Galaxy Golf

Galaxy Golf: It’s golf Jim, but not as we know it!

Space, the final frontier, golf is boldly going where it’s never been before!

I’m sorry for all the Star Trek type puns but this game is definitely what the aliens would be choosing to play if they had a bit of time to spare whenever they weren’t too busy having wars and abducting people... if you believe that sort of thing.

Obviously golf on earth is a little different, there’s bunkers, fairways, the green and natural hazards like trees, water and even the wind to take into account. Space however doesn’t quite have the same obstacles, in fact apart from sun which can cause your ball-like comet going supernova, there’s only the boundaries and barriers you can use to your advantage as you move your way around the course.

Basically what you are tasked to do is take aim and fire your comet at the black holes. To do this, tap and hold the comet, drawing back your thumb to get the power (which is read from 0 to 100) and moving the thumb around to change the angle (360 degrees). Once you’re satisfied with the angle and power take your finger off the screen and watch your comet fly! If you get the angle right, along with the power, you’ll watch the comet streak across the sky leaving a pretty trail in its wake towards the target. As it enters the gravitational pull of the ‘hole’ it will either go straight in or do a rotation or two around the hole before going in (which not only looks pretty, resembling a spiral flower pattern, but also gives you lots of points).

To make this more challenging as you progress there are more holes and they become colour co-ordinated. The additional problem with having more holes in a restricted area is that you will need to use the gravitational pull of the holes to your advantage, or try to do one of two things, power your way through or use after-touch to pull off some amazing shots.

After-touch is where you touch the screen to trace the path you wish your comet to take. This has to be used sparingly however as it not only allows you to pull off some amazing trick-shots, but heats up your comet and speeds it up the longer it follows your path – which means you’ll possibly blow up and have to replay that level again.

The game is pretty addictive and offers plenty of courses to work your way round. Judging the power and accuracy is a breeze to do using the controls as they are. Zooming in and out is possible, as is moving the camera around the course if you so wish. In truth, this game is a nice spin on the traditional golf scene and I wish there was something similar to play on the more usual surroundings.

The most irritating thing for me is that it wants to hook you up with ‘friends’ from Myspace. This for me simply invades my space and breaks up the flow of the game too much (as it would happen whenever it likes at random moments around the course). If there was a way to switch this off, I would give this a superb rating but for this reason alone, it goes down in my estimation.

Rating 70%

Positives

An interesting take on the golfing idea

Challenging and addictive

Plenty of courses

Good controls

Negatives

Repeatedly interrupted by MySpace friend requests during the game play (which causes mistakes during play)

Very repetitive

Different appearances would have spiced it up a little