Game: Planet Minigolf
Publisher: Zen Studios
Developer: Zen Studios
Genre: Sports
Price: $9.99 ($2.49 for Stronghold Island expansion)
Verdict: Not the flashiest use of the PlayStation Move, but it’s a good way to enhance the experience.
Pros: Extremely intuitive. Syncing isn’t distracting.
Cons: Difficult putts can be even more frustrating
Zen Studios first released Planet Minigolf on the PSN back in June. The game received some fair reviews and the Stronghold Island expansion recently made its way to the PlayStation Store. A free update to Planet Minigolf added all new motion controls shortly after the launch of the PlayStation Move in September. Being one of the first adopters of Sony’s new Motion Controller, I took a tour of Planet Minigolf to see how it fared with the Move.
With my ice cream cone controller in hand, I took to the green and swung away. What was immediately apparent was that Planet Minigolf is not a demonstration of the one-to-one gameplay possible with the Move. Aiming and swinging are broken up into two separate steps. This is probably for the best, as it allows better control over your putts during the game’s outlandish courses. Combining the two into a single swing could have lead to more frustration than fun.
Aiming is accomplished by holding the move button and pointing left or right to turn your character. Tilting the controller up or down will tilt the camera, but it won’t have an effect on the actual putt. Once you are all lined up, you begin your putt by aiming straight down and pressing the trigger. From there, your Move controller is just like a putter. The putt strength will be determined by how high you raise the putter and how hard you swing it. You can take as many practice swings as you’d like. You simply hold down the Move button when you are ready for the swing to count. If you need to recalibrate your swing, simply point down and press the trigger again.
While the implementation of the Move isn’t particularly flashy, it does help draw you into the experience. A hole in one comes with a rush of satisfaction that just isn’t as strong when using a standard controller. Dialing in your swing is less looking at numbers and more feeling it out. This is easier than it sounds by virtue of having aiming and swinging broken into separate steps.
The trade off is that when you blow the same putt five times in a row, you are likely to be overcome with the urge to shove the Move’s big glowing ball straight up Kevin Butler’s ass. Luckily, you can restart a hole at any given time with the only penalty being that you won’t be able to post your score on the online leader boards. It’s okay if you restart; I won’t tell anyone.
While I wouldn’t run out and buy a Move just to play Planet Minigolf, it is a fun experience if you are looking to try out your new toy. After all, you can pick up the game and its expansion for, well, less than the cost of a game of real life minigolf.
GrE Grade: C+
Popularity: unranked [?]
