If you had gone to a sports bar at any point in the last couple of decades, there may be a couple of arcade machines in a corner. If there are, it's almost a guarantee that one of them would be one of the Golden Tee games. Much like NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, the Golden Tee games managed to boil a sport (golf in this case) down to its base elements to create a game that's faster paced and much more accessible to a larger audience. Despite it being a fixture anywhere that can fit an arcade machine, it was ported to a home console only once. The PlayStation rendition may not be quite as accessible as the arcade or plug-and-play versions, but it is still a fine fast-paced golf game.
The toughest part of the porting to the PlayStation was clearly handling the controls. The arcade versions use a trackball for shooting which made the controls extremely simple to pick up. Instead of including a trackball, the game uses two control schemes, one for digital controls and one with the analog sticks. The digital scheme slows the character model down to give time to lock in the shot power and buttons to set fade and draw. Meanwhile, the analog scheme uses both thumbsticks, the left for the the backswing and the right for the shot. Neither set-up is ideal, but they get the job done. Without gauges, players have to rely on watching the character model to determine power which can be quite tricky. There's also no finetuning your aim. It you want to adjust aim less than 45 degrees, you're out of luck. You'll have to get used to using fades and draws, but it's magic when you sweep around a curve to sink a chip-in eagle. The putting can be tough to gauge, but, fortunately, the ball rarely loops or bounces out of the cup, giving a significant margin of error.
Click For the Full Picture Archive
There are plenty of features to justify buying the port as opposed to dropping quarters in the arcade machines. Six courses are available right out of the gate with mirrored versions unlockable. The courses are tough but not unfair. The tournament mode which unlocks the mirror courses is crazy difficult. The computer opponents show no mercy and can be outright cheaters. I saw one sink eighty foot putts like they were nothing. Along with the standard modes every golf game was expected to have by 2000, this one has a couple of unique modes that play into its arcade nature. Speed golf is an entertaining race against the clock that outright demands the use of the analog controls, and club roulette gives you a random club on each shot. The game even looks good. The visuals really push what the PS1 can do, giving plenty of detail to the courses with the occasional glitch and slowdown.
The best way to play Golden Tee at home will always be one of the plug-and-play systems on the market, but the PS1 port isn't a bad alternative. If you can get the hang of the controls, you can easily squeeze three games of this in the time it takes to play most other golf games. Check this one out for a good and quick golf fix.
