Pros:
+ cute pixel art animation and great character design
+ core golf mechanics are simple and easy to learn
+ ace card system adds a lot of gameplay options
+ unlockable abilities are permanent
+ binder system allows ace cards to carry over between runs
+ biomes interact with ace card abilities: fire burns vines etc.
+ maps are hand-crafted and offer various routes to the hole
+ practice course is a fresh idea and always available
+ curse holes are creative and satisfyingly challenging
+ save scamming is possible (and highly encouraged)
Cons:
- extremely high difficulty curve
- mid- and endgame difficulty is just too high to be enjoyable
- roguelike design feels tacked on
- camera cannot be zoomed out during play...
- ...so the ball is always played blindly over the map
- map overview menu is extremely slow and buggy
- map introduction cutscene is useless and shows no viable paths
- teleporter routes are not transparent and amount to gambling
- not every position of the ball can be meaningfully played
- no way to slow down the ball or angle selection in play
- most ace cards are timing-based and too tough to control
- spinning move is helpful but exceedingly tough to control
- shops cannot be re-entered
- buggy on release and still glitchy after the most recent updates
- no post-game content or replayability options
Playtime: 5 hours for one playthrough, with plenty of save scamming during boss fights.
Magic Moment: Using an elemental card for the first time and understanding courses and shrubbery in a new way. Discovering save scamming and realizing that the game works best without the frustration of its tacked on roguelike design.
Blahgic Moments: Using the spinning move to just slightly push the ball over the edge and right into a body of water - many, many times in a row. Playing the ball from an impossible position and not even ace cards offering a viable option.
Verdict:
Cursed to Golf is one of those games that you want to love but you grow to dislike the more you play it. While most other golf games define themselves by the transparency or simplicity of their mechanics, the creators of Cursed to Golf opted to artifically inflate the difficulty with a crippling, close, and ultimately limiting camera perspective that turns actually playing the ball over a course into a needlessly frustrating challenge. While the ace card system allows for plenty of options to move the ball over the handcrafted but randomized courses, the constant lack of information on how to best proceed in any given direction - what teleporter to use and where to end up after using them, what TNT to explode, guessing which path is the quickest in boss fights - is a severe limitation that greatly diminishes the enjoyment of the mechanics.
There is some fun to be had here for bleeding edge fans of golf games and players willing to save scam, but anyone with a low tolerance for frustration and randomness will bounce off of this quickly and should skip this game.
+ cute pixel art animation and great character design
+ core golf mechanics are simple and easy to learn
+ ace card system adds a lot of gameplay options
+ unlockable abilities are permanent
+ binder system allows ace cards to carry over between runs
+ biomes interact with ace card abilities: fire burns vines etc.
+ maps are hand-crafted and offer various routes to the hole
+ practice course is a fresh idea and always available
+ curse holes are creative and satisfyingly challenging
+ save scamming is possible (and highly encouraged)
Cons:
- extremely high difficulty curve
- mid- and endgame difficulty is just too high to be enjoyable
- roguelike design feels tacked on
- camera cannot be zoomed out during play...
- ...so the ball is always played blindly over the map
- map overview menu is extremely slow and buggy
- map introduction cutscene is useless and shows no viable paths
- teleporter routes are not transparent and amount to gambling
- not every position of the ball can be meaningfully played
- no way to slow down the ball or angle selection in play
- most ace cards are timing-based and too tough to control
- spinning move is helpful but exceedingly tough to control
- shops cannot be re-entered
- buggy on release and still glitchy after the most recent updates
- no post-game content or replayability options
Playtime: 5 hours for one playthrough, with plenty of save scamming during boss fights.
Magic Moment: Using an elemental card for the first time and understanding courses and shrubbery in a new way. Discovering save scamming and realizing that the game works best without the frustration of its tacked on roguelike design.
Blahgic Moments: Using the spinning move to just slightly push the ball over the edge and right into a body of water - many, many times in a row. Playing the ball from an impossible position and not even ace cards offering a viable option.
Verdict:
Cursed to Golf is one of those games that you want to love but you grow to dislike the more you play it. While most other golf games define themselves by the transparency or simplicity of their mechanics, the creators of Cursed to Golf opted to artifically inflate the difficulty with a crippling, close, and ultimately limiting camera perspective that turns actually playing the ball over a course into a needlessly frustrating challenge. While the ace card system allows for plenty of options to move the ball over the handcrafted but randomized courses, the constant lack of information on how to best proceed in any given direction - what teleporter to use and where to end up after using them, what TNT to explode, guessing which path is the quickest in boss fights - is a severe limitation that greatly diminishes the enjoyment of the mechanics.
There is some fun to be had here for bleeding edge fans of golf games and players willing to save scam, but anyone with a low tolerance for frustration and randomness will bounce off of this quickly and should skip this game.