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   Company Hudson ESRB Rating E for Everyone Release Date US - November 5, 2007 Controllers Wii Remote Classic Controller Gamecube Controller Wii Points 600  Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 Virtual-Turbo |
The
TurboGrafx-16 system had a nice
variety of sports titles available for it over the course of its life
span, unfortunately the majority of them were fairly substandard when
compared to entries on the other systems of the same time period. Power
Golf has all the makings of a great golf simulation, but sadly a few of
the shortcomings in the play control department keep the game from ever
reaching its full potential and the result is a nice looking but very
erratic playing golf game.
There are basically three types of play in Power Golf. There's Stroke Play, which is the only single player version of the game, as well as Match Play for two players and Competition Play for two to three players. When you first begin a hole, you'll get a scrolling view of the entire hole from flagstick to tee box. You can then switch between the variety of golf clubs using the up and down directions on the d-pad. You can also aim your shots to the left or right using those corresponding directions on the d-pad. Once you've selected your club and shot direction, you then press the action button to bring up the swing window. As found in most golf video games, you have a power meter at the bottom of the swing window. You press the action button to start the cursor moving to the left. How far left you allow the cursor to move determines how powerful your swing will be. The farther the cursor is to the left when you press the action button again to begin your swing, the harder you'll strike the ball. Once you've selected the swing speed the cursor will now move very quickly back to the right towards the red sweet spot marker on the meter bar. If you want to hit your shot perfectly straight you have to press the action button once again when the cursor is directly on top of the red sweet spot marker. You can also add a hook or fade to your shot by stopping the cursor just to the left or right of the red marker. If you're too far off the red marker, your shot will drift radically off course. Anyone that's played a golf game over the past decade should know what to expect from the control system in Power Golf, as it's pretty standard stuff. The play control setup itself is very well laid out in Power Golf. That's not the problem. It's how this setup is executed that hurts the overall playability of the game. In most golf simulations, the cursor moving on the meter bar is a lot slower and at least gives the player time to accurately gauge their button presses to gain the swing speed and accuracy they desire. In Power Golf, this cursor moves so rapidly that your swing speed and accuracy become more a matter of luck than actual timing. Another problem with this is that each club features a different cursor speed so it's almost impossible to ever get a handle on the timing of the cursor movement. You'll spend most of your time hitting shots out of bounds and in the rough using Power Golf's streaky play mechanics. Even those who've owned the game for years can attest to the fact that it never gets much easier either, no matter how much time you put into getting your shot making down. It's a shame that everything else is so well designed and it's this shot meter that ends up bringing the entire playing experience down so much. Visually Power Golf is quite impressive. There's a surprising amount of detail and vibrancy in the many holes the golf course offers. Even the shot window shows the backgrounds in great detail, although they're more generic representations rather than an actual accurate view of the backdrop your shooting towards. The scrolling of each hole is plenty smooth and it's fun to watch the flight of the ball as it travels down the fairways. At the end of the day, this is still a 16-bit golf game so don't expect a miracle out of its visuals. The sound effects and music in Power Golf are fairly standard fare. There's basically just one song that plays along during the game, but it's at least interesting enough so that it doesn't become too repetitive or bothersome as you play. There's no speech or crowd noise either which might have been a nice addition, but these omissions don't effect the overall presentation anyway since most golf games from this era didn't feature them either. Power Golf has a lot of potential but once again the old addage that game play can make or break a video game holds quite true in this game's case. There are a lot of nice elements in Power Golf, but the broken play control just makes playing the game more of a lesson in futility than one of enjoyment. Even the 8-bit NES Golf game is better than this one even though it doesn't have the more detailed visuals found in Power Golf. If you absolutely must play every golf game out there, you might give this one a try, but if you're expecting something as playable as some of the better golf sims of this era, you'd better pass on this one. It's a decent golf game, it's just a bit too frustrating to be much fun. |
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