Zany golf


What could anyone expect after reading the title of this game without having seen it? A crap game most probably?

I think nothing can prepare you for this game if you haven't played it before. In essence it's mini golf, and each level is unique, but what totally transforms the game into something wonderful is that with each level the rules change: in the 2nd hole (hamburger hole), you have to bounce the ball off a huge ketchup bottle that has left a stain around it and then put it in the hole when the hamburger (which bounces around) is above the ground! In another level there's fans that you control their speed by moving the mouse. In another, there are some patches of ground that glow and there you can control the ball at will using the mouse.

And it all works. You get giggles by looking at the themes and then you try to learn the levels and use the extra rules to your advantage. I can't say for all, but most of the levels can be finished with 1 stroke with or without exploiting the extra rules. There are also challenges within the level (usually touching some part of the playfield) which reward you with extra shots.

The graphics are wonderfully drawn with lots of animation and lots of details. The scrolling is a bit on the slow side, but I don't mind too much because scrolling this big an area on a 512k ST without preshifting or stuff like that while displaying lots of animations can be very taxing on the machine. I only wish that the mouse cursor could be updated at 1vbl so you could aim a bit better. Of course the ball itself moves a bit choppily and it takes a while to get to grips with interacting with the game in order to control the ball as you wish, but with some practice you learn to live with it.

One of the games that showed what 16bit machines can do if used properly and not as machines that 8bit games are ported to. Recommended!

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