Power Golf- This is one of those rare instances where I owned & played a sequel before owning and/or playing it's predecessor. Either way, Power Golf 2 is definitely the better title in just about every area. All that said, Power Golf isn't half bad and probably doesn't entirely deserve it's bad rap. It showed up in my mailbox today, all new fresh and sealed from SimpleSimon's store, costing me a total of about $13 (yes, that's even after the hefty shipping from Europe). Not bad considering $13 doesn't even get me three gallons of gas these days.
For a golf game, it's about as bare bones as they come, but it gets the job done. Gameplay wise the only thing that seemed a little funky was control of the shot (stroke power & curve). The game utilizes the classic power meter most golf games love to use, but I found it incredibly difficult to stop the meter where I wanted (I don't have this problem in other golf games that use this method) and even the slightest inaccuracy in this regard caused my drive to curve substantially to the left or right. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad but it was definitely touchier than it should have been.
I played through the entire standard single-player mode and other than the quirk mentioned above, it was a pleasant enough experience. There is only one in-game tune but it's pleasant enough and didn't get on my nerves. There's only one course you can play, but what do you expect from a 1980's golf simulation? I should add however that I've always been into video golf games. There are two kinds of video golf lovers-- those who enjoy the game for what it is, and what I call "arcade" golf lovers. I'm something of the former, where the latter folks view it as "just another video game" and tend to get impatient easily with typical golf simulations, just wanting the game to hurry up and move along. As a youngster I started my video golfing playing MacGolf on our Mactintosh Plus in the mid to late 80's where in between shots it took anywhere from 60 full seconds to 2 minutes to re-draw the scenery. Any minor delays present in any of the Turbo golf games seem like nanoseconds by comparison and thus my game of Power Golf seemed to go quickly and smoothly.
In the long run though, unless you're into video golf games on some level, Power Golf will probably come across as much too primitive and you'll have more fun pointing and laughing at the dated course graphics than with the gameplay itself. Those people, along with the "arcade golfers," are better off passing up Power Golf in favor of Power Golf 2 or another golf game (runinruder keeps telling me Fine Shot Golf from Human is the best golf game on the system but I've yet to try it out). For those folks like me who grew up on MacGolf or any of the multiple golf games on the Amiga 500/1000, pick up Power Golf on the cheap and you'll probably enjoy an afternoon reminiscing about playing video golf on your computer after school as a youngster.
