Golf has always had a small place in my heart, and has been an experience I've shared with family for some time now. Although rare in this day and age, every few years or so I'll head to my local golf course, pay out the wazoo for nine holes and have a great time with family from near and far.Stepping back in time, I was also a fan of minigolf, as my childhood town featured a carnival every year and I'd look forward it every summer. It was the only thing that made me brave the harsh Australian sun; a Batman and Robin Slushie and minigolf go hand in hand in my memories.
"But what about the game?" I hear you wonder. "Why talk about your memories?". That in itself is the point; Infinite MiniGolf is charming, family friendly and in my opinion, one of the best golf games on the current gen consoles to date.
First and foremost is the gameplay. This was a game I saw in the store on launch and I immediately took interest and from the get-go, I was honestly surprised the game played incredibly well. The reason for the surprise is how the game is laid out; players have multiple options from the start such as Tournaments, Quick Play, Online Play, Creative Editor and so on. To explain these in short, Tournaments is the main focus across three separate settings (Giant Home, Nightmare Mansion, Santa's Factory) with four characters observing your progress. Online or off, your progress is tracked and while traditional golf scoring is present, your points are tallied by how you play and what you pick up along the way.
This is where the creative aspects come into play; much like 3D Ultra MiniGolf on the previous generation of consoles, Infinite MiniGolf features power-ups that can help you progress through the levels. Items such as Rocket for quick boosting, Glue to slow down, Wings for hovering at the angle you use it on, Spring for bouncing over objects and so on. Each level is tailored with specific traps and obstacles you must overcome to achieve the highest score possible.
Where this game truly shines is in the Creative Editor. If players tire of playing Quick Play (Which features a lot of dull maps people have made quickly for achievements) and the Tournaments, the Creative Editor allows you to create your own courses in one of the three themed areas. Players can edit, mix and create whatever type of map they'd like: twisting turns that are luck based if you get to the hole, flying with power-ups that need to be timed at the perfect moment, straight and narrow bridges that require dead-eye marksmanship with your putting, whatever your heart desires. It's no secret that I personally adore when games give me this type of freedom to express myself in how I'd like to, to create things in game that others can enjoy. In an hour of making the perfect map you can upload it with a press of a button and watch as others try it out and rate it accordingly. I have experienced no bugs or issues in playing in either mode as of yet, however I must admit I wish the mapping of the Creative Editor was just slightly bigger, to accommodate into the walls of the map, but that's just splitting hairs.
Sound effects are clean and very well done, musical score is good but somewhat repetitive, especially in the menus and Creative Editor. Going from testing back to editing or edit a map for too long will kill the music (or restart it over), and this becomes a bit annoying over time. Another small nitpick would be the moving traps such as the RC Cars and planes; their buzzing will repeat over and over as soon as you add them to the course, so your ears are filled with them as you edit. Automatically pausing them until you begin to test your map would be appreciated.
Voice acting is basically non-existent and limited to your player model yelling for joy or sadness for a good/bad accomplishment on the course.
Graphics are very clean and bright, so parents don't need to worry about the Halloween themed courses scaring kids too badly. Characters in the Tournaments are also pretty friendly and mostly there for comic relief. I cannot believe I've never said this before, but Infinite MiniGolf is the first game where I've seen a vampire enthusiastically play the electric guitar before.
Lastly I want to mention the great customisation in the character models. Your choices are limited to two models (a boy or girl), but once you start leveling up the game, you may purchase new hairstyles, eye colours, shirts, shoes, pants, belts, putters etc etc at your leisure. And even as a bonus, there is no in-game Microtransations to buy these options, as the currency in the game is easily earned. Players simply have to complete holes and tasks on those courses, and most are as easy as "Make a Hole in One from 10 Meters", so parents don't have to fret about their kids using their Credit Cards to buy a new hairstyle.
It's a shame this game has mostly been overlooked by the community at large. At its launch, finding online matches was impossible, and there only existed around 400 holes made by those who purchased the game. As of writing this review, courses in the Quick Play stand at over 10'000 and the Online portion is adequately moderate, although most of the fun would be made with friends and the player created courses overall.
For the asking price of only $20, there is simply too much here with so little complaints that I cannot recommend this game enough, even if a few more tweaks would make it perfect. If you're a fan of playing Minigolf with your friends or simply need something to quench your creative thirst, I would absolutely point you towards this game.
Fun for kids and adults alike.
Infinite MiniGold - 8/10
