As I mentioned before, any golf game from third gen onward that tries to get away with only offering one course must do something truly special to justify it. Either the one course it offers has to be a blast to play, or it has to offer enough bonus modes and goodies to justify returning to the same course. T&E Soft definitely knew how to do those things. Wicked 18 provided a course that, while frustratingly difficult, had a hypnotic quality that could appeal to pros. Golf on the Virtual Boy took advantage of that system's capabilities to give players the feeling that they were really on the links (if they were Cyclops from the X-Men, that is). That's why Waialae Country Club infuriates me; because I know T&E Soft can do much better than this.
Unlike Wicked 18, Waialae Country Club deserves to be part of the True Golf Classics series. Waialae Country Club in Honolulu hosts the Sony Open annually and is one of the most gorgeous oceanside courses in America. Much of that comes across in the Nintendo 64 game. The course is bright and colorful with smooth textures (albeit a bit blurry textures). I didn't even see the fog or pop-in that CyberTiger had. That said, the visuals have some issues. While the video used for the players and the caddie is crystal clear, the spectators lining the course look like cardboard stand-up displays. The foliage also looks fake which really detracts from the lush tropical look of the course. Even using a rainbow to project the flight path for a shot is a bit much.
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The gameplay is where Waialae really dropped the ball. I can appreciate how the piece-by-piece set-up for choosing the club, setting the stance, and setting the impact point prevents the kind of mistakes that can come up in other golf games; that method worked in Wicked 18, after all. The problem is that there is little consistency with the settings. I've set my stance for a hard fade to get around a dogleg only for the shot to go straight like usual. Don't even get me started with the issues regarding the impact point. However, the biggest problems come up when the shot is attempted. The three-click mechanics are actually deceptive. Despite what the meter shows, there is no margin for error. Even if the impact is hit in the green zone only one pixel from perfect, the shot gets duffed. What is the friggin' point to having that area around the impact point if it doesn't provide a margin of error??? Factor in the basic modes with nothing distinct to offer, and it adds up to an annoying game that doesn't give any reason to return to Honolulu.
Waialae Country Club is an ugly game that revolves around a beautiful course. If the excuses for offering a single course were limited by the third gen, they were completely gone by the fifth gen. If you want to play golf on the N64, stick with Mario Golf or even CyberTiger. If you want to play the Waialae course, just load up the more recent PGA Tour games. Toss this mess in the Pacific and move on.
