{"id":133701,"date":"2018-09-21T07:08:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T07:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/?p=133701"},"modified":"2019-11-30T12:28:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T12:28:45","slug":"super-inefficient-golf-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/archives\/133701","title":{"rendered":"Super Inefficient Golf Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"34BigThings,<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything is supposed to be better with explosives. When you add a bunch of pyrotechnics to a scene, moment or reveal, it can give that finesse that tells people they should be excited or terrified by something. Hell, one of the reasons that Vlambeer\u2019s classic Ridiculous Fishing works so well is because the idea of dynamite fishing is a real thing, and they just went the extra mile. In addition, being able to make everything seem like Michael Bay directed it adds a level of giddy pleasure that taps into something primal in your brain. Probably why July 4th is so freaking popular. But the point of the explosions is to add something to the moment, not take away from it. That\u2019s the balance that 34BigThings attempted to find with the Nintendo Switch port of Super Inefficient Golf. And, sadly, the explosions were slightly marred by the sheer technical errors of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Super Inefficient Golf is a mini-golf inspired game that uses a somewhat unorthodox approach to the sport. Sure, you have a bunch of holes on smaller greens, and you want to get the ball into the hole by way of clever curves, strange obstacles and, in this case, physics and logic defying layout. But you\u2019re not swinging putters or even larger clubs: you\u2019re setting of a series of remote mines to detonate your indestructible, beach-ball sized sphere and propel it, screaming, towards the goal. You have four different colors of mines (each tethered to one of the four primary buttons) and you can add one to four mines of said color anywhere to trigger different amounts of propulsion and torque. Figure out how to use the fewest number of mines over the fewest number of strokes in order to reach your goal, and, by God, you\u2019ll be an explosive golf champion!<\/span><\/p>\n

Right out of the gate, there\u2019s one small sadness to state: Super Inefficient Golf is totally single player. Mini golf is a fun game on it\u2019s own, sure, I’m not gonna try and say otherwise. But most people have fond memories of either hitting the windmills with friends (sober or otherwise), or taking a special someone to the Putt Putt and having them show you the proper way to shoot. Or, in my case, getting totally schooled by my future wife during 18 holes of pirate-themed fun, but I digress. It\u2019s clear that the game would take an extraordinary amount of time with a multiplayer layout, but it\u2019s not like there would be any more or less cheating then there would in normal golf games. Set mines, explode, copy your friends if it looks like their strategy will work better, have some laughs and continue on. You can probably do that with just everyone suggesting ideas on a single ball, but that\u2019s neither here nor there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"34BigThings,<\/span><\/p>\n

So not a group game, fair enough. Super Inefficient Golf still has a lot of potential in terms of execution and interest, and this is where things get pretty interesting. There are three distinct gameplay plans to success: the scientist, the opportunist, or the madman. The scientist is going to be the person who understands the physics of the game right away and knows how many mines to lay down and when to fire them. This person is going to really grasp the spin of the ball and when they can and should fire off counter mines to stop a singular path, or to create a new one. They might even show off and purposely make it look like their ball is going to head out-of-bounds before they stop it in mid-flight and nail a Birdie. This guy is going to champion the game, and good for him. The Opportunist doesn\u2019t care about the number of strokes, they\u2019re just going to get to the hole as safely as possible, and this person is just playing for the sake of playing. No worries there, Opportunist, but you\u2019ll never get a high score at this rate, as you do get bonuses for leftover mines and number of turns.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Madman is going to try bold and excessive sets without any real reason for it, and this is the methodology that I adopted pretty early on. Since the levels are all pretty bland in comparison to other golf games, I wasn\u2019t here to drink in the scenery. I was here to impress myself by guesstimating where the hell I should put mines and, in all cases, I put as many as I could, every single chance I got. The result was constantly, consistently launching myself way outside of where I should be, laughing, and resetting, or getting a hole in one against ALL odds and being astounded with my good fortune. The game is fun, don\u2019t get me wrong, but it\u2019s one of those titles where wacky and stupid results make it even better. Still, I bet that, were I going against other people, I\u2019d need to tamper it down just a tad to avoid losing by a massive margin.<\/span><\/p>\n

The end result of Super Inefficient Golf is a solo exploration of just what you want to do to find a balance between amusement and actual skill and attempts. On the one hand, since the ball never explodes and very little of the landscape is affected by collisions, you don\u2019t really get to explode things and go totally off the rails <\/span>a la<\/span><\/i> Grand Theft Auto or something. You really need to stick to the idea of the golf mechanism and what you want to accomplish in terms of score. On the other hand, it\u2019s definitely not like a traditional golf game, so, when you need to nail a surprisingly difficult shot, it\u2019s not a matter of skill and precision with your sand wedge or whatever. It\u2019s being able to understand different chain reactions of the explosions and how they will affect the ball plus whatever else is affecting the ball. There\u2019s this great course where your ball has, with some luck, the potential to be carried all the way to the hole by giant fans if you use the right amount of force and coordination. Failure to do so drops your ball far, far away, leaving you to essentially work out explosive stages to make your way back to the green. It\u2019s interesting, to be certain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"34BigThings,<\/span><\/p>\n

But the actual execution of Super Inefficient Golf on the Switch is what ultimately impairs it from truly taking off. Firstly, the angles of the camera get incredibly disorienting when trying to figure out where you want to go and what you want to do. The auto adjust doesn\u2019t always swing back around to where you\u2019d like it to be when the first mines detonate, so you\u2019ll be confused as to whether you want to trigger the X or A mines, and the difference is making it to the hole or blowing yourself up and over the ridge over yonder. This technical issue can be solved with a lot of extra time spent after moving from \u201cmine placement\u201d mode to \u201cexplosion\u201d mode, and being sure you\u2019re looking exactly where you want to and where you THINK you\u2019ll want to.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final weight on the scale of my score is the constant, nagging, incessant attempts to check for Internet connection to upload scores. The reason I enjoy the Nintendo Switch is that it\u2019s a mobile console: I can take good games with me on the go, which often means on the train or the subway so I can play in peace before I get to the office and slowly lose my mind. Instead of being able to sink into a game of tactical mines and demolitions expertise, I\u2019m punished every time I finish a hole by being reminded that I\u2019m not online and I can\u2019t upload my scores. It\u2019s a solo player frigging game, and I seriously don\u2019t care about the feats of others. Even if I did, I\u2019d prefer it was optional, but Super Inefficient Golf doesn\u2019t have a toggle for that anywhere in their very sparse options menu. You can adjust volumes for music and SFX, and you can invert the joysticks, and that\u2019s it. Meanwhile, I\u2019m going to hurl my Switch across the Red Line because the game doesn\u2019t understand that, no, I don\u2019t really have access to any wifi points when I\u2019m near Packard\u2019s Corner, and, even if I did, I don\u2019t need to show everyone it took me eight rounds to do a par 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s some good and interesting points to Super Inefficient Golf. It\u2019s novel, it\u2019s fairly well executed, and it\u2019s a nice breakup from the monotony of traditional golf games (you know, besides Golf Story). On the other hand, it\u2019s relatively short, has no multiplayer, and the Internet nags will be the death of me. If you\u2019re really pressed to decide if this is the game for you, then maybe you should jump on in and give it a shot. But if any of the things that I\u2019ve just mentioned are a big turnoff, just let this game sail on by until the next explosion rights its course.<\/span><\/p>\n

REVIEW CODE:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to\u00a0Bonus Stage for this review.\u00a0Please send all review code enquiries to\u00a0press@4gn.co.uk<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems this game was destined to be a product of its own naming, as the technical problems outweigh the fun of explosive mini golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61873,"featured_media":133702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[408,10288,10289],"tags":[7515,1559,1498,791,12913,12530,10281,2808,5488,385,15424,15423,10299],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Super-Inefficient-Golf.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Ijik-yMt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}