3D Mini Golf World Tour

What must a mini-golf course be to earn the title ‘crazy golf’?

Having sampled the delights of what was possibly the dullest crazy golf course in the country back in my youth (it had no slopes and most holes were a foot in front of the tee), I’m guessing the more features that are removed, the crazier it is.

If that’s the case, then 3D Mini Golf World Tour isn’t just crazy - it’s stark-raving mad.

There are 45 holes (or ‘tracks’ as the game likes to call them) spread over five different themes that roughly resemble parts of the world to putt your small white golf ball around in. When I say ‘roughly’, though, I mean ‘Desert’ or ‘Beach’, not Bolivia or junction 12 of the M1.

At the start of the game, the player gets to choose between two golfers – male and female – but this essentially boils down to whether you want your avatar in a skirt or not.

There are no characteristics or stats that determine how accurately your golfer swings, just pure unadulterated putting, performed by holding down the ‘5’ key.

The presentation, too, could be considered ‘pure’ in that it’s rather sparsely populated. While the menus contain that familiar Digital Chocolate look about them, the 3D graphics lack character, with the courses ending up looking lonely and isolated during the swish camera fly-by for each track.

Once the camera settles, the first real issue of the game rears its head, or rather your character’s head.

For some reason, the avatar is hell-bent on obscuring possibly the most important part of the screen – the middle – making straight distance shots unnecessarily cumbersome.

There are other camera angles to choose from, but not one feels comfortable in judging the angles and it can lead to some of the easier shots ending up a lot harder to judge than they should be.

The tracks are, in general, well designed, with a number of interesting obstacles and features including springboards, magnets, and magic teleportation holes.

It’s just a shame these clever courses can’t be played in multiplayer, especially as other mini golf games from DC like 99 Holes offer such a mode. In fact, that earlier title also offered up collection games, more tracks, and exactly the same obstacles as World Tour as well.

World Tour does have some nicely tricky shots that are entertaining to play through, but the sparse presentation and removal of modes featured in earlier efforts is just plain crazy.