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Genre: Arcade/Sports

Developer: DanLabGames

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X, 1GHz G4, 32MB video card

Processor Compatibility: Universal

Price: $25.00

Demo: 34.1MB

Someone will have to explain to me what it is about miniature golf games that they always have to be "wacky" or "gnarly" or "goofy" or "islands."

Okay, scratch islands. That doesn't fit into this insightful and witty observation. The point is that there's not a whole lot wacky about Wacky Mini Golf. Aside from the plushy characters you control (and they really do look plushy, which is kind of an impressive achievement in its own right), this is really a rather sophisticated, polished, and challenging miniature golf sim for the Macintosh.

Wacky Mini Golf is the second miniature golf game from DanLabGames; the first being Islands Mini Golf, which I never played. Judging from the screen captures of Islands, however, I'm going to assume the putting mechanism is the same in both games. It's worth mentioning because most miniature golf games utilize the traditional golf mechanism where you click once to set a power meter in motion, click again to stop it at the desired strength, then click once more to determine the slice or hook of the ball. In Wacky Mini Golf, you aim by sliding your mouse side to side, and determine the strength of the putt by pulling the mouse back. When you've reached your desired strength, you just click the mouse. There's no timing to worry about, just aim and power. An aiming indicator projects forth from your ball, the length of which is determined by the power of your stroke (the harder the stroke, the longer the aiming indicator).

This putting mechanism makes the game easier for younger players, but it doesn't necessarily make it less challenging for experienced gamers. As with real miniature golf, the name of the game is speed, and determining how hard to hit the ball can be very tricky here, especially early on when you're getting used to the physics. A tip...most holes where you have to leap across gaps or climb steep ramps won't allow you to overshoot the green as barriers have been placed in back. However, because the putting surface changes with the different courses, and because sand and water hazards are frequent, you'll have to change your approach often.

Camera control is mostly pretty smart and impressive. Each hole begins with a panning shot to show its layout, and you'll want to watch this; with some holes, its otherwise very difficult to figure out where to place your opening strokes. After you putt, the camera does a good job of following the ball, especially on some of the longer, winding obstacles. The only problem stems from camera positioning as you're preparing for your stroke. It's usually not an issue, but, depending upon your lye, you'll occasionally find that you can't accurately determine the direction of your stroke or the placement of the hole.

Now, let's talk about the holes for a moment. There are four courses of 18 holes, each with its own theme: Waicoco Islands, Jungle Temple, Teekee Moon and Volcano Beach. Although each theme will determine the types of hazards included, they all behave pretty much the same way. For example, there's not much difference between lava and water, for example, other than perhaps the use of crabs, beach balls, boulders and crates. But although the courses all feel pretty much the same, there's enough imagination in the hole design to keep your interest up in all 72. Some could be real holes on actual miniature golf courses, while others defy all the laws of physics and nature. They vary in difficulty, too. That's to be expected, but the differences are extreme in Wacky Mini Golf. With some holes, you'd have to go out of your way to not at least get par. On other holes, however, if you make one wrong move, you won't be able to get a par two in less than seven strokes. The putting mechanism contributes slightly to the difficulty, as there were actually times when the ball ended up so close to the cup that it was impossible to putt it in without overshooting.

There are three ways to play in Wacky Mini Golf. The first is your Classic game of miniature golf. The second, Star Hunter is a game in which you have to first putt the ball through stars scattered across the hole. Only after all the stars have been hit will the hole become accessible. The strokes you take to hit the stars are added to your total for the hole, but are reduced by one with each star you hit. So, if you hit three stars in one shot, you'll reduce your total number of strokes by two, making it possible that you could finish a hole with no strokes. And finally, there's Crazy Challenge, which plays like you're average arcade racing game in that you have to keep doing well in order to get more "laps." You start with a certain number of available strokes, which you can't go over. If you do, you're done. As you get par or better, strokes are added to your total. If you go over par, strokes are taken away.

What's more, the graphics are gorgeous; not realistic, mind you, but pretty. The environments surrounding the holes received just as much attention as the holes themselves, with some really nice lighting/water effects and ambiance. Ticki torches glow, butterflies flit across the screen, and leaves fall peacefully to the course. It's all quite calming, really, and it does a nice job of pulling you into the experience of the game. The quality of presentation in shareware games has impressed me for some time, but this is the first time I've been impressed by the graphics in a miniature golf game.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the music, which is appropriate for miniature golf I suppose. However, if you don't like it, you can tell Wacky Mini Golf to open iTunes and play your own music, instead. It'll always start at the beginning of your catalog, though, so you'll always hear the same songs unless you manually changing them in iTunes. Too bad it can't automatically set iTunes to random or go to a specific playlist.

Also, if you're not thrilled with the cartoon animals who stand in as your golfers, you can use iSight to take your picture and place it in a floating frame with disconnected hands and feet. Kind of creepy, really, but it should appeal to the narcissistic.

A demo of Wacky Mini Golf is available, but here's one game I think that fans of miniature golf sims will enjoy enough to not have to bother previewing first. It's easily the best computer miniature golf game I've played in quite some time, and one of the more enjoyable shareware games, period. If you're not a fan of miniature golf games, this won't win you over. But for those who like them, Wacky Mini Golf is the first to utilize current gaming technology.

What a wacky concept.

Download Wacky Mini Golf.