Don’t be fooled by the cartoon graphics or the fact that you play as a pint sized kid a la Hot Shots Golf, Let’s Golf by Gameloft for the Iphone is a beautiful golf simulation that out drives Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Vijay and Pro Series to provide the best golfing yet on a mobile phone.
The courses in this game are flat out spectacular. The rolling fairways, strategically placed bunkers, island greens, and water hazards are all thoughtfully laid out to provide memorable holes and challenges. The four courses are Fiji, England, US mountain side, and Scotland and each have unique idiosyncrasies appropriate to their locale. Whether your dealing with the small mounded greens in England, the narrow target fairways and cliffside greens in Fiji, or the length and blind uphill shots on the US mountain track, you‘re given new challenges with each course and each hole. The only mobile game that comes close to the course design of Let’s Golf is Pro Series Golf and that game doesn’t offer near the variety found here.
Of course, great layouts would be a waste without good control and Let’s Golf’s touch control with the familiar 3 tap pendulum is a pleasure to play. Tapping the hole outline before you hit zooms in on your landing area where you can adjust length and direction. When putting, tapping the hole outline gives a behind the hole view with grids and moving dots indicating the break. Tapping again gives a side angle view of your putt. To put spin on the ball you touch the large ball icon that appears when the ball is in flight. You can actually make the ball draw back on your approach shots or run up to the hole. There’s also an advanced swing control available that involves swiping along an arrow and while I found it could give greater distance on full swings it made putting and touch around the greens more difficult. The ball physics feel realistic and fair.
The sound is great especially after perfect contact when your ball takes off like a rocket chased by a terrific ball cam view that seems to change angles randomly. I never tire of watching this better-than-TV ball cam. The SFX create nice ambiance with chirping birds, wind and the nice solid whack of your club hitting the ball pulling you into the game. You can even make your character whistle contentedly by shaking your Iphone!
There’s a lot of golfing to be had here with instant play, multiplayer via LAN, free holes and tournament. Tournament is where you unlock new courses, difficulty levels and items for your characters that improve their attributes by finishing in the top three. There are 4 tournaments for each course front nine, back nine, 18 and random 9. Even on easy these tournaments are a good challenge, demand a lot of good shots and might make you wish you could take a mulligan. Let’s Golf obliges here also as you can access the menu by tapping on the house in the left corner and restart the hole without frustration. This also gives you the opportunity to replay the many outstanding holes if you choose.
Gameloft has put together a total package here with high production values, great design, depth and fun. I’m looking forward to updates with new courses and perhaps a replay feature as Let’s Golf has the potential to become a mobile golfing franchise. If you like golf it’s a no-brainer and if you don’t it might show you some of the beauty and fun of the sport.
Reviewed by goyami - Ipod Touch