GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
POWER GOLF
(Hudson Soft, 1989)

Introduction and Story:

Golf......... f@#%ing GOLF! Probably one of the lamest themes you can buy in the video industry period. What kid doesn't want to hit a small white ball around instead of blasting away aliens and saving some hot princess, right? Power Golf is one of the early Turbografx-16 releases and at first you're thinking to yourself that the only reason this got the green light was so they had the manatory golf game that system. Hell, even the Virtual Boy has a Golf game for it! Surprisingly though I actually liked Power Golf here because not only was it was easy to play much like Hot Shots Golf for the Playstation but the presentation wasn't too bad either.

The game play and bottomline:  
Power Golf doesn't really have a lot of options so it's pretty easy to jump into at least. Here you can play on your own, fight with the computer, or play with friends in the different Match, and Competition modes. Once that's all taken care of you get to select from one of three golfers here. The younger male dude is the average player with good power, the old fatter guy is more powerful but his harder to control since his swing meter moves so damn fast, and finally the female player doesn't hit the ball as hard as the other two but her meter doesn't go insanely fast either. I highly recommend picking the chick first because of this.

Unlike the rather dull Jack Nicklaus Turbo Golf most of the action is viewed from a overhead perspective. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but the flat design is much easier on the eyes then the muddy 3D visuals of other golf titles at the time. The game also has a decent background soundtrack that fits the golf theme pretty well here but it does get repetitive after awhile so it's not all good. Still the presentation is not too bad here plus this game is so easy to get into that even I was able to get a Hole in one in a rare moment. If you like the sport and you got a Turbo, Power Golf is a very smart buy.

Here is my 4 minute video review of PG too! Warning: there is some swearing in it:


Conclusion:  
*600 points on the Nintendo Wii VC

POWER GOLF
overall rating: 72/100
Find Power Golf on eBay here!

For 1 to 3 players
graphics: 7/10
sound: 6/10
gameplay: 8/10
replay: 7/10

StarSoldier1
(Ryan Genno) 2009


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