We Love Golf

We Love Golf

While the Wii's bundle-in title, Wii Sports, contains several golfing minigames, Nintendo’s system's been lacking a more comprehensive golf package since launch. Capcom's We Love Golf steps up to the tee, aiming to replicate this most leisurely of sports on a console seemingly ideally suited to the genre.

Golf-themed videogames come in one of two flavours. There's the super-realistic, EA Tiger Woods 200X approach, which aims for TV footage authenticity, po-faced commentary, dramatic course flyovers and licensed product placement throughout. Conversely, there's the exuberant Japanese approach, all super-deformed heads, novelty golf clubs and outrageous, theme park style courses to play on.

We Love Golf takes the latter approach, at least aesthetically, with a roster of wide-eyed, cutesy characters and courses with kerazy names such as ‘Skull Island’. However, the actual mechanics and play modes included are anything but a joke. Pointing the Wiimote controller downwards towards the floor will automatically cause your character to enter ‘shot mode’. At this point you need only hold down the A or B button and swing the controller just like a golf club to hit the ball. On screen, a gauge tracks the motion of your controller, allowing you to see how much power and swing you're applying.

The gauge shows a target marker indicating the optimum height at which to start bringing the club downwards through the swing and, if you manage to match this successfully, your shot will usually land close to the intended target area. Twist the Wiimote left and right during the swing and you can hit a draw or fade shot, while holding down the 1 or 2 button will add spin. These subtle tweaks allow for a significant amount of control to every single hit you make. That said, there's a steep learning curve to scale before you exert compete control over the ball, but with audio advice played through the Wiimote speaker, a bit of effort and concentration can yield great results.

The game's basics are then spun out into numerous different modes for up to four players. A standard tournament sits alongside one-on-one character matches, Strokes, Match Play/ Skins as well as non-orthodox modes such as Ring Shot (in which you must shoot the ball through coloured rings) and Target Golf (a mode borrowed from Wii Sports in which you try to land the ball onto a round target for points).

The opportunity to play Mii characters with is a welcome one, and the inclusion of some classic Capcom characters such as Chun-Li and Ken from the Street Fighter series is a pleasant and unexpected bit of fan service. With online play modes, as well as complex ball and ground physics, this is an unusually comprehensive golf title, and certainly the most competent effort yet seen on the Wii, despite it’s kiddy looks.

4 out of 5