and that's why I was so surprised to see it taking up a slot on the Classic mini SNES. I never knew about this game back when I was a young SNES owner in fact it didn't enter my life until years and years later when someone gave it me for Christmas knowing I was a game collector so I have no real nostalgia for it and yet I feel bad taking a dump on poor old Kirby yet I cant help but score this game with a lowly 5, its ok, it has good presentation and it applies Kirby's powers well to the game of golf and it feels like it really really tries and yet its just not the game for me. If you want to try it well a loose Pal cart tends to go for £15 and up with boxed copies usually being around £60 when you see them, if you can play imports you'll occasionally see a loose Japanese cart for about £5 and to be honest that's kind of what I would pay for this game, I wanted to enjoy it more I really did.

Tales from the Crypt Fat Tuesday, the original article

Previously when talking about Tales from the Crypt Fat Tuesday/ Dead Easy I quoted a article from a Tales from the Crypt Magazine special about Demon Knight. I had real issues reading the article as all I had was very poor resolution scans to deal with, now I have sat and really strained my eyes and used software I didnt previously have in order to copy down every single word from this article so that others can read it with ease. Still not enough is known about this film and I seem to be one of only a very small amount of bloggers talking about it, so here it is in an easy to read format with yet one more piece of concept art and a picture of the front cover of the magazine this article was apparently taken from. I have included the authors name at the bottom as I am not in anyway taking credit for the article, I just wanted it up and easy to read and figured this was something I could do for the horror community.

 

 

MORE FEAR ON ''FAT TUESDAY''

Demonic possession, resurrection, religious icongraphy and other worldly temptation are ambitious concepts to be tackling for the first Tales from the Crypt feature Demon Knight. But with two more movies to go, what do you do for an encore? 

''The next one is more psychological than blood, grue and gore'' says A L Katz with a smile. ''As a Matter of fact, today we wrote a scne where a shadow figure squeezes through the skull of an old lady and into her brain. And that's just where the movie begins.''

Much like the TV eries, the movie franchise will also attempt to branch out into different horizons, according to Katz and writing partner Gil Adler. The latter will also be directing the second Crypt feature, whih is tentativelty titled Fat Tuesday and scheduled to go into production in Februrary on a $12 million budget. ''When you think of a Crypt movie, you think ironic, sardonic humour and you also think of a certain amount of scares and gore.. Adler explains. ''And as with the series, there are some nice twists and turns along the way. You think you're being lef one way and we twist it into another direction.''

Based on a script by J.P. Kelly, Fat Tuesday will be set in the Deep South (possibly New Orleans) and concerns a man trying to determine what happened in his past, and how memories of that past will bring back a malevolent entiity if they are ever recalled. ''As this guy get closer to the truth he also gets closer to rleasing this thing from the prison inside of him,'' Katz explains, ''We will be creating a unique Bad guy- one you've never seem before that is compelling and funny. It will scare the shit out of you.''

As with the Crypt shows, Adler and Katz have spent an extensive amount of time rewordking Fat Tuesday into the Crypt style (a title change is expected before the film is released).

''The script that J.P. Kelly wrote was intresting and very compelling but as with all things, we've played with it, thought about it and molded it over, so it has evolved into another life of its own.'' says Katz. ''His original story was very much about a man remembering something from his past and it possibly involved child abuse, which was a little too much to tackle. But the idea of a man remembering something from his past was an intriguing idea. The setting J.P. placed it in was fascinating, and there's even a swamp in there that becomes a character of its own. It's sort of a perverse den where heaven and hell meet and is filled with magic- dark and dangerous magic.''

As for potentialmakeup FX, Todd Masters' shop is currently creating preliminary designs(which will include, among other things, an evil Harlequin), but the artist notes that it won't be as extensive show as Demon Knight proved to be. ''Its more scary in the Haunting sense.'' explains Masters, ''But there is enough stuff in there to keep us going.''

The unique structure of the film franchise has  also create an intresting dynamic. When the idea of features was initially being thrown around, the three main executive producers, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis and Walter Hil, all considered directing one each. As time went on, their involvment resulted in each picking a script and nurturing the project along with another director at the helm. Thus Zemeckis oversaw Demon Knight, Donner will be close to Fat Tuesday and Hill will be involved with an urban horror opus currently entitled Body Count (which producer Joel Silver describes as a modern Frankenstein tale) - though the story for the third movie is still tentative.

''Each of the films could be franchisable in its own right.'' explains Katz. ''It's not altogther impossible. Several characters could be taken into sequels, and I don'tthink it would be all that suprisingif that's what happens. In the end, were trying to create satisfying, fulfilling mythologies, and the probability that at least one movie won't be able to contain them is not exactly a revelation.''  
                                                                -Anthony C. Ferrante

Retro Game purchases October 2019

My purchases for October started on the 1st of the month when I grabbed a few bit, I got Project Gotham racing, project Gotham racing 2, conflict desert storm 2, medal of honor rising sun, and dead or alive 3 all for Xbox boxed complete for £1 each from a charity shop and then I went and got Shrek 2 for GameCube complete for £1 from a different charity shop.

On the 4th of October I travelled to a run down looking charity shop in a town I dont usually visit and I grabbed a few things, I got The incredible for GameCube complete for £1 , Wrestlemania x8 for GameCube complete for £1 and kick off for NES cart only for £1.50 , it seems like a long time since I've got a NES game that cheap.

On the 5th I went to a retro game fair which was held in a hotel conference room today, I figured it would be all £100 boxed rares and nothing I'd feel like paying for and yeah there was some stuff like that but there was also a few cheap bits to pick through.

I got the following

Columns cart only for game gear for 50p

Wave race cart only for gameboy for £1

Game boy gallery cart only for gameboy £1

Golf cart only for gameboy £1

All star baseball 2001 cart only for gameboy color £1

F-1 world grand Prix cart only for gameboy color £1

Perfect dark cart only (missing battery cover) for gameboy color £1

Super hunchback cart only for gameboy £1

Gundam SD cart only (Japanese) for gameboy £1

Total soccer manager cart only for GBA £1

Nintendo scope 6 cart only for SNES £1

PGA tour 96 cart only for SNES £1

Secret of Man cart only (Japanese) for SNES £1

Donkey Kong Land cart only (half missing label) for gameboy color £1

Kirby super deluxe cart only (Japanese) for SNES £4

Robot Wars EX cart only (Japanese) for SNES £2

Two disc only copies of Alien Trilogy , a disc only copy of grudge warriors, and a disc copy of lion and the king £1 for the lot,

A Joytech PS1 essential pack sealed , includes 3rd party 1mb memory card and 3rd party mini analogue controller

and a boxed complete Japanese SNES game that I first believed to be a pinball game for £6 but it turned out to be a blooming pachinko game which somewhat annoyed me. I have since found out its called Hissatsu Pachinko Collection 2

On the 12th during a visit to yet another charity shop I got 14 loose PSP games for £9.  I got 2 copies of Ben 10 protector of the earth, Lego Indiana Jones, GTA vice city stories , GTA liberty city stories, Miami vice, ghost rider, mercury , crash of the titans, pro evo 5, FIFA 09, star wars clone wars republic heroes, star ward battle front 2 and Colin McRae rally 2005 plus. I also grabbed Animal crossing for the Wii for £2 from this shop.

On the 15th I grabbed a few loose carts from an indy game shop, I got F-1 World Grand Prix 2 for N64 for 50pence, V-Rally Edition 99 for N64 for £1.50, 1080 Snowboarding for N64 for £2 and Batman Returns for GameGear for £1.50

On the 18th I went to a charity shop and for £5.95 I got a Nintendo Wii.  OK so first the bad part it has no sensor bar, no TV wire, no wiimote or nunchuck, it also has the door for the cube pads missing. The good part is it has its charger and its stand but more importantly it has the homebrew channel installed, a 32gig SD card in it, a 32gig USB key in the back of it.

On the 19th I popped into a indy game store and I grabbed two loose gameboy carts for £1 each today WaveRace and Nintendo World Cup.

On the 20th my daughter grabbed me Nagano Winter Olympics 98 cart only for N64 for £1, makes me more happy than anything that she thinks about me enough to grab me a game while shes hanging with her friends

On the 21st I went in an Indy game shop after work and got Adventures of lolo 2 for the NES cart only for £5. , I'd never heard of it but it said it was by Hal on the label so figured I'd give it a punt.

On the 25th I got a few bits from an indy game shop I got an American cartridge only copy of The Simpsons Bart's Nightmare for the SNES £5, Fifa 95 complete for the Megadrive £1, Fifa 97 complete for the Megadrive £1, Mega games 1 complete for the Megadrive £1, Kingdom hearts 2 for ps2 for 25p the discs good but the manual and cover have some water damage, Final fantasy x2 disc only for ps2 for 25p and Monopoly party complete for Xbox for 50p

On the 26th I once again got a call from my daughter to tell me I owe her a little bit of cash because shes been picking me up stuff again, she got me Devil may cry 1, 2 and 3 for PS2 for 50p each complete, Devil may cry 4 in a steel case complete for ps3 for £1, Uncharted 2 in a steel case complete for ps3 for £1 and Heavenly Sword for ps3 complete for £1

On the 28th I got Mission Impossible operation suma complete for the Gamecube for £2. I dont think I have ever played it but I played the living heck out of the N64 MI game.

  

My retro purchases ended on the 29th when I paid £18 for a cart only pal SNES copy of The Flintstones The Treasure of Sierra Mudrock. I have never seen it in the flesh before and wanted to buy it to review it, it's been a long time since I've wrote a new SNES review even if I've made videos for old reviews lately. After having made my Barts Nightmare video Flintstones felt like something I'd like to tackle. It did feel like a big spend on one item though.

So in October 2019 I Spent £99.95‬, an amount that has left me pretty darn shocked as I dont think I have come close to that in a long time, my purchase of the month has to be the hacked Wii though, I just think with the SD card and USB key and what I can do with it just makes it an absolute steal.