Cursed To Golf is part golf game, part roguelike, part platformer, part card game, and all sorts of fun.
The merging of genres is always a risk. You might end up with something great or you might end up with a jack-of-all-trades game but a master of none. Cursed To Golf manages to hit all the right strokes to create something truly unique and ends up being one of the most fun and challenging indie games this year.
Developer Chuhai Labs has done the impossible. I don’t mean that it would be impossible to merge some many genres, but because they finally made me care about the roguelike genre in general. These sorts of dungeon experiences wear on me pretty quickly, especially as I love a more linear type of game. That said, Cursed To Golf manages it in more ways than one.
You play as a pro golfer on the verge of greatness when tragedy strikes. Lighting hits you and kills you before your final stroke and you are sent to golf purgatory. It’s your job to play 18 holes in hell in order to gain your soul back and return to the realm of the living. The trick is that if you lose you are sent back to the clubhouse and are forced to try again. Every time that you die the course is generated anew and you get another shot, meaning that most every playthrough will be unique.
But this isn’t your normal game of golf. Levels are full of hazards, obstacles, and unique environmental boots that can help or hinder your progress. Cursed To Golf is played from the perspective of a traditional platformer. You take shots and work your through in order reach the ending flag in the least amount of strokes, or until you run out of stroke. Stages are horizontal and vertical and can even feature multiple flags that you can choose to reach.
But the real magic comes in the form of the card system that acts as arcade powerups that you can use prior to each shot. Turn your ball into a rocket, shoot multiple balls, give your swing more power, instantly stop a ball, or even change your balls direction on the fly. You can even give yourself additional shots and do-overs in order to be able to make it to the end flag.
Each hole not only features all sorts of obstacles but also idols that you can break with your shots. These idols can give you additional shots, so hitting them is important, but not without risk. Between stages you drive your golfcart and select which hole and path you want to play next. Some paths will be easier, while others offer the chance to pick up more cards via card packs hidden in chests or in the clubhouse where you can buy cards and packs with the money you earned in previous holes. This helps before boss battles.
The pixel art is downright lovely making for one of the most pleasant looking games of the year and the costume options are neat. There are lots of details across the board alongside some fun music. Stages look great and can vary wildly in scope and size. Some you’ll get through in a breeze with a couple shots, while others can last for dozens of strokes and have you shooting away for upwards of twenty minutes to complete. Because of this many may find the game overly challenging, even with the help of the card system.
Cards are incredible but not without some minor annoyances. Abilities have no meter as of yet, which isn’t an issue with most, but some abilities allow you to control the ball in some manner (drilling, flying, etc.). The game fails to give you a meter or any indicator when a powerup will end, meaning that it’s incredibly hard to prep a shot as you don’t quite know the range you’ll have. Still, you’ll learn to guess after a time but some meters would still go a long way.
But the big issue I have with Cursed To Golf is the camera implementation. You can see the entire hole when you pull back, but when shooting your visual range is pretty short. This means a lot of shots are, more or less, educated guesses at the best of times, especially for driver shots. This makes an already challenging game harder than necessary a lot of the time. I don’t mind a good challenge, but when random luck is inserted into things is where I take issue, especially when death means a full restart.
Cursed To Golf is still a blast but it could really use some balance adjustments as, especially in the late game, I ended up losing the hole because of a bad shot I made multiple strokes back. Also, that pesky roguelike issue I hate crops up where the later stages are a blast, but the repetitious nature of earlier stages makes getting to the fun a bit too much of a slog as I don’t want to fight to get to the fun. Hopefully a few updates can address some of these issues.
That said, Cursed To Golf is still an excellent experience that just needs a few tweaks in order to make it something really special, and it seems like the developers are listening and already making small adjustments. If the developers keep up with players concerns then Cursed To Golf can only get better and more enjoyable for more players and when you hopefully pick it up!
PROS:
+ Great Art
+ Fun Mechanics
+ Great Merging Of Ideas
+ Curse System Mix Up Gameplay
CONS:
– Balance Issues
Final Score:
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