It’s very simple to make a silly game that does many things and pokes fun at different genres and mechanics. It’s very hard to make it consistently great. Luckily, WHAT THE GOLF? almost never misses.
I suppose, you could call this game a physics-based parody game and evoke comparisons with something like Goat Simulator or Amazing Frog, but in reality What the Golf is much more than that. This game doesn’t simply take the basic mechanic of golfing, so often found in countless golf video games (aim and set power of the swing), and apply it to other genres. It does it in a way, where the results are surprisingly fun on their own. Racing games, stealth, FPS, precision platformer, physics-based puzzle game – there are so many unexpected mixes in this title and almost all of them actually work.
Every next set of levels is a surprise. And so very often more surprises hide inside the sets. The game isn’t shy about how silly and full of dumb puns it is, it shows what it’s all about at the very beginning, where it teaches you how to play. Put the ball in the hole? Nice, now put the golfer in the hole. Now put the hole on the flag. Now ride a horse while shooting exploding barrels. Yes, you’re still playing the same game, keep playing.
It’s also great that the main progress of the game is nicely balanced with never an annoying or dull moment. To complete the game itself, all you have to do is to finish each level once to finish the set and move on to the next one. But each level flag has two additional challenges you can complete, which are presented as harder versions of what you’ve played in the main level, but in reality are often completely different levels and experiences altogether. Completing those gives you additional rewards, but it’s completely optional and if you feel like some of the levels aren’t fun for you, don’t feel like you’re missing out on something.
Sadly, some of those optional levels are really unfun and in all those very rare occasions it’s because the game tries to turn its chaotic random gameplay into a challenge. Most of the time, it’s done in a way that’s still entertaining and is sometimes even easier than the original level. But in a few bizarre moments the game requires impossible precision with its own imprecise mechanics. And strangest of all, in all of those cases the level could be turned into a fun experience by just tweaking the “challenge” numbers and adding one or two additional tries, or tweaking the timings a tiny bit.
Those moments are also tied to the least fun sets of levels and that’s another point worth mentioning. There are quite a few genuinely amazing mixes of gameplay ideas in the game, yet most of the truly fun ones are easy and quick to complete. Yet, some of the really unfun ones are unreasonably long (the cars segment just kept on going, for example). Perhaps, some of those really fun sets will be revisited in the future as an update or a DLC, since the game now has an extra mini-campaign based around sport, which wasn’t there at the start.
Either way, WHAT THE GOLF? is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining games I’ve played in a while. It’s really fun, really funny and consistently surprising. And I would highly recommend checking it out.