Golf Story Review

[Eliwood8]

One part sports game, one part RPG, Golf Story revives the unfortunately all-too-rare genre of story-driven sports game, one that retains all of the key gameplay components of golf while offering a more engaging sense of progression than simply collecting tournament trophies. Although Golf Story isn't the first game to blend these two game genres together, it does so with an undeniable charm.

 

You play as an average golfer with dreams of hitting the pro circuit after being inspired by his dad as a child. Though he starts out as a nobody in the golfing world who can't even seem to get a coach to give him a chance, a bit of tenacity helps him gradually make a name for himself as he conquers each of the themed golf courses in the game's suspiciously Australia-shaped island. The basic plot isn't terribly exciting, and even the protagonist is a bit bland, but that's only because he plays the straight man to the game's multitude of oddball characters. From rapping hoodlums to aged country club snobs, it seems like everyone in the world of Golf Story loves golf, and that means you'll meet all manner of fun and funny characters and strange scenarios—the country club's werewolf scare being a notable highlight of the game's writing and sense of humor. It's great to see a sports game that just has fun with its setting, and even the corniest jokes are a welcome break between playing a round of nine holes.

 

 

No matter how the story or side content is presented, the core of Golf Story is still classic virtual golf gameplay—if you've ever played a golf video game you'll instantly be familiar with the key gameplay mechanics here. Golf Story really doesn't do much that's new on the basic aiming/swinging mechanics, though to be fair, why try to fix something that isn't broken? Selecting a club, lining up a shot, adjusting for wind, and locking in the power of your swing with a quick button press are all totally standard golf mechanics by now and they remain engaging, if somewhat repetitive.

 

Golf Story isn't afraid to think a little out of the box when it comes to course design, though. The layouts and hazards may not be quite as wild as some Mario Golf entries, but there are far more tricky and inventive obstacles to deal with here than on any real life course. Even so, Golf Story is overall a fairly easy game. Sure you might have some trouble on certain holes, especially if you get too ambitious about skirting the main path in favor of riskier shortcuts, but the key moments required to progress the story aren't going to push you to ace every hole—oftentimes just hitting par is good enough. As such there may not be a ton of depth to Golf Story in terms of either mechanics or difficulty, but it's a breezy, enjoyable course all the same.

 

 

The game is also advertised as having RPG mechanics, though these are admittedly relatively minor to the game. As you progress you'll earn experience points, and when you level up you can boost your stats, such as power, accuracy, handling, etc. Your main stat is power, but increasing power affects your other stats—i.e. increasing power will make your accuracy go down—so you'll want to keep your stats balanced by not increasing power without adjusting other stats as well. Hence, there's not much variety in terms of how you level up. If you wanted to give yourself an extra challenge you could try leaving your accuracy on the low end, but for most players divvying up these stat points will be fairly mindless. You can also equip different clubs, but there aren't a huge variety to find in the game. There really isn't much variety in terms of how you approach Golf Story.

 

It is, perhaps, not too surprising that a golf game would fall into a fair bit of repetition. Even with eight different courses, each with its own quirks, you have to really enjoy golf to keep up the energy throughout the fifteen hours or so that it takes to finish Golf Story. It doesn't help that the game forces you into repeating courses occasionally as part of the story, which gets a little tiresome. If you do want some extra gameplay though there are numerous side quests and challenges you can take on to earn a little extra EXP and money. These can feel mindlessly repetitive at times as well but they're also a good way of sharpening your skills since they tend to focus on one aspect such as aiming, chipping, putting, etc. And if you want to play a round without jumping into the story there's also a quick play mode which can support local two-player versus matches, just in case you need to settle who the real golf pro is.

 

 

A big part of the game's charm comes down to its simple yet fun pixel graphics. There's nothing flashy in Golf Story, and across the game's eight themed courses the environments never stray from anything that would typically be seen in a video game, and yet there's an undeniable sense of style in the sprite work, one that perfectly suits the story's droll sense of humor. The soundtrack isn't half bad either. The music has a ton of personality in it, perfect for the somewhat-grand adventure of becoming a golf pro, even if it's hard to pay attention to the music when you're focusing on lining up your swing.

 

Golf Story is a charming little game and a great revival of the subgenre of sports games that emphasizes adventure and story progression in addition to sports simulation. Although not a huge step forward for the golf genre and slightly bogged down by repetition, the game's light-hearted humor will easily pull in any virtual golfing fan.

 

Rating: 7 out of 10 Clubs

[DLurkster]

I'm just getting around to playing this game and pretty much everything you said above is accurate to the "tee".

 

Having a great time with the game and great review as well.