WHAT THE GOLF? is not your average sports title.
WHAT THE GOLF is an easy way to pass some time. When I first launched the game, I expected, well… I didn’t know what to expect. Triband, the small development team based out of Copenhagen, brands the game as ‘the golf game for people who hate golf’, and they aren’t far off.
I had quite a few laughs and frustrations when playing. The surprise of the kookiness from level to level left me excited for the next round. The more difficult levels, looking at you vase, that I kept breaking against everything, gave me a sense of triumph even though the levels weren’t extremely difficult.
WHAT THE GOLF? is a physics-based puzzle game where the goal, much like golf, is to get one thing in the hole. The biggest difference is the obstacles that stand in the way. The player launches the object with a power scale, dragging the mouse back, aiming, and launching depending on how hard they want it to fly. The surprise? The object is not always a golf ball.
WHAT THE GOLF? uses their unique physics engine to make the ‘golf ball’ a variety of different objects. Breakable vases, whole houses, cats, and even rolling chairs are used as objects to launch across the golf course.
With simple mechanics, and a linear level progression, WHAT THE GOLF? feels all around like a mobile game, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Over the course of about a week, I found myself pulling up the game and playing a few rounds just to pass the time. The gameplay isn’t difficult and with no story, I didn’t have to invest much thought into playing a game.
The art style of this game is amazing. Each detail is animated in bright colors, bulbous shapes, and altogether gives it a cartoony atmosphere. Which adds to the fun and silly feeling that the player gets when a level is completed. The little bits of humor in between levels makes up for the lack of an overall story, it adds a little bit more depth to a game you can play for 10 minutes at a time and be satisfied.
Recommended
$19.99 is a steep price for what is essentially a mobile game, which docks the score. Playing this game as part of the Apple Arcade subscription, at $4.99 a month, is more of a fair price for this game. The game mechanics are simple and easy to understand, and the ways the levels are designed fit more to a mobile device. Being a game that makes more sense to play it in small pieces, rather than large chunks, makes me disapointed to play it on my computer. This is a great game to pull out on the bus or when waiting in line.
WHAT THE GOLF is avaliable now on the Epic Games Store ($19.99) and the Apple App Store (through Apple Arcade, $4.99/month). It will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch and Steam soon.
Notes about our ranking system: We want the primary focus to be on the “Recommended” rating, as an arbitrary number on a game does not fit for every type of player. If we say a game is recommended for that element, lovers of that game type are more likely to enjoy the game.
Where’s the design rating come from? We look at the overall price of the game and then ask ourselves a bunch of questions: How well does the game run? How do the gameplay mechanics feel? Does this game do well for its genre? Does the art-style fit the overall themes? How is the music and sound design. If there is a story, how well is it written and acted? What is the replayability of the game? Overall, we want to answer that if this game is recommended for you, if its worth your dollar.
