Review written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits

Lately there seems to be an influx of committed developers to making Pocket PC games. Vapor Trail Games is one of them, with their new release Mini Golf Challenge. It's a no-frills simulation of the art of miniature golf, focused on physics rather than windmills, and gameplay rather than gimmicks.

Graphics

Mini Golf Challenge's graphics get the job done. Nothing excessively flashy, just simple sides, grass, and so on. The graphics aren't really complex at all; this may turn off some people to Mini Golf Challenge. The photos of your opponents in match mode are a nice touch, as opposed to just seeing their names. Everything has a clean look to it; everything obviously wasn't rushed together.

Considering there are 18 holes, things may start to look a bit plain after a while. A little variation in the grass patterns, perhaps to show ramps instead of the bright yellow arrows now would make a nice change. Obstacles in the levels are mostly just random shapes that seem out of place with the rest of the game. While the game is billed as a simulation without all those extras, I would've preferred some more variety in the look of the game. Frankly, there just isn't much else to talk about due to the relative simplicity of it all.

Sound

While the game doesn't have too many sounds, they are of very high quality. All the sounds in the game sound quite good, and all are a consistent quality. There are a couple of small little features, like a disappointing groan from the crowd whenever your ball is just short of the hole, and the elevator music when you load the game. A quiet song or two during the game is something I would like to see in a future release, it continues the atmosphere of the game in general.

Miniature golf games are usually pretty quiet in general, so the in-game sound is lacking at best. There's not much to blame on the developer; there's only so many sounds one can pack in without it starting to sound stupid. As mentioned above, what is there are surprisingly high quality and realistic, more than I can say about other games in the genre. As minor as this sounds, it really does make a difference to my ears, since with other mini golf games, I turned off the sound pretty quickly.

Gameplay

Mini Golf Challenge fares way (har har har) better than most other games of it's kind. First off, the interface, of which is very simple, works well. You can quickly minimize the game while in the middle of those “important” meetings, and recovers from powering off quite well, with graphics and sound still working right away. More than one can say about a large percentage of PocketPC games. Buttons are large and descriptive, and there's no excessive menu effects that end up taking up too much time.

The controls could've used a bit of work, although this was more of a personal preference than anything. In order to hit the ball, you have to first click and hold on the ball, bring the pen back, and let go. This makes judging the power of your shots a pretty painful process at times. I would've preferred actually being able to hit the ball with the pen, which is a tad more realistic since with the current method, it will trace a line from the ball to the pen, making straight shots incredibly easy. The developer has thoughtfully included a "release filter" in the options, which forces you to hold down the pen for a moment before being able to swing. People with crummy touchscreens will love this, as it helps curve aggravation caused by your touchscreen deciding not to detect input anymore.

The levels themselves are quite tricky, although with great practice, you should be able to get a hole in one on a lot of the courses. This is not to say the game is easy, however, as the physics are very tough. The size of the holes (whether it be actual size, or the small "grace" area where the ball will sink down into the hole) is rather small, and is also rather sensitive when it comes to overshooting the hole. Other than that, there's not much to complain about; it's miniature golf.

The AI puts up a pretty good challenge in most cases. I say most cases because I've noticed at some points the AI will either make an incredibly tricky shot, or will make the same stupid mistake over and over again, especially on some holes with hills. This even happens on the higher level AI opponents, which can give you quite a large lead, in some cases irrecoverable in the higher levels. In all, the gameplay doesn't disappoint, however it's nothing special either.

Pros:

• Excellent sound

• Realistic physics

• Oponnents are challenging

• Smooth framerate

Cons:

• Unforgiving physics

• Courses can become tiresome

• Occasional AI burp

Mini Golf Challenge is an excellent start for Vapor Trail Games. It's a solid first release for this company, and if their newer games get better, you can expect some pretty good games in the future. While if you already have a mini golf game, you may want to try the demo first before shelling out $10.95 for the full version. However for those comparing games to buy, this is probably your best bet. As for the score, I was unsure whether it deserved a 6 or a 7, since it was somewhere in the middle, however I went with a 7. Mini Golf Challenge is available now for all ARM/XScale PocketPCs, costs $10.95, and requires 2 MB of storage memory, and 3 MB of program memory.

Overall Score: 7/10

Many thanks to Vapor Trail Games for providing us with our review copy.

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