Cursed to Golf Review: Par for the Course
Crafting a golf game in video games often needs a unique hook. Mario Golf holds a nostalgic grip for many millennials with its familiar characters and themes. What the Golf pushes the idea of a golf game with humor, strange mechanics, and utter shenanigans. Cursed to Golf continues fore-ward with the tradition of carving its own niche as it tests your golf-like abilities to escape the depths of purgatory through fun abilities and fantastic art style
Putt it Right There
In Cursed to Golf, you play as a cute little pixelated golfer who is on the cusp of winning an international golf tournament, only to be struck by lightning and thrown into purgatory. However, this purgatory isn’t one of those standard all-purified-light and boring purgatories. Instead, you’re in the midst of Golf Purgatory and must traverse through the 18-hole golf course to get back into the world of the living and win that tournament. Though the overarching story doesn’t expand too much beyond the game’s premise, you encounter a few endearing and intriguing characters along the way. These limited encounters provided brief context to the story, while also showcasing distinct personalities for the handful of beings you meet. I didn’t find myself too invested in any of these characters, and since this is such a gameplay-focused game, I wasn't too upset by this predicament.
Talk Birdie to Me
With Cursed to Golf, the gameplay mechanics are simple enough - choose one of three clubs, click the desired strength for said club, aim your parabolic golf ball shot, and shoot. This continues within each of the 80+ courses until you either reach the end flag or run out of swings. Unlike standard golf, you’re given a par score of 5 and it diminishes by 1 for every swing you take. To help keep your par above zero, there are gold and silver totems distributed throughout each course that, when hit, earns you +4 or +2, respectively. Some are scattered along the natural pathway of the course, while others are in obtuse locations - forcing you to determine the risk/reward since every swing counts so immensely in your playthrough. If your par score does reach zero, then your round of golf ends and you start from scratch.
Double Bogey
For the most part, Cursed to Golf begins as a rogue-like with nearly no progression rolls over to a new run. This slowly paradigms to a rogue-lite after defeating the biome-specific bosses and obtaining permanent abilities. This was especially off putting in the beginning hours of the game when I was still figuring out best practices and strategies for the levels. Additionally, since the courses aren’t randomly generated but rather deliberately created, I saw the same early courses over and over again. The progression felt slow, but after hitting a turning point, the frustrations transitioned to fun. As the game continues and you traverse through the varying biomes, there’s an increasingly large amount of hazards, sharp corners, sand pits, molten lava, and more that can sour your swing and experience. I found myself getting frustrated after a few rounds of the game - constantly missing precise shots, perplexed with seemingly impossible routes, and holes that lasted far too long compared to others in the game.
Luckily, the main counter to these inconveniences are the wide variety of Ace Cards. These cards are single-use power-ups that turn the simple golf mechanics into a complex, zany, and at times, experimental experience with plenty of variability. As you progress through the game, you’re gradually given more and more options for the cards through Eterni-Tee Packs (blister packs with varying amounts of Ace Cards) and shops for purchase. Even better, once you see an Ace Card and you begin a new round, you can experiment and tinker with the abilities. This way, you can hone your skills with them, find ideal situations for them, and not be penalized for it. I found this immensely helpful to not only get a better understanding of this vital gameplay mechanic, but actively encouraged me to use them instead of just hoarding them for hoarding’s sake. Abilities vary from Mulligan (allows for a redo of the previous swing), to U-Turn (change direction of the ball mid-flight), and Mini Rocketball (transforms ball into a mini rocket). Additionally, abilities that I initially thought were mostly useless, ended up finding a specific use in various levels - further highlighting the inclination to experiment with your shots.
It is important to note though that, until very late in the game, you cannot bring any of your unused cards to the next round. However, from the start, you can slot them for future rounds to help you later on. I found little use for this in the beginning hours and rounds mostly because I wanted to keep every possible Ace Card at hand - especially since I wouldn’t know which ones would be best for the upcoming holes in the round. This mechanic also became redundant with the late game ability to automatically bring all your unused cards with you after a loss.
Breakdown
Game: Cursed to Golf
Developer: Chuhai Labs
Availability: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Reviewed on PC
Pros:
+ Incredible pixel-art style
+ Varied power-ups and abilities
+ Enjoyable gameplay… once you have a strong understanding of all the mechanics
Cons:
- Constantly repeated levels early on makes for a dull start
- Overly long rounds for the 18 holes plus additional activities
Final Thoughts
Cursed to Golf is a good rogue-ish golf-like with an adorable art style and intriguing abilities. Though the repetitious levels in the beginning can offer a tarnished start-up, once you push through the first major boss, the enjoyment rises significantly. I look forward to continue playing, hearing from others, and finding some optimal strategies to better my scores.
Reviewed by Harry Loizides