Previews

Hands on with Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park

Forget strolling the links... this could have you walking the plank

Hands on with Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park

In a rare case of a game's title actually reflecting a wider theme than its immediate plot or storyline, Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park is indicative of a rising popularity in golf games that have less to do with 550-yard, par-5 dog-legs over water, and more truck with novelty windmills.

Yes, minigolf – or, as we like to call it on this side of the Atlantic, crazy golf – is as hot as Lewis Hamilton right now. A rash of games has emerged over the past 12 months and this piratical effort, a kind of Pirates of the Caribbean meets the Put-Put Panorama, is the latest and, Gameloft hopes, the greatest.

Set in three different Ahoy-inducing locales, you'll play as the by-now typical selection of minigolf fans who are out for a laugh on the links. So it is that you take on your virtual chums – and the perils of each level – in a series of championships.

So far, so par for the course.

But what looks to set Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park apart from the competition is the amount of detail, and those little additions that the French game publisher has become renowned for.

Firstly, this is the first minigolf game we can recall that features you taking on end-of-level boss characters, each of whom must be beaten before you can hand in your scorecard. In the jungle level, for instance, this involves a Breakout-style barney, where you need to destroy barrels that a gorilla is leaping around on by hitting them with your ball.

The aiming system will enable you to achieve this with relative ease. You set the direction and power via a funky combination power bar and way marker that, while making it easy to get started, leaves enough in your hands to create a well-pitched learning curve.

There are plenty of hazards that'll make aiming more complicated, such as wind that blows your ball off-course and some tricky gradients that'll push your ball control to the limit. Aiding you are some tactically-placed hole boundaries, cannons, and pieces of eight which, when collected, yield helpful bonuses.

The physics engine, which was nearly complete in the version we were able to play, seems as though it's going to be accurate and rewarding. The ball behaves as you'd expect it, leaving you free to work the angles without distraction.

Finally, as is usual with Gameloft fare, it's all rendered in a vibrant, cartoon 2D style. Viewing proceedings from an isometric viewpoint doesn't harm the game at all, and it's hard to see how changing it would have made the game, and aiming in particular, any more accessible than it already is.

And therein lies the key to minigolf's resurging popularity: it's far easier to get to grips with than the latest Tiger Woods game. Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park looks like it'll bring the booty in this regard when it climbs aboard your handset later this month.