Mini Golf Challenge: 99 Holes

Digital Chocolate is making the most of mini golf, this being the third 99 Holes title in recent years to offer up a take on the sport.

It's been able to do so because the set-up, which fuses the basics of mini golf with some more 'supernatural' elements, gives it plenty of scope to experiment with play, offering up wilder and wilder holes as you move through the games.

At least, that's what it should do. While Mini Golf 99 Holes: Theme Park had some beautifully pitched stages that really pushed barriers, the titled Mini Golf Challenge: 99 Holes is tired, lame (in the traditional sense of the word) and, worse than anything, not really worth your time.

The game's Master Challenge mode, which naturally forms the bulk of play, is set up in much the same way as its aforementioned predecessor, the idea being to pick up enough rating stars in each collection of holes in order to unlock further levels.

Controls during the holes themselves are especially simple and almost self-explanatory, '4' and '6' changing the angle of your shot (a handy line making it clear where you're aiming in the first place), '5' bringing up a power gauge that controls the force behind your drive.

It's that same power gauge which, more often than not, determines just whether you manage to pick up those stars in the first place.

Though there are five different types of hole intermingled into play (holes where beating a par score is the target, those where time is your enemy, hole in one challenges, versus mode games where an AI opponent sets the score to beat, and holes where coins have to be picked up to open a door blocking your goal), with many you need not even alter the direction of your shot, the one and only test being to put the right amount of power behind it.

Even that is largely a guessing game, with Mini Golf Challenge: 99 Holes employing an increasing number of interactive elements - giants that squash your ball en route, slopes that drop it into water, magnets that pull it off path, amongst many many others - that do little more than change the amount of swing you need employ to reach the hole.

When you manage to get it right, it's usually down to pure luck, or repeated tries. The game essentially rewards those who care very little, thwacking the ball with little thought and getting a lucky hole in one, or those who try every combination of shots possible. Neither strategy requires much skill, nor are they especially fun or fulfilling.

That's a perfect summation for the game as a whole. Mini Golf Challenge: 99 Holes feels like the result of a franchise that's been stretched as far as it can go, and then stretched a bit more for good measure.

Those looking for an example of how to perfect this kind of addictive mini-game bonanza should probably check out Mini Golf 99 Holes: Theme Park, because what's on offer here is less a hole in one, and more a game that's just full of holes.