Putt Putt Golf

It might be a touch more haphazard than its more lucrative big brother, but crazy golf is still a game of fine margins.

Seeing someone sink a putt as the ball slowly rolls towards its goal, meandering between a dream shot and complete disaster in the process, is what the sport is all about.

Said putts are, of course, all about being able to judge the outside elements – i.e., the power you need to apply to accomodate both the angle and surface of the terrain you're playing on.

Power play

Any game that fails to acknowledge both factors is less a crazy golf sim and more a rather simplistic take on snooker - albeit minus the beer rings on the felt and the crunch of discarded pork scratchings beneath your feet.

Putt Putt Golf naturally doesn't take itself too seriously, but that's no excuse for the fact that it's equally light on gameplay.

With no thought for the actual roll of the ball, sinking a putt in play is more akin to scoring a goal in FIFA – to put it simply, you whack the ball with a fair amount of power in the general direction of the hole, and watch it fly in.

While that might sound like a rather glorious description, in truth it turns Putt Putt Golf into something of giant geometry problem. All you have to do to make the shot is judge how the ball will bounce off the surrounding walls en route, guiding it towards your goal via a series of rebounds.

Naturally, the fewer shots you manage it in, the greater your reward, with the game employing a medal system to encourage replay.

Simply does it

There's certainly no attempt made to add any level of difficulty to the process of taking the shot in the first place. Once you've positioned your take off point and direction, the power behind your strike is handled via a simple gauge – it's the kind of setup that can be digested in seconds.

So it's disappointing that whether you're playing a championship in one of the game's three zones – Ice, Forest, and Pirate – or passing your phone between four players in multiplayer mode, the actual act of the ball travelling around each hole is so off the money.

Seeing it sprint about and stop dead, or fly straight into the hole without difficulty, is almost comical.

That's the only smile Putt Putt Golf will bring to your face. Even the game's sinfully cheerful demeanour can't override it's depressingly average and misjudged take on crazy golf.