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0 During the 27th Annual DICE Awards there was an acceptance speech that caught my attention. Tim Garbos from Danish developer Triband Games was collecting the Award for Mobile Game Of The Year for What The Car. The speech was so brilliantly delivered with such whimsical humor that it is easily one of my favourite ever awards speeches. When the games predecessor, WHAT THE GOLF teed off on consoles I just had to check it out.
Hole In One – What The Golf
Played here on PS5 the game is out now and also available on PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Linux and iOS.
It’s difficult to talk about What The Golf without spoiling the experience. Its beauty is in the joy of discovering this wacky title with the controller in hand and a smile on your face. Heck don’t even be tempted to look at the trailer below… just go grab this game and let the fun engulf you.
To that end then, to keep this review spoiler free everything here, including the screenshots will have your enjoyment of the game in mind.
If fun golf titles are your thing you can check out my review of Cursed to Golf.
Gameplay
Aiming is done with the left thumbstick while pressing the X face button applies power to your shot. Line up your shot and hit with the correct power to get to the flag… So simple…. or is it?
The gameplay physics make things so fun and with constant new level mechanics introduced there is always that drive to play “just one more hole”.
For menu navigation there is a world map implementation. Again aiming and hitting the ball in the direction you want to travel or towards the gameplay mode you want to play.
What is so evident is the fun the team had putting this game together. I can only imagine their development meetings to compile an extensive list of golf puns.
Where I think the game could be improved would be to bring all of the unique DualSense features into play. Add tension on the triggers for powering shots. Paired with the already well implemented haptics and speaker use in the controller would be something that would further enhance this already excellent title.
Graphics & Audio
The visual presentation has a distinctive style that carries over to sister titles What The Car and What The Bat. It perfectly fits the vibe that the game is going for.
The soundtrack is so so good. Parts of it reminded me of The Warp Zone’s brilliant acapella rendition of the Game Of Thrones intro theme. 10 years on it still gets stuck in my head (go look it up and thank me later).
Longevity
Everything is so cleverly designed here and its mind boggling how the team have delivered not only a great experience the first time around, but have managed to pack in replay value and extra challenge for those who seek it. Each hole in the campaign has 2 extra play modes and beating them bags you a crown on the flag to denote your 100% completion.
Regular updates, themed episodes and daily challenges keeps things fresh for players. There is also a really fun party mode that had me sore from laughing. The absolute joy of couch multiplayer gaming fun.
For keen trophy hunters there is a Platinum trophy on offer. This requires grabbing the 51 Bronze, 4 Silver and 1 Gold trophies on the list. There’s also an extended DLC list of trophies too.
Final Thoughts
Maybe I’ve been sleeping too long on some Mobile Games, because What The Golf absolutely nails what fun games are all about.
This is genuinely on another level when it comes to design and it subverts your expectations right from the get go. The game constantly finding new ways to entertain, challenge and surprise. I would love to see what the creative genius of this talented team at Triband could come up with if tackling some other genres of games.
What The Golf is par for the course and swings its way to a nice shiny Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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