Crazy Golf (PS2)

After playing crazy golf on holiday in Great Yarmouth at Pirate's Cove I saw this in my local Morrisons for the bargain price of £7 and thought I would give it a go. It has turned out to be enormous fun and we think that it is one of the best budget buys ever.

So what does this Phoenix game have to offer you???

Well you can play with up to 4 players and use one of the four cool dog characters which you can rename yourself. ...
...play which sounds like a lot although each level is the equivalent to a hole on one of the courses in 3 very different worlds. This means you have a total of 54 different holes to complete in the whole game. There are lots of pitfalls and obstacles to avoid as well as gradients to figure out so that you don't over or under hit a shot.

As previously stated you can compete against other players but you can just play on your own and this ... more

After playing crazy golf on holiday in Great Yarmouth at Pirate's Cove I saw this in my local Morrisons for the bargain price of £7 and thought I would give it a go. It has turned out to be enormous fun and we think that it is one of the best budget buys ever.

So what does this Phoenix game have to offer you???

Well you can play with up to 4 players and use one of the four cool dog characters which you can rename yourself. It says that there are over 50 levels to play which sounds like a lot although each level is the equivalent to a hole on one of the courses in 3 very different worlds. This means you have a total of 54 different holes to complete in the whole game. There are lots of pitfalls and obstacles to avoid as well as gradients to figure out so that you don't over or under hit a shot.

As previously stated you can compete against other players but you can just play on your own and this gives you the opportunity to unlock levels as you go along if you choose to play in career mode. To do this you need to win a trophy - Bronze, Silver or Gold. To win a bronze trophy you have to score 14 out of 18 pars (that is completing the hole in the required number of shots or less). For silver you need 16 pars or less and for gold you need to get the full 18 pars or less.

Another way to play as a single player is on Tournament mode which is only available on any unlocked course. For this you have to beat the course score instead of each separate hole. I find this slightly better as you can have a couple of bad scores and still pull it back on others. To get a bronze trophy here you need to complete the course at par, for silver be 4 under par and for gold you need to be an amazing 8 under par which is not the easiest.

For both the Career and the Tournament modes you can save your progress as you proceed. If you feel you just need to have a practice of a specific hole then that it available on the practice mode where any hole on any unlocked course is available. However, any record scores will not be recorded whilst you are practicing.

The multi player modes are Versus, Grand Prix and Party. Party is like the practice mode where it's just for fun with one hole of your choice up for grabs. Again record scores don't count here.

Versus mode allows you to play any unlocked course and you score a point for each of the 18 holes you win. The player who has won the most points at the end of the round is the winner.

Grand Prix mode is slightly different as you can choose to play a random 9 or 18 hole round or all the unlocked holes in a random order which could take a while. There is a scoreboard to keep note of your total scores to see who wins at the end of the round.

In multiplayer you cannot unlock other courses.

The options for this game are Music Volume, Sound FX Volume, Putting Guide and Credits.

Music and Sound FX Volume allows you to turn these up or down as you require. The music can get very irritating and repetative so you might want to turn this off but the sound effects are quite good with cheers if you beat a course record and boos if you continually hit your ball out of bounds or end up well over par. There are also enthusiatic displays from your character if you play well and a lot of amusing head shaking if you are doing badly. There are also different sound effects from the various worlds that you are in.

Credits allow you to see who is responsible for the making of the game.

Putting Guide is something that is turned on or off as required depending how good you are. This is a similar idea as in some of the snooker or pool games where it shows exactly the direction or angle where your ball is headed, to a certain point in front of you.

The controls take a bit of getting used to with this game and this would be the only fault I have apart from the annoying music. There are 2 modes here - Swing and Camera. To get into Swing mode and to play the shot X is pressed. O is pressed to take it into Camera mode.

Whilst in camera mode you can move the camera by using the left analog stick and rotate the camera by using the right analog stick. This is useful if there are bends or obstacles and you can get a better view of what is ahead of you. This is ok but you have to then press X to take you back into Swing mode to take your shot so the angle you perhaps want will be changed back.

To get the angle you want use your directional buttons or your left analog stick til your player is aiming the right way. To play a shot can be tricky to start with - you firstly have to move the right analog stick down to adjust the power bar. When it is at the level of strength you think you need then you push the right stick up firmly. If you need to adjust the power again you can move it gently to the middle to start again. This resulted in quite a few shots being played too hard or soft to start with and sometimes not being played at all when we didn't move the stick up quickly enough. Once you have got the hang of it though this game starts to get very addictive and competative if you are playing against your friends or partner.

The game itself has 3 background worlds - in the sky, underwater and in outer space. Underwater is the only one available to play at the start as the other 2 are the locked courses and there are lots of things going on the in background whilst you are trying to take your shots which makes it interesting for the other players watching. This can also be very irritating if you happen to be playing a shot and a fish decides to swim in front of your vision causing you to have to use your judgement to time when you can see best.

The courses are very mixed and have lots of different challenges. Some holes look easy but beware, the squares on the course help to show the paths the gradients take and there are many bumpy bits to watch out for where your ball will fly off course if you hit it too hard. Sometimes this can work to your advantage though as you can purposely jump over parts of the course to get you nearer to the hole. This takes confidence and a lot of practice and luck to get it right. There are also some areas which do not have protective sides so your ball can fall off the edge if you hit it too hard or if it bounces off another side or obstacle. If this happens you are classed as out of bounds and it costs you an extra shot just to get the ball back in play where it was before you hit it. The most annoying obstacles though are the moving ones which can either be a great help or hindrance depending whether you can hit the ball at exactly the right time.

We love this game in our household and it is great as a single player game where you try to beat your own scores or as a competition between the family. It is easy to learn and understand and the fun backgrounds make it a bit more of a relaxed game than all the other golfing games out there. The characters are amusing and even though there are only 3 courses in total the random facility on the multi player section keeps this game interesting as you are never sure what to expect next. Full marks to Phoenix for developing such an addictive game as such a reasonable price. 

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