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Developer: Oxygen Studios
Publisher: Crave Entertainment
Release Date: Aug. 4, 2008
Systems: Wii (reviewed), PS2, PC, DS, PSP
ESRB Rating: E
0:00 I hadn't heard of this game until it appeared in my mailbox just before I moved. I'm a big fan of real-life mini-golf, though, so it shouldn't be a tough sell.
0:01 "Oh, bless my soul," says an Elvis impersonator on the preview screen. Wha? Then straight into the intro, with the desert countryside rolling by. "Under the blistering heat of the Nevada sun, five men (there are six of us!)... six men struggle against the odds." They have to fight traps and the elements and "they're gonna have to do it all in stupid costumes." Silly scenes of the characters doing a sort of screen test and antagonizing each other. "I don't want to see no spittin', no quittin', and no out-of-bounds hittin'," says the Elvis impersonator who seems to lead this ragtag group. "Perhaps I should play the caveman," says the very English guy in the knight getup. Wow, this is gonna be cheese-tastic, I can already tell.
0:03 A quick, one-screen explanation of the controls: I have to stand up, press A, pull back, press A again, and swing.
0:04 Some desert scrub scrolls by in the background as some endearing twangy rockabilly plays. I pick career mode, where I have to "clear as many pars as possible to advance." Jurassic Classic is the first course. The course par is 36.
0:05 A simple little interface lets me purchase pedestrian things like balls and clubs, but also weird things like mulligans (buy in bulk and they're cheaper), colored balls and trails (I pick red!) soundtracks and even action figures of the characters. Cute.
0:08 As you'd imagine, the prehistoric course is full of dino bones, lava, rocks, etc. I'm playing a nerdy guy in 3-D glasses, not that I chose him or anything. The d-pad moves the shot aiming and tilts the camera up and down. I like the little red line showing where my shot will go.
0:10 No matter how I try, I can't get the game to recognize my shot. I can bring up the power meter and hold down A to get it into a good position, but flailing around like an idiot doesn't do anything.
0:12 The power bar doesn't seem to be reacting to my tilting, either. Is my controller broken?
0:14 Desperate, I try another controller. This one seems to work -- the power bar now changes as I change the angle of my remote. Looks like I broke a remote moving to my new apartment. Ack!
0:15 Now that that's settled, I take my swing, just missing a money bag that's sitting on the course. I set myself up for a nice ramp-over-the-gap shot. The red line shot guide shows it bouncing off the edge, but I don't let that stop me. It makes it over, then bounces out of play. That'll teach me for using a rubber ball. Oh, well. I use up a mulligan and retry with a regular ball. The ball goes in on my "third" shot and I get $150. My nerdy avatar pumps a fist.
0:18 "Pyroclastermania" is up next, an ice age hole with a huge ramp up to a flat area with sliding ice blocks. Wish there was a way to get a better look around the course before my shot.