Golfing Around review
:: PAR FOR THE COURSEPrice: Free
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone SE
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Whenever an intriguing sports game graces the App Store, it’s likely you’re looking at one made by Colin Lane. Lane has made a name for doing things like combining platforming and golf with Golf Zero or making games about sinking speedy skill shots in golf against other players in Battle Golf Online. Come to think of it, golf seems like a bit of a mainstay for Lane, and this continues to be true with the release of Golfing Around, a simple little golf game that’s fun, though a bit simple.
Throwback swinging
Golf games over the years have changed and evolved, but Golfing Around very much feels like a pretty classic, no-nonsense golfing game. You have an overhead view of your golfer, a simple interface to change your clubs and aim, and the traditional swing meter to control your shot power.
To make sure you’re lining up your shots right, Golfing Around has a nice overhead map you can pull up to see the whole course, though you can never really have 100% control over where your ball will land. There’s wind to account for, as well as other variables like a slice and hook system that kicks in when you try to maximize shot power and your ball’s propensity to bounce around. Your ultimate goal in Golfing Around is to try and learn how to use these variables to your advantage so you can play consistently and efficiently through holes.
Create the course
Golfing Around sports three courses, but once you complete these, your golfing career is nowhere close to over. In addition to replaying these holes, Golfing Around has its own, built-in course builder, ensuring that you’ll never run out of new golfing scenarios.
The builder itself provides a robust set of tools that allows you make courses full of sand traps, water hazards, trees, and just about anything else you can find in the game’s pre-built courses. That said, the builder isn’t particularly easy to use, so if you plan on picking up Golfing Around to unleash your inner golf course designer, know that its building tools will likely test your patience.
Par for the course
The ability to play user-created holes in Golfing Around is nice, but aside from this feature, the game itself is just a really straightforward golfing game. Depending on who you are, this could be a good or bad thing. Perhaps a classic golf game with some replay value is exactly what you’re looking for, or maybe the idea of Colin Lane making a pretty traditional sports game sounds disappointing compared to his previous output.
For me, I’m definitely part of the latter group. There are plenty of fine golf games out there, but I’ve only really been excited about the ones Colin Lane has made recently because they’re so different from traditional sports games. With Golfing Around, I feel like I’m playing a solid golf game, but it doesn’t do much to put a twist on the sport, which is something I’ve come to expect from Colin Lane projects.
The bottom line
Golfing Around is good, simple fun. If you just want a golf game that resembles old school titles like Fuji Golf, this game definitely delivers. Golfing Around is only really disappointing if you know going into it that the creator behind this game used to have ideas like “what if slo-mo platforming and also golf?” and is now just presenting a no-nonsense golf game with a course creator. It just feels a little underwhelming compared to his previous output, even though this effort is perfectly pleasant for what it is.