GAME REVIEWS

Review by Dave LeClair

Bowling, Pool, Poker and so one. What do all of these things have in common? There are a TON of them on the app store right now, but one genre that is surprisingly sparse is golf. Well Nuclear Nova Software has decided to hang that, by bringing their game GL Golf along. The question is; is GL Golf a hole in one, or does it fall right into a sand trap. In GL Golf, or rather gold in general, the idea to get your tiny white ball into a tiny little hole, but I’m sure you know that. The issue in terms of video games is finding an intuitive way or handling this. I think this challenge is amplified on the iPhone because a developer’s first instinct is going to be motion controls. Well Nuclear Nova opted to stay away from that, and make an incredibly clean and fluid touch interface, and it works perfectly. When you open up the game you are giving a menu to choose from a ton of options for how your game is going to play out. You choose one of five courses, what time of day and what season you want it to be and your difficulty level. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, and they are all pretty challenging.

Once you are in the game you are presented with a nice camera sweep of the course, and then it’s time to play some golf. The game automatically chooses the optimal club for you, but if you opt to change it you simply slide your finger up or down the screen to choose. Before you shoot you can choose to add punch loft and other options to your shot. To shoot you tap the screen twice to start your power meter, and you tap it again to stop the meter at your desired level.  It has everything you would expect to see on a golf course such as water hazards, sand traps and trees. On the mini-map, there is white line which indicates about how far the ball will travel if it is shot at max power, so it’s very easy to gauge how much power needs to put on the shot. Putting is played just like the rest of the game, the only difference is that there is a grid on the green to help you see where it breaks and properly aim your shots.

Visually the game looks amazing, in the beginning of a game when you get the 3d sweep of the course, it looks stunning. The overall look of everything in the game is simple enough to not cause frame rate problems, but advanced enough to look gorgeous. In terms of sound there is a lot of good stuff as well. The crowds Ohs and Ahs when you land near the hole are great, and club hitting ball sounds extremely authentic. Even the menu’s in game look nice and very intuitive.

There was only one negative thing that happened when I was playing, and it only happened once. I was way off on a shot and I ended up in a bunch of trees and one tree was positioned in just a way to block my view of where I was aiming, and as previously stated this only happened once, and it was a minor thing because the game lines you up where you should be aiming anyway.

In the end, GL Golf is an incredibly deep game, serving up five courses and tons of options, it never gets old. Add on some great sounds and visuals, and you have what is, in my opinion one of the best iPhone games to date.

Presentation & Graphics:

Great looking golf courses that look and feel very authentic. A very nice menu system adds to overall experience as well.

Sound:

Very authentic golf sounds. Clubs hitting the ball sound exactly as they should, and the crowds Ohs and Ahs really make it feel that much more like the real thing.

Gameplay:

Not going with motion controls, and instead, a clean touch interface, is one of the best decisions in iPhone gaming, period.

Game life:

Offers 5 very different courses, and the ability to change the seasons and the time of day give a lot of variety, but in the end is golf, and it does get old after a while, but there is a lot of fun to be had here for sure.

Game rating:

Final Word:

Overall, GL Golf is the best experience I have had playing a game on my iPhone. It offers great visuals, game play and tons of customization options for every game. If you love golf, and you own an iPhone, not buying GL Golf is not an option.