After the success of Sensible World of Soccer, Sensible Software return with their final adios to the Amiga market with another high profile release that's been jockeying between finished and almost finished for the last six months. Finally, it has landed.
I'm not so sure that golf games are in need of an introduction. Golf is basically golf - clubs, balls, tees and greens; nothing special or original, just golf. A sport where aged businessmen do 'business' during office hours - claiming they're really stuck in traffic.
Sensible Golf uses the infamous Sensible Software trademark once again - the character sprites. They are the same ones used in Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder - nice and small but incredibly effective.
After being released as a coverdisk demo on many magazines, Sensible Software were simply unhappy with the result. It didn't play as polished as it looked so they were going to tweak and twiddle with the gameplay. That was the last I heard - until now.
My first impressions were very good as the graphics looks very much like those in Sensible Soccer - only without shorts. There is an option included to configure your character to look like yourself or your colleagues - the colour of hair, skin, trousers and shirt can all be altered to create your own golfing superstar. You can then make your way to the options screen to fine tune the in-game entertainment - especially the background ambience (bird tweets, to us common folk).
During a season of tournaments, 72 other computer competitors will join you on the leaderboard - all trying to win the huge cash bonus you receive at the end. You can play matchplay, strokeplay or skins. Skins is the firm favourite in the office because you can play for oodles and oodles of cash. The richest after the last hole, wins! It's as simple as that.
A fantastic little arcade game with many months of entertainment
If you play in a season, you get to take part in all the major competitions against the best players from around the world. You will travel everywhere with your clubs, trying to top the leaderboard with your expert golfing prowess.
The idea is to win championships, therefore receiving cash. You will then be entered on the prize money leaderboard where all the greatest players happily take residence. The ultimate goal is to sit at the top of this leaderboard after playing in many grueling tournaments ans seasons. As soon as you begin to play, you will find Sensible Golf very frustrating. When you set your club for the yardage to the pin, the ball will never reach the distance.
At first I thought it may have been because I was in the rough. But no, even if I was on the fairway, well clear of any hazard, it still wouldn't go as far as it boasted - it always seemed to fall four or five feet short of the pin. This is very annoying as your shots will not be as accurate as the meter shows.
The actual hole layouts are very badly designed. When you hope to drive it down the fairway, you don't expect a huge stream or bunker slap bang in the middle. Due to this, you either have to smash it up field and hope it will clear everything, which is very unlikely, or change your driver for an iron so it drops before the hazard, which is extremely tough to judge.
Whichever method you plump for, you always end up in a bunker or water hazard. As it stands, there seem to be too many obstacles that interfere with the actual playing area. It is possible to weave around them, but each shot adds to your overall total, which will certainly not win you championships.