Mini Golf Wacky Worlds $2.99

The app store has the golf sim market pretty well covered to date.  If you want realism, look no further than Tiger Woods, if you want casual, go with Let’s Golf!  One variation of the ancient game that doesn’t have a stellar representative in the app store however, is mini-golf.  There are plenty of mini golf games to choose from, some better than others, but none of them have hit all of the right tiki heads or quite made it through the windmill blades.  Well, if mini golf is your game, look no further…your prize is here in the form of Glu’s Mini Golf Wacky Worlds.

As you can see, Wacky Worlds is a fully 3D mini golf game with impressive graphics.  As any gamer knows however, graphics only get you so far…any game worth its salt needs solid gameplay, and happily Wacky Worlds is quite salty.  When you begin, you have the option of jumping right into the game or creating a profile.  If you choose to create a profile, then you head to the Pro Shop and choose from either Porshe (female) or Chip (male).  There are two additional characters that you can unlock through reaching achievements within the game, such as holes-in-one or finishing a round under par.  In addition to unlocking characters, you may upgrade clothing by spending points as well.  After my first round, I put Chip in a snappy Tuxedo ensemble, because you never know when a black tie affair could break out on the mini golf course.  You can also get upgraded putters which will increase specific abilities of your golfer.

Once you have your profile set up, or if you just want to dive right into the water hazards, you will choose “new game”.  From here, you have three modes of play available: Tee Off! which is a standard 9 hole putt-putt game, Gopher Golf which adds in the challenge of gophers popping up on the course (I hate it when that happens), and Timed Golf which adds a time factor to completing the holes.  No matter which mode you choose, the controls are intuitive and nicely designed.  One really nice feature of the game is a flyover of each hole before you begin.  This gets you ready to face the challenge with a nice overview.  You swipe the screen to move your golfer left and right on the starting line where you want them to begin.  Once your golfer is placed where you want them, you will choose the angle of your shot.  This is also done by swiping left and right to move a dotted line which represents your ball’s path.  Finally, you move a slider up or down to adjust the strength of  your shot.  This system works very well, and gives you a real feeling of strategy for attacking each hole.  If, in the middle of a hole, you aren’t sure where you are in relation to the cup, you have some options.  One option is to press the Camera action button on the left of the screen.  This will allow you to change your golfer’s view.  There are four different camera angles, although I prefer the default.  You may also choose to press the Eye action button.  This basically gives you the hole overview again with the addition of a slider that acts as a kind of reverse/forward function.  This is a really nice touch, and can help on some of the longer and more complicated holes.

You begin with only one 9-hole course available to you, which is Tiki Lands.  This course is quite entertaining by itself, but by finishing under par you will unlock 1 of 3 more courses: Sky Lands, Arctic Nine, and Cheese World.  Each of these courses add nice specific touches and challenges that add variety to an already enjoyable game.  These are the basics of gameplay.  It is simple enough that anyone can pick up and play, indeed the first time you play a helpful gopher will pop up and give you hints (and tease you when you mess up) to guide you along.  It has enough variety and challenge to keep more serious gamers happy as well.  At heart though, any mini golf game is going to be more about fun than strategy and challenge, and this game certainly fulfills the fun quotient to a great extent.  Highly recommended.