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Super Video Golf Review
What is golf, anyway?
I hate golf, and I’ve always hated it. I wish I could stand here and say it was because of the high environmental costs of the courses, the possible side effects of being near one, or even how the surrounding culture is largely designed to segregate out the poor and non-white by the very nature of country clubs and their historic clientele. Certainly, those are considerations I make now as an adult, but the real reason I don’t like golf is that it is just so fucking boring.
It’s boring to watch, with dozens of spectators standing around solemnly as another guy also just stands there until he finally takes a swing. Did the player hit the ball well? Commentary may provide clues, but the best you’ll get from a crowd is a gentle clap or murmurs. There’s no community or engagement, and no real passion aside from a few notable players. Playing golf is perhaps even worse, because I’ve not only had to endure paying extortionate sums to shuffle across lifeless greenery, but also suffer the company of the most vapid people imaginable.
Publisher: Trederia Developer: Trederia Platform: Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on February 2, 2023 on PC (Steam), and October 14, 2021 on itch.io |
In a wonderful twist of fate, golf video games do not have this problem. Where video games often struggle to capture the spirit, excitement, and camaraderie that sport engenders in players and fans alike, golfing video games inject it into an otherwise lifeless endeavor. Super Video Golf does much the same, providing a retro-styled playground to engage with the mechanics and strategy of golfing, without the power-ups or visual spectacle of the more arcadey offerings that generally populate the market.
With the visuals of a 90s PC game, complete with chunky polygonal models for the players and a crisp color palette for the courses, Super Video Golf does poke at nostalgia. It is so reminiscent of the old games you would find in small-town bars and arcades that it almost feels out of place in the here and now. If I turned off the lights, would I be transported back to those smoky rooms? Would I find myself on a stool, legs dangling impossibly far from the floor? Better to keep them on so I don't have to find out.
Make no mistake, Super Video Golf is by no means a true-to-life sim. The controls and execution of swinging your club remain simple at all stages, and there are myriad tools available to the player to assist them in planning out their next shot. But there’s enough here to really dig deeper into the physics of play, such as wind speed and direction, spin on the ball, elevation differences of the course, and so on, to work through the decision-making processes and action of golfing that are compelling.
One aspect that I really appreciate is the customizability of the experience available to the player. The game offers three club types — Casual, Regular, and Pro — with the “Pro” option allowing for the most control over swing power and placement at the cost of ease-of-use. Additionally, there are a large number of courses to play on, each with its own variables in terms of shape, bunker placement, terrain, and other elements. You can even take on these courses at night or in the rain.
Image Credits: Trederia
All of these elements add a layer of consideration that really enriches the experience of play. The player is drawn into contemplation, carefully weighing the environment alongside weather conditions, and executing a derived strategy. In this, there is a satisfaction in completing the act itself.
While the complex layered mechanics may feel overwhelming upon reading them, in practice, the casual clubs make for a great time for all skill levels and ages of players. Even my 5-year-old son was able to make the act of play manageable. When he asked to play, I was expecting some frustration from the control complexity — an issue we’ve been having while he plays through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on his Switch — but found that the casual clubs allowed him to play competently while still giving him the space for control.
In fact, this aspect has taken Super Video Golf from a novelty to an exemplar in game design. The ability to not only clearly and easily communicate the mechanics to all ranges of players, but to also make those same players feel like they’re accomplishing something and growing is impressive.
The snappy moment-to-moment gameplay, combined with the responsiveness and precision of the controls, makes Super Video Golf a great way to just pick up and play something fun, regardless of whether you play against a CPU or other people. Thankfully, the multiplayer is also well-developed, as you can make your own lobbies or join existing ones to play with up to 16 players, locally or online. The quick transitions between each player's turn and lack of a need to physically navigate to each ball also means that games don’t take hours to play, unless you want to do additional holes or courses.
The player is drawn into contemplation, carefully weighing the environment alongside weather conditions, and executing a derived strategy. In this, there is a satisfaction in completing the act itself.
But what has all of this done to the game of “golf” as an idea, and what is the essence of golf that matters in its appreciation? Real-world golf has, whether by deliberate design or negligence, cultivated and conflated country club elitism and formalised reactions with the very sport itself. But the idea that the pervasive classism and racism that permeate these spaces is somehow intrinsic to the game is an absurdity. Instead, by distilling golf to its basic elements — the strategy of reading the conditions and the satisfaction of executing a shot in accordance with those factors — it becomes one of the purest golfing experiences possible in video game form, despite its low-poly imagery.
Super Video Golf, as a thoughtfully designed work, has the power to bring joy and community through these mechanics and customizability. By crafting an open, accessible, and satisfying playground to enjoy the sport of golf without all the supremacist baggage, I can laugh and cheer as my son hits a good swing, even if he gets a double bogey; I can talk to my friends and engage with the objects in front of me without being sneered at by some rich kid who missed his shot and now blames me for his failed composure.
Hey, maybe golf is pretty cool after all.
Disclosure: We received a copy of this game from the publisher.
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