The weekly Playdate releases are an interesting bunch of games. Many of them are trying some really unique twists on typical ideas, but while some of those ideas work really well, others... not so much. Executive Golf DX is one of the ones that unfortunately fall into the latter category. It's a golf game, but instead of hitting a ball across a field, you are trying to ascend or descend an office building, complete with desks, chairs, bookshevles, etc. as obstacles. This sounds like a great idea on paper, but the combination of fighting gravity along with trying to navigate through gaps in furniture makes this a tedious affair. It doesn't help that this game has no tutorial of any sort. It took me quite a long time to figure out how the power gauge worked, and I still don't think it's a good system. The entire game is very short, only eight levels taking me about 30 minutes, but I don't think I beat any level in less than several dozen hits. Even trying to align the ball with the elevator at the end of the stage often took several tries, due to the lack of precision you have. While it's not my least favorite Playdate game, I do think it's well made with good graphics and some good ideas, the core concept just isn't a strong one.
Too little going on, but a fun little time waster game. Pretty difficult from the get go in terms of sussing out the power for shots, but kind of an amusing concept.
I get the sense that it's not meant to be taken seriously as a golfing game (the par scores for each level are a massive hint towards this), and is more of a analogy on the tedium of being at the office, how you can get stuck doing the same thing over and over and constantly being knocked back on any attempt you make at climbing the corporate ladder.
But then the game also has seemingly random game-y power ups, and also tracks your score and time taken. It wants to be both a fun little golf game and a parable about the pointlessness of office life but doesn't really succeed at either thanks to its limited ambition with each course (it's just more bits of furniture in the way) and imprecise swing controls. It's also quite disappointing that the crank doesn't really get much of an outing here, relegated to an alternate method of aiming or shifting the camera (both of which are already mapped to the d-pad)
The metaphor for being knocked back down might get lost but I wonder it this could have been more successful at achieving both elements of what it sets out to be if it were a top down mini-golf style game. But I can't review it for what it isn't, only what it is, and Executive Golf DX is a time-waster in every sense of the word.
But then the game also has seemingly random game-y power ups, and also tracks your score and time taken. It wants to be both a fun little golf game and a parable about the pointlessness of office life but doesn't really succeed at either thanks to its limited ambition with each course (it's just more bits of furniture in the way) and imprecise swing controls. It's also quite disappointing that the crank doesn't really get much of an outing here, relegated to an alternate method of aiming or shifting the camera (both of which are already mapped to the d-pad)
The metaphor for being knocked back down might get lost but I wonder it this could have been more successful at achieving both elements of what it sets out to be if it were a top down mini-golf style game. But I can't review it for what it isn't, only what it is, and Executive Golf DX is a time-waster in every sense of the word.
Tedious.
A cute concept, held back by the level layouts being a pain to navigate. You spend a lot of the time bouncing either right to where you were or progressing backwards. The powerups don't help with that very much.
A cute concept, held back by the level layouts being a pain to navigate. You spend a lot of the time bouncing either right to where you were or progressing backwards. The powerups don't help with that very much.
This one didn't really click for me.
The idea of a golf 2D platformer isn't a bad one, but the two genres have very different gameplay flows and they don't mesh. In golf, you don't really end up going "backwards" - maybe you take a bad shot and have to proceed from a bad position, but at least you're somewhere new. Here, though, the stage design means it's very easy to either get stuck behind an obstacle and taking almost the same shot over and over, or fall down a hole to the floor you were just on.
I gave it a few shots hoping it'd click at some point and I'd settle into the flow, but it never happened.
The idea of a golf 2D platformer isn't a bad one, but the two genres have very different gameplay flows and they don't mesh. In golf, you don't really end up going "backwards" - maybe you take a bad shot and have to proceed from a bad position, but at least you're somewhere new. Here, though, the stage design means it's very easy to either get stuck behind an obstacle and taking almost the same shot over and over, or fall down a hole to the floor you were just on.
I gave it a few shots hoping it'd click at some point and I'd settle into the flow, but it never happened.
Eu já acho golfe chato, e o jogo aqui é bem mais frustrante do que eu esperava pra conseguir escalar os andares do prédio. Pelo menos é bem bonito.
I'm probably being generous here... this game just isn't fun to play.
I think it probably could be, but it isn't.
To give it some defense, it has nice art design, and there's certainly a lot of content to play if you do have a good time with it...
I think it probably could be, but it isn't.
To give it some defense, it has nice art design, and there's certainly a lot of content to play if you do have a good time with it...
An interesting concept for a game, with a lack of varied gameplay or satisfying physics engine
Executive Golf DX es frustrante de la manera que los juegos de golf suelen ser cuando se trasladan al videojuego. Con un estilo horizontal que recuerda a títulos más humildes como Grow in the Hole, su principal elemento diferenciador es el hecho de tener que avanzar piso a piso con tu destreza a la hora de manejar el putter. De esta manera, el juego te introduce rápidamente a situaciones de auténtica frustración mecánica, generalmente en la forma de quedarte atascade en cada hueco de escritorio que se presente, que puede hacerte querer abandonar el juego rápidamente. Pero como sucede con otros títulos de minigolf similares, la clave radica en tener mucha paciencia y no golpear en cuanto sientas que puedes. No creo que este juego haga nada particularmente novedoso, pero creo que es un ejemplo bastante competente del tipo de obras que pueblan este subgénero deportivo.
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Executive Golf DX is frustrating in the way that golf games tend to be when transplanted to the video game format. With a horizontal style reminiscent of humbler titles like Grow in the Hole, its "money shot" is the fact that you also need to advance floor by floor. In doing this, the game quickly introduces you to teeth grinding moments of getting stuck in every desk hole that comes by, which can make you want to quit the game many times over. But as it happens with many minigolf games, the key here lies in having a lot of patience and not using the putter just because you can. I don't think this game does anything particularly groundbreaking, but I also think it's a pretty competent example of the kind of works that populate this subgenre.
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Executive Golf DX is frustrating in the way that golf games tend to be when transplanted to the video game format. With a horizontal style reminiscent of humbler titles like Grow in the Hole, its "money shot" is the fact that you also need to advance floor by floor. In doing this, the game quickly introduces you to teeth grinding moments of getting stuck in every desk hole that comes by, which can make you want to quit the game many times over. But as it happens with many minigolf games, the key here lies in having a lot of patience and not using the putter just because you can. I don't think this game does anything particularly groundbreaking, but I also think it's a pretty competent example of the kind of works that populate this subgenre.
A fun little 2D golf game. Not much to it, but there's enough variation here that I could see myself going back to it.