Golf Gang

Miniature golf games have come and gone, but none seem to have the staying power of their full-grown siblings. That’s a shame, because you would think that video games would be the perfect vehicle for the over-the-top antics of the putt-putt circuit. Perhaps Scottish developer Lazy Monday Games has finally cracked the code, because their new game Golf Gang adds an important ingredient to the miniature sport – speed. That’s right, this is the fastest, most intense golf game you’ll ever play, filled with great courses, online multiplayer fun and the type of obstacles you can only get in a video game. Grab your favorite putter, because we’re hitting the links for this review of Golf Gang.

It won’t take you very long to realize that Golf Gang is not your typical game of putt-putt. This is a game about speed and precision, pushing you to the limit to get the ball into the hole as quickly as possible. And don’t think that this is just miniature golf sped up, because you don’t even have enough time to wait for the ball to stop rolling after each shot. This is a race and a lot of the times that means that you’re going to need to hit (and re-hit) the ball while it’s in motion.

Spread across six courses, each stage will rate you on two things – how fast you were and how many strokes it took. This is more a game about reacting than strategizing, because you’re not going to have enough time to perfectly line up each shot. And as the holes become longer and more complicated, you’ll need to anticipate obstacles and quickly correct your mistakes before the ball falls off the level. But don’t freak out if your ball gets a little wet, because you’re not out of this yet. Your score will be an average of the time and strokes, so there’s always a chance you come out of this with a respectable result.

Beyond the usual water hazards, pits and debris lining the course, Golf Gang will also toss you into the air and make your ball fly like a bird. If you hit a ball through one of the hoops, you’ll sprout wings and glide for a few seconds, usually just long enough to fly to the next hoop. There are also balloons, which will give your ball some momentum and, more importantly, another shot that you can shoot in the air. Both of these obstacles start simple, but like everything else, they’ll become trickier to navigate the further in you get.

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What I like about Golf Gang is how easy it is to unlock all six stages. The game gives you gold coins for completing each stage; the better score you get, the more coins you earn. The good news is that the levels are inexpensive, allowing you to unlock all of them after only playing a full 18 holes once or twice. When you’re done with that, you can spend the rest of your coins on customizing the ball with different faces, accessories, skins, trails and more. A lot of the game comes down to playing through the different courses in order to unlock everything in the store, all of which you can take with you into the online modes.

It helps that the courses are genuinely fun to play. We start out at the Sunny Suburbs, which is green, with lush trees and nearby houses. This leads to the snow-covered Winter Golf, the tropical bliss of Sandy Shores and the very spooky Haunted Hollow, complete with ghosts and Jack-O-Lanterns. The final two courses will drop you into a pile of golden leaves at the Autumn Breeze, and when you’re ready for the ultimate getaway, check out the Alpine Resort, where dodging snow and ice is the key to earning a high score. The stages start out easy, but let me tell you, those final few courses will put your putting skills to the test.

Playing through these different courses is a good time in the single-player mode, but it’s a bit lonely. Once you’ve played through the six stages, there isn’t a whole lot to do. You may want to go back and improve your overall score and maybe grind for gold coins, but that gets boring after a while. I also wasn’t that impressed with the time trial mode, which ignores the number of strokes you take and focuses exclusively on the speed. There’s also a more traditional miniature golf simulator, where it’s all about the strokes, allowing you to go at your own pace.

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To be fair to Golf Gang, it’s clear that the focus here is in the multiplayer modes. The trailer makes the game look like a chaotic blast with balls flying everywhere and a bunch of people trying to get to sink the putt first. Unfortunately, that was not my experience when I tried the online mode. No matter what time of day or night, I had a hard time finding a room. That said, it does look like there are a lot of ways to customize your online room, including the addition of a bunch of mods that will change everything from the gravity to the speed to the point of view. If you can convince a few friends to pick up this game, it looks like it will be a blast online. Here’s hoping that the lobby picks up as the word gets out.

The other issue I ran into is that the ball isn’t always sure where to drop after flying out of bounds. There were a bunch of times when the starting location would immediately send the ball into motion, often right back into the water. There were a few times I had to max out the strokes because I was caught inside the geometry. I wish there was a way to restart the stage or even rewind time. The technical problems can really weigh this game down.

While the lack of bots and online players is disappointing and it hated getting stuck in the backgrounds, the good news is that Golf Gang is fun to play and hard to master. Even though you can play the game entirely with one hand, there’s still enough depth to keep you coming back for more. The combination of me memorizing the tougher stages and getting proficient with the aiming gave me the confidence I needed to finally earn high scores on the Haunted Hallow and Alpine Resort. I’m not sure I put much more time into this as a single-player experience, but with online friends, I could see myself wasting a lot of time in Golf Gang. Maybe if I wait long enough the lobby will fill up.