Overall Score 91%
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Islands Mini Golf
To quote the developer, Islands Mini golf is a full-blown 3D game with a total of 90 colorful mini-golf holes, each located in a unique paradisiac tropical island. The game supports up to 4 simultaneous players (hot-seat) and an online score keeping system. And yes, paradisiac is a word, it is a place of ideal beauty or loveliness!
It is rare within the independant game sector to find games like Islands Mini Golf. We don't often see 3D games here at Bytten, so getting 3D golf is a nice surprise. It gets better too as developer DanLabGames has put a lot of effort into really polishing the game and making it look very professional. Good presentation doesn't make a game though so what does Islands Mini Golf do to make it worth a try?
The simple answer is quite a lot! You're given a generous number of levels to play around in and each of the levels has something to make it stand out, ensuring you don't get bored too easily. Each of the five themes has a full 18 holes of mini-golf and many of the holes offer secondary objectives to the simple act of getting the ball to the flag.
Mini-golf, if you don't know, is basically small scale golf using only a putter. Your objective is to putt (hit) the ball from the tee to the hole, traversing obstacles such as walls, corners, steps, ramps, tunnels and other hazards. Islands Mini Golf has a few crazy-golf elements too such as bridges and windmills but nothing outlandish.
Playing the game is fairly straighforward. On starting a hole you are given a brief 3D overview before being put behind the ball ready to start. Control can be either mouse or keyboard with left/right motion controlling the direction of your putt and forwards/backwards motion adjusting the power. To help you, 4 different camera angles are available, accessed with the F1 to F4 keys. In many cases, you'll find that you play with a single camera and flick to an alternative when you can't properly see the correct path.
Unforutunately, the game camera in general is a weak element of an otherwise excellent game. Whilst multiple angles are acceptable, you often feel that a free camera would do you a better service. Adding a camera that can zoom in and out, tilt and pan around fully would have improved the overall game experience greatly.
The only other minor annoyance I could find in Islands Mini Golf is with the actual golf ball. Certain camera angles show that the ball doesn't always appear to be making contact with the ground! Beyond this glitch, game textures throughout are good and the themed areas are well chosen and fun to play around in.
Music is also a highlight for the game with each themed course having its own very catchy tune. Unlike many games, the musical style actually mimics the theme too so you get Egyptian-sounding music in Pharoah Land and a little reggae in Coco Paradise - a great touch in my opinion.
With a massive number of holes, plenty of variety, excellent presentation, catchy music and the online score table, it is hard not to recommend Islands Mini Golf to anyone looking for a mini-golf experience. The price is a little higher than many of the games we review but you do get a superb game for your money - and it's available on both PC (reviewed) and Apple Mac!
Keywords: islands mini golf review, danlabgames reviews, danlabgames games, islands mini golf scores, pc game reviews, indie game reviews, independent gaming.
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