NOTE: Only recommended for a <1USD price. At full price, you are better off with almost any other mini-golf game.
Using that price as a basis. You get A LOT of content. 7 Full Courses, Online Multiplayer, Numerous Ball Customization Options, and the ability to create courses. Thinking of the game as a throwaway experience, say buying 4-5 copies and playing with one group with the expectation of only playing that one night, you could have a lot of fun with the game. It's a nice semi-competitive addition to a hangout.
It has/does a lot of good things. It looks very nice, and they've attempted a plethora of styles, from the Max Headroom look of 'System' to the Sepia tones of 'Eclipse'. The game looks great at sale price or full. Something that will go under the radar for most people is how much 'low power' room there is on the power bar. I like that you still have to be fairly precise when close to the hole. Almost every other golf game will let you just kinda bang it home from the point, even though putting is precise no matter the distance. I don't like that it is achieved by making the overall power pretty low in comparison to the lengths of the holes, however, but it was a bright spot in my opinion. Unfortunately, aside from the sheer ability to play and create with a bunch of your friends, I don't have many more positives going for the title. It is a totally functioning game, it just falls a bit on the mediocre side.
Where this game falls short is on the course/gameplay design. We'll start with the gameplay. There aren't any custom options to tinker with to add replayability. Nothing like a jump or reset mechanic to allow you to go for a crazy shot or try something again. That sticks out from its competitors as something kinda sorely missing. Another decision that left me scratching my head is how much time there is between holes. This is not strictly loading times or something like that. As soon as you sink your putt, it has to count all your currency up, which there is no way to skip or speed up (that I can tell) all while showing you the scoreboard. It leaves the scoreboard up for a while longer by itself, before finally taking you to the next hole. However, it will slowly rotate and show you the layout of the entire next hole without the ability to skip or speed up the process. It's just too much downtime and it's something you notice right away. "C'mon, c'mon."
Continuing with gameplay, but touching on the course design. I do feel the overall power and length of holes are mismatched, so I am not quite sure what to fault. As much as I enjoyed the precision of the short putts, I'd much rather be able to hit further on these holes. I understand that shortening the holes could make some of the designs quite silly, but the point is that it isn't quite right no matter how you slice it. I'm not saying that every hole should be able to be hole-in-one'd, but a good number of them should be.. it's an arcade mini-golf game. Maybe that one is a bit more personal preference, but worth noting regardless.
Like I said, for the price, it punches above its weight. I do think games like GWYF and Golf It are just objectively better games at any price, but if you want something a little bit different and have more than a couple friends trying to play something for very cheap, this is a completely viable option. Not the most sound of recommendations, but overall is clearly better than bad.
Thanks for reading!
