Golf your way out of purgatory
The sport of golf has changed quite a bit over the past few years. Games like Golf Story, What golf?and even Mario plays golf The series has made the sport come back again and again. Cursed for Golf spin itself, turn golf into roguelite and also a pretty fun game.
Cursed for Golf Introduce your player character possibly the greatest character of all time. You are in the final rounds of a major championship and are ready to put your name in the annals. Then lightning struck.
A lightning bolt hits your golf deep into purgatory. There’s good news, as a looming spectral giant called The Scotsman informs you: you can actually golf your way out of the underworld. And so your journey begins.
However, it is not as easy as driving to the green area. The basics of golf are boiled down to their key ingredients. There is a hole that you must access using a ruler, iron or wedge. Shot force and angle are easy to grasp and master, and there’s no depth; it’s a 2D scroll view, side to side. Taking photos feels very intuitive, very fast.
Cursed forever with golf
However, every single one of those pictures counts. Destiny is not really a measure of good or bad, just like life or death in Cursed for Golf. Each course starts with the year above your Par Number and ticks down. Run through the turn and you miss the hole, plunge into the abyss to start over. However, defeating idols during the process can add more hits to the Count, so routing becomes very important.
Yes, routing. Holes can have multiple flags, obstacles to overcome, and different challenges. Maybe a TNT column blocks a path, so you’ll need to use a balloon to blow open a path. The alternate path may not require a spent ball, but it may then have a more dangerous path, with multiple locations for a stuck ball.
Ace cards bring it all together. As you progress through the courses, shops and challenges will offer Ace Cards that act like a powerhouse. Practice Shot allows you to make an informal shot that moves your ball forward, but also doesn’t count towards par. It is extremely useful for hitting TNT or testing a risky chip. Others allow you to add more hits to the Par Count or directly deal with hazards.
Of course, my favorites are even more exotic. Enabling a time-freeze card will allow you to drop a hit at any point during card delivery. So you can swing a golf ball through where you need it – the hole, for example – and then, at the right moment, freeze it and drop it straight down. The reverse spin feels like it has opened up incredible new strategies; Once activated, you can essentially “push” your shot in one direction after firing it. So you could theoretically slam a ball toward a wall, bounce it off, and then use an extra jump from U-Turn to navigate up a bunch of platforms.
Play golf
If that sounds a bit like you, well, sometimes it is. There were moments in Cursed for Golf where, when I’m navigating the level, using the physics and available tools to do things like jumping over platforms or crossing dangerous areas, I feel like a platformer. The ultimate touch developer Chuhai Labs adds is a bit of a spin, bringing the platform together.
After a shot is shot, you can add just a little bit of front or back shot on top of it. It’s very small and, as developer Liam Edwards told me in my demo, was originally intended to help players who constantly drive into corners and get stuck. (I could have done exactly that in my demo as well).
But that last touch put the cherry on top of the custard, causing Cursed for Golf feels like a new pleasure to join golf. I failed on the second hole, thanks to a risky hit that went straight into a bunker. And immediately, I want to run a second time. I had lots of ideas on how I could navigate better, route better with the Birdie Eye Cam and handle the hole like a real golfer.
Cursed for Golf Very charming as well. It’s bright and colorful, with great pixel art filling the course. The music is upbeat and fun, and for a game about golf, it’s a bit funny and hilarious. It has a fun approach to sports from the afterlife, like a combination of Hades and Golf Storyand it hits the midpoint of that Venn diagram.
So yes, even now, I’m eager to try my hand at escaping from purgatory in the golf course again. I’m sure those shots will work, with the right aces and a little spin on the ball. There’s no certain date for tee, but this golf-based getaway is coming to PC, Switch, and Xbox this summer, and I’m expecting another hit at the devil’s lawn. Only one Demo is available on Steam if you also want to try.
