A Faceless, Yet Fun Game of Golf

December 23, 2009 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Game Reviews, Video Games 0

In spite of letting you play as your X-Box Live Avatar during gameplay, Barkers Crest studios’ “Avatar Golf” is as simple as it gets. This works both for and against this indie game in the long run, but in the end, it’s hard to fight the urge to spend the measly 160 Microsoft points, or two bucks it costs to own this title this holiday season.

As far as value for your buck goes, you can’t do much better than “Avatar Golf.”

On the gameplay side, “Avatar Golf” is solid, as it does everything a decent golf game should. The courses are all well-designed  and you never get the feeling that you are playing something completely cookie cutter. There are times when the swing mechanics feel a bit off, but after a little bit of practice, everything works fine. Overall, the game controls quite fluidly and it’s never a problem to put the ball where you want on the course. At times as well, you’ll feel like your ball is going through trees, rather than getting clipped by them, but this doesn’t detract too much from the overall experience the game offers.

However, the lack of bells and whistles make this a game that lacks the appeal of a golf title such as “Hot Shots Golf,” which ironically, is what this game ends up feeling like, without the personality. The sound effects feel like they are out of an SNES game and the lack of animations overall hurt its overall appeal. Regardless of whether you get an eagle or a bogey, your avatar essentially makes the same motion, effectively robbing you of any excitement you could have had from your excellent play.

For someone looking for a quick distraction between rounds of “Tekken 6,” this isn’t a bad choice, as it’s straight forward and unobtrusive. At the same time though, it lacks the appeal to keep you coming back for repeated plays. This hurts the game in the end, but not enough to stop you from spending 200 cents for a quick gaming fix.

If you go into the game, expecting nothing more than a solid gameplay experience and easy pick up and play mechanics, you’ll end up pleasantly surprised. If you expect the same amount of detail and polish that you’d likely see in other 360 arcade titles, you’ll be sadly disappointed.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13858 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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