Super Stickman Golf Review

Super Stick Golf, as the title may have clued you into, is the sequel to Stick Golf. Much like its predecessor, the game has you playing as an anonymous stick figure golfer, who has a penchant for playing outlandish golf courses, from crazy factories, to the planet Mars. While the original Stick Golf came with plenty of tricky courses, there's now tools to help you traverse the wacky courses in the form of special golf balls. You get 7 per 9-hole course, which range from a simple mulligan ball that lets you re-attempt your last shot, a sticky ball that sticks to walls, and balls that alter the terrain to your advantage.

It's the additions to the game that make Super Stick Golf much improved over the original. The new special balls come with their own strategy, as you have to choose at the start the 7 balls you're going to use, and when you use them can save you countless nubmers of strokes. The controls are still as simple as choosing your angle, tapping a button to start the shot meter, and tapping the button to stop it and swing. The meter has new lines on it that make it easier to set precise shot power. The inclusion of the courses from the original with the ability to use the special powerups only adds to the game's replayability, and allows you to experience the courses you've played already in new ways.

Super Stick Golf deserves special mention for its soundtrack. Composer Whitaker Blackall (known for his contributions to Tilt to Live) has crafted a chiptune soundtrack where each track fits the theme of the course perfectly, and causes an emotional reaction from the connection of the music with the visuals of each level. If this music was released 20-25 years ago, there would be countless remixes of it on OCRemix. It is that incredible.

The problem is that the original Stick Golf courses lack any music at all - you'll need to provide your own soundtrack for them, and you'll be spending plenty of time playing those courses as there is twice as many of those as there are original courses. The game currently has Retina Display support, but not native iPad support. The developer has mentioned on Twitter that iPad support would be coming in some form in the future, after multiplayer is added in the next update. As well, the game's scoring system is Game Center only, so older iOS device owners are out in the cold for leaderboards and achievements. As well, the leaderboards only show your total score for the Super and Classic tours, not for individual courses.

Super Stick Golf is a great example of what to do with a sequel - they refined what worked, added elements that make the game feel fresh, and loaded the game down with plenty of content. Super Stick Golf is an addictive and wonderful iOS game. If you're not sold on it, the original is free on iPhone and iPad as of publication, to get a taste of the Stick Golf addictiveness.