Wii Sports Tennis, while enjoyable, fails to provide a satisfying golf experience thanks to its measly nine holes. Tecmo's Super Swing Golf, on the other hand, delivers 18 holes across a variety of courses. It also incorporates the Wii's motion sensitive remote, allowing players to swing the controller like a golf club. The game plays well and packs plenty of content, but its bizarre presentation may spell its doom.
Let's explain, Super Swing's developers decided to build a narrative around the golf action, an unappetizing yarn about a group of people who band together to defeat evil by playing golf. Except they don't call it golf. They call it Pangya, and instead of using golf balls, they use Mystical Phoenix Balls. On top of this, all of the people resemble anime characters with enlarged, bright eyes and funky hairdos. To make matters worse, one of the game's caddies is a paper bag-like creature named Papel. Truly, Asian developers know what the world needs.
Odd characters and story aside, Super Swing Golf's fictitious Panya Island contains a variety of tropical, snowy and sand covered courses. Whereas Wii Sports Tennis presents players with forests, Tecmo's game features windmills, tiki huts, castles and pyramids, all of which lend to the game's light-hearted and cheery atmosphere. Consumers may be turned off by character names Kooh and TitanBoo, and the witch Brie bears no resemblance to Arnold Palmer, but the game looks great. Thankfully, it plays well too.
Like Wii Sports, players use the Wii remote as a golf club, bringing it behind their heads to build power and then following through to hit the ball. Unfortunately, Super Swing forces gamers to go through some unnecessary steps -- select Shot with the Wii remote, pull the remote back, press A and then hold A while following through (instead of just swinging the damn club) -- and sometimes, the controller craps out. The game demands people to swing the remote as accurately as possible. Otherwise, the remote fails to respond. With that being said, armchair golfers must get off their butts, lest they accidentally tap the ball 30 yards when they intended to smack it 200.
When used correctly, the remote works quite well and Tecmo keeps things interesting with three sets of clubs, a normal set, a set of medieval weapons and a futuristic set with jet boosters. Three different types of Mystical Phoenix Balls (one of which leaves a trail of hearts in the air) and magical items that improve such factors as spin and curve of the ball help invigorate a taste of videogame into golfing.
Aside from golf, several minigames such as Balloon Pop where the player who pops the most balloons wins) and Spinning Dolfini a game where people use lottery tickets to unlock goodies add more value to the package. Combine all of that with a story mode, stroke and match play, and Super Swing Golf offers plenty of content to justify its $49.99 MSRP, goofy characters and all.
Yet, the game fails to capture the realism of Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods franchise. Fantasy golf works, but consumers, particularly the non-gamers that purchased Nintendo's Wii, may want to wait for a more traditional and mature golf game. Otherwise, Super Swing Golf provides globs of fun for the miniature golf set.
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