3D Mini Golf is really, really basic. There is no way around saying this, but the game really just isn’t fun. Unfortunately, the developers have taken a stance on defining what mini golf should be, but it doesn’t agree with much of what society may find entertaining. In the physical world, the courses would likely make sense, yet they would still be as boring as they are virtually. I’m reminded of a tiny miniature golf course in a hotel that I played one time. Because there was nothing else to do and it was something I couldn’t do at home, it was mildly entertaining. But in reality, it really didn’t extract much emotion as I played.
3D Mini Golf is similar, yet lacked even that one thing that could have saved it…
…online multiplayer. Just like most of my putts in this limited game, multiplayer is sunk. While 3D Mini Golf does allow multiple people to play, it does not have an online mode. Hey wait, maybe there is a theme here. At the time I played in the hotel, online didn’t exist either. We had to play PGA Tour Golf (yeah… waaaaay before Tiger took the scene) but taking turns on the mouse and keyboard too.
What would have made this game fun to play – regardless of some of the oddities I’m about to mention – would have been to take the reality of the physical world and take it to an extreme. Maybe some more in-your-face themes would have also helped to hold the player’s attention, but the basic environments just didn’t spark anything inside. It’s amazing how something so basic as a mini golf course can be done all wrong…
…and then come the problems. As much as I don’t want to bring this up, I suspect that one or two things went majorly wrong with 3D Mini Golf’s development. Maybe both. Anyone that knows anything about golf knows the terms related to the sport, yet the developers missed this mark around every dogleg. It’s very possible that English may not have been a first language in this case, but if a game were to be ported, I would think one would want to research correct terminology for the sport they are trying to emulate, even on a small scale. One of the most offensive examples was the misuse of the words "course" and "hole." There was originally confusion around the game where potential buyers thought there were 54 18-hole courses, only to be disappointed to find 3 18-hole courses (54 holes total). [Ed. note: That has since been corrected in the product description on Steam.]
Another even more egregious thing that has to be mentioned is that nearly every hole in the game… is a par of one (1). Yes indeed… to get par, the player has to get a hole-in-one on nearly each and every hole. Given the game’s basic courses and the holes within, it likely is possible to hole out each time, but that is also a bit unlikely. Even so, there is no possible way to get under par in this game, leaving little room for improvement other than total score. This all leads me to believe that the developer’s haven’t ever even played the game of golf (let alone simply done a bit of research).
Another surprising example for lack of golf knowledge comes when the ball is hit out of bounds, yet incurs no penalty other than being replaced from the last lie. While this in and of itself isn’t the end of the world, it once again shows how elements of real golf are simply overlooked or left out. Oh, and "pocket the ball?" Maybe I missed the memo that this was converted into a bumper pool game. Billiards anyone?
