Mini Golf 99 Holes: Theme Park

Don't let it ever be said that crazy golf isn't a serious game. It might not have goons dressed in tank tops a la golf proper, but as a child I shed far too many tears over lost matches to treat golf-gone-mini as some kind of frolic on the green.

So how do you treat what could easily become a whimsical walk in the park with dignity on the mobile? With a deft touch, Mini Golf 99 Holes: Theme Park manages to give the game a hard edge whilst simultaneously lacing it with one or two light elements that make it as fun as it is formidable.

But it still wouldn't be fair to describe this as the ideal package, with a couple of design decisions muddying what could and should be a perfect balance.

Largely, 99 Holes follows the path set out by Digital Chocolate's Party Island franchise, with the idea being to move from hole to hole, zone to zone, winning medals and unlocking the path ahead.

Each hole is tackled solo, with the '4' and '6' keys moving the angle of your shot left and right, and the '5' key bringing up a power gauge that determines just how hard you thwack that ball.

It's concise stuff as far as the controls are concerned, but play deviates from the straight and narrow by adding in tokens scattered around the course that, when collected, open up special shots.

If that sounds rather complicated, be assured - it isn't. You play a young hopeful (creatively named 'Minni Golfer') looking to emulate her mini-golf heroes. To succeed, you have to travel to each of the other four characters' domains, winning one of the top two medals on every one of their 99 holes.

Winning each pro’s favour is a question of completing each hole as quick as you can, with every shot you take (or the time spent on each shot in later levels) draining your 'skill bar' and lessening your chances of winning a medal.

Once you've won gold or silver medals in all 99 stages, you’re able to switch to controlling the defeated character at any time, making use of their own bespoke moves.

These can only be used, however, when you've picked up enough tokens, which - along with bonus stars strategically placed in tricky positions - also handily boost your skill bar. Well worth the detour, then.

Talents range from being able to put the brakes on the ball's movement, helping you avoid falling back down tricky slopes or off the edge completely, to Amber's 'love ball', which automatically drags the ball into the hole when in close proximity, like metal to a magnet.

This might seem like a needlessly varied skill-set, included to fill promotional blurb and nothing more, but it's actually entirely apt when you see 99 Holes’s courses: sheer drops, lone platforms and interactive elements-a-plenty.

Indeed, you can't fault the design of the courses one bit – they're as inventive as they are difficult, and prove a worthy challenge, with the tokens and stars on offer helping tempt you away from going straight for the hole.

It's not these off-the-beaten-track diversions that undermine 99 Holes's strengths, but rather two other factors: the view, and the fact you play alone.

99 Holes is viewed isometrically, which is fine when play is on a level, but tends to look confusingly disjointed when steep slopes or different platforms are involved.

It also distorts the line that predicts the ball's movement, meaning many a shot is wasted with the ball cannoning off a wall in a completely different direction to the one you'd intended.

It's by no means jarring enough to taint the game entirely, and although things get rather lonely as the holes pass (it might have been wiser to try and serve up an AI. opponent to give play a real competitive edge), there is still lots to enjoy here.

The holes are so varied and the skills needed to combat each one so changeable that Mini Golf 99 Holes: Theme Park might not be a hole in one, but it's worth a few rounds.