Mini golf Matchup is a mini two player game released for the Android operating system. It has a very simple premise: find someone, challenge them, load a map and play. The gameplay style itself features a pretty standard drag and release style.
Graphics and Level Design
For an applet, this particular game is visually impressive, though it’s not exactly Crysis 3 material. It’s cartoony and fun, and particularly enjoyable if you’ve just come from your local candy store and need something to do while the sugar jitters are still getting to you. The maps are basic, unless one pays money for the app; and quite frankly, it doesn’t seem worth it. 500 coins is about $5, and a map can cost 70-100 coins to unlock (from the short time I spent playing.) Though if you download today, you get FREE COINS. And everyone likes free things.
Gameplay
Nothing new. In fact, on ten minutes with the game, I’d argue the style has even regressed a little bit. The physics for the ball (I know, I’m acting like an elitist PC snob… give me a break) are absolutely… uhm… wrong. The ball follows the trajectory of your finger exactly, but seems to have more or less friction depending on how far the launch arrow is dragged back. Which, in my case, led to many frustrating fall-short-of-winning moments. Also of my frustration was that the hole for the end of each course has a hit box – hit it and get in, miss and you’re fudged.. The hole size seemed arbitrary, but maybe I’m just used to crying wolf – I was never good at golf.
Social Aspect
…I saw a few screen names with higher scores than me. That’s about it. Challenge your friends if you like, but really, there’s nothing that great to sending a virtual ball through a pretty course just to say “I BEAT YOU!”
In short: If you’re bored, have finished all your responsibilities, cleaned your bathroom and watched all your favorite shows and still have time left your day: give this little app five minutes. 49,000 people gave it five stars (out of five) for a reason, so who am I to argue with the obviously social-media literate masses!
Published: May 1, 2013 08:57 pm