Accolade is never a good sign, but this somehow defies their poor track record. A solid and focused suite of features, fairly forgiving swings and winds, and a 16-bit first - putting that isn't outright evil. The meter on your swings is a bit different; the converging points of your power levels is marked at each point in ascending order, indicating how shot power fluctuates in sensitivity as the meter rises. It's a great addition instead of just having to assume which point on the power meter corresponds to what degree of distance. These features and more make it the most comfortable golfer on Genesis; I scored -3 on my first set of 18.

With that said, Power Challenge is also really ugly and farty. Instead of using 3D courses, a drawing algorithm is used to render the screen, and it's less than pleasant. The graphics for the environment are ugly, the scanline transition effect looks bad, it takes at least 6 seconds to finish, and it re-triggers every single time you adjust your swing angle. If you want to fine-tune your angle without it re-triggering over and over, you have to hit Pause first. It's not very helpful. The UI elements also feel at constant clash with each other.

Idk, this one's good but a mixed bag. The functionality is all there and then some, but it just doesn't have the same appeal as EA and T&E Soft's games.

Reviewed on Oct 03, 2022


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