Game Reviews

Nano Golf review - A puzzling putting game that's got a few tricks up its sleeve

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iOS
| Nano Golf
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Nano Golf review - A puzzling putting game that's got a few tricks up its sleeve
|
iOS
| Nano Golf

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What happens when Nitrome makes a golf game? Well, as you might imagine, things manage to be both rather simple and rather silly at the same time.

Nano Golf takes the simple heart of a putt-putt crazy golf round, then adds in some classic Nitrome madness. There are spikes, there are boss battles, there are moving pieces of ground that will catapult your ball around like a bullet.

But there's challenge here too, and more importantly than that, a good deal of fun, light-fingered head-scratching as well.

Putt it away

The controls here are exceptionally efficient. Drag a finger on the screen to power up your shot, and move it around to aim. Release and the ball pings off in whatever direction you were pointing it in.

The courses are broken up into a number of different holes. Each hole gives you a number of shots to complete it in. Get under par and you'll be pretty damn chuffed, although sometimes just managing to get the ball into the hole is an achievement in and of itself.

There's no frippery here, just golf. Golf with steeply angled hills, multitudes of corners, and plenty of other obstacles that are attempting to put you off your swing and ensure you don't succeed.

Nano Golf iOS review screenshot

Sometimes those obstacles are less static though. You'll get chased by a golf buggy sometimes, which adds the added pressure of time onto your shots.

It's one of the interesting ideas that Nitrome throws into the mix. There are aspects of platformers, puzzlers, and auto-runners here. It's almost a what's-what of mobile gaming that just happens to be a golf game.

Thankfully there's no city-building, and the free to play elements involve having to sit through ads form time to time. You can get rid of them with an IAP though.

Going for golf

There's a lot to like about Nano Golf. But in the end it is a pretty small game. Once you've finished all the holes you can hop back to try and get better scores, but it's unlikely many people are going to do that.

This is distraction gaming, pure and simple, and it's very good at it. But if you're looking for something with a little more depth you're going to be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you're just after a golfy fumble and a bit of fun, then you're going to find this one more than up to the task.

Nano Golf review - A puzzling putting game that's got a few tricks up its sleeve

There are some really good ideas in Nano Golf, but its simplicity eventually means it runs out of steam a bit
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.