Golfie

If you want a great roguelike, deckbuilding, minigolf game... this isn't it While on the outset, all of these things sounded like they could create a really fun gameplay loop, in this game at least, they really don't - Cards are forced, pointless and situational, leaving you praying for the default "lob" and "power" cards in most given situations, I played almost 3 hours and never unlocked any cards that were worth using - Physics and maps are really buggy, I had several situations where the ball got completely stuck and I had to waste all my shots to get out, resulting in lost runs - I was never able to finish a single run in 3 hours - Course hazards are instant run enders ON NORMAL, so you're 15 courses in, the game glitches, lands you in the lava and thats 30 minutes completely wasted - The trajectory arrow is a complete lie, it will constantly drop WAY short, or massively overshoot where the arrow says it's going to go, making it completely impossible to actually predict and play the game properly - There is about 1 or 2 good perks, the rest are just a waste of time (much like the cards) - The question mark levels are incredibly frustrating, they just add a tedious debuff to the course making it insuferrably annoying to complete - Cards are so situational that some of them are unusable without using them in conjunction with another specific card, and especially when you only draw 3-4 cards, the odds of drawing those together is almost nothing, so you just end up with a deck of useless garbage - Did I mention how useless the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trajectory arrow is? yes, I'm mentioning it again because that's how bad it is, it actively misleads you and turns what could be incredible moments of triumph into infuriating rage quit inducing time wastes - Hole start spawns seem to be complete RNG and can genuinely ruin an entire run because the game placed you behind a stupid bit of scenery that you had to spend 2-3 shots navigating around - So many closed in maps where you have to constantly wrestle with the camera to get it to go anywhere where you can actually see a damn thing you're doing Those are only all the issues I can immediately recall after wasting nearly 3 hours playing it last night and I cannot understate how strongly I feel that you don't have to suffer through it like I did, even at it's current 90% off at time of writing ($2.65 AU) I would still feel ripped off Now, maybe it's better in multiplayer, but considering a lot of my main issues were with the fundamental design choices and the way it actually plays - doubt.

Golfie tries to blend mini-golf with deck-building roguelike mechanics, but the result feels more frustrating than fun. The physics are inconsistent, the cards often feel gimmicky, and the randomness kills any sense of strategy. Visuals are bland, and the pacing is awkward, with long stretches of trial-and-error. It’s a creative idea, but the execution falls flat—more rage-quit than hole-in-one. DEMO was more fun then the OFFICIAL RELEASE.

The description does say "deck builder" but I thought it would be a few choices, there's like 30 or so cards and most of them are useless or overly complicated. You can only equip a few cards at a time so the draw pile is full of what you don't want. And good luck actually beating a course, I was on "free" mode with unlimited shots and still was testing my patience. Even though the trailer looks decent, this is disappointing and feels terribly dated for a 2023 release.

Really fun game, but probably not worth the full price. It’s supposed to be a combination of mini-golf and a rouge-like deck builder. However, I found the deck building aspect the least fun, since the most useful cards are the ones you start with. Sure, there are some interesting combinations you can get, but once you get the combo you want, you’re pretty much throwing away all other cards… Still, it was fun to try out different perk combinations, and trying to go for an endless run. Also, trying out all of the different challenges was entertaining, and there’s a lot of content you can play through. Overall, it’s fun – Give it a try!

I think the mechanics of Golfie are some of the most fun out of any roguelike I've played before. However, there are so many annoying and game-breaking bugs that my recommendation is much more difficult to give than I would like. It's sort of a shame this game never became more popular; I think if it had a larger dedicated community, then the developers would have felt more inclined to add more content and fix these numerous bugs. Still, I think this game is easily worth a buy if you can get it during one of it's frequent sales.

Love the idea but the course design is pretty poor. Lots of places to get stuck. The "randomize card cost" hole effect also seems to be glitched; it disables all card use, which makes some holes impossible.

On my friend's computer (which runs many other games fine) it doesn't launch and doesn't end task properly and even crashes their computer. It plays fine on mine, but what's the point if my friend can't play? Garbage.

Golfie looks like a minigolf game, but it's really a physics puzzler in the guise of mini golf with limitations given by a deckbuilder aspect. I went into this expecting a minigolf game with randomly generated holes. This is not even what it tries to be. If you're looking for nice, polished courses, look elsewhere. This is a deck based physics puzzler, and I love it. You spend more time firing balls through the air and bouncing them off obstacles than you do trying to putt. It's all about special effect cards and placing physics items on the course, and having fun using them to solve the course in front of you. You have more shots than you need each hole to go after bonuses like coins and shops and power up crystals. It is important to collect these, as it is a deck based game and if you don't draw the right cards you might be stuck or forced to get REALLY creative to make you next stroke. There's card removal options and draw mechanics etc to help keep your deck lean as usual, so I don't find myself dead stuck, and missing one stroke isn't the end as you redraw after each shot. The problem for me is that you start with very little and the game can feel futile until a few rounds and you unlock some cards that make things more doable, and I think this leads to a lot of the negative reviews. You don't start with powerups that really let you gain any altitude or anything. The holes themselves try to generate something cohesive but sometimes you can't just easily put through. The normal stroke is very weak, and without using cards to power up you may find yourself in a pickle. It may not be perfect, and it's not for everyone, but Golfie is a very fun physics game. If you're trying to make clean putts on nice courses, look elsewhere. If you want to make some really fun shots in a physics engine, it's definitely worth the under 2 bucks I paid on sale. It is a roguelike, it will punish you, and has a hardcore difficulty for even more challenge, giving it that good roguelike replayability. A steal on sale.